Three top critics agree 'Milk,' 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Wall-E' among the best
Three top film critics — Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times ), Lou Lumenick (New York Post ) and Richard Corliss (Time ) — have weighed in with their choices for the top movies and performances of the year. While each of them took a different approach — Ebert lists 20 films in alphabetical order while Lumenick and Corliss rank 10 apiece — all three include "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Wall-E." However, no performance found its way on to all three of lists.
As Roger Ebert admits, "I am violating the age-old custom that film critics announce the year's 10 best films, but after years of such lists, I've had it. A best-films list should be a celebration of wonderful films, not a chopping process." Among Ebert's top 20 picks, listed in alphabetical order, are these Oscar contenders:
"The Dark Knight" — "With a performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker that will surely win an Oscar."
"Doubt" — "Viola Davis, as the mother of the school's only black student, has one significant scene, but it is long, crucial and heartbreaking."
"Frost/Nixon" — "Frank Langella is uncanny as RMN. Ron Howard directs mercilessly."
"Happy-Go-Lucky" — "Here's another nominee for best actress, Sally Hawkins, playing a cheerful schoolteacher who seems improbably upbeat until we win a glimpse into her soul."
"Milk" — "Sean Penn, one of our greatest actors, locks up an Oscar nomination with his performance as Harvey Milk."
"Rachel Getting Married" — "Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel and Anne Hathaway as her sister generate tricky sibling tension."
"The Reader" — "The film addresses the moral confusion felt in those who came after the Holocaust but whose lives were painfully twisted by it."
"Revolutionary Road" — "Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, in two of the best performances of the year, play a young married couple who lose their dreams in the American corporate world and its assigned roles."
"Slumdog Millionaire" — "A film that finds exuberance despite the tragedy it also gives full weight to. The locations breathe with authenticity."
"W." — "Josh Brolin gives a nuanced portrayal that seems based on the known facts, showing the president as subservient to Vice President Cheney and haunted by old demons."
"Wall-E" — "The best science-fiction movie in years was an animated family film."
For Lumenick, "this one really stands out in the thinnest year since I began reviewing for The Post in 1999. Only the top four films on my list received four stars, and I had only a dozen 3½ star reviews all year." Lou's top 10 are:
1. "Slumdog Millionaire"
2. "Wall-E"
3. "Milk"
4. "A Christmas Tale"
5. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
6. "Iron Man"
7. "Revolutionary Road"
8. "The Visitor"
9. "Synecdoche, New York"
10. "Waltz With Bashir"
And Lou had this to say about his various choices:
"I couldn't wait to see what happened next in 'Button.' Like 'Slumdog,' it's an immersive cinematic experience from a master director, David Fincher. I enjoyed 'Doubt' and 'Frost/Nixon' and their performances — Frank Langella is a Nixon for the ages — but they're still very well filmed stage plays. I tend to be instinctively resistant to moral lessons handed down by Hollywood, but Pixar's 'Wall-E' won me over by wrapping its environmental message in a combination of classic slapstick and Swiftian satire of American consumer society. And that a studio would bankroll a movie as emotionally devastating as 'Revolutionary Road,' which is going to be a tough sell even though it reunites the stars of 'Titanic,' Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, in the best performances of their careers."
He also singled out five performances:
1. Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
2. Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"
3. Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
4. Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
5. Clint Eastwood, "Gran Torino"
Corliss compiled top 10 lists of both movies and performances. Among the possible Oscar contenders, he has "Wall-E" at No. 1 and "Milk" in the fifth slot. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog Millionaire" follow at No. 6 and No. 7. Among the top five performances by women, Corliss has Kate Winslet at No. 1 for "The Reader" while Viola Davis is second for "Doubt." Among the men, Heath Ledger is tops for "The Dark Knight" while Brandon Walters is No. 4 for "Australia."
Photos: Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Disney
