Gene Triplett's Best movies of 2008: Variety, entertainment highlight picks

1. "The Wrestler.” Just when everyone thought Mickey Rourke’s career was down way past the count, wham, he pinned us to our seats with an amazingly powerful, sensitive and carefully nuanced portrait of a washed-up professional wrestler desperately grappling to right a lifetime of wrongs he’s done to himself and others before the last bell rings. Screenwriter Robert Siegel and director Darren Aronofsky left sentimentality out of this gritty, deeply affecting heartbreaker.

2. "Milk.” Director Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black delivered a searing indictment against prejudice and hatred, and Sean Penn gave a courageously transformative performance to match in the title role of this stirring biopic on civil rights activist Harvey Milk. He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office when he ran for board supervisor in San Francisco in 1978. He’s ably supported by co-stars James Franco and Josh Brolin in what is probably the bravest and most important film of the year.

3. "Slumdog Millionaire” — The most original surprise of the year was director Danny Boyle’s life-celebrating adventure of a young boy who rises from the depths of poverty in Mumbai to become a contestant on India’s version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” for love more than money, because he knows his missing sweetheart is an avid fan of the show. Simon Beaufoy’s screenplay, adapted from a novel by Vikas Swarup, is at turns a wrenchingly tragic and exuberantly optimistic tribute to the power of love, knowledge and resilient human spirit.

4. "Frost/Nixon.” Ron Howard helmed a gripping retelling of British talk show host David Frost’s post-Watergate series of interviews with former President Richard Nixon, made all the more tension-charged and riveting by Frank Langella’s spot-on portrayal of the steely-eyed and cunning ex-commander-in-chief, who still hadn’t admitted guilt nor offered any apology for Watergate, three years after resigning. Ably supported by Michael Sheen as Frost, Langella was utterly convincing without stooping to caricature in Peter Morgan’s superb adaptation of his stage play.

5. "Rachel Getting Married.” Anne Hathaway proved her mettle as a dramatic heavy-hitter in director Jonathan Demme’s character-rich family portrait, skillfully infusing the role of Kym, a rehab recidivist, with all the heartbreaking and infuriating traits of an emotionally bruised addict, ripe for jump-starting old familial tensions when she comes home for sister Rachel’s (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding. Debra Winger makes a brief but electric comeback as the estranged, unloving mother in this captivating drama of human complexity and fragility by first-time screenwriter Jenny Lumet.

6. "Appaloosa.” Two guys with Oklahoma ties, four-time Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning Ed Harris (former OU drama student) and Oklahoma City-born actor/writer Robert Knott wrote a screenplay together based on a novel by Robert B.

Page 1 of 2

12Next