Have you heard the news? 2007 was a pretty great year for movies, a pleasant reversal of a downward trend.
That’s the word from critics’ groups, and I have to agree. Although, because I see most things that open for regular release, I know that the bad movies were just as bad as ever. (More on 2007’s worst below.)
It was a good year not only for the movies the critics groups are lauding, although those are good indeed: “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” among them. There were also a bunch of just plain good or surprising films that made moviegoing fun this year. Allow me to pay tribute to the little fish, before we get to the big guns.
I really enjoyed “Amazing Grace,” the story of anti-slavery crusader William Wilberforce — not really much more than a TV-movie, but shining with old-fashioned uplift and intelligence. And “Waitress,” the delightful final work by the late actress-director Adrienne Shelly, and the best film on the year’s most overused premise, unexpected pregnancy (sorry, “Knocked Up” and “Juno”).
I liked the low-key comedy of “Dan in Real Life,” the 3-D visions of “Beowulf,” and the Iraq allegory (couched in a horror movie) of “The Hills Have Eyes 2.” All surprises. And talk about surprise: I even liked Richard Gere, in the unexpectedly lively tale of the great Howard Hughes autobiography con job, “The Hoax.”
The year started slow, but the fall releases constituted the best quarter in Hollywood since who-knows-when. The exception to this great run was Hollywood’s attempt at grappling with the Middle East, which was too late-arriving to matter and too heavy-handed to engage audiences (“Lions for Lambs” and “In the Valley of Elah” were among the casualties).
It was another great year for documentaries, including the serious kind (“The Devil Came on Horseback,” about Darfur; “King Corn,” about the degrading of America’s corn industry; “No End in Sight,” perhaps the best of the Iraq War summaries), and the lightweight — notably “The King of Kong,” a hilarious account of high scores and low times in the world of competitive Donkey Kong. Michael Moore’s “Sicko” was all but overshadowed in the flow.
Among the year’s winners: Westerns, which made a strong comeback, whether traditional (“3:10 to Yuma”), arty (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”), or modern (“No Country for Old Men”). Actor Josh Brolin, the last guy off the bench for years, finally broke through huge in “No Country” — but he also did choice work in the aforementioned “Elah,” “American Gangster” and “Grindhouse.”
Kudos, too, to Casey Affleck, stepping out from big brother Ben’s shadow with a superb, excruciating performance in “The Assassination of Jesse James …,” and clinching the deal as the private-eye lead in “Gone Baby Gone,” a fine film directed by his sib.
Losers? How about “Donnie Darko” director Richard Kelly, succumbing to the sophomore jinx with his incoherent epic “Southland Tales.” And Nicole Kidman had a rough year: a couple of stiffs, “The Invasion” and “The Golden Compass,” plus a terrific movie (“Margot at the Wedding”) that audiences aren’t warming up to. And of course Hollywood itself lost out when screenwriters went on strike, a situation that could seriously hamstring the industry in the coming year.
Sifting out a top ten isn’t easy, especially since movies are released at weird times — for instance, some of the best films of 2006 didn’t open around here until 2007, so I guess I will ignore the Oscar-winning “The Lives of Others,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” and “Inland Empire,” fine movies all.
Still, choose we must. (Why must we? Because critics love making lists.) So, a fake ID inscribed “McLovin” to the following movies:
1. “No Country for Old Men”: Joel and Ethan Coen adapt the Cormac McCarthy novel, and in the meantime give a master class on moviemaking. Everything fits in this dark tale of money and murder, including the stuff that seems to be missing — and despite the violent subject, the film communicated the joy of filmmaking as much as any other this year.
2. “There Will Be Blood”: Daniel Day-Lewis gives a volcanic performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s bizarre epic about a 19th-century oilman putting his stamp on the country. This one’s as untamed as “No Country” is controlled, but it’s just as fascinating in its own way. It will open around here in early January.
3. “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”: Spelling out the whole title, I don’t have room for anything else — except to note that this long, slow Western held me spellbound. Critical of the Western hero, it shoves him aside with a combination of landscape and show business.
