Better Late than Never: Revisionary Road 2008

In undertaking the massive project of blogging about the best television, music and film of the first decade of the 21st Century, I'm wildly behind on doing my best of 2009. Something I started last year (even though looking back, I should do this again--it's amazing how much your tastes change in the matter of a couple years) is a great start to what I loved in the past year. So before I get into the best of 2009, let's take a look back at what I thought was the best of 2008 (at the time), and what I think now. Revisions are in bold.

FILMS:

• The Dark Knight (dir. Christopher Nolan)
• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (dir. Kurt Kuenne)
• Doubt (dir. John Patrick Shanley)
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (dir. Nicholas Stoller)
• Man on Wire (dir. James Marsh)
• Rachel Getting Married (dir. Jonathan Demme)
• Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle)
• U2 3D (dirs. Mark Pellington and Catherine Owens)
• WALL·E (dir. Andrew Stanton)
• Waltz with Bashir (dir. Ari Folman)

Falling off: Iron Man, Milk, The Wrestler

ALBUMS:

• American Teen: Music from the Motion Picture (Almost Gold)
• Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)
• Coldplay - Viva La Vida, or: Death and All His Friends (Capitol)
• Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs (Atlantic)
• Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
• Girl Talk - Feed the Animals (Illegal Art)
• Kings of Leon - Only by the Night (RCA)
• M83 - Saturdays = Youth (Mute)
• Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns (Interscope)
• Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-a-Fella)

Falling off: The Hold Steady - Stay Positive, Lecrae - Rebel, Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (EMI)

SINGLES:

• Adele - "Chasing Pavements"
• Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
• Death Cab for Cutie - "I Will Possess Your Heart"
• Does it Offend You, Yeah? - "Dawn of the Dead"
• Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal"
• M83 - "Kim & Jessie"
• M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
• MGMT - "Time to Pretend"
• Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk"
• We are Scientists - "After Hours"

Falling off: Elbow - "Grounds for Divorce," Estelle featuring Kanye West - "American Boy," Keane - "Spiraling," Kings of Leon - "Sex on Fire," Kanye West - "Heartless"