In is article Curious Cases David Denby reexamines the movie drought that was the year 2008. I've thought about this before, and I think we were spoiled by 2006 and 2007 movies like There We Be Blood, Children of Men, No Country For Old Men and Juno. These are movies that as Denby puts it, were simply hair raising. Anyway it's a good read, check it out here.