4. “Margot at the Wedding”: Even critics don’t much like the characters in this nasty-family comedy (ably embodied by Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black), but filmmaker Noah Baumbach’s touch is pitch-perfect — even when people are carving each other up.
5. “Grindhouse” and “Exiled”: Pulp fiction at its pulpiest. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez cooked up “Grindhouse,” a three-hour-plus evening at the movies circa 1975, including two full-length movies and trailers for non-existent coming attractions. It was a giddy experience for anybody who grew up with those kinds of movies, but audiences stayed away. “Exiled” is Hong Kong maestro Johnny To’s glorious tribute to action flicks, which proves that nothing is lost in translation from one language to another.
6. “Eastern Promises”: A stripped-down (in every sense) gangland story, with Viggo Mortensen giving another strong performance as an upwardly swimming chauffeur in London’s Russian mob, and Naomi Watts as a midwife whose discovery changes his trajectory. David Cronenberg directed, with steely focus.
7. “Once”: This Irish tale of a Dublin street musician and a Czech pianist making beautiful music together is the movie that more people wanted to talk to me about than any other — it’s touched and enchanted people in a mysterious, fresh way. It’s now available on DVD, so check it out.
8. “Into the Wild”: The true story of ill-fated adventurer Chris McCandless (played by Emile Hirsch) connects up with classic American myths in Sean Penn’s road movie. Penn is so completely entranced with his hero that it unbalances the film, but that passion is also what makes it work.
9. “Lady Chatterley”: A truly original approach to the D.H. Lawrence novel, rendered here in a French version that emphasizes the lovers’ place in nature. The use of non-pretty actors is also a rebuke to previous versions that sexed up the material.
10. “Zodiac”: Much more of a journalistic procedural than a serial-killer movie, David Fincher’s take on the 1970s San Francisco manhunt was a gripping exercise — a real page-turner, as it were.
That’s already twelve movies, and I could keep going. For instance, what about: “Black Snake Moan,” a much-derided (but deceptively complex) redemption tale; “The Bourne Ultimatum,” an utterly riveting chase movie that also probed the soul of a spy; “Gone Baby Gone”; Ang Lee’s sometimes perplexing but gorgeously staged “Lust, Caution”; the Iranian “Offside”; “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” a stunning feat with an immobile hero; a great turn for George Clooney in “Michael Clayton”; the unnerving Argentinean film “Live-in Maid”; and Lars von Trier’s goofy comedy “The Boss of It All.”
And yep, I thought “Ratatouille” was just swell, like everybody else. And I was entranced by “Sunshine” for most of its running time, ditto for “Rescue Dawn,” and impressed by “Atonement.” And — I’m not kidding — I could keep going.
Too many sugar plums? You know what’s next. We award a free shave at Johnny Depp’s hairstyling salon to the worst movies of the year:
1. “Good Luck Chuck”: Comedian Dane Cook in the most offensive movie from a year full of adolescent shenanigans.
2. “The Reaping”: Hilary Swank in a tired horror countdown (biblical plagues this time).
3. “Georgia Rule”: Lindsay Lohan’s bad year was launched with this weirdly off-key (and off-color) comedy, a movie so awful it could make Rush Limbaugh feel bad for Jane Fonda.
4. “In the Land of Women”: A warmed-over version of “Garden State,” but with more heartwarming hugs. And when did Meg Ryan become Melanie Griffith?
5. “Sleuth”: Completely bungled remake of a semi-classic, and even Michael Caine and Jude Law can’t work up any tension.
6. “License to Wed”: Truly bizarre pre-wedding comedy, featuring a church marital adviser (Robin Williams) who ought to be locked up.
7. “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium”: One of the more downbeat movies ever made about magic and whimsy, about a toy store that gets depressed.
8. “The Condemned”: You gotta love the anti-violence message in a sadistic movie crammed with violence; “Stone Cold” Steve Austin makes “The Rock” look like Laurence Olivier.
9. “Macbeth”: How hard is it to mess up Shakespeare? As this Australian film demonstrates, easy.
10. “Revolver”: The British gangster film leaps into the metaphysical world, and director Guy Ritchie secures his status as Madonna’s husband.
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