2008: First Half Films

*Cross-posted at the film blog.

Notable films so far this year, of the 100 I've tracked, ranked within each category. Not included are a few things from 2007 and other stuff I'd maybe already seen.

NEWER

Startling

Still Orangutans (Spolidoro)
Loos Ornamental (Emigholz)
Still Life (Jia)
Christopher Columbus: The Enigma (De Oliveira)
Eat For This Is My Body (Quaye)
Chop Shop (Bahrani)
Captain Ahab (Ramos)
Opera Jawa (Nugroho)

Good as Expected

Ballast (Hammer)
Pierre Rissient (McCarthy)
Shotgun Stories (Nichols)
Paranoid Park (Van Sant)
Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou)
Baghead (Duplass)
Great Speeches from a Dying World (Phillips)
Momma's Man (Jacobs)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Stoller)
Reprise (Trier)

Honorable Mention

Son of Rambow (Jennings) for cinematography
Blind Mountain (Li) for ending with an effective shock
Kung Fu Panda (Osborne/Stevenson) for fun

OLDER

Good as Expected

Sunrise (Murnau)
The Good The Bad and The Ugly (Leone)
Blade Runner (Scott)
Clerks II (Smith)
La Promesse (Dardenne)

Startling

Dead Man (Jarmusch)
Laura (Preminger)
Anatomy of a Murder (Preminger)
La Chinoise (Godard)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Peckinpah)
Daisy Kenyon (Preminger)

Average runtime: just over 105 minutes.
Average score: 1.78 stars.
Seen in a theater: 77%.

Countries (including co-productions)

US - 55 films
France - 15 films
UK - 6 films
Hong Kong - 3 films
Italy - 3 films
Thailand - 3 films
Canada - 2 films
China - 2 films