There Will Be Lists: Personal Reflections on the Year in Film, 2007

Faithful readers of the site (all three of you) will no doubt recall that it took me until June of 2007 to post my Top 10 of 2006. This was due to the fact that, living in rural IA, I don’t often have the opportunity to see all the films that I would like to in order to make a definitive list until all potential films are out on DVD. Here’s the thing---I really wanted to try this year to get a list out earlier. I held out for a couple weeks in the year, holding out for one specific film before I would write what would have been known as “The Scheduled-to-Change Best Films of 2007.” However, that film (There Will Be Blood which I’ve been psyched about for months) has yet to arrive in my neck of the woods and I just couldn’t wait any longer. Hence, this self-indulgent post.

In lieu of making a temporary list, I’ve opted to take inventory of what my personal film-going experience was like in the year ending 2007. I’m playing a little loose with this because many films that belong to the past year I wasn't able to attend until January---but you get the idea. I will try and get back into contributing more, so I can give regular updates on films I’m checking out on DVD as well as the prestige films that trickle down to Waterloo-town.

With the films I’ve seen so far from 2007, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s been an extraordinary year in the cinema. Frustration about availability aside, I’m actually excited that there are a number of films yet to be discovered from this great year. Here’s a listing (in order of how badly I want to see them) of the films I’ve yet to watch from 2007 that I feel I need to see before compiling my list:

In Theatres/Not on DVD Yet:
There Will Be Blood
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
I’m Not There
Margot and the Wedding
The Savages
Into The Wild (To be honest, this one came to my area, but I never found time to get to it. I sort of counted on it being recognized come Oscar time and to get a re-release-a la Michael Clayton-but that never happened)
Persepolis
The Kite Runner
On DVD-Just Haven’t Watched Yet
Paprika (read H-Dogg’s review here)
The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Like Paprika and many of the foreign films I’ve seen this year, this was released in 2006 but didn’t hit US theatres until 07)
The King of Kong (out on DVD January 29^th)
Rescue Dawn
Waitress
Bug
Sicko
A Mighty Heart

Here is a list of films that I found to be especially excellent and are definitely in consideration to be in my top 10:
No Country For Old Men
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Atonement
The Lives of Others
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ratatouille
Once
Michael Clayton
Zodiac
Gone Baby Gone
Across the Universe
Juno
Eastern Promises
The Lookout
Charlie Wilson’s War
American Gangster
In The Valley of Elah
The Darjeeling Limited
Sunshine

Already I don’t know how the hell I’m going to pick just ten out of that lot (if you look at the seemingly random order I have the films listed, you can see where I’m currently standing). Looking at the above list of movies, with which I could almost make two complete lists that I would be perfectly happy with---confirms that this has been my favorite year at the movies since 1999 (that would be the year of Election, Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Fight Club, Toy Story 2 & The Matrix—among many others).

Trends I enjoyed this year:
Directorial Debuts
Three established talents tried out the director’s chair this year and the results were three exciting films that were among the best of the year.
Screenwriter Scott Frank (Minority Report, Out of Sight) helmed the overlooked bank-robbery thriller The Lookout. In Frank’s hands, a film that could have come off as Memento-lite (the protagonist, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, suffers from a brain injury that forces him to write everything down in a notebook) into a nuanced character study about living with a disability-as well as an exciting pot-boiler.
After playing with spy-genre conventions as the screenwriter of the Bourne trilogy, Tony Gilroy turned the legal drama on its ear with the morally gray world of Michael Clayton. The great performances and deliberate pace indicate an uncompromised vision of a director to look out for.
Following the media frenzy that was Bennifer I & II, I feel I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing Ben Affleck in front of the camera again. As a director, though, I’m excited to see where he goes next after his debut with Gone Baby Gone. Based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, Baby stars Affleck sibling Casey as a PI trying to find a missing girl and finds himself having to make a very tough decision. It is a film that has haunted me since I saw it back in October, and a lot of that credit goes to Ben Affleck.

Musicals
I’m not ashamed to say I’m a fan of musicals, especially in a year that turned out so many good ones. Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite films of the year and was a perfect match of director and subject. The Beatles-centric Across the Universe is a flawed film, but over time those flaws have endeared themselves to me as interesting quirks. For those who don’t like musicals, the indie hit Once integrates its music so seamlessly to its subject matter-two street musicians who form a bond over their shared talent-that it would take a heart of stone to deny its charms. Also, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the potential disaster turned feel-good hit Hairspray as well as Disney’s live-action fairy tale Enchanted.

Comedies
Most moviegoers would often list Comedy as their favorite movie genre. Well, not me—in fact, it’s probably pretty low on my list. I love humor, but most modern comedies…well, suck. I’m looking at you Chuck and Larry. Well, this year there was berth of great comedies that I can’t deny my love for: The Seth Rogen two-fer of Knocked Up and Superbad, the glorious animated highs of Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie, Juno (where’s the Oscar love for JK Simmons, Allison Janney, and Jennifer Garner? Where? I’d gladly give-up the Best Picture nom -which, to be honest, I think is pushing it a bit- for a single nod for the supporting cast), the dry wit of The Darjeeling Limited and The TV Set, and my personal guilty pleasure of the year Hot Rod. I laughed a lot this year.

Foreign Films
My subscription to Netflix has allowed me to check out foreign films that I normally would have passed on—and this was a great year to jump in. Paris Je T’aime is a collection of 18 short films, a third of which I loved, a third of which I tolerated, and a third of which…well…let’s just say if the film was around thirty minutes long it would be a shoo-in for my best of the year. The Lives of Others won the best foreign language Oscar last year and was one of my favorite films that I saw in 07. Fans of Cloverfield or Little Miss Sunshine might want to check out the Korean offering The Host, which combines elements of both for a film that---well, it’s certainly not dull. Another flawed film that is anything from dull is Black Book from the Netherlands. Director Paul (Robocop) Verhoeven’s film about a Jewish woman who will do anything to survive the horrors of the holocaust is more of a popcorn film than any film about the holocaust has any right to be-it’s gripping for it’s entire two-and-a-half hour running time. Now is not the time to let subtitles scare you away from great cinema.

Well, as you can see---I’ve written quite a lot. And I still have a lot of thoughts about the year that has passed to go. Maybe I’ll get to them soon…or maybe you’ll have to wait until June.