The Best (and Worst) Posters of 2008

It is frustrating sometimes being a movie lover and not living in New York City (oh to dream). I am routinely unable to do a top ten list until June! Luckily for your guys I don't have to have seen all the movies to be able to judge their key art. As anybody who has read Stale Popcorn for longer than a week will know, I love posters. I talk about them a lot. This past year I even did a top 100 countdown and so here on the even of 2009 I present my favourite (and least favourite) pieces of poster art for the year 2008. I'm sure I've missed something that I will regret leaving out (such as the Zoo poster from last year's countdown), but thems the breaks!


(All posters can clicked on to enlarge)
(All posters accumulated at IMP)

THE TEN BEST POSTERS OF 2008
10. Wall-E

Retro animation at it's finest.

9. The Strangers

Okay, so it spoils the film's biggest and best scare - although, so does the best trailer of 2008, side note - but it does everything a poster should: Makes you want to see the movie. If the thought behind this poster's image doesn't get you then you were never going to see it anyway.

8. In Bruges

I love a poster that is playful like this. See also The Bank Job.

7. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond

For all the huss-and-fuss over the poster campaign for last year's Grindhouse, these two posters for an obscure horror flick are the two most retro designs that I have seen recently. From the tea-stained borders, the creases and the hand-drawn aesthetic. All so wonderful.

6. The Wackness

You know you're on the right track with a movie set in the early 1990s when your key art instantly brings back memories of recording mix tapes. Such pitch perfect design here.

5. The House Bunny

No poster made me laugh as much as this poster, which puts Anna Faris front and centre where she belongs.

4. The Dark Knight

I couldn't decide which of these I liked more. The more classically beautiful city shot or the twisted and crazier Joker design. I cheated and used both. They're both excellent.

3. Goliath

I knew I had to rank this poster high because I have no idea what the movie is and yet I feel like I must see it or else I will EXPLODE. A lot of the time posters for these low budget independent movies can be really bad, but sometimes they have the luck of hiring a great designer who can come up with something like this. Another of these nearly made it in for the movie Fix, but it fell just short of the top ten.

2. Dear Zachery: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Just absolutely beautiful. Stunningly so.

1. Funny Games

Was there ever any doubt. Truly a masterpiece.

Now Just For Fun...
(excluding previously mentioned posters)

Best Rip-Off:
The Spirit

For ripping off everything about Sin City.

Best Poster That Could Have Easily Been Terrible:
27 Dresses

Essentially for not being this or this or (heaven forbid) this.

Dreamiest Use of Colour:
Slumdog Millionaire


Best Poster Series:
(Excluding The Dark Knight and Wall-E to be fair!)
No Right Turn

I know they're all fairly simple, but I like these posters, don't you?

Best Saul Bass Impersonation:
Burn After Reading

Runner-Up: Flawless - it would've won if it completely gave in to the idea.

Sexiest Poster:
Elegy

Might as well sell your movie on Penelope Cruz' posterior, no?

Best "Do They Realise?" Moment:
Paranoid Park


Worst Photoshopping:
Sex and the City: The Movie

Or, since the scene is actually in the movie, Worst Non-Photoshopping When Photoshopping Was Necessary?

Unscariest Poster for a Scary Movie:
Dying Breed

Runner-Up: One Missed Call

Worst Backtracking:
August

Ummm... they went from a poster that told you enough to one that doesn't tell you a thing other than "Josh Hartnett wears clothes in this movie" and who wants that, honestly?

Worst False Advertising:
Sex and Death 101

Bridget Fonda circa the early '90s is not in this movie!

Worst "Empty Space" Offender:
Revolutionary Road


Most Unappealing Poster:
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Ugh, why would I want to see this smug-looking piece of garbage?

The "This Deserves a Better Poster" Award:
WHERE DO WE START?!?
Milk, Revolutionary Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Rachel Getting Married, Changeling... etc etc. What a terrible terrible year for Oscar movies and their posters. Literally all of the above were dreadful!


~~-~-~~

The First Annual Showgirls Honourary Award for Brilliance in the Face of Ineptitude in Poster Design:
Whore

~~-~-~~

And that's that, folks. I can't be bothered doing any more because I'll go blind. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Speak up in the comments, please!

Black + White Friday: Moulin Rouge!

Sorry for the lateness, but as I originally wrote, yesterday was a very long day and so here I am doing this now. Voila!


