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Metacritic FilmFilm Critic Top Ten Lists

2008 Critics' Picks

Additional critic top ten lists will be posted throughout January.
Note that some critics offered an unranked list of the top ten movies; those are listed in alphabetical order without numbering below.

Austin Chronicle
(Marjorie Baumgarten)
1 Synecdoche, New York
2 Tell No One
3 Milk
4 The Pool
5 Elegy
6 My Winnipeg
7 Gomorrah
8 Gran Torino
9 U23D
10 Slumdog Millionaire
Austin Chronicle
(Marc Savlov)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 Let the Right One In
3 The Wrestler
4 My Winnipeg
5 Gomorrah
6 Man on Wire
7 Waltz with Bashir
8 Blindness
9 Son of Rambow
10 Funny Games
Austin Chronicle
(Kimberly Jones)
1 Synecdoche, New York
2 A Christmas Tale
3 Elegy
4 Happy-Go-Lucky
5 Rachel Getting Married
6 Let the Right One In
7 Tell No One
8 Son of Rambow
9 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
10 WALL-E
Austin Chronicle
(Josh Rosenblatt)
1 A Christmas Tale
2 Gomorrah
3 Wendy and Lucy
4 The Counterfeiters
5 I've Loved You So Long
6 Synecdoche, New York
7 Man on Wire
8 Che
9 The Wrestler
10 Trouble the Water
Baltimore Sun
(Michael Sragow)
1 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2 WALL-E
3 Slumdog Millionaire
4 Happy-Go-Lucky
5 The Edge of Heaven
6 What Just Happened
7 Rachel Getting Married
8 American Teen
9 Flash of Genius
10 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Boston Globe
(Ty Burr)
1 WALL-E
2 Slumdog Millionaire
3 Man on Wire
4 Milk
5 Let the Right One In
6 The Wrestler
7 Rache Getting Married
8 Son of Rambow
9 Flight of the Red Balloon
10 Synecdoche, New York
Boston Globe
(Wesley Morris)
1 WALL-E
2 The Edge of Heaven
3 Ballast
4 Be Kind Rewind
5 The Dark Knight
6 Gomorrah
7 Milk
8 Synecdoche, New York
9 The Order of Myths

The Filmmaking Style of "Realism"
Charlotte Observer
(Lawrence Toppman)
1 The Visitor
2 Jodhaa Akbar
3 The Dark Knight
4 WALL-E
5 Waltz with Bashir
6 Frost/Nixon
7 Let the Right One In
8 Mongol
9 Milk
10 Man on Wire
Chicago Reader
(Andrea Gronvall)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 Waltz with Bashir
3 Hunger
4 Milk
5 WALL-E
6 Elegy
7 The Class
8 Revanche
9 Let the Right One In
10 Encounters at the End of the World
Chicago Reader
(J.R. Jones)
1 Wendy and Lucy
2 The Visitor
3 At the Death House Door
4 There Will Be Blood
5 Happy-Go-Lucky
6 The Edge of Heaven
7 Standard Operating Procedure
8 Frownland
9 Boy A
10 Frozen River
Chicago Sun-Times
(Roger Ebert)
Ballast Iron Man
The Band's Visit Milk
Che Rachel Getting Married
Chop Shop The Reader
The Dark Knight Revolutionary Road
Doubt Shotgun Stories
The Fall Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon Synecdoche, New York
Frozen River W.
