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Edgar Wright’s Top 29 Movies of 2008

Posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 by Peter Sciretta

The Top 10 Lists keep rolling in. First we had Roger Ebert, then Time Magazine, followed by bestselling horror author Stephen King and the American Film Institute.

Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright has listed his top 29 films of 2008 on his official blog. Edgar notes that he still hasn’t seen The Wrestler, The Reader, Timecrimes, Funny Games, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Bolt, Valkyrie, Australia, Revolutionary Road and Wendy and Lucy, so the rankings may change in the coming weeks. Check out the list below:

1. Let the Right One In
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. Iron Man
4. Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
5. Man on Wire
6. Hunger
7. Frost/Nixon
8. The Dark Knight
9. Burn After Reading
10. Wall-E
11. Rachel Getting Married
12. Slumdog Millionaire
13. Happy-Go-Lucky
14. Gran Torino
15. Kung Fu Panda (IMAX)
16. Rec
17. Cloverfield
18. JCVD
19. Son of Rambow
20. Rambo
21. The Ruins
22. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
23. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
24. The Foot Fist Way
25. Tropic Thunder
26. Milk
27. W.
28. Zack and Miri Make a Porno
29. Pineapple Express

Let The Right One In is a great top choice. Synecdoche is a love it or hate it type of film, and obviously Wright loved it. I’m surprised that he ranked Iron Man so much higher than The Dark Knight. I am also surprised to see that he’s listed a lot of the comedy films of the year very low on the list, especially considering his background. But overall its a pretty good list. The only great film (aside from the ones he has listed as unseen) that might be missing aside from the heart-wrenching documentary Dear Zachary. Edgar, if you’re reading this - Please see Dear Zachary!

Update: Wright has since updated his blog with another message saying that he’s now seen Timecrimes and “it was just great”. It seems his Top 29 will be in flux. We might give an update when its final. And reguarding The Dark Knight, Edgar writes: “putting THE DARK KNIGHT at Number 8 does not constitute a backlash. I loved it.”

Discuss: What do you think of Edgar’s list?

via: FirstShowing

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  • labnumbersix
    Wow, everybody is turning their back on Tarsem's The Fall, which is a fucking masterpiece
  • Yay, Cloverfields getting some attention, for what its worth I loved the movie.
  • i think iron man is higher because it had less expectations to be great. everyone knew that the dark knight was going to blow us away, but noone was expecting iron man to do so well...

    and i agree with tucker in bruges was a damn good movie...
  • skaught
    hype shouldn't effect the actual artistic merits of a film.
  • true... but i think it in a way helps it too. cloverfield had immense hype and everyone thought it was going to be awesome, and it turned out the hype didn't live up to expectations. dark knight had loads of hype and it lived up to it. iron man had hype, and expectations were high, but few knew what to expect so when the result was a really good movie, i think that influences people to think naturally that it was better, not that it was better than other movies, but that it was better than they expected and that has a more lasting impression.

    i think.
  • He didn't say it doesn't effect the artistic merits, simply that it shouldn't. And I agree.

    However, I will say that because of all the hype for Cloverfield, there was a midnight screening with quite a number of people in attendance. I had purposely chosen not to watch any promotional materials for Cloverfield and really, had no plans to see the film. But the night before opening came and I was bored so I decided to see it with a few friends at the last minute, knowing virtually nothing about it except that someone had teased it could be a Voltron movie months and months ago and that made me laugh.

    I ended up LOVING the movie. I'm glad I didn't let the hype effect my appreciation because I thought it was a terrific 'event' of a film as a result. From now on, I do my best to separate the hype and the promotion (almost always financially-driven) and save the judgment for the art itself.
  • Tucker
    I feel like everyone is forgetting In Bruge. Maybe it doesn't make someones top 10 list, but their top 29? Come on. However, Let the Right One In is fantastic and a great choice.
  • This guys is freaking BRITISH and he left In Bruges off his list???

    Unbelievable. There's no way the guy that made Hot Fuzz should be ranking Wall-E higher than In Bruges.
  • Unless you've seen both films and prefer Wall-E, as seems to be the case with most people.
  • Not as far as Edgar Wright and I are concerned.
  • Just the fact that he loved Iron Man more than The Dark Knight though, is itself backlash because The Dark Knight is obviously a far superior film in almost every respect.
  • "The Dark Knight is obviously a far superior film in almost every respect."

    Wow. Way to miss the boat on the definition of an opinion...
  • you people love to hide behind this word...what was it? opinion? Well its my...opinion...that Edgar Wright chose Iron Man ahead of The Dark Knight because of the backlash. See, now you cant argue my...opinion. Wow that was easy.
  • You're either an idiot or a genius. I'm not going to pass my judgment on which but really at the end of the day you're a troll.

    We're not "hiding" behind anything with the word opinion. We're showing you how ridiculous you sound saying "Dark Knight is obviously a far superior film in almost every respect."

    Nobody argued that you didn't have a right to an opinion, but because YOU ARE A TROLL you decided to defend yourself from an attack that didn't exist. And if you're going to have an opinion, for god's sake man, try to make it an intelligent one. You are arguing Wright's decision to push Iron Man over The Dark Knight. First, you don't have access to the filmmaker's thought process so you really don't have any clue why he preferred it. But then you infer that Wright himself pushed Iron Man ahead to justify backlash? And then you go one further to say The Dark Knight is obviously a better film. Well, if it were obvious, Mr. Smarty-pants, it would be everyone's opinion. Clearly, as you seem to have read at least part of this article, you would understand at least some disagree so clearly it's not 'obvious.' Regardless, you're arguing the merits of art - which is entirely subjective! Look that word up. If you still want to argue after that you're just here to make enemies. If we were discussing objective thoughts, your brand of rabble-rousing might actually be considered appropriate instead of just trolling.

    So stop. Stop trolling, you're /obviously/ not getting it. Writing sentences like "wow that was easy" at the end of your paragraph only gives weight when you've actually done something difficult. Running around in circles, screaming with your hands over your ears isn't something one can make any easier, but I'll admit you're pretty good at it.
  • So what you're saying is that it would be completely reasonable if I said The Happening is the best film of the year.
  • What I'm saying is that if you said The Happening is the best film of the year, in your own opinion you are right. I may or may not disagree, but that doesn't make you any more or less valid in your own opinion. You have to understand, even if you just state that the Happening is the best film, that's still your opinion. Think of it like silent letters.

    Channukah - what the hell, there's a C there! Just because you don't pronounce the C doesn't mean it isn't there. So if you say "The Happening is the best film of the year" really you're saying "(I think) The Happening is the best film of the year."

    "I think" can be replaced with "in my opinion" or "I believe," really any number of subjective statements. That's because the argument is subjective, and VegaBro believe me when I say you'll do a lot better in argumentation if you start out knowing the differences between subjective and objective - and respecting those differences. Anyone with an average intelligence or higher reading this should agree.
  • Or maybe he just really liked Iron Man over The Dark Knight.
  • Nate Hanna
    Edgar, your place as my favorite director shines through with your choice of movies. Let The Right One In deserves it, and needed some publicity.
  • "Oh, and me putting THE DARK KNIGHT at Number 8 does not constitute a backlash. I loved it."

    Edgar and I agree on a great many things. Just because I preferred Iron Man doesn't mean I'm trying to stick it to Chris Nolan.
  • Never heard of Number 4. Can someone explain?
  • skaught
    saw it during midnight madness of TIFF this year. not sure i agreed so much with the VH1 style animation present throughout.
  • Alistair
    Documentary about the early days of Australian Cinema.
  • Thanks
  • I have to agree with Let the Right One In. I am hoping to see that on more and more upcoming top 10 lists.
  • I have to agree with Let the Right One In. I am hoping to see that on more and more top 10 lists.
  • 1. Let the Right One In
    5. Man on Wire
    6. Hunger
    16. Rec
    19. Son of Rambow
    24. The Foot Fist Way

    Some great choices right there, nice to see Edgar also acknowledge the genius of [REC]!
  • sean coates
    true enough
  • Hunger ... think this film is highly over rated... and unless you know this situation in the movie you will be completely misguided...
  • jay jay
    Not really Iron Man was a different type of film and was still great. Also he may have a little bias since he is doing Ant-man for Marvel.
  • sean coates
    my oh my i guess everyone is entitled to there own opinion but iron man # 3 and dark knight #8 that must be a typo
  • It's his list not the majority of the world's thoughts.
  • I agree with most of it. Frost/Nixon being the only exception.

    But Let The Right One In was my favorite of the year, glad to see someone of such reputation agrees. Ebert didn't even consider it. :p
  • I like this. Unconventional all the way. I cannot wait to see LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. I saw SYNECDOCHE, NY two days ago and it was fabulous, although I still don't understand 2/3rds of it. I still need to see soooooo many films this year though.
  • johnny
    Top 29 ??? what an idiot, he might as well list EVERY SINGLE MOVIE that has a fanbase which he is too pussy to offend
  • If you knew what Edgar was like, you'd rethink that statement. The man probably sees 29 movies in one month. He also probably belongs to every one one of these fanbases you speak of...except Twilight, of course. He has very eclectic tastes.

    Also, he's been doing a series of top 30 lists for a little while. His last one was top 30 music tracks of the year. I guess he just couldn't decide on one more film since he still hasn't finalized the list.
  • Why not make it top 30? lol.
    But Still, an Excellent List, not one of them (that I've seen) would I disagree with...
  • These are all interesting choices:

    1. Let the Right One In
    2. Synecdoche, New York
    9. Burn After Reading
    10. Wall-E
    12. Slumdog Millionaire
    19. Son of Rambow
    22. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
    23. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    Glad to see Hellboy on the list as well as Son of Rambow, although I guess it's from 2007. Let the Right One In is definitely a great movie and would be in my top three as well.
    I've yet to see some of the movies on the list but they´re all on my "must see list".
  • I cannot agree more.
  • 790
    Why do I care about this guys top 29 ???

    /Film is becoming the home of random top 10, 20 and now 29, lists of 2008....

    Seriously,,,, why do I care about this guys picks?? Its like there's a random top whatever list here every week ???
  • great list

    im glad` rec was on there, such a good film
  • David
    The Dark Knight may be one of the most overrated films of all time. It's decent enough, with a good performance from Heath Ledger, but no great shakes. Iron Man, though suffering from a weak ending, is a better film, in my opinion. Better acting, clearer and significantly more intelligent storytelling, and a better performance by the lead. Plus, it doesn't have that idiotic sotto voce crap that makes Batman seem like he needs to clear his throat.
  • Although I feel The Dark Knight is a much better film than Iron Man I must admit I almost started laughing when Batman opened his mouth the first time in the movie. I had forgotten his ridiculous voice from the first movie. After a while you get used to it though...
  • David
    How is The Dark Knight "much better" than Iron Man? I ask that in all honesty, because I cannot begin to fathom the basis for that statement.
  • I enjoyed Iron Man (it would be on my top 10 list for 2009) but it didn't make a lasting impression on me. It's more of a popcorn movie with a lightweight feel to it. What I like about both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight is that they dare to take themselves seriously and they're both very dark. They have more of a realistic approach to the whole "superhero" thing. I also think that the cinematography, special effects etc are all that much better in TDK.

    Maybe Iron Man had a more "intelligent storytelling" but it sure was more boring and conventional, it also didn't have the suspense of TDK. Did you ever care for the characters in Iron Man? I for one never really doubted that everything would work out fine for every one in IM as opposed to TDK where you never really knew what was coming or how the ending would turn out. In TDK you felt that anything could happen, the hero could infact be killed.

    Most of this comes from my personal preference of darker movies but discussing movies is a matter of personal opinions so...
  • David
    I'm a big fan of darker movies. What I really didn't like about TDK was what I considered to be lousy dialog (lots of high-school-level-philosophizing, included), passable (at best) acting, and a silly plot. It's one thing for a movie to take itself seriously, quite another to be worthy of taking itself seriously. I simply didn't think TDK was worthy.
  • Yeah, and when you don't like the dialog, Batman's "Heavy Metal voice" sure don't help ;-)
  • Film guy
    Who's pumped for Scott Pilgrim? I am working on it now, and all you people who love Wright, get ready 'cause this is going to be some entertaining shit, it will be in people's top 10 for 2010. Mark my words.

    Nobody has been talking about his new film, which starts shooting early next year, /Film included.
  • Did you all know that Edgar was the one who suggested to Jon Favreau to put the Avenger Initiative scene at the very end of the credits? Apparently it was going to go right in the middle of them, and Edgar got an early screening and suggested it would fit better at the end.
    I honestly don't find anything wrong with Iron Man being #3 - it was a blast. His entire list has so much variety, you can tell (if you don't already know about the man) how huge of a film fan he is.

    Oh, and I really love it when /film features Edgar's blog. You should do it more often. He interacts quite a lot with the ones who leave him comments and he always writes entertaining stuff. He's just an all-around cool guy - yes, even in person.
  • JCVD was fucking terrible.
  • These lists are getting boring.
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