The Best Dramatic Movies of 2008

I claim the AC writing assignment, Best Dramatic Movies of 2008, with just two days left to submit, and immediately regret it with every writer's-block bone in my body.

Rating movies is so subjective, so abstract and idiosyncratic in nature, it seems almost pointless to pursue.

I want out. In the Calls for Content™ box on my account page, I hastily click the release button. This gets me nowhere, as a harsh Windows Explorer reminder, in the form of an alarming question mark, issues this stern warning: Before you claim a subject, make sure you can produce it!

I search the web for 2008 drama movies. I can recall only a few dramatic movies of 2008, so I Google and begin the dubious task of movie research. I'm in luck. A movie list, All Time Top 2008 Drama Movies at TopTenREVIEWS™ jogs my fading memory.

There are so many movies. Which ones did I see? Which ones are dramas? The genre is hard to pin down, as so many dramatic films are combined with other genres to produce subsets in categories like action, adventure and crime.

What are the best dramatic movies of 2008? Which films are the most memorable and showcase the genre with the most realistic characters, settings, and life situations?

I really have no idea. I do, however, know about five very good films I watched on DVD or the Internet this year, all in the drama or mixed drama genres.

First up then, at the top of my best dramatic movies of 2008 list, is the sweet, tender coming-of-age flick The Secret Life of Bees.

This movie cuts straight to the dramatic bone. Filled with delicious layers of honeyed female perspective on the frailties and indignities of the human condition, this prize-winning picture stars prominent coming-of-age actress Dakota Fanning, whose stunning portrayal of a young girl searching for the truth behind her mother's mysterious death and her feelings of abandonment related to it is nothing less than remarkable.