Happy-Go-Lucky WALL-E
Chicago Tribune
(Michael Phillips)
1 WALL-E
2 The Class
3 A Christmas Tale
4 Let the Right One In
5 The Flight of the Red Balloon
6 Alexandra
7 Man on Wire
8 Snow Angels
9 Still Life
10 The Dark Knight
Christian Science Monitor
(Peter Rainer)
  The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
  The Class
  The Dark Knight
  Encounters at the End of the World
  Happy-Go-Lucky
  I Served the King of England
  Man on Wire
  Still Life
  Waltz with Bashir
  Wendy and Lucy
Empire
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Baader-Meinhof Complex
Burn After Reading
Changeling
Cloverfield
The Dark Knight
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Eden Lake
The Escapist
Gomorrah
Entertainment Weekly
(Lisa Schwarzbaum)
1 WALL-E
2 Milk
3 The Dark Knight
4 Waltz With Bashir
5 Gomorrah
6 Wendy & Lucy
7 Trouble the Water
8 Happy-Go-Lucky
9 Man on Wire
10 Tropic Thunder
Entertainment Weekly
(Owen Gleiberman)
1 The Wrestler
2 The Dark Knight
3 Rachel Getting Married
4 WALL-E
5 Momma's Man
6 The Edge of Heaven
7 Burn After Reading
8 The Class
9 Milk
10 Tell No One
Film Threat
(Peter Vonder Haar)
1 Frozen River
2 Let the Right One In
3 The Wrestler
4 Slumdog Millionaire
5 Year at Danger
6 The Dark Knight
7 In Bruges
8 Gomorrah
9 Rambo
10 Doubt
The Globe & Mail [Toronto]
(Liam Lacey )
1  WALL-E
2  Happy-Go-Lucky
3  The Flight of the Red Balloon
4  Man on Wire
5  Paranoid Park
6  Waltz with Bashir
7  My Winnipeg
8  A Christmas Tale
9  Milk
10  Up the Yangtze
The Globe & Mail [Toronto]
(Rick Groen )
1  A Christmas Tale
2  WALL-E
3  Rachel Getting Married
4  I've Loved You So Long
5  My Winnipeg
6  The Edge of Heaven
7  Up the Yangtze
8  Happy-Go-Lucky
9  Waltz with Bashir
10  Slumdog Millionaire
Hollywood Reporter
(Kirk Honeycutt)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 The Dark Knight
3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4 Frozen River
5 WALL-E
6 Milk
7 Man on Wire
8 The Visitor
9 Iron Man
10 The Edge of Heaven
Hollywood Reporter
(Sheri Linden)
1 Man on Wire
2 Ballast
3 The Dark Knight
4 The Pool
5 Paranoid Park
6 Still Life
7 Che
8 Waltz with Bashir
9 The Last Mistress
10 Encounters at the End of the World
Hollywood Reporter
(Michael Rechtshaffen)
1 Milk
2 WALL-E
3 The Dark Knight
4 Man on Wire
5 Slumdog Millionaire
6 A Secret
7 Frost/Nixon
8 Frozen River
9 Encounters at the End of the World
10 Doubt
Hollywood Reporter
(Stephen Farber)
1 Waltz with Bashir
2 Boy A
3 Slumdog Millionaire
4 The Reader
5 Milk
6 Frozen River
7 The Visitor
8 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
9 The Edge of Heaven
10 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
Hollywood Reporter
(Ray Bennett)
1 Synecdoche, New York
2 Happy-Go-Lucky
3 Slumdog Millionaire
4 Good
5 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
6 I've Loved You So Long
7 The Wrestler
8 Appaloosa
9 Brideshead Revisited
10 Frost/Nixon
Hollywood Reporter
(Frank Scheck)
1 The Dark Knight
2 Milk
3 WALL-E
4 Frost/Nixon
5 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6 Man on Wire
7 The Visitor
8 Slumdog Millionaire
9 Waltz with Bashir
10 Young@Heart
L.A. Weekly
(Scott Foundas)
1 Still Life tie Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2 Gran Torino
3 Che tie Hunger
4 Silent Light
5 The Dark Knight
6 Heartbeat Detector
7 A Christmas Tale tie The Secret of the Grain
8 George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead tie Let the Right One In
9 Shine a Light tie Synecdoche, New York
10 WALL-E (tie) Waltz With Bashir
L.A. Weekly
(Ella Taylor)
1 Waltz with Bashir
2 Milk
3 Still Life (tie)
Up the Yangtze
4 Wendy and Lucy
5 The Class (tie)
A Christmas Tale
6 WALL-E
7 Slumdog Millionaire
8 The Counterfeiters
9 Moving Midway (tie) The Order of Myths
10 $9.99
Los Angeles Times
(Kenneth Turan)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 A Christmas Tale (tie)
 The Class
3 Frost/Nixon
4 Frozen River (tie) Ballast
5 Gomorrah (tie) Happy-Go-Lucky
6 Rachel Getting Married
7 Man On Wire (tie) Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
8 Stranded (tie) Trouble the Water
Blindsight (tie) Pray the Devil Back
Standard Operating Procedure (tie) Walk to Beautiful
9 Tell No One
10 WALL-E (tie) Waltz With Bashir
Metacritic.com
(Marc Doyle)
1 Tell No One
2 The Wrestler
3 Gran Torino
4 Boy A
5 Milk
6 Slumdog Millionaire
7 The Dark Knight
8 The Visitor
9 Choke
10 Happy-Go-Lucky
Miami Herald
(Rene Rodriguez)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 WALL-E
3 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
4 Gran Torino tie Changeling
5 The Dark Knight tie Hellboy II
6 Paranoid Park
7 Frozen River
8 Rachel Getting Married
9 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10 Funny Games
NPR
(Robert Mondello)
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Milk
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rachel Getting Married
The Class
Man on Wire
The Dark Knight
A Christmas Tale
New York Daily News
(Elizabeth Weitzman)
The Dark Knight
The Go-Getter
Happy-Go-Lucky
Rachel Getting Married
Reprise
Slumdog Millionaire
Tropic Thunder
WALL-E
The Wrestler
Young@Heart
New York Daily News
(Joe Neumaier)
The Dark Knight
Doubt
I've Loved You So Long
The Lucky Ones
Religulous
Revolutionary Road
Synecdoche, New York
W.
