Movies: 2007

Forget the Oscars, it's time for the Poppies. Here's my take on a very good year in cinema (especially US cinema).

ps. click the pictures to enormosize the images

10) Climates
From Turkish writer/director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, this film takes a pretty simple conceit and follows a crumbling relationship through the sun and the snow. It's subtlety and cruelty slowly swallow you into a world of bourgeois desolation, not unlike the films of Antonioni.

9) The Lookout
Totally underrated and underseen, this neat little heist drama is as tight as a drum.

The performances by Matthew Goode and Jeff Daniels are impressive, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt really carries this thing with an entertaining and nuanced take on a head injury victim who gets caught up with some baddies.

8) Paprika
Beautiful, smart, and purely insane.

From the director of the nostalgia trip Millennium Actress, this head trip goes meta without getting pretentious and features animation and a story that are definitely a few steps beyond Ratatouille or Persepolis.


7) The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
People hardly clap after movies any more (maybe at festivals when the director's presence obliges it), but when I saw King of Kong in a half-empty theater on a rainy night in Toronto the audience burst into applause at least three times (during and after). There's a lot to be said for a feel-good documentary; a rare breed indeed. (If you haven't seen it yet, don't read this interview.)

6) No Country for Old Men
The hype is for real. No Country is as taut as they come, and the "instant classic" tag may not be that far off.

Javier Bardem is iconic, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are pitch perfect, and despite a saggy last act I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thrill ride (definitely a movie deserving of the clichés).

5) Planet Terror
No, not a guilty pleasure, Robert Rodriguez's ode to B-movies is just plain awesome. The camera work, the performances, the editing, the music - it all does exactly what it sets out to do. That's what I call good directing.

Or maybe I'm just a sucker for scantily clad bad-ass chicks.


4) Michael Clayton
Yeah okay, okay, it's a legal thriller. Not the most stellar category to call home. But like any great film, it transcends its supposed genre.

A current of existential angst runs through the film, steered by Clooney's subtle performance, Gilroy's expert writing/direction, and Robert Elswit's amazing cinematography (en route to his work on There Will Be Blood).


3) Manda Bala (Send A Bullet)
Probably the film that had me most excited leaving the theater this year. A documentary shot with actual aesthetic considerations.

At once, a filmic celebration and a political indictment, its subject is sprawling but centers around corruption in Brazil. (Go watch the trailer already.)


2) Once
Maybe Once is incredibly corny, but in my little world it might be the most important film of the year (along with Manda Bala).

Made for around 150K , it bleeds DIY and is one of the first independent films to embrace digital technologies and house them amidst a more populist format. It's a musical too. Let's all sing it together, "New Sincerity"...


1) There Will Be Blood

Probably the first movie I've seen twice in the theater in its first month of release since... well, since Magnolia.

It's been touted as an epic, but I have to side more with Paul Thomas Anderson's claim that it's a horror movie. This is movie is just too fucking weird to exist anywhere else but alone at the top.

Honorable Mentions:
Sunshine; Eastern Promises; The Diving Bell & The Butterfly; Live Free or Die Hard; Persepolis; Zodiac

Prospective Picks (shit I haven't seen yet):
My Blueberry Nights; 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days; Southland Tales; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Disappointments:
- The Simpsons Movie - Would've been comparable to a mediocre episode from season 18, except they decided to make Homer into a huge asshole. He's always been a boob, but never before was he this much of a jerk.

- Spiderman 3 - The first dance sequence was a hilarious surprise, the second was the franchise's death knell.

- The Darjeeling Limited - It sucks that Wes and his clique still can't elevate their shtick above cute caricature. To make matters worse, the Indian characters couldn't have been more lifeless if they were painted on a set wall.

- 300 - The trailer was freaking awesomazing. The movie was so-so. Xerxes stunk, all the shit back in Sparta stunk, and the turtlegator villain never did anything (check the trailer at 3:07 mark).

- Transformers - Buy your first car, crush on the cheerleader, join the army, fight giant robots... yes, yes I'm familiar with the lyrics to the American national anthem.

- I'm Not There - You can virtually hear Todd Haynes shouting directions to the cast and crew, this thing is so over-earnest. There are sections though where it cuts through its own efforts and is great (most of those involve Heath Ledger).

Drink It Up.