1. The Wrestler
While I was always a big fan of Daren Aronofsky I never really considered him a top shelf director. His visual style is second to none but his choice of films seemed to be based mainly on what he could do visually. This film shocked me because of the stark difference between his other films. It’s one of the best movies i’ve ever seen and so far it’s only film I’ve seen this year that I want to see again in the theaters.

2. Wall.E
If the rest of the movie after the first 50 minutes was as good as the first 50 minutes Wall.E would easily be #1 on my list. The last 2/3 are still very good but they don’t even come close to the first 50 minutes. The storytelling in the first third is so perfect. One thing that stands out about Wall.E is how it really seemed like an experience, and not just a movie.

3. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
I went into this movie not expecting to like it but I ended up loving it. With the exception of the horrible narrator everything was really good. I thought all the actors were used to perfection and the writing was great. This is the best Woody Allen film since Deconstructing Henry

4. Revolutionary Road
I’m not a Sam Mendes fan but this film was really well made. The acting was great from everyone, especially Kate Winslet. It’s kind of like a serious, better version of American Beauty.

5. Milk
Milk really surprised me. I find that Gus Van Sant makes either extremely artsy films or  extremely sappy mainstream dramas. I assumed that Milk would fall into the latter category.  It didn’t which made me very happy. I liked how to me it seemed like it was about a guy who happened to be gay and it wasn’t a film about a gay guy.

6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I had extremely high expectations for this movie. I thought it was going to be the best of the year and it wasn’t. I thought David Fincher did a great job and creating a magical movie experience. The CGI was amazing and the actors were good. Another great thing about this movie was that young Cate Blanchett (at the ages of 5, 10 & 15) looked exactly like each different actress and like Cate. I’ve also wished for a movie with both Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinden and they were both in this, just not together.

7. Slumdog Millionaire
I enjoyed this movie but was really surprised when people started telling me it was their pick of the year. I liked it but didn’t love it.

8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I really wasn’t expecting much from this movie. However I enjoyed it more than every other Judd Apatow except the 40 Year Old Virgin. I love it when in movie they say something and then it cuts to a montage of that thing. That happens like 5 times in this movie.

9. The Dark Knight
I like the Dark Knight but didn’t love it. It had a lot of problems that I won’t get into here. On the scale of Batman films it’s number 3.

10. Iron Man
Iron Man was really enjoyable. I had a lot of fun watching it. If this wasn’t such a weak year for movies it probably wouldn’t be in my top 10.