2008 in Review: Paul Clark's Favorite Movie Moments

Paul Clark — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Starting tomorrow, the writers of Screengrab will be unveiling their lists of the top 10 films of 2008. But before that begins, I’d like to post a different sort of list of highlights from the past year. For those of you who’ve only started reading recently, I used to write a bi-weekly column called “The Movie Moment,” in which I’d explore in depth some of my favorite scenes from movies both old and new. This past spring, I had to put the column on indefinite hiatus for various reasons, but I wanted to bring it back for this week only so I could celebrate some of my favorite Movie Moments of 2008. However, I had such a devil of time trying to narrow down my list that I’ve decided to simply list all of the moments that made me laugh out loud, cry like a baby, bite my nails uncontrollably, or which otherwise rocked my world this past year. This list is by no means meant to be taken as comprehensive, but merely were the moments which readily sprang to mind while I was writing the piece. So without further ado, I give you…

2008: The Year in Movie Moments:

(in no particular order)

The little boy’s confession notes- In Bruges

“No-no-no. I kill the bus driver.” - The Dark Knight

The security guard makes his rounds - Man on Wire

Sidney’s musical vows - Rachel Getting Married

The kiss that launched a thousand lens flares - Silent Light (only one of several transcendent moments in the film- the swimming-hole scene or the epic rainstorm might just as easily have qualified)

Mike’s late-night visit (or really, anytime Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” is played) - The Strangers

Peekaboo nudity - The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

Harry unveils the machine - Burn After Reading (honestly, who could possibly enjoy THAT?)

Madame Gaudens’ confession - A Girl Cut in Two

Incident at the race track - My Winnipeg

Most hilarious random line of the year: “When it comes to women, you’re Michael Jordan. I’m… Bill Laimbeer.” - Baghead

The new army suits up for battle - Role Models

Alex takes a shower - Paranoid Park

Brandi forgets her cell phone - Stuck

Black Kold Medina puts on a show - Trouble the Water

Runaway penguin - Encounters at the End of the World

Jung-rae Kim diagrams his neuroses - Woman on the Beach

Alex’s sex surprise, both inevitable and strangely erotic - XXY

The director’s big exit - Tropic Thunder

Most unlikely tearjerking moment of the year: Fred Knittle sings “Fix You”, Young@Heart

Three-way fist fight: Seth Rogen vs. James Franco vs. Danny McBride - Pineapple Express

The Richard McGuire segment - Fear(s) of the Dark

Ninjas! - In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (yes, really)

And finally, my five favorite openings and finales of the year:

Perfect openings: “Put on Your Sunday Clothes”, WALL*E; Sunrise, Silent Light; The piano, The Silence Before Bach; The Jean-Claude Van Damme Stunt Spectacular, JCVD; The Legend of Po, Kung Fu Panda

Great final scenes (no spoilers): Synecdoche, New York, The Duchess of Langeais, Shine a Light, The Visitor, Burn After Reading

I would invite all of you to share some of your favorites in the comments section. After all, I’m surely missing at least a couple of really good ones.

Screengrab Review: "Fear(s) of the Dark"

Phil Nugent — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

A black and white, animated anthology film that draws on the talents of an unusual mix of well-known comics artists and graphic designers, Fear(s) of the Dark is the trippiest cross between a European art-house curio and a thrill-crazed midnight movie since the heady days of Fantastic Planet. As usual with omnibus features, the stories vary in quality, but the shifts from one striking visual style to the next will keep your eyes glued to the screen--unless you turn your head away from the grislier moments, notably the recurring episodes, captured in compellingly scratchy-looking artwork from Christian Hincker (the artist known as "Blutch"), in which a wild-eyed, cadaverous-looking nobleman terrorizes the streets with a pack of vicious dogs. There are also full segments from a pair of giants in the comic book world, Charles Burns and Lorenzo Mattiotti, both making their first forays into film animation (though Burns once adapted his "Dogboy" character for a bizarre, stylized live action serial that ran on MTV's old animation showcase Liquid Television.) Mattotti's brief segment is a beauty, a sophisticated rendition of a folk tale that seems to carve out its own quiet, eerie space at the heart of the feature. Burns's segment is lively enough and supplies the movie's only traces of humor, but it might seem most impressive to people who haven't seen a lot of Burns's work and so haven't already been well-exposed to his retroland style and obsessions with virginal sexual terror. (It'll be easy to tell which reviewers of Fear(s) of the Dark are new to Burns; they'll be the one whose first thought is to compare his segment to David Cronenberg.)

As a whole, Fear(s) has the experimental feel of people trying things out in somebody else's laboratory and hoping that the results will mesh. A minor work that draws on some major talents, it seldom achieves anything like the obsessive charge that some of these artists have been able to generate with their work on the printed page. It's probably of greatest interest to comics geeks who'll get a tingle from seeing some of their favorites working on film, and horror addicts intrigued by the fresh angle it provides on some classic tropes of the genre. Members of both groups will be gratified to discover that the movie ends with a knockout punch supplied by director Richard McGuire. It's the simplest and most basic of scare movie set-ups: a nameless man lost in a snowstorm at night discovers an empty-or-is-it? cabin and beds down for the night. Virtually wordless and depicted in chunky black and white images, with the the protagonist's face and hands jutting out of the inky darkness of the unlit house, it's an elegant formal exercise that actually manages to get your heart racing a little. For twenty minutes or so, in theaters playing Fear(s) of the Dark, it'll really feel like Halloween.

The Screengrab : richard mcguire

2008 in Review: Paul Clark's Favorite Movie Moments

Screengrab Review: "Fear(s) of the Dark"