Sight & Sound’s annual Top Ten is, for my money, one of the most intelligent and respectable of all critics’ lists, and this year’s is no exception. Revealed in the magazine’s just-out January 2009 issue, the list is drawn from a poll of 50 international critics, including such heavyweights as Kenneth Turan, Amy Taubin, Armond White and Peter Bradshaw, and the results (for me, at least) are hard to argue with.
The list rather bluntly highlights the less-than-stellar year American cinema has had, with only one 2008 U.S. picture (“WALL-E”) making the cut. (The inclusion of “There Will Be Blood” stems from UK release date differences, which might also account for the low profile of some current year-end contenders.) But it’s a rich and exciting collection of films, however you look at it:
1. “Hunger” (Steve McQueen)
2. “There Will Be Blood” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. “WALL-E” (Andrew Stanton)
4. “Gomorrah” (Matteo Garrone)
=5. “A Christmas Tale” (Arnaud Desplechin)
=5. “The Class” (Laurent Cantet)
7. “Of Time and the City” (Terence Davies)
8. “Happy-Go-Lucky” (Mike Leigh)
=9. “The Headless Woman” (Lucrecia Martel)
=9. “Let the Right One In” (Tomas Alfredson)
I can’t tell you how much happier I would be if the eventual Best Picture nominees were drawn from that lot. We can but dream.