27 Films That Made My 2007

by Scott Gleine

It took until almost a month into '08, but I have finally completed my 2007 favorites list.  I know it's been said many times, but what a year.  We might not get another one like this for a while, so I figured I'd go all out and compile a list that can hopefully do some justice to the vast array of cinematic awesomeness that came along in 2007.

First, a brief list of acclaimed films that I wanted to see for consideration, but did not get a chance to: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Lust Caution, Control, Lars and the Real Girl, Atonement, Persepolis, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days.  These films might not have made my list, but they seemed like ones I would enjoy.  But of course, there just isn't enough time.  I will say though, that moving to Los Angeles for the last third of the year and getting to go to numerous free screenings allowed me to make my most comprehensive end of the year list yet.

Also, some films may have longer comments than others.  This is mainly due to my desire to get the list completed after excessive procrastination, and has nothing to do with certain films being more or less deserving of praise.  It was tough picking an order, and other than the top 4 these were being shifted around right up to the last minute.  As a result, I've sort of broken them off into three tiers – the rankings within those tiers can and probably will be interchangeable over time.  Well, enough blabbering.  On with the list. 

WORTH MENTION (27-21)

27. Waitress – The unfortunate circumstances regarding the death of writer/director Adrienne Shelly are made more unfortunate by the fact that her final film is damn good.  Especially in a time where we really need more female filmmakers.  Waitress is one of the best romantic comedies in years, and a worthy member of the new "Unwanted Pregnancy" genre that emerged in 2007.  Some great performances here from underrated actors Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion.  The descriptions of the recipes dreamt up by Russell's pie chef heroin make for some great comedic asides.  Definitely a surprisingly good overlooked film worth adding to the Netflix queue if you're in the mood for something light-hearted and enjoyable.

26. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon – A fun little mockumentary/slasher genre deconstruction that got a poor release and was almost completely overlooked.  A trio of journalism grad students tag along, a la Man Bites Dog, with an "up and coming" serial killer who follows in the footsteps of people like Michael Myers and Jason (the film presupposes that these were real people).  I usually don't even like slasher films at all, but something about this approach to the material really worked for me.  It's very tongue in cheek for the most part, but has some surprisingly effective moments, even if it does slide a little off track at the end.  Features the best breakthrough performance that nobody saw this year from Nathan Baesal as the killer, Leslie Vernon.

25. American Gangster –

An entertaining, well-made "cop chases drug lord" flick.  My only gripe with the film is that it really offers nothing new to the genre and feels almost like a compilation of good, cliché moments from other crime films.  But there's some great work being done here.  I like the raw, naturalistic look to the cinematography, as well as Ridley Scott's direction and the performances by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.  There's also a particular scene near the end that makes great use of "Amazing Grace."

24. Hot Fuzz – Count me in on the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg bandwagon.  I think their particular brand of satire/parody works because they take the time to build the relationships between their characters, even if they are being goofy while doing so.  Pegg and Nick Frost could wind up being one of the great comedy duos of our generation, if they aren't already.  The film gets intentionally dumber as it goes along, and for some reason I love it for doing so.  Hot Fuzz is so entertaining from start to finish that it makes me want to fire my gun in the air whilst yelling "AAAAAHHHHH!"

23. Sunshine – A visually arresting and enjoyable sci-fi film from Danny Boyle.  The concept is executed well and handles a strange tonal shift near the end better than most people gave it credit for.  Sunshine's aspirations of being the next 2001 or Solaris (original one) might not have come true, but there is still some great stuff in the film, particularly the visuals, score, and performances. 

22. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story – Between this and I'm Not There, hopefully we'll get a reprieve from the music biopic genre for a while, since these two films cut the genre to pieces so damn well.  Walk Hard is one of those rare parody films that works for most (I'd say about 90%) of its running time.  The film knows exactly what it is and never tries to be anything other than a ridiculous satire of music biopics.  John C. Reilly has already proven himself as a serious actor and music performer, but he really takes his comedic ability to another level here.  Another key factor here is that the songs are actually very well done and enjoyable on their own terms.  The film is littered with funny cameos (I don't usually consider that a good thing, but it works here) and some spot on rock history references.  Also features a hilarious supporting performance by SNL vet Tim Meadows, as Dewey's drug enabling drummer.  Not a film that everyone will probably enjoy, but if you go in with no expectations like I did, you may come out pleasantly surprised.

21. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Yeah, I'm one of those people that is a fan of the series, but I'll try to put all that aside.  I really liked what David Yates did with this adaptation, taking the least cinematic book in the series and making the 2nd best film.  The cinematography by Kieslowski vet Slawomir Idziak nails the tone perfectly throughout the film.  Along with some clever editing and the continuing improvement of its young performers, Order of the Phoenix makes for a worthy cinematic entry in the series.  Yates seems like the right director to end the saga appropriately (unless they convince Alfonso Cuaron to do another).

