By Justin Wilder
1. No Country For Old Men: Javier Bardem should win an Oscar for best word said in any movie ever for his use of “friendo.” If there were an Oscar for best haircut in a film, he would win it.
2. Margot At The Wedding: Noah Baumbach writes the way I would like to imagine that I will one day. The characters first in Squid And The Whale and now Margot At The Wedding have a skewed view of the world and the people around them. Relationships ruined and families fall apart. A bitter movie never seemed so sweet.
3. Atonement: A war epic that should win Oscars for every major category. If you don’t like period pieces, you won’t like this. But it’s truly a fine film about loss, love, and attempts at redemption.
4. I’m Not There: A Bob Dylan movie made the only way a Dylan movie could be. Shot using six different actors to portray one of the greatest artists in history, it’s communicated very easily. Although the music is basically straightforward—boring covers of Dylan tunes—the movie doesn’t get affected. The acting on all accounts is terrific, especially Ben Whishaw from Perfume.
5. Once: Glen Hansard portrays a struggling musician playing on the streets of Dublin. He moved to repair vacuums with his father after his girlfriend in England broke his heart. He meets Marketa Irglova, and they connect through his music. A beautiful musical. The music flows carefree in and out of the story. Much better than High School Musical One…AND TWO! The soundtrack for this film is also worth checking out.
6. Eastern Promises: The best naked fight scene ever? Viggo Mortensen gives an Oscar worthy performance as an undercover in the Russian mob who tries to save the child of a dead mob prostitute.
7. Superbad: A comedy with true heart and probably one of the only comedies I have ever truly loved. Not totally true. But I saw it four or five times in theatres. Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader and Seth Rogