Previous 10: 29 October - After the Flood

It's pretty sad news when you only admire one of the past ten 2008 releases, but at least Rachel Getting Married was a keeper. I can't decide, if given the option, whether I'd ask someone to rewrite all the "I'm old" bits of dialogue in the new Indiana Jones movie or to think up a better explanation for that Crystal Skull. Though I quite disliked I've Loved You So Long, I won't be disappointed seeing Kristin Scott Thomas win a number of awards this winter. I might, however, be disappointed to hear a bunch of Charlie Kaufman worshipers call me an idiot for disliking Synecdoche, New York so much... but it's probably worth noting that, for a variety of reasons, it's the first film I've walked out of in a theatre since I saw that horrendous melodrama Second Skin (Segunda piel) with Javier Bardem six years ago (I don't count Hou Hsiao-hsien's Milennium Mambo, which I also ditched before the credits, as it occured during a horrendous date). And, though I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, Filth and Wisdom has none of the above.

La Crème

Rachel Getting Married - dir. Jonathan Demme - USA - Sony Pictures Classics - with Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mather Zickel, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger, Tunde Adebimpe, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George

Les Autres

I Dreamt Under the Water [J'ai rêvé sous l'eau] - dir. Hormoz - France - TLA Releasing - with Hubert Benhamdine, Caroline Ducey, Christine Boisson, Hicham Nazzal, Franck Victor, Hélène Michel

In the Arms of My Enemy [Voleurs de chevaux] - dir. Micha Wald - France/Belgium/Canada - Picture This! - with Grégoire Colin, Adrien Jolivet, François-René Dupont, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Pleasure Factory - dir. Ekachai Uekrongtham - Thailand/Netherlands/Hong Kong - Strand Releasing - with Isabella Chen, Ananda Everingham, Zihan Loo, Kuei-Mei Yang, Jeszlene Zhou

The Bad!

Boystown [Chuecatown] - dir. Juan Flahn - Spain - TLA Releasing - with Pepón Nieto, Pablo Puyol, Carlos Fuentes, Concha Velasco, Rosa Maria Sardà, Eduard Soto

Eight Miles High [Das Wilde Leben] - dir. Achim Bornhak - Germany - Dokument Films - with Natalia Avelon, David Scheller, Matthias Schweighöfer, Friederike Kempter, Alexander Scheer, Victor Norén

Filth and Wisdom - dir. Madonna - UK - IFC Films - with Eugene Hutz, Holly Weston, Vicky McClure, Richard E. Grant, Inder Manocha

I've Loved You So Long [Il y a longtemps que je t'aime] - dir. Philippe Claudel - France/Germany - Sony Pictures Classics - with Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill, Frédéric Pierrot, Claire Johnston

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - dir. Steven Spielberg - USA - 20th Century Fox - with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent

Synecdoche, New York - dir. Charlie Kaufman - Sony Pictures Classics - with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Daniel London