HONORABLE MENTIONS (20-11)

20. Into The Wild – My appreciation for Sean Penn's latest has grown over time, though I still find myself baffled by some of the awards buzz Into The Wild has been getting.  It is, quite simply, way too long and meandering, which takes away from the many strong moments that are in the film.  One strong point is the depiction of the final moments of Chris McCandless's (Emile Hirsch) story, which are quite moving and serve as a poignant conclusion to the film.  Above all, the main reason this film makes my list is for the breathtaking cinematography by Eric Gautier.  It effectively captures the natural beauty of the outer world, which serves as a stunning contrast to the somewhat dark inner journey taken by McCandless.

19. I'm Not There – Maybe I wasn't too up to date on my Dylan to fully enjoy this, but I still applaud Todd Haynes for his clever experiment.  The film plays almost like 6 or so disparate vignettes that we're left to assume are all variations of the same person, Bob Dylan.  Or are they just completely different personas altogether?  And furthermore, are people really just compilations of alternate personas anyway?  It's been months and I'm still not quite sure what to think about this film, but that is kind of what fascinates me about it.  Much credit is due to cinematographer Edward Lachman, who flawlessly pulls off so many different photographic styles without showboating.  One section looks like a Fellini film, one like a documentary, one uses lots of cool tones, another uses warm tones, etc. etc.  Clearly the most original musician biopic ever made.

18. Gone Baby Gone – A successful directorial debut from Ben Affleck?  Yeah, it actually happened.  The film is not perfect and suffers from a few structural problems, but it's still an impressive start from Affleck as a director.  Apparently he's more interested in staying behind the camera from now on, and that's not a bad thing.  His brother Casey, starring here, is the more talented screen presence and delivers a strong performance, even though it's overshadowed by his amazing work in another film from this year.  The film makes a welcome addition to the corrupt cops and detectives dealing with difficult moral choices genre.  But its real strong point is its use of setting.  Much like in the Good Will Hunting script that he co-wrote, Affleck has a deep connection with the shady areas of Boston that he grew up in.  One feels the sense of being mixed in with this community as the story unfolds, and the various memorable "local yokels" spread throughout the film add a lot to the proceedings.  And the film's keen ear for sharp dialogue makes me want to take back all the years that I assumed Matt Damon was more responsible for Good Will Hunting's award-winning script.

17. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters – The funniest documentary since American Movie.  The build up to the showdown between nice guy Steve Weibe and cowardly slime ball Billy Mitchell is wildly absurd, yet its impact equals anything in recent sports movie memory.  There is a moment near the end that is high on my list for shot of the year: as Weibe plugs away at another game of Donkey Kong, Mitchell, the rival he has never met, suddenly walks into the background of the frame.  The camera catches the look of discomfort on his face as he notices Weibe, makes a pompous comment to his wife, then does his best to ignore Weibe as he walks right by him.  It's a terrific example of the happy accidents that can occur in filmmaking; when an unplanned (hopefully it was) moment such as this can serve as a summation of the entire point of the film.

16. The Darjeeling Limited –

I've always been a Wes Anderson fan, so maybe I'm a bit biased, but I enjoyed his latest film, even if it's not quite his best.  A lot of people seem to think that he's treading too much on similar thematic grounds in his films (wasn't there a time when this was called being an auteur?), and it is true, but I found Darjeeling different enough to stand on its own.  It's a nice character piece with excellent performances from Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody as the Whitman brothers.

15. Wristcutters: A Love Story – If there was a Jim Jarmusch Award for Best Deadpan Indie Film of the year, it would go to Wristcutters.  The term "a true original" doesn't get tossed around too much in cinema anymore, but it applies to this strange, surprisingly enjoyable film.  It was mostly overlooked (probably due to its title alone) but is destined to become a cult classic.  Zia (Patrick Fugit) offs himself after his girlfriend dumps him and winds up in an afterlife reserved for suicides that closely resembles actual life, but everything is slightly worse, the colors of everything appear washed out, and nobody can smile.  When he finds out that said girlfriend also killed herself, he heads out on a road trip to find her with his bizarre Eastern European friend Eugene (Shea Whigham).  Along the way, they meet a girl (Shannyn Sossamon) who claims that she has wound up in this post-existence by mistake and wants some damn answers.  For a dark comedy dealing with suicide, it actually winds up having a somewhat positive outlook on what makes life worth living.  And Tom Waits shows up halfway through as a sort of spiritual guide. If that doesn't sell ya, I don't know what to say. 

