Movies You Missed

Yeah, I’m doing that thing where I link to A-listers again (are popular bloggers still called A-listers?). Jason Kottke linked to a firstshowing.net article on (supposedly) the 19 best movies you didn’t see in 2008.

It’s an interesting list, despite falling down in two crucial respects. First, I have seen one of the movies on the list (and I suspect you’ve seen at least one also, if you’re a movie fan); and second, I’m reasonably confident that these movies didn’t all come out in 2008, at least where I live.

The one film on the list that I did see is Choke, directed by Clark Gregg and based on the book by Chuck “Fight Club” Palahniuk. The article describes it thusly:

A devious and fun exercise in adapting the dark musings of the great Chuck Palahniuk, Choke explores the life of a sex addict trying to deal with a mother who is slipping away. With great performances from Sam Rockwell and Brad William Henke combined with twisted humor that can only come from the mind behind Fight Club, Choke is easily one of the most unique and authentically dark comedies of the year. If you dig deviance, this is one you shouldn’t let pass by.

I agree completely. Choke is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few months. It wins on being both funny and dark, and on being quite unlike everything else showing right now.

Despite what most modern commentators would have you believe, there are actually some new movies being made right now that aren’t remakes, sequels, or copies of existing movies. Choke is one of them, and it looks fro the rest of that article that it’s not alone.

There are some films mentioned that I intended to see but haven’t got around to yet. There are others that I specifically decided not to see, and I may or may not change my mind on some of those. There are also quite a few that I never heard of at all, or at least forgot about quickly.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is already on my list to see, and I believe it’s due out here soon (I can’t find a date for it, but I’m pretty certain it hasn’t been and gone.) I’m also going to have to seek out Charlie Bartlett, given Robert Downey Jr.’s hit rate for the rest of the year. Speaking of Kirk Lazarus, there seem to be quite a few movies due out this year that are sure to benefit from his presence.