Soul amidst the product. The best movies of 2007.
Feb 21 '09
The Bottom Line Why 2007 wasn't as bad as we thought it was.
2007. One year that was marked by numerous changes in my personal life as well as many turbulent events in the entertainment business. One such "turbulent" event was the WGA strike which came close to (horror of horrors!) ending soap operas and causing award shows to actually prune their time down to a reasonable length. So the Oscars, while watched, were nowhere near the event they were in past years, even if the strike was settled by then.
Also the Oscars suffered from another factor as opposed to the ones for best movie of 2006; a marked downturn in movie quality that affected 2007.
That's the blunt truth. 07 lacked for greatness of The Departed/Dreamgirls/Little Miss Sunshine/Babel variety. Nor did it lack for cynical product of the Norbit/Wild Hogs/Hannibal Rising/Daddy Day Camp variety. Yet even if 07 was a marked comedown from 06, even if the words "too much product and not enough soul" could be easily applied to a good majority of the movies released in those 12 months, there was still some meat amidst the processed cheese. So let's get to the meat. First off, some appetizers:
Honorable Mentions
Shooter: Mark Wahlberg followed up his tough performance in 2006's best movie (The Departed for those unaware) with another great tough one in a film that proved that it's still possible for Hollywood to make an action movie with both brains and brawn, even ten years after the Seagals and Van Dammes had nearly killed off the genre.
Talk to Me: Okay, as a biopic it's no Ray. But Don Cheadle's performance as radio personality Petey Greene managed to rise above the average one would expect in a film like this. Tries to cover too much ground. But every minute Cheadle's on-screen makes watching this movie worthwhile.
The Kingdom: Not on an intellectual level with Syriana. But manages to be more than a shoot the crap out of everything flick set in Saudi Arabia.
The Top 10
10: Things We Lost in the Fire: Susanne Bier's first American film (after several in her native Denmark including the 2006 award nominee for best foreign film After the Wedding) is a touching look at loss, relationships and healing. Featuring superb performances by Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, it manages to avoid the Lifetime Movie clichés one would expect in a movie like this and instead manages to tell a compelling story of two flawed human beings struggling to cope with an unspeakable loss. Also add points on for not heading for the corny fairy tale ending I feared it might go directly to.
9: Michael Clayton: "A Grisham movie with brains" is the way most critics described this movie. But that only addresses the fact that the title character, superbly played by George Clooney, is a lawyer. Although there's legal sleaze here, at heart Michael Clayton is a drama about moral not courtroom conundrums. In that regards, it's miles ahead of the assembly line legal films of the Grisham variety (aside from possibly A Time to Kill).
8: Grindhouse: The closest 2007 came to offering its own version of Sin City, the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino combined homage to old school exploitation movies suffered due to being released in April (if any film should've been released in the summer, this one was it) as well as a 3-hour long running time and the plain and simple fact that many people just "didn't get it". Too bad for them, because they missed what is probably the most purely fun movie of the year. Rodriguez and Tarantino succeeded at paying tribute to what they loved about old school exploitation as well as mocking it. Hopefully the separate release of both movies in the Grindhouse two-fer will get more people to check it out.
7: American Gangster: Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe team up for the second time (after the sci-fi flop Virtuosity) and do a much better job this go-round. Not quite on the level of a classic such as Goodfellas. But on a level with the great Johnny Depp film Blow from a few years ago. Like the Depp film (which was also based on a true story) it succeeds brilliantly in allowing the audience to care about a character who in most cases would be completely unsympathetic. This is due to the great performances from Washington and Crowe and the good direction by Ridley Scott.
6: 300: Okay it's a popcorn movie. But can you think of a popcorn movie from 07 that was as fun, entertaining and still had real characters? I think not. Instead of simply being an endless stream of images of soldiers getting sliced and diced, 300 managed to offer up some real characters and occasional development amidst the carnage. Fun to watch, yet involving. All popcorn movies should be this good.
5: The Simpsons: 2007 lacked a Little Miss Sunshine (unless you count Knocked Up or Juno, neither of which I've seen, hence their absence from this list). It also lacked a Borat. The Simpsons movie, while not on the level of South Park the Movie in laugh quotient, made up for their absence. America's best sitcom for the past nearly two decades manage to satirize both itself and American politics and society with equal aplomb. From dimwitted politicians to oblivious citizens to Rock Stars As Cause bearers, all get their slaps form Homer and the gang. When I heard there would be a Simpsons movie I was more than a little wary, because I didn't want to see one of the greatest shows ever get reduced to a bad movie. No worries. The Simpsons is superb. Doh!
4: Gone Baby Gone: Ben Affleck's debut behind the camera proves that his true talent is as a director/screenwriter, rather than an actor. Not afraid to follow in Clint Eastwood's footsteps and adapt a Dennis Lehane novel to the big screen, Affleck succeeded in crafting a compelling story which offered human characters, plenty of suspense and moral quandaries that will keep you thinking long after the movie ends. Overlooked at the box office, hopefully Gone Baby Gone will find its audience on DVD.
3: There Will Be Blood: What to say about this one? That it features a superb performance from Daniel Day-Lewis. That it manages to show how a man goes from innocent to corrupt in the space of a lifetime. That it manages to take an old story and find new and compelling ways to tell it? Really that's all I can say. As well as that it assures director Paul Thomas Anderson of a future in film.
2: Zodiac: Like Martin Scorsese, David Fincher is one director who doesn't hesitate to make films that tell us things we'd rather not know and don't offer easy comfort or re-assurance. Also like Scorsese's, his films are always completely involving (even the piece of sh1t that was Alien 3). Zodiac is no exception. Based on the real life crime spree of the Zodiac killer who terrorized San Francisco in the late 60s and early 70s, Zodiac is less a whodunit than more a character study on how the killers actions affected the lives of certain people. Excellent performances from Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey and Mark Ruffalo work well along with great direction from Fincher and a superb script. The result is a human suspense story well told.
The Big Kahuna
1: No Country For Old Men: The Oscars got it right this year after getting it wrong so many other years. The Coen Brothers have yet to make a bad movie, even lesser efforts like The Ladykillers have their moments. But when they're firing on all cylinders, they can make a masterpiece (IE: Fargo, Raising Arizona). 2007 was one of those occasions. Almost as if it was in response to the cinematic product overload of the year, Joel and Ethan Coen managed to construct a human masterpiece that mixed suspense, drama and compassion to tell a story of a corrupt world in which there is still room for optimism. Action, suspense, human drama all rolled into one. Plus a superb performance from Javier Bardeem. The best movie of 2007 hands down.
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Member: Jeff Wilder
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