14. Paris, Je T'aime – A wonderful anthology film, giving eighteen filmmakers less than ten minutes to tell a story in Paris examining the unifying theme of love.  As can be expected with this type of film, there are some misses in there.  However, there are more solid shorts than bad ones, and some that are downright dazzling.  The work by Alexander Payne, Tom Tykwer, tbe Coen Brothers, Isabel Coixet, and Oliver Schmitz stand out amongst the rest, though there are plenty of other good ones in there.  Supposedly, the film is to be followed by a "New York, I Love You" and "Shanghai, I Love You" – both done in the same style.  I love seeing filmmakers take on this challenging approach to cinema and hope to see more successful films made like this in the future.

13. Michael Clayton – Screenwriting vet Tony Gilroy makes an impressive first step behind the camera with one of the most engaging legal dramas in years.  Even though the script relies on the ol' "we're gonna show you things that seem ordinary in the first 20 minutes then repeat them later and show you things you didn't know were happening the first time to amp up the tension" trick, it is still a solidly constructed character piece.  And the tension does really pay off in the final act, leading up to a climactic conversation that features my new favorite George Clooney line reading (don't want to spoil anything, but it has something to do with Shiva).  Outstanding acting by Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, and Tilda Swinton. 

12. Ratatouille – Doing all these write ups is becoming exhausting.  You can read more about my thoughts on Brad Bird's excellent film here, from my earlier review. 

11. Once – In a year that gave us several musicals, it was Irish filmmaker John Carney's unconventional take on the genre that outdid them all.  Shot for next to nothing and relying mostly on the original music performed by its main characters, it is something of a miracle that the film even works at all.  Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova broke through with this film, not only as musicians, but as actors also.

THE TOP TEN (10-1) 

10. The Savages –

I don't normally pick favorite actors, but Phillip Seymour Hoffman became my favorite this year.  Whether he was stealing the entire film and saving it from boredom in Charlie Wilson's War, or being apparently great in a film I didn't get a chance to see (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), Hoffman proved his worth and versatility as an actor once again this year.  In The Savages, he gets to play opposite one of the best actresses around, Laura Linney, and the results are fantastic.  Writer/director Tamara Jenkins' second film (nine years since her first – don't let this happen again!) is a nuanced dramedy that takes an uncompromising approach to some dark material – mainly, the fact that we're all going to die and it won't be pretty.  But even though it gets quite bleak at times, there is some optimism in there as well.  Also worth note is Philip Bosco, who plays the dementia-addled patriarch that bro and sis have to deal with.  He's not some cute, likable old man that you feel sorry for – he's kind of a jackass actually, and that makes the film far more interesting than the alternative. 

9. Juno – Like a few films this year, this is being highly overpraised, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.  It's almost like an annual thing now, having that one idiosyncratic "indie" that means well but gets too much praise and winds up winning best original screenplay even if there are better candidates (in Juno's case, it's an indie mostly in terms of marketing strategy – well played, Fox Searchlight).  But I digress.  Yes, it's overrated, but that doesn't mean I can't still like it.  I think Ellen Page and Michael Cera are two of the most promising young actors around, and it's refreshing that they come off like real people instead of the typical vacant twenty-something underwear models that are usually recruited to play teenagers.  Director Jason Reitman, much improved after his ho-hum debut Thank You For Smoking, manages to balance the tone of the film just right, and I think he deserves just as much credit as screenwriter Diablo Cody has been getting.  This film could have been a misfire if it wasn't for his direction and the solid performances he gets from the actors mentioned above, as well as Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, J.K. Simmons, and others.

8. Superbad – I just can't help but laugh my ass off and be completely entertained by this film.  It's like a raunchier version of a John Hughes teen comedy from the 80's.  Even down to the random plot points of its "all in one crazy day" structure.  The Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen comedy train (or whatever you want to call it) hit its peak this year, which means we can expect it to crash quite soon.  For now though, I'll say this is my favorite to come from them.  The interactions between lead characters Evan and Seth (Michael Cera and Jonah Hill, who both appear to be gifted with some serious comedic chops) feel surprisingly authentic despite their crude, ridiculous nature.  I think the film really captures the way teenagers actually talk to each other these days.  And of course, there's the hilarious "B story" of the film, concerning Evan and Seth's friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), who dubs himself McLovin and develops a friendship with two inept cops (Seth Rogen and Bill Hader).

7. Eastern Promises – Whenever you read several opinions about a film that all make special mention of the same great scene, chances are that scene is an instant classic.  Such is the case with the bathhouse scene in Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.  It's impossible to talk about the film without bringing up this raw, brutal moment.  It serves as a sort of exclamation point to an otherwise subtle and restrained character study.  Cronenberg's film is masterfully paced; a film that slowly unravels to reveal deeper nuances, many of which resonate even better on a second viewing once you know what you're in for with the full story.  Contains Viggo Mortensen's best performance yet.

