My Favorite Entertainment from 2008
Now that 2008 has past (ok, I’ll admit 2008 is long gone at this point) I’ve returned to an ancient tradition: making a list of my favorite stuff from the past year. I’m a bit late, but if the Oscars can be this late, so can I.
Music
Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes and Sun Giant
Fleet Foxes deserve the hype. An advantage to writing a best of list so late is that you can check out others’ lists. Fleet Foxes show up on most everyone’s list this year, and it’s well deserved. Their musicianship and songwriting is far above anything else that’s been released this year.
I don’t really have much more to say—just check it out:
More picks: TV on the Radio, David Byrne and Brian Eno, Vampire Weekend, and Portishead.
TV
Mad Men
Alright. If you can’t love this show for its lurid—who’s having an affair with who—plot, then you should love it for the design. Mad Men’s set and fashion design are perfect. This show makes me want to wear a skinny tie, even though I don’t own a single decent tie (and rarely have the occasion to wear one anyhow). If you don’t care about design, e.g., the fact that Don Draper’s secretary uses the actual typewriter she (and of course in 1961 his secretary is a she) would have used in 1961, you should watch Mad Men because of its exploration of gender roles and relationships.
True Blood
I’ll admit it. This show makes me crazy for vampires. In True Blood’s world, vampires have come ‘out of the coffin’ b/c a Japanese corp has created a synthetic blood that vamps can feed off instead of sucking down human blood. Ostensibly, the vamps have ceased feeding from humans, but reality is, of course, that the vampires are still feeding off of humans and partying like it’s 1899. Vampire Bill Compton is mainstreaming, living with/among humans, and the show’s plot revolves around his difficulties integrating into Louisiana human society and his nascent relationship with Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress who can hear folks’ thoughts. It’s a good show for those who like a little fantasy with their romance, or those who read Twilight and haven’t had their fill of contemporary vampire folklore.
Movies
Sure, I could mention the 2008 flicks I enjoyed, say, The Dark Knight, WALL-E, and There Will Be Blood, but somehow these movies don’t seem pretentious enough to get a mention here* (with the exception of There Will Be Blood (which actually was released in 2007, but like the very last part so I’m counting it as a 2008 movie), where its pretensions actually seem to get in the way just a little bit). And hell, since I’m writing this so late, I could even throw out the name of a certain movie that won numerous Oscars despite it not actually being great. But, I’m not going to. I’m going to list my favorite movies I watched for the first time in 2008.
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) — Woody Allen
I’d never seen a Woody Allen flick until this year; I’m not sure why not—I just hadn’t. I’d heard The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of his best, so I gave it a shot and I’m glad I did. This film is all about the meta. There’s a film-within-a-film, aptly named The Purple Rose of Cairo, which Cecilia watches again and again, enough times that this film’s protagonist, Tom, walks right off the big screen to chase after Cecilia’s heart. Gil is the actor who plays Tom in the film-within-a-film Purple Rose and he shrewdly recognizes that Tom’s walking out of the screen will be bad for his career. Thus sets forth a love triangle, with Gil and Tom both chasing the married (albeit to a vulgar, crude man who she would be better off without) Cecilia. Naturally, this all makes more sense in pictures.
Here’s Tom walking off the screen and into Cecilia’s life:
Strangers on a Train (1951) and Marnie (1964) — Alfred Hitchcock
I know, you get it, I love Hitchcock’s movies; I saw Psycho in middle school, The Birds shortly afterwards and then watched many episodes of his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents… and I guess Hitchcock’s stuff seemed like the right mix of suspense and terror to me; I was too squeamish to enjoy out and out horror like all those Jason movies, so Hitchcock had to do for 14-year-old me.
These two selections from Hitchcock’s filmography represent the beginning and the end of his prime. They don’t quite cover his whole career, but, together, these movies contain all of his obsessions. Watch both of them and you’ll see why Hitchcock is one of the greatest directors ever.
* This is tongue in cheek. I can say, though, that as I get older and look back on everything of mine that’s out there, available to read, with my name on it, my perfectionist nature comes out and pushes me to self edit. There’s so much noise out there. It’s like I want every bit of my noise to be at least sort of worthwhile, so I want my movie picks to stand the test of time, but then how valuable is this list in the first place?