2009 Calvins: Reagen Sulewski's Ballots

March 2, 2009

2008: The Year That Was

As many are no doubt likely to note, 2008 was the year of the geek, with The Dark Knight and Iron Man ruling not only the box office, but in critical assessments. It was a one-two punch of nerdgasm not seen since 2002's Spider-Man and The Two Towers. So with those two costumed super-hero films right at the top of the year's output and at the top of my own personal list, why was it such a dissatisfying year?

In part, I think it's because I don't want those films to be the best of the year. Not that I don't want comic book films to reach for great heights, and it's not that I don't want them to tackle big subjects. It's just that I'm wondering where the rest of the year's great films went. It's almost a case of "be careful what you wish for", as while these films have finally given us the deep, textured comic book films we always knew were possible, it's to the point where this isn't surprising.

Much of what makes up being a film buff is being shocked by films and surprised by the places they take us. Again, I'm not saying I knew everything that was going to happen in this year's films, but there was nothing in these plots that you could have told me beforehand and I would have said, "What? How did they get to that point?" It's by-the-numbers excellence in filmmaking, and I'm fully aware of how jaded that sounds.

But I look back at this year, compared to a year I regard as the recent high water mark, 1999, and find so much lacking. That year we had some outrageously original filmmaking, in the form of films like Being John Malkovich, Magnolia and Fight Club, along with my topper for that year, The Matrix. Which, hey, was a fanboy film to be sure, and I'll cop to that potential hypocrisy, but it was one that at least brought new ideas to the screen (its originality overall is of course debatable, but we're talking films here). Essentially what I'm asking for is that Hollywood actually challenge me, shake me out of my, and its rut. While Slumdog Millionaire wasn't exactly my cup of tea, it's theoretically something different and a way to get filmmakers thinking about new ideas again.

Still, 2008 wasn't all bad – In Bruges was a particular highlight as a callback to the darkly comic crime capers of the 1990s, while managing an actual heart, and The Wrestler turned a poorly regarded form of entertainment into a majestic tragedy. But these examples felt few and far between. To go back to that magical year of 1999, who would have predicted Fight Club's David Fincher making such a pedestrian film as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? I even kind of liked it. But at no point did I feel I was in any danger of being taken exactly where I
thought I was going.

So by default, comic films become my favourites for the year. And as great as they've been lately, they have a natural limitation and are almost always borrowing from established mythologies. For 2009, I have just one hope – please, please, please... someone surprise me.

See more individual ballots and complete results at the 2009 Calvin Awards page

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