I’ve been putting off my Top 10 Films of 2008 list, since I spent most of January gorging on all the late-release films I’ve only recently had access to (thanks to Noble Theater and Netflix). While there are still a few I haven’t seen – Frost/Nixon, Doubt, Slumdog Millionaire, Wendy and Lucy – I figure I’ve seen enough by now to make a decent enough list. (Although, I should probably just reserve a spot at or near the top for Wendy and Lucy, since I’m nearly positive I will love this movie.)

First, a few notes about my list. Since I’m not an expert on the intricacies of filmmaking, this isn’t a list of the most technically “well-made” movies. It’s pretty much just a list of the films from the past year that, for one reason or another, really resonated with me. It’s purely subjective – but then again, isn’t film (or all art, for that matter) subjective?

It was a pretty good year (better than 2007, anyway) for films with strong, interesting female characters, and I tried to give these films a lot of love in my list. I was a little surprised by how highly Happy-Go-Lucky ranked in my list, though. As somewhat of a dour pessimist, I went in to this one expecting to be seriously annoyed, but instead found myself completely in love with the character of Poppy. Disfigured, while perhaps not the best movie ever, made it onto my list for the simple reason that it’s the movie I’ve always wanted to see made. I relate to it on a deeply personal level. And like everyone else, I’m absolutely in love with Wall-E. Besides being visually stunning (especially on Blu-Ray), it’s just a great little sci-fi movie in which animated robots display more humanity than most human characters in most movies.

Anyway. Without further ado:

1. Wall-E
2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
3. Happy-Go-Lucky
4. Let The Right One In
5. Man on Wire
6. Rachel Getting Married
7. Ballast / Chop Shop
8. A Christmas Tale
9. The Wrestler
10. Disfigured

Honorable Mention: Funny Games, The Dark Knight, Son of Rambow, Encounters at the End of the World, Trouble the Water

For even more Top 10 fun, check out Dwight’s list here.