The year in reviews

Dave Kehr's blog is percolating with some nice end-of-year listage, to take you into 2009. There's the 25 movies selected for the National Film Registry (The Terminator, sure--but Flower Drum Song? Really?) and his own Top 10 (Gran Torino was inevitable from this Eastwood fan, but what happened to Changeling?), followed by his excitable commenters weighing in with their own favorites.

(The Village Voice also has its annual film poll up, and some other listage. But I'm mad at them for dismissing 83-year-old Nat Hentoff, after a half-century of principled journalism and distinguished service. How long will J. Hoberman last at the film desk?)

Me? Usually by this date, I'm making my lists, and checking them twice--but fatherhood took precedence over filmgoing beginning Aug. 25, and I've had to accommodate since then. (Not for nothing is this blog called "Between Productions.") Popdose (judged "one of the few pop-culture sites not populated by jaded jagoffs, and supremely literate to boot") may prevail on me to contribute, but my list would pretty much have to end in late summer. If I see what I feel I need to see on DVD, maybe I'll put up an official one--by summer, when everything has pretty much hit DVD. Do I miss being "the guy who saw everything"? Nah: Movies recur, in one way or another, while the little moments I've witnessed with Larissa come but once a lifetime.