More Movie Musings

Back with the top ten...

10. "Paris Je T'aime": Terrific omnibus picture featuring 18 short films by 18 different directors -- including the Coen brothers, Alfonso Cuaron, Walter Salles, Gerard Depardieu, Christopher Doyle, Gurinder Chadha, Tom Tykwer and more -- set in and around Paris.

9. "Juno": This has been hyped to the heavens by the press, so beware the eventual backlash. If you somehow haven't heard anything about this, consider yourself lucky and check it out. Yeah, the dialogue might be somewhat too-cute/clever for its own good, but the heart of the movie is unmistakable, and the performances -- especially from Ellen Page in the lead and Jennifer Garner in support -- are excellent.

8. "Zodiac": Three hours of meticulous, deliberate, examination of the investigation into the Zodiac killer might not sound like fun at the movies -- and it isn't, really -- but David Fincher has made it an utterly involving, captivating look at events that kept a city on edge. Mark Ruffalo is terrific as San Francisco police inspector Dave Toschi. Can't vouch for the historical accuracy, but the details of the process were fascinating to me.

7. "Into the Wild": Sean Penn delivers his most fully realized work to date and Emile Hirsch turns in a mesmerizing performance in this utterly powerful film. Oh yeah, some dude named Vedder wrote a few outstanding songs to top the whole thing off.

6. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford": For some reason, half the people who see this will hate it and call it pretentious crap. If you somehow manage to fall into the other half, you'll love this for its thoughtful meditation on obsession, competition, jealousy and morality. Casey Affleck is revelatory as Ford.

5. "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead": The king of 2007 -- Philip Seymour Hoffman -- knocks it out of the park in the third film of his to appear on this dude's list. Somehow, 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet has uncorked a film that rivals the brilliance of his best movies from 30 years ago, getting career-best performances out of Ethan Hawke and Marisa Tomei and a career-capping supporting turn by the great Albert Finney.

4. "Michael Clayton": It's an old-school, big-studio popcorn thriller with smarts to burn, in the vein of "The Parallax View" and "Klute." Clooney, Swinton and Wilkinson all bring it.

3. "Eastern Promises": Viggo Mortensen reteams with David Cronenberg for a followup to "A History of Violence" that evokes memories of writer Steven Knight's brilliant and overlooked "Dirty Pretty Things." Naomi Watts and Armin Mueller-Stahl also shine in pivotal roles in this dark thriller set amid the Russian mob in London.

1-A. "There Will Be Blood": What can one say? Daniel Day-Lewis turns in a powerful, riveting, tour-de-force performance that will go down in history among the great characterizations in modern film. Detractors will point out the third-act flaws, and, yeah, a few eyebrows might be raised. But, so what? This tale of ambition, compulsion, unchecked power and greed is the right stuff. Paul Thomas Anderson instantly enters the pantheon with this immediate classic, a quantum leap forward for a director who'd already distinguished himself as one of the most talented of his generation.

1. "No Country for Old Men": The Coen brothers turn in an unqualified masterwork, the best film of 2007 and a career-defining picture in a body of work that already includes such legendary releases as "Miller's Crossing," "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother Where Art Thou?" Javier Bardem redefines the movie villain, Kelly Macdonald provides great supporting work as a woman stuck between a rock and a hard place, and Josh Brolin -- the other king of 2007 -- continues his meteoric rise out of the ashes with some beautifully intense work here. I'm normally a little bit sad when a Coen brothers movie comes out, fearful that I won't see anything from them for a few years, but the good news is that their next film -- a CIA-set black comedy starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins called "Burn After Reading" -- might be ready for release in 2008. Let's hope!

Movie Musings

It's February, so that can only mean one thing ... time for belated "best of 2007" lists, right?

Some people listen to a lot of music, and while I hear my share, my tastes are not diverse enough to give an objective look at the year past, although there are a handful of releases that I can recommend wholeheartedly and without any reservation: Bruce Springsteen's "Magic," Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible," Eddie Vedder's "Into the Wild" soundtrack, Lucinda Williams' "West," The National's "Boxer" and Spoon's "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga."

One of my favorite records that I heard in 2007 was called "Fighting Trees," from an incredible Philadelphia band known as The Swimmers. Their melodic masterpiece is finally getting an official release next month. Check 'em out.

But I digress.

This list is about movies. This year, I managed to see 70 films in theaters, from "Alpha Dog" to "Zodiac" and a bunch in between. Here's one dude's list of favorite movies from 2007:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

"Gone Baby Gone": A fantastic performance by one of the best actresses working in the world today -- Amy Ryan of HBO's "The Wire" -- is just one highlight in a good film marking the feature directorial debut of Ben Affleck. The plot twist and convoluted ending didn't work for me, but the film is recommended easily for the performances, most notably the aforementioned Ryan's and that of director Affleck's brother, Casey, who also impressed in another film this year. More on that one later.

"Persepolis": Ambitious and powerful Oscar-nominated animated feature about a young woman's coming of age in post-revolution Iran and in exile in Europe.

"Once": Sweet, intimate drama about the passion for music and life.

THE SECOND TEN

20. "The Great Debaters": So what if it plays a bit like a TV movie or "Remember the Titans" in a classroom. Denzel is charismatic, Forest Whitaker is a rock, and the young actors playing the students are all uniformly good.

19. "Lars and the Real Girl": A guy with issues buys a life-sized "real" girl doll ... and hilarity, as well as a surprisingly poignant tale about searching for a little human touch, ensues. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

18. "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly": Director Julian Schnabel's film about a French magazine editor suddenly stricken with "locked in syndrome" -- rendering him immoble except for a blinking eye, which he uses to communicate with the outside world via a system devised by his tireless and dedicated physical therapists -- is one of those riveting, unforgettable artistic achievements that you never want to see again because it was so emotionally powerful and challenging all at once.

17. "American Gangster": This was one of my most highly anticipated movies of the year, but -- alas -- it didn't live up to the "Heat"-like instant classic promise of its remarkable trailer. That said, it's still a very good, highly watchable tale of parallel obsession.

16. "Knocked Up": Funny, scabrous take on relationships, love and the search for hot chicks from the Apatow Repertory Company.

15. "The Savages": Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are extraordinary in this tale of siblings trying to care for an elderly parent.

14. "Charlie Wilson's War": This one has some problems -- Julia Roberts not really working in her role and director Mike Nichols not necessarily being the best-suited director for this material -- but it's smart and well-written by Aaron Sorkin, and it boasts an absolutely electric, movie-stealing, must-see supporting performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as CIA agent Gust Avrakatos. Gust!

13. "The Bourne Ultimatum": Damon and Greengrass bow out of the "Bourne" franchise -- for now -- with a two-hour high-energy classic, the best action film in years.

12. "3:10 to Yuma": Russell Crowe and Christian Bale tee off in a thrilling Western.

11. "Breach": Chris Cooper delivered one of the year's best performances -- I sh-t you not -- as disgraced FBI agent/traitor Robert Hanssen in this criminally overlooked gem of a thriller from "Shattered Glass" writer/director Billy Ray and also starring the great Laura Linney and Ryan Phillippe.

THE TOP TEN

To be continued...

(Just because I'm new to this doesn't mean I haven't figured out that spreading things into multiple posts over multiple days will make this look like a more active blog than it really is...)