My Top 11

So since the "Best of 2008" list you sent me included 11 movies, I have decided I get an extra one as well. Not for any legitimate reason like yours but more because I kind of thought the last three were about even and didn't want to have to eliminate one. Oh, and I only have 2008 for now. It might take me a bit to come up with 2007 and 2006. Also there are a few of caveats I think should be stated at the outset:

• I think this was a rather weak year for movies. I've read a number of articles that alluded to the fact, but I kind of discounted that because there were a few movies I thought were quite good this year. However when I was formulating the list it seemed that although I was putting some of these on there, in a better year they would not make the cut.
  
• Yes, I picked the movie everyone liked as my top choice. Perhaps that makes me a philistine (I think it is my goal to use that word in every post, I'm just warning you -- partly because by three degrees it could make you remember what the kid would do in the library), but I have not enjoyed a movie as much since Little Miss Sunshine.
• Comedies sucked this year! I almost felt compelled to include the comedy that I chose because I had to give some recognition.
• Eight of these movies are either all in a foreign language or feature a significant amount of subtitling, even some movies from the U.S. or U.K. And one of the three movies in English is silent for nearly the entire first half (which is by far the better half).
  

And so without further ado...

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Man on Wire
3. The Dark Knight
4. Waltz With Bashir
5. WALL-E
6. The Class
7. Milk
8. Let the Right One In
9. The Wrestler
10. Che (Parts 1 and 2)
11. Vicky Christina Barcelona


Honorable mention:
Frozen River; Synecdoche, New York; Burn After Reading; I've Loved You So Long; Paranoid Park; Iron Man; Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father; The Fall; The Visitor; Doubt

One final note here is that I will have to admit I might have skewed my picks to create some conflict with yours as we therefore have more to debate. Aside from a few films I thought were excellent, most of them were kind of a bit more even so it was hard to pick the best.