CityLife

Kevin Bourke's flick hits of 2008

TRIUMPH: Josh Brolin in No Country For Old Men

ONE of the inevitable consequences of the changes in the ways in which feature films are now distributed and viewed – often available on DVD and pay-for-view within weeks of their theatrical release – is that it tends to give the impression that a film has been around for longer than it actually has.

So compiling end-of-year Best and Worst lists is an ever more peculiar experience.

However, it’s not merely in a pathetic attempt to stay ahead of the loop that I have to say that the best film I’ve seen this year isn’t actually released until next year!

Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire – on general release on January 9 and to be more fully eulogised then – is certainly Danny’s best film since Trainspotting and quite possibly ever.

There were scenes of wild rejoicing – well alright, slightly bleary-eyed jollity! – at Chez Bourke when the Coen Brothers picked up their Best Director Oscar for the brilliantly bloody No Country For Old Men.

Burn After Reading, their Washington-set romp, wasn’t quite in the same league, but still splendidly spiteful and darkly hilarious stuff.

Considerably less widely heralded was the thought-provoking French film I’ve Loved You So Long, which boasted a terrific performance, perhaps her best, from Kristin Scott Thomas, as the enigmatic Juliette, reunited with her sister after 15 years in prison.
 for a terrible crime.

I also found myself unexpectedly moved by Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, adapted from the extraordinary memoir of Jean-Dominnique Bauby, a magazine editor left unable to communicate except by blinking his left eye.

The world and his dog seemed to love The Dark Knight, so I guess it doesn’t matter that, while admiring its set pieces, I was left underwhelmed by the whole over-long, overblown effort.

Much better was Iron Man, in which Robert Downey Jr. proved there can be second acts in American lives, especially if you’re an actor. Look out for similar things to be said about Mickey Rourke next year in after people get to see The Wrestler.

In the world of music films, The Rolling Stones’ Shine A Light proved improbably exciting, with super-fan Martin Scorsese’s hyper-visceral direction somehow managing to make the old war-horses seem both more real and more mythical.

Although it got only the very briefest of theatrical releases, CSNY: Deja Vu was a commendably brave affair, following the quartet as they raised their freak flag high against the war-mongering George W. Bush only to face massed booing and walkouts in some of the more conservative areas of the good old US of A.

Speaking of Dubya, Oliver Stone’s bio-pic W. wasn’t the cinematic assassination attempt one may have expected but a much more thoughtful and thought-provoking affair, even if, ultimately, it didn’t, ultimately, really work.

The one film this year, though, that I simply cannot imagine anyone not enjoying was the brilliant Pixar/Disney film Wall-E.

Heart-breaking, funny, technically brilliant and with a decent message to boot. As they say “what’s not to like?”