Countdown to 2009: Angela's Top 10 2008 Theatrical Releases To Be Watched on DVD in 2009

Every weekday of December (except for December 25, that is), Phillyist will be counting down to 2009 with our highlights from the past year and our predictions for the next. If you have a list you'd like to submit, let us know!

10. Wanted
Sorry, but I like Angelina Jolie. Maybe watching her on screen in this type of film satisfies my own personal bad ass needs. I read the script for Wanted a while ago and thought it was going to be a great action flick. Supposedly the final movie version was reworked to center more on Angie's character, Fox, so I'll probably like it even more with more of her, though hopefully that doesn't mean less of James McAvoy.

9. Red Belt
I'm a David Mamet gal. So much so that I'm currently reading his book Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business. I know nothing of this movie except having seen the trailer at the theater earlier this year, I wrote the title down on my little notebook list of movies to see. But all I need to know is Mamet, that's good enough for me. Now it's in my Netflix queue.

8. Appaloosa
I really, really like Ed Harris, so I ought to see this film that was co-written, directed, and starred in by him. Also, it's cute that he puts his dad in his movies.

7. Shine a Light
Scorsese directing a The Rolling Stones documentary/concert film? Yes please. And not only because I was named after a Stones song.

6. Bottle Shock
A sleeper that got great reviews, but no real play in the theaters. The story is based on the account of a 1976 blind wine taste test in Paris which left the French up in arms after California wines prevailed. The film stars Alan Rickman as the British born/Paris based wine snob merchant who organized the event that was known as "The Judgment of Paris."

5. My Blueberry Nights
Ever since seeing Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood For Love I've been entranced by his filmmaking. I'd been anticipating My Blueberry Nights, his first full English-language picture, for a long time but somehow its theatrical release just passed by me unnoticed. Perhaps since it had been in the works so long, then took forever for distribution, I just let it slip through the cracks. It definitely deserves a viewing, especially to see the acting debut of Norah Jones.

4. I've Loved You So Long
I love seeing Kristin Scott Thomas breeze through the French language like it's her native tongue.

3. The Dark Knight
Yes, I'm the one person in America who didn't see this. The thought of viewing Heath Ledger's frightening performance as The Joker so soon after his death freaked me out. I'm prone to nightmares and I figured I was just setting myself up for some bad ones. But as time passes, I'm thinking I should give this movie a shot on my tiny television set.

2. Man On Wire
As author Ann Patchett says in the recent New York Times article "Moments That Mattered," James Marsh's documentary about high wire walker Phillippe Petit "reminds us of all that art is capable of when what is risked is everything." The doc showcases Petit's high wire walk between the World Trade Towers in August of 1974, a time before the construction of the Towers was even completed. Patchett wishes that the Towers could be remembered for their beginning "with the felonious act of a young man who was madly in love with them, their height, their audacity, their doubled beauty—instead of how they ended."

1. Rachel Getting Married
Along with Mamet, Sidney Lumet is another one of my filmmaker icons. Ever since studying his work in a college film course, I've looked to him as somewhat of a role model. So now seeing that his daughter Jenny has written such a wonderful and critically acclaimed film, I'm downright ashamed that I didn't catch this one on its opening weekend.

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