How about Nine Top Critic Top Tens? From Dargis to Reed…

Top tens are the “thing to do” as the final moments of 2008 begin to tick away. I will be offering up my personal top ten a little later this week in a Wednesday-Friday 2008 retrospective of sorts to satisfy your listing desires through the holiday weekend but for now how about taking a look at nine top tens from a list of the top movie critics from around the nation from Manohla Dargis at the “New York Times” to Rex Reed at the “New York Observer”.

I would like to thank AwardsDaily for pointing out so many of these to me as I began stacking them up as “starred” items in my Google Reader. It’s interesting to see what films made it on the majority of people’s lists and what films missed out. I was surprised to learn of Silent Light, a film I had not heard of until it made two of the lists from the “New York Times” not to mention learning that David Edelstein (better known as the critic that got slammed for hating The Dark Knight) has Kit Kittredge: An American Girl on his 2008 top ten. Yikes, not winning over the faboys with this list David.

I finish it all off at the end with Roger Ebert’s Top Ten Foreign Films and for all the bandwagoners, don’t worry, Let the Right One In is on there. I kid, of course, I actually just started reading the book and have a screener copy in hand to watch the minute I finish since I feel that movie has more in store than what I originally gleaned from my first screening after which I gave the film a B- review. I do need to watch my screeners of Timecrimes and Tell No One though, those two films seem to be getting praise from a variety of corners.

Enjoy the lists!

Manohla Dargis (New York Times)

1. Happy-Go-Lucky
2. Synecdoche, New York
3. Alexandra
4. Flight of the Red Balloon
5. Silent Light
6. Paranoid Park
7. The Dark Knight
8. Encounters at the End of the World
9. Still Life
10. Wendy and Lucy

A.O. Scott (New York Times)

1. WALL•E
2. Silent Light
3. The Secret of the Grain
4. Man on Wire
5. The Edge of Heaven
6. Happy-Go-Lucky
7. Wendy and Lucy
8. Milk
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Cadillac Records

Stephen Holden (New York Times)

1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
2. The Edge of Heaven
3. WALL•E
4. Milk
5. The Last Mistress
6. Happy-Go-Lucky
7. A Christmas Tale
8. Tell No One
9. Frozen River
10. The Visitor

Peter Travers (Rolling Stone)

1. Milk
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. The Dark Knight
4. Frost/Nixon
5. WALL•E
6. Revolutionary Road
7. The Visitor
8. Doubt
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Man on Wire

Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times)

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. A Christmas Tale and The Class (tie)
3. Frost/Nixon
4. Frozen River and Ballast
5. Gomorrah and Happy Go Lucky (tie)
6. Rachel Getting Married
7. Sundance documentaries
8. Tell No One
9. WALL•E
10. Waltz With Bashir

David Edlestein (New York Magazine)

1. Rachel Getting Married
2. WALL•E
3. Happy-Go-Lucky
4. Cadillac Records
5. The Class
6. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
7. Waltz With Bashir
8. Shotgun Stories
9. Doubt
10. Trouble the Water

Lou Lumenick (New York Post)

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. WALL•E
3. Milk
4. A Christmas Tale
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. Iron Man
7. Revolutionary Road
8. The Visitor
9. Synecdoche, New York
10. Waltz With Bashir

David Ansen (Newsweek)

1. Let the Right One In
2. Encounters at the End of the World
3. Wendy and Lucy
4. Frost/Nixon
5. Man on Wire How
6. Silent Light
7. The Wrestler
8. Tropic Thunder
9. WALL•E and Waltz With Bashir (tie)

Rex Reed (New York Observer)

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Revolutionary Road
3. Rachel Getting Married
4. The Reader
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. Frost/Nixon
7. Milk
8. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
9. The Visitor
10. Good

Roger Ebert’s Top Ten Foreign Films (RogerEbert.com)

1. A Christmas Tale
2. The Duchess of Langeais
3. The Edge of Heaven
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
5. A Girl Cut in Two
6. I’ve Loved You So Long
7. The Last Mistress
8. Let the Right One In
9. Tell No One
10. XXY