WALL-E
The Wrestler
New York Magazine
(David Edelstein)
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
New York Post
(Lou Lumenick)
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
New York Post
(V.A. Musetto)
1  In the City of Sylvia
 2 Wendy and Lucy
3  Momma's Man
4  Paranoid Park
5  Let the Right One In
6  Frozen River
 7 The Wrestler
8  Mongol
9  4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
10  XXY
New York Post
(Kyle Smith)
1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 Man on Wire
3 Seven Pounds
4 The Dark Knight
5 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
6 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
8 Doubt
9 Rachel Getting Married
10 Funny Games
The New York Times
(Stephen Holden)
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
The New York Times
(A.O. Scott)
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
The New York Times
(Manohla Dargis)
1 Happy-Go-Lucky
2 Synechdoche, New York
3 Alexandra
4 Flight of the Red Balloon
5 Silent Light
6 Parnaoid Park
7 The Dark Knight
8 Encounters at the End of the World
9 Still Life
10 Wendy and Lucy
The New Yorker
(Anthony Lane)
1 WALL-E
2 Changeling
3 The Wrestler
4 Iron Man
5 Quantum of Solace
6 We Own the Night
7 I've Loved You So Long
8 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
9 The Edge of Heaven
10 The Orphanage
The New Yorker
(David Denby)
1 Defiance
2 Rachel Getting Married
3 The Class
4 The Wrestler
5 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
6 WALL-E
7 Milk
8 Trouble the Water
9 Revolutionary Road
10 I've Loved You So Long
Newsweek
(David Ansen)
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
6 Silent Light
7 The Wreslter
8 Tropic Thunder
9 WALL-E (tie)
Waltz With Bashir
The Onion AV Club
(Noel Murray)
1 WALL-E
2 Burn After Reading
3 Synecdoche, New York
4 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
5 The Dark Knight
6 Surfwise
7 Rachel Getting Married
8 Paranoid Park
9 Milk
10 My Winnipeg
The Onion AV Club
(Keith Phipps)
1 Rachel Getting Married
2 WALL-E
3 Wendy and Lucy
4 Che
5 The Dark Knight
6 Milk
7 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
8 Reprise
9 Let The Right One In
10 Happy-Go-Lucky
The Onion AV Club
(Nathan Rabin)
1 Rachel Getting Married
2 The Dark Knight
3 Synecdoche, New York
4 WALL-E
5 Operation Filmmaker
6 Reprise
7 Stuck
8 The Wrestler
9 Happy-Go-Lucky
10 Milk
The Onion AV Club
(Tasha Robinson)
1 The Fall
2 WALL-E
3 Man on Wire
4 Redbelt
5 Synecdoche, New York
6 Cloverfield
7 Surfwise
8 The Reader
9 The Edge of Heaven
10 The Pool
The Onion AV Club
(Scott Tobias)
1 Rachel Getting Married
2 WALL-E
3 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
4 Standard Operating Procedure
5 Paranoid Park
6 Man on Wire
7 Funny Games
8 Wendy and Lucy
9 The Dark Knight
10 Stuck
Philadelphia Inquirer
(Steve Rea)
1  Slumdog Millionaire
2  The Edge of Heaven
3  The Visitor
4  Wendy and Lucy
5  I've Loved You So Long
6  Frozen River
7  Vicky Crisitna Barcelona
8  Hancock (tie)
Iron Man
9  Happy-Go-Lucky
10  In Bruges
Philadelphia Inquirer
(Carrie Rickey)
Encounters at the End of the World
Frozen River
Happy-Go-Lucky
Iron Man
Man on Wire
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Slumdog Millionaire
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
Portland Oregonian
(Shawn Levy)
1 A Christmas Tale
2 Happy-Go-Lucky
3 Synecdoche, New York
4 Rachel Getting Married
5 Stranded
6 Frost/Nixon
7 Tell No One
8 Wendy and Lucy
9 1st half of WALL-E
10 Doubt
Portland Oregonian
(Marc Mohan)
1 Young@Heart
2 Let the Right One In
3 The Dark Knight
4 Snow Angels
5 Man on Wire
6 Tropic Thunder
7 Tell No One
8 Iron Man
9 OSS 117: Nest of Spies
10 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Portland Oregonian
