You know the drill: these are the movies that worked their way into my brain the most over the past 12 6 months - emotionally, aesthetically, theoretically, and entertainingly, all rolled into one. We'll see how they stack up come December, when dozens more (hopefully) illustrious titles have been dumped on us in the name of Oscar splendor. I often find these early months somewhat more enticing because there's a greater sense of risk in the air, of films and creators worried less about pleasing highbrows and voters than about committing their own visions to the screen without superficial checklists in hand. These five cover a wide range of genres, styles, moods and levels of popularity, and I can only hope that the rest of this year is as brilliantly eclectic as it has so far established itself.

1. Wall•E - I hesitate slightly in choosing this film for the top spot, coming off of but a single viewing and already manipulated (an unavoidable problem in my position) by the altogether tremendous response the film has garnered (as we speak, it rises from #9 to #6 on the IMDb Top 250, proving that even Daniel Plainview's draaaaiiiiiiinage can't compete with the peepers of an anthropomorphic robot). That hesitation, though, is but my brutally perfectionist mind at work, the ramblings of which I will ignore and simply go with the fact that no film so far this year has invoked as pure or immediate a response. Despite a few narrative hiccups that I hope to get into after a second viewing (and third, and fourth, and fifth), the non-human portions of the film are nothing short of masterful, a divine union between the likes of Kubrick's 2001 and Chaplin's City Lights, at once wistful and profound, humble and existential. Great films are rarely perfect films, and I sense that we're standing in the presence of an as-of-yet unrecognized giant. It's popular, for sure, but that's largely hype speaking. What when it truly settles in? Only time will tell, and I'll be there to help nudge it into the limelight of earned greatness that I'm sure it will accrue in time.

2. Speed Racer - Woe are the Wachowskis, whose bold pop experiment and raw cinematic invention has suffered the ire of many a Rex Reed curmudgeon (and then some) for little more than - to these eyes - going so far out on a limb in rendering a film this unique, rich, and personal. My suspicion is that retrospectively-formulated expectations are the only thing preventing works such as this and Michael Mann's Miami Vice from getting the credit they truly deserve, obscuring their use of narrative and re-calibrated designations of space and time with a hollow, shallow set of expectations that shuns cinematic craft in the name of familiarity and nostalgia. With Speed Racer, Larry and Andy have given us a world even more complete and thought-out as anything in their Matrix trilogy, and perhaps the most visually and artistically commanding "kids" film since George Miller broke the mold with Babe: Pig in the City. Hijacking digital in the name of childhood euphoria, it's an ode to imagination, and one hell of a mental high. Starbucks, you got served.

3. Married Life - I'd hoped to write something about Ira Sachs' delightful follow-up to his exquisite Forty Shades of Blue sooner, but the inability to immediately revisit such a complex and singular film restrained me from doing so. Until the DVD is available for a second go at this morbid, funny, provocative and strangely optimistic tale of spousal priorities and moral codes between the genders, at least know that it as nearly as reflexive and metamorphic as a David Lynch film, utilizing John Bingham novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" with an innate knowledge of cinema's empathetic qualities, taking us along with his characters' conflicted feelings of love, longing and greed with a profound humanism. For more complete and distinct thoughts, Keith Uhlich has written was it probably the penultimate review of the film here; it's so good that even Roger Ebert couldn't help but mention it.

4. Iron Man - If a director's skill can be assessed by his ability to place the emphasis of their film on the qualities they know work best, then Jon Favreau can be praised for more or less stepping out of the way of his actors, who elevate this otherwise formulaic and obviously scripted character study/morality tale into something infinitely more emotive and engaging than it had any chance of being. Downey, Jr. - whose last stroke of brilliance, in Zodiac, went largely unnoticed (probably because everyone thought he was but playing himself) - practically drives the film, while Jeff Bridges holds his own as an evil character with a face and a heart, twisted and black though it may be (honestly, he'd have been my first choice to star in the title role of Oliver Stone's W., but I also sense we have yet to see his career-defining performance). Props to Gwyneth Paltrow, too, who takes the kind of role typically reserved for washed-up Oscar winners and transforms it into something of blazing feminine empowerment, perhaps no more so than in an altogether icky scene that suggests Cronenberg by way of "America's Funniest Home Videos".

5. The Unforeseen - Already, 2008 has hosted a slew of very good to almost great documentaries, and none has stuck with me more than this rapturous look at public empowerment in the face of environmental destruction a la corporate greed, an important lesson to remember given our own environmentally conscious yet politically disenfranchised times. Though it doesn't hurt to have Terrence Malick and Robert Redford on board among your executive producers, director Laura Dunn is a talent I'll be keeping a close eye on.