6. Away From Her – I've always been a fan of actress Sarah Polley.  Whether she turns up in good films (The Sweet Hereafter) or bad ones (2004's Dawn of the Dead), there is always something captivating about her work.  She stepped behind the camera to make one of the most restrained and impressive debut films I have ever seen.  Alzheimer's is always a tricky subject to tackle, and it's very easy to go for the heartstrings and get overly sentimental.  But Polley keeps things reigned in and gets incredible performances out of Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent.  A truly wonderful film that offers a poignant and heartbreaking look at lifelong lovers struggling to move forward as the past keeps slipping away from them.  I didn't mean to refer to the title there, but hey, it works.

5. Zodiac –

I can't remember ever saying that a film's excessive length is one of its greatest strengths, but that is the case with David Fincher's best, most mature work to date.  After 2 hours and 45 minutes of pouring over the truths, falses, and maybes along with the lead characters, it is easy to walk away from the film feeling completely exhausted.  But that is a tribute to what the film accomplishes, and I get the same feeling of confusion and obsession over the bizarre unsolved mystery of the Zodiac.  Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo are all great as the three leads, and there is some wonderful supporting work from too many actors to name in this sentence as well.  Fincher directs with a detailed and refreshingly subdued touch that works nicely with the film's haunting tone.

4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford- Ari said it best in his list when he wrote "here we have the most underrated film of the decade."  It is a crying shame that a film like this doesn't get the credit it deserves.  Andrew Dominik's second feature unfolds like an engrossing mythical legend, filled with so much haunting dread and tension that it's almost hard to breath at times.  The title of the film tells you everything that is going to happen, but by the time that scene comes on screen, the build up throughout the film combined with the execution of that scene (no pun intended) is overwhelming, sad, and beautiful all at once.  Only a truly gifted filmmaker can pull off something like this.  The cinematography by Roger Deakins makes this the most elegant beautiful film of the year to look at.  The score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is creepy and repetitive, but unforgettable.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the pure genius of Casey Affleck's performance as Robert Ford.  Amazing work by everyone involved.

3. No Country For Old Men – A new Coen Brothers classic, and certainly one of their best films.  Don't like the last act?  Too bad.  It's brilliant.  As are Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly MacDonald in their respective roles.  Roger Deakins comes through again on the cinematography side, and the fact that he lensed two of the best films of the year may not be all that surprising, but it certainly helps cement his legendary status.  I don't know what else can be said about this film at this point, so I'll leave that to everyone else and just say that yes, I am on the bandwagon as well.  I can't even believe that this is going at #3, that's how good 2007 was.

2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – The point-of-view shot has never gotten such a workout, or been used as effectively, as it is in Julian Schnabel's remarkably inventive film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  The moving tale of Jean-Dominique Bauby's (Mathieu Amalric) struggle with "locked-in-syndrome," a state of paralysis in which he can only blink his left eye, is told with an immense amount of visual flair and some jaw-dropping experimentation with narrative techniques.  For most of the first half of the film (and some more moments later on) the camera literally becomes Bauby's eye, thrusting the viewer into his state of being.  Amalric gives a great performance (when he appears on screen), but the standout to me is Bauby's speech therapist, who taught him how to communicate by blinking one letter at a time to spell words. Marie-Josee Croze (Munich) plays this role, and she has to act the majority of her part directly into the camera while managing to be thoroughly engaging and compassionate.  As the audience, we are staring at her for a good chunk of screen time – so if her performance was off in anyway, the film might not have worked as well.  The real stars here though are director Julian Schnabel and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who have created one of the most unique film viewing experiences in recent memory.  And on top of all of this, the film is highly inspirational and surprisingly humorous.  This is one that is sure to be remembered for its story and studied for its technique in the years to come.

1. There Will Be Blood –

It's official.  PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON IS THE THIRD REVELATION!  Or, to be slightly less overdramatic, he is now THE filmmaker of his generation.  There Will Be Blood is a unique and towering accomplishment.  Daniel Day-Lewis has already made the character of Daniel Plainview an instant classic.  Tack on Robert Elswit cinematography, Jonny Greenwood's highly original score, the production design of Jack Fisk, the editing by Dylan Tichenor, the performances of all the other actors.  I could go on, but I'm not quite sure how.  The best way I can put it is there is just SOMETHING (or many things) about There Will Be Blood that makes it stand above the rest as the film of the year. Scene after scene, this film had me in its grip.  The fact that I can say that about quite a few films this year makes me very thankful for the cinema of 2007.  I'm spent, but feel free to fill in your own praise in the comment section.