2008 Critics' Consensus

January 3, 2009

2008 Critics’ Consensus (Updated 1/10/09)

Well because I’m killing time and I’m procrastinating writing reviews, I decided to take all of the critics’ lists I’ve followed and figure out what films are overall the best of 2008.

I’ve assigned a number to each film on this list. If a film received a 1^st place on a list, it gained 10 points… 2^nd gained 9, and so on to 10^th place which gained 1. Note: AFI’s list doesn’t rank, so I gave every film on that list 4 points. Ebert chose 20 films and didn’t rank them. I guess he can do that because he’s Roger Ebert. Anyway, I gave all 20 of his films 3 points.

Keep in mind that even if a film receives a 1, it means that someone believed that film to be one of the ten best films of the year. Most critics see over 150 films every year so that’s saying something. So keep your chin up Speed Racer!

Here is the final consensus:

97 WALL-E

85 Milk

80 The Wrestler

74 The Dark Knight

62 Rachel Getting Married

55 Man on Wire

45 Slumdog Millionaire

44 Frost/Nixon

38 Let the Right One In

37 Paranoid Park

31 Wendy and Lucy

29 In Bruges

25 My Winnipeg

24 Happy-Go-Lucky

21 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

21 Flight of the Red Balloon

20 The Class

20 Revolutionary Road

17 Doubt

16 Trouble the Water

15 Hunger

14 The Reader

14 A Christmas Tale

14 Silent Light

14 Synecdoche, New York

12 The Edge of Heaven

12 Burn After Reading

11 Iron Man

11 Chop Shop

10 Encounters at the End of the World

10 Reprise

10 Defiance

10 Gran Torino

9 The Visitor

9 Mister Lonely

9 Waltz with Bashir

9 Ashes of Time Redux

8 The Secret of the Grain

8 In the City of Sylvia

7 Boarding Gate

7 Standard Operating Procedure

7 Frozen River

7 I’ve Loved You So Long

6 Pineapple Express

6 Snow Angels

6 Funny Games

6 Gomorrah

6 Momma’s Man

6 Vicky Cristina Barcelona

6 Still Life

5 The Bank Job

5 Tropic Thunder

5 Alexandra

5 Mongol

4 RockNRolla

4 Dong

3 Towelhead

3 Forgetting Sarah Marshall

3 Changeling

3 Ballast

3 Elegy

3 Che

3 The Fall

3 Shotgun Stories

3 W.

2 Miracle at Saint Anna

2 Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

2 Speed Racer

2 The Witnesses

1 Tell No One

1 Cadillac Records

1 Zack and Miri Make a Porno

1 Stuck

1 Summer Palace

Note: If I add any more lists, I will update this post.