And some honorable mentions, many of which I will need to see again before putting together anything in the way of a respectable year-end list: Diary of the Dead, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, My Blueberry Nights, Nana, Be Kind Rewind

Though I've never asked outright, I suspect that anyone who meets me will know, after about 10 minutes, that I'm a very indecisive person. Hell, thy name is perfectionism, and such is a hobgoblin I hope to free myself of - or at least control to an extent - with the re-establishment of my online blogging here. Same name, same basic format, now with a more flexible URL and a clean slate to begin anew. The Projection Booth 1.0 and the reviews on it will remain untouched, but the direction I'd like to go in almost demands my being able to start fresh. It already feels like a breath of fresh air.

Among the many damned drawbacks to wanting everything done just right is the fact that, more often than not, nothing ends up being accomplished at all. Hence, you will probably notice that the site has a very rough look to it at this point, and many changes will indeed be taking place over the coming days and weeks. Much as I may grapple with it, the white text on black background is truer to my heart, though I hope to tweak things for both readability and a bit of flair. On the right, you'll notice some defunct links, long out-of-date features and even a months-old "Now in Theaters" roster. I hope you'll forgive me as I get this beast up and running amidst doing the same thing for my life proper, as I'm not going through times both nerve-wracking, exciting, and exhausting, as I look at cementing the next step in a long-term relationship as well as securing a job that may very well see me debt-free within the half-decade (you know you've "grown up" when you find yourself thinking in such terms).

I'll make no hard promises or declarations here, lest I go against the wisdom of Al Swearengen and provoke God's laughter. What I can assure you all of, though, is frequency of discussion, though my hope is that I won't be holding up both sides of the conversation. Whether it's the latest stinkbomb to hit DVD (see below) or the latest life lesson on my mind, I see this outlet less as one for conclusive "reviews" (which, in a way, I've come to disdain) than as one for communal thoughts. I'm indebted to my dedicated (too strong a word?) readers for their contributions to my posts in the past, and hope to take things in such a direction so that such will be the norm rather than the exception.

Not half an hour ago, I read Keith Uhlich's latest Confessions piece at The House Next Door. His work there - along with, specifically, Jim Emerson's output at Scanners - is an inspiration to me in how it seamlessly fuses life experiences, cinema, and online activities into a singular whole that stands as more than the sum of its parts. Such is part of my own aspirations towards self-actualization, but even aside from these matters, this latest article struck a particularly deep blow (it may be my single favorite work of his to date). I'd love to discuss similar inflictions from my own youth (the relics of which I would cling to forever if able), but I'll let his altogether naked 6½ paragraphs speak for themselves. Already, they're rattling down near the bottom of my soul.

In closing (sleep awaits these eyes), let me say that if the second half of Vantage Point is anything even remotely comparable to the first, then I may have already come upon the years worst film -- I may just give up on it now and award it the title in advance. Forty-five minutes of head slapping, eye rolling, impromptu laughter and intense cravings for Percocet... movies like this only serve to remind me that life is too short for them in the first place. Good films, like Wall-E (a movie I very much want to describe with the M word, though for now I'll catch myself and simply call it great; check out the IMDb Top 250, where the movie is already ranked at number 9), fulfill the soul and enrich life, waxing our experiences and perspectives, sharpening our tools for understanding ourselves and our fellow men (and machines). I feel more complete after having seen them, wiser and truer and happier. Wall-E may not be the best film so far this year, but I suspect its relatively universal appeal will make it a likely contender for end-of-year recognition (already, some are tossing around Best Picture hopes/predictions). More on this adorable little fella soon, and count me in as a loyal supporter until the end.

Vantage Point, waaaaaay on the other end of the scale, is pure, music-deprived noise -- condescending faux-serious, faux-complex apolitical bullshit made for morons who need everything spelled out for them with lots of fancy distractions to keep them interested (yeah, I said it). The first half could have easily been covered in 10-15 minutes sans wonky stylistic filler, so I'll assume, for now, that the whole film could have been but a 20 minute short, or a half hour special tops. Damn the makers, then, for wasting countless hours of human life. Damn them for their shrill slow-motion techniques and fucking cantankerous sound design. Damn them for giving non-linear storytelling a bad name. Damn them for making movies a hollow and emotion-deprived sensory bombast. Damn - no, scratch that, fuck 'em. Because they just fucked my head like an escaped convict might a lost teenager, and life's too short for this shit.

On that note, welcome to my new abode. Enjoy your freedom of speech and, above all, let the freak flags fly. Normality will not be tolerated.