It's is probably not at all surprisingly to learn that I spend a lot of my day thinking about Baz Luhrmann's Australia and then yesterday I had a hankering to rewatch (for the millionth time) Moulin Rouge!, the film that gave birth to what will likely be an entire lifetime of devotion to the man and anticipation of every single project he will ever embark on. However, upon rewatching it last night, I decided to take a different tact with Moulin Rouge! in this "Black+White Friday" series. Most of the other movies I have screencapped for you guys have had me trying to turn the original into something else, something classical that I think the originally was going for (see, for example, The Others and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), but while it would be easy to do this for any musical and say "let's see what it would look like if it were made in the heyday of the Astaire and Rogers!" it is impossible to do that with Moulin Rouge! It could never have been made in any other time, by any other person or in any other way, which is why it's such a case of bravura filmmaking.

So, instead, I merely found a bunch of moments that I thought would look nice in black and white - there are plenty - because to try and drain this or this of colour is both silly and a crime against humanity/cinema/life/etc, don't you think?


Upskirt shot! How rude. But seriously, what an incredibly shot.


Proof positive that Nicole Kidman would've been a star in any generation. Not every actor can look so classic in both colour and black and white, but she does it. But, then again, we already knew this, didn't we?


This shot has always made me chuckle. Something about it makes me think it should be in a horror movie about a brood of bald men who come together on Halloween to steal the souls of children (or something to that effect).


One of the (many) film posters I have saved onto my computer is one for the 1954 film The Barefoot Contessa (here is an alternate version of the one I have, I can't remember where I found it unfortunately) and it wasn't until I took this grab that I realised how similar the two shots are. Hmmm.


This moment reminds me of Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary. Strange, but true.


Oh Kerry Walker, bless you. And as an aside, I actually think this scene is Kidman's best in the entire movie and perhaps one of the purest in the film. A lot of people think the musical scenes only work in this movie because of the production Luhrmann puts behind it, but this tiny moment shows there's true power in it and that Kidman actually does have a good voice. I am indeed quite interested to see how she handles her next musical, Nine.


"The Show Must Go On" is routinely one of my favourite unappreciated moments from the film and I remain adamant that it is Kidman's strongest moment vocally. I do have a random question for all you Oscar-philes out there. How long was it between nominations for a musical performance? Surely Kidman's Best Actress nod in 2002 was the first for quite some time, right? Anybody know? I could try and research it myself but, ugh, effort!


How cool and retro-horror is this shot? Answer: Very.


Funny story: I once received an e-mail from somebody claiming to be Lionel Haft (who plays The Duke's manservant "Warner") - and who would fake that, honestly? - who was angry at me for ripping apart his performance in the terrible schlocky Aussie crapfest Solo. I mean, it doesn't top receiving an e-mail from Rena Riffel (another true story), but it still amuses me.


Similar much

Black + White Friday: Eight Legged Freaks

Before the trend of making horror films in the style of the '70s and '80s (see Grindhouse and many many other recent horror films of late) began this movie from 2002 decided to recreate the horror flicks of the '50s where giant animals wreaked havoc on small town America. These tales tended to be allegories for the war and paranoia of the times. Eight Legged Freaks - originally named Arac Attack until the looming Iraq war put a halt on that title - has no such undercurrents. It's just a straight out monster movie. I actually quite liked this when I saw it at the cinema back in 2002 and even before seeing it I had anticipation for it. I don't like spiders (Arachnophobia frightens the life outta me) but this movie looked like FUN! Alas, the film flopped and its director, Ellory Elkayam, has been stuck making bad direct-to-DVD sequels ever since (Without a Paddle 2, anyone?)

I thought I'd give this film it's due, especially since I recently tried to watch Them! I had liking it until the DVR froze and I was left with one static image for the remaining hour. Ugh.


Oooh, how foreshadowing! lol. Geddit? Oh dear...


Shouldn't this lady be working in a diner serving apple pie and pouring unlimited cups of coffee?


Charming.


I don't think there were motorcross bikes back in the 1950s. Nevertheless, this scene is gold because it leads right to...


THISOMGLOL!!! Amazing.


Remember when Scarlett Johansson starred in movies that were deliberately shit instead of just accidentally? And, yes, that is indeed ScarJo.


There actually aren't that many moments that replicate the old movies like Them! but this is one of them. These trailers are always in 1950s horror movies because, I presume, they provide good fodder to rip open like a sardine can.


Oh David Arquette. How good you are at expressing confusion, stupidity and perplexment. Aah.


I don't really have anything to say about this one.


Because it wouldn't be modern without a massacre scene, no?