(Mike Russell)
1 The Dark Knight
2 Let the Right One In
3 WALL-E
4 Elegy
5 Mongol
6 Jar City
7 Tropic Thunder
8 The Spiderwick Chronicles
9 Redbelt
10 Appaloosa
Premiere
1 The Dark Knight
2 Wanted
3 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4 Gran Torino
5 Taxi to the Darkside
6 Role Models
7 Tropic Thunder
8 The Wrestler
9 Iron Man
10 Eagle Eye
ReelViews
(James Berardinelli)
1 The Dark Knight
2 Doubt
3 Slumdog Millionaire
4 WALL-E
5 The Wrestler
6 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7 Iron Man
8 Revolutionary Road
9 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
10 Frost/Nixon
Rolling Stone
(Peter Travers)
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
Salon
(Andrew O'Hehir)
1 A Christmas Tale
2 Waltz with Bashir
3 Chop Shop
4 Encounters at the End of the World
5 Flight of the Red Balloon
6 The Secret of the Grain
7 Momma's Man
8 Man on Wire
9 The Order of Myths
10 Reprise
Salon
(Stephanie Zacharek)
1 Happy-Go-Lucky
2 A Christmas Tale
3 Ghost Town
4 Cadillac Records
5 The Class
6 The Visitor
7 Before I Forget
8 Trouble the Water
9 Sparrow
10 Iron Man (tie)
Hellboy II
San Francisco Chronicle
(Peter Hartlaub)
1 The Dark Knight
2 The Wrestler
3 Slumdog Millionaire
4 Milk
5 Frost/Nixon
6 The Visitor
7 Tropic Thunder
8 Man on Wire
9 WALL-E
10 Iron Man
San Francisco Chronicle
(Mick LaSalle)
1 Revolutionary Road
2 Milk
3 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
4 I've Loved You So Long
5 The Wrestler
6 Frost/Nixon
7 Roman de Gare
8 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
9 The Life Before Her Eyes
10 Baghead
Slate
(Dana Stevens)
A Christmas Tale
The Class
The Edge of Heaven
Encounters at the End of the World
Frozen River
Man on Wire
Milk
WALL-E
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler
Seattle Post
(Sean Axmaker)
1
 A Christmas Tale
 2 The Edge of Heaven
3  WALL-E
4  Let the Right One In
5  Wendy and Lucy
6  The Fall
7  The Dark Knight
 8 The Class
9  Milk
10  My Blueberry Nights
Seattle Post
(Bill White)
Shotgun Stories
Ashes of Time Redux
Katyn
The Visitor
Blindness
Still Life
Taxi to the Dark Side
Alexandra
Kenny
The Killing of John Lennon
Seattle PI
(William Arnold)
U2 3D

Milk (tie) Frost/Nixon (tie) W.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader
The Visitor

Cassandra's Dream (tie) Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Iron Man (tie) Dark Knight
Valkyrie
Slumdog Millionaire
WALL-E
Time Magazine
(Richard Corliss)
1 WALL-E
2 Synecdoche, New York
3 My Winnipeg
4 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
5 Milk
6 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7 Slumdog Millionaire
8 Iron Man
9 Speed Racer
10 Encounters at the End of the World
Variety 
(Dennis Harvey)
1 Encounters at the End of the World
2 Battle for Haditha
3 My Brother is an Only Child
4 Kenny
5 The Class
6 A Christmas Tale
7 The Signal
8 I Served the King of England
9 Happy-Go-Lucky
10 Planet B-Boy
Village Voice
(J. Hoberman)
1 The Flight of the Red Balloon
2 Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
3 Paranoid Park
4 Che
5 Waltz with Bashir
6 Silent Light
7 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
8 In the City of Sylvia
9 WALL-E
10 Wendy and Lucy
Wall Street Journal
(Joe Morgenstern)
1  WALL-E
2  Slumdog Millionaire
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man
Man on Wire
Still Life
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
Waltz with Bashir
The Wrestler
Washington Post
(Ann Hornaday)
1 The Visitor
2 WALL-E
3 Milk
4 The Edge of Heaven
5 Man on Wire
6 Chicago 10
7 Happy-Go-Lucky
8 Rachel Getting Married
9 I've Loved You So Long
10 Tell No One
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