A good year for acting and cinematographySep 23 '09 (Updated Sep 16 '11) Write an essay on this topic.
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I posted a provisional best of 2007 list before the category was added, and have decided to leave in the future tense of award predictions I made early in 2008 (mostly I was glad to be mistaken about the best supporting actress Oscar, sad to be mistaken about the best actress one). I have seen more of the contenders since then, though there are still some acclaimed 2007 movies I haven't seen. ——— My favorite movie of the year was the engaging, no-budget "Colma: The Musical," which managed to have much that was very funny and considerable poignancy. And to make breaking into song seem normal! I was very impressed by Christian Bale and Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn (not just because they looked scarily starved, but for the intensity of their performances) and no one does jungle survival movies like Werner Herzog (Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Burden of Dreams) does. Dieter Denger told his story to Herzog (and Herzog's interpid longtime cameraman Peter Zeitlinger) in Little Dieter Needs to Fly, but now Herzog has showed what Dengler told. Herzog always provides great DVD bonus features and outdid himself on this one. I was also very impressed by another dramatic weight loss in another wilderness, Emile Hirsch in Alaska in Sean Penn's somewhat sentimentalized "Into the Wild," in which a young man takes unnessarily large risks (though he is not as deluded as "The Grizzly Man" of Herzog's documentary). Superb suppoprtint cast, striking cinematography (by Eric Gauthier, who was also responsible for "The Motorcycle Diaries"), far less DVD bonus feature contents, even on two discs. The Coen brothers are being much lauded for their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Javier Bardem will probably pick up the Oscar he didn't get for Before Night Falls or "The Sea Inside." He is very scary, and Tommy Lee Jones is superb in a less showy part than Barden's psychotic killer. "Michael Clayton" George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, and Tilda Swinton turned in outstanding performances in this drama about sand in the slow-grinding wheels of the US justice system. I thought the movie coulda/shoulda been better though. Ryan Gosling was notably good in "Lars and the Real Girl," though I had difficulty believing a small town would be so accepting. (Hey! I grew up in a small town, and my experience is that they are rife with gossip and covert malice.) Eastern Promises has come of the vintage David Cronenberg wallowing in gore, but has exceptional performances from a very diverse cast. I think that "A History of Violence" was a better film, but Viggo Mortensen manages to be even better in "Eastern Promises" than he was in "A History of Violence." Etam Fox's The Bubble is heartbreaking in the way "No Man's Land" was a few years back. I was pretty unimpressed by James McAvoy in "The Last King of Scotland," a movie that was completely dominated by Forrest Whittaker's Oscar-winning performance (with less screen time than McAvoy). McAvoy showed that he has some substance in the adaptation of Ian McEwan's celebrated novel Atonement. "Award-bait," as Luke Thompson put it, with Keira Knightley way overhyped. (I was not very impressed by Daniel Day-Lewis's one-note role in "There Will Be Blood," or Cate Blanchett's much-celebrated turn in "I'm Not There," either and would give each of those movies onl two stars.) Hot Fuzz (like "Eastern Promises") wallows in gratuitous gore (though both movies have to have considerable violence). Still, I think that it is the funniest movie of the year and found its parody of cop buddy movies much funnier than the parody of zombie films in "Shaun of the Dead." There was a lot of dark humor in You Kill Me, too. At times I thought that it was a parody of recovery movies. Ben Kingsley was terrific as an alcoholic hitman. I thought that "Eastern Promises" offered a more offbeat romance, but the romance in Killer paid off in plot terms. Private Fear in Public Places: Who'd have thunk that the ultra-moderne Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad, Hiroshima Mon Amour) would morph into a Vincent Minnelli of sorts? Love is still very difficult to find or to sustain in this colorful play of Londoners turned (not always convincingly!) into Parisians. Eric Gautier's cinematography and the set design are remarkable. Costumes and locations in Kazakhstan were especially notable in the epic of the young Chingis (Ganghis) Khan, "Mongol." From Central Asia, the adaptation of "The Kite Runner" was flawless, a deeply affecting story of class and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Other Contenders (in alphabetical order by title, only some of which I've seen: those with links or blodfaced) 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days American Gangster The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Away from Her (a movie that made me cry, so that I had to watch it in four installments) Becoming Jane Boarding Gate The Brave One (with great performances by Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard) Charlie Wilson's War (as a movie, certainly not as history!) Colossal Truth Days of Glory/Indigènes The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Gone Baby Gone In the Valley of Elah (Tommy Lee Jones turned in two great 2007 performances!) Juno Katyn The Lives of Others Lust, Caution (Se Jie) Manufactured Landscapes Paris, Je T'aime Persepolis Ratouille Rocket Science The Savages (fine turns by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman carried the movie) Sicko Silent Light Talk to Me (carried by Don Cheadle) La Vie En Rose The Wind that Shakes the Barley Zodiac (though I was disappointed in it) Best performance by an actor: Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises" ( but for versatility a special award should be invented for Christian Bale for "Rescue Dawn," "I'm Not There," and "3:10 to Yuma") Daniel Day-Lewis will take home a second Oscar for his intense monster in "There Will be Dead," though I think Mortensen or Tommy Lee Jones provided more nuanced performances. Best performance by an actress: I'm rooting for Julie Christie to take home a second Oscar 43 years after her first one Javier Bardem seems likely to win awards for best supporting actor in "No Country for Old Men." I was disappointed that Armin Mueller-Stahl did not even get a nomination from the Hollywood Foreign press (Golden Globes). (Heaven forfend John Travolta being Oscared for "Hairspray"!) It seems that Cate Blanchett will pick up best supporting actress awards. Oscar voters frequently surprise forecasters in this category, and Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" may be an addition to the ranks. The sentimental favorite will be Ruby Dee for her tiny part as Denzel Washington's mother in "American Gangster." [Tilda Swinton was a dark horse, but as I said, this is a category where surprises happen often.] Due to the arcane process by which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reaches its pick of best foreign-language pick, Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" will not be considered. American painter turned director Julian Schanbel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" has the disability angle beloved by Oscar voters. I think that the Coens will receive a screenwriting Oscar, clearing the way for Joe Wright to win for "Atonement." Considering what a fraud I thought Julian Schanbel was as a painter, I could not have imagined that I would be rooting for him to win anything ever, but... sometimes old dogs changed their stripes? --- I've also posted lists of what I think were the best movies of the 1940s, the 1970s, the 1980s, 1939, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010.  |
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