2008: A bad year for film?

As the focus turns to the potential runners and riders for next year's Academy Awards, it's dawned on me that the vast majority of the films for your consideration have not yet appeared in UK cinemas. This, in turn, provoked the highly worrying thought that we'd just gone through the whole year without actually seeing anything worthy of an Oscar nod. Of course, having a host of unseen contenders at this stage is quite normal, given that studios tend to release their most plaudit-worthy productions late on, so as to coincide with the awards countdown. Still, with all hopes now pinned on this batch of imminent, midwinter releases, I'm drawn to conclude that up until now, critics haven't had much else to get excited about in 2008.

Picture courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnagrayson/108163337/

I touched on this earlier, when looking at the suprisingly warm critical reception for Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in September. While there was general agreement that this simple and conventional story, centered around a formerly washed-up male lead, was well made and well acted, it was also the opinion of various bemused critics that there had been a lack of big-name competition in Venice, and that as a result, the festival had been a particularly unspectacular affair.

Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Picture courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/antwrangler/2835652665/

Various explanations could be offered to account for a year that fell flat. The Writers Guild of America strike between November 2007 and February 2008 could be blamed for its troublesome disruptions, as could various other unforseen delays to long-anticipated projects.

For me, though, the biggest let-downs have been the tame offerings of a normally provocative filmmaking elite. This year Martin Scorsese's only movie was the straightforward, concert-covering Rolling Stones documentary, Shine a Light. Oliver Stone kept his partisan rage in check and in doing so, failed to make a point with W. The Coen brothers, while displaying typical originality and wit, were also in deliberately silly and opaque mode on Burn After Reading, thereby producing something instantly disposable (granted, this was probably also their intention). And Spielberg returned from a three-year directing hiatus to the pointless end of a fourth and inferior addition to the Indiana Jones franchise.

Anyway, let me know what you think of my review of the year, below. With the Oscars in mind there's a bias here towards English-speaking, mainstream fare, and all dates and information are for the UK. And despair not, for there are some highlights mixed in with the lowlights.