It’s appalling that American Film Institute’s 10 Best Films of ’08 included Iron Man — a first-rate comic book action CG flick that is nonetheless a generic wish-fulfillment power-dreams movie aimed at adolescent males of all ages. A movie, in other words, with absolutely no river running through it whatsoever other than….okay, a certain aura of coolness exuded by star Robert Downey, Jr., a vibe of wowness because the film was very profitable, and the respectable career-bump panache enjoyed by director Jon Favreau.

I guarantee that one of the AFI jurors voting for Iron Man was documentarian and filmmaker-interview smoothie Elvis Mitchell.

The rest of the AFI choices — The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, Frozen River, Gran Torino, Milk, WALL*E, Wendy and Lucy, The Wrestler — are fine and good, but any list that leaves off Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, The Visitor, Nothing But the Truth and Che has definitely side-stepped some of the snap and pizazz.