Best films of 2008

Although I'm still waiting to see Milk, Let the Right One In, Synecdoche, The Wrestler, The Reader, Revolutionary Road, Gran Torino, Changeling and Frost/Nixon, I've seen a lot of very good films this year. Up to now, here are the best:

• The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button
• Doubt
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Iron Man
• Wall-E
• The Visitor
• The Dark Knight
• In Bruges

and in a close second:

• Vicky Kirstina Barcelona
• Burn after Reading
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Who says 2008 wasn't a good year for films?

Best FSF Films

It's the time of year for making lists. 2008 proved a mixed bag for SF films, ending with a disappointing remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. But the year also brought us the very strong Benjamin Button, the surprisingly good Iron Man, the luminous WALL-E and the DVD of Satoshi Kon's mind-bending Paprika. So in the spirit of year-end lists, and in no particular order, here's my all time top science fiction films:

• Lost Horizon (1937)
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Blade Runner
• Young Frankenstein
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
• WALL•E
• Forbidden Planet
• Metropolis
• A Clockwork Orange
• Aliens
• The Thing from Another World (1951)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Children of Men
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• The Road Warrior
• The Terminator
• Twelve Monkeys
• The Invisible Man
• Dark City
• Paprika
• Ghost in the Shell
• The Fifth Element
• The Matrix
• Jurassic Park
• Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan
  

and best fantasy films:

• Wizard of Oz
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Princess Bride
• Ugetsu
• Princess Mononoke
• Groundhog Day
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
  
• Spirited Away
• Howl's Moving Castle
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Fantasia
• Pan's Labyrinth
• The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button
  
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  
• Harvey
• Field of Dreams
• Labyrinth
• The Wolf Man