Bests of the Year

These are not "Best of 2008" lists (up with which I will not put) but rather just a nod toward what really got to me this year. This group is, thus, rather short, but I'm only putting down things that immediately come to mind, having stayed with me for some time. Not all of them are 2008, either.


THEATER
Passing Strange (Stew and Heidi Rodewald, dir. Annie Dorsen)
South Pacific (Rodgers and Hammerstein, dir. Bartlett Sher)
Come Back, Little Sheba (Inge, dir. Michael Pressman)
Architecting (The TEAM)

FILM
Synecdoche, New York (dir. Charlie Kaufman)
Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale) (dir. Arnaud Desplechin)
Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) (dir. Julian Schnabel)
Into the Wild (dir. Sean Penn)
Zodiac (dir. David Fincher)

BOOKS and PLAYS
Le théâtre et son double (The Theater and its Double) (Antonin Artaud)
The Age of American Unreason, Freethinkers (Susan Jacoby)
The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending, The Night of the Iguana (Tennessee Williams)

MUSIC
Acid Tongue (Jenny Lewis)
All or Nothing at All (Billie Holiday)
Continuum (John Mayer)
Harold and Maude (Cat Stevens)
Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall (Rufus Wainwright)
The Biz (The Sea and Cake)



SPECIAL MENTIONS

FILM
Sarah Jessica Parker, actress (Sex and the City)
Deirdre O'Connell, actress (Synecdoche, New York)
Ashley Judd, actress (Bug)
Romain Duris, actor (Dans Paris)
Arnaud Desplechin, director (Un conte de Noël)

THEATER
Ted Sperling, conductor (South Pacific)
Tim Potter, actor and Tom Pye, designer (Happy Days)
Omar Metwally, actor (The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East)
Laura Benanti, actress (Gypsy)

MUSIC
"Little Person" from Synecdoche, New York (Jon Brion, perf. Deanne Storey)
"All the Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" from I Am...Sasha Fierce (Beyoncé)
"Stormy Weather" from Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall (Martha Wainwright)



FOR CONTINUED EXCELLENCE

Mathieu Amalric, actor
Rufus Wainwright, composer and singer
Audra McDonald, actress and singer
Catherine Deneuve, actress
Anjelica Huston, actress
Heidi Klum, model, host, and producer
David Fincher, director
Marius deVries, music producer



That's all, folks! I may think of more. But this is just lovely. Congratulations all you of 2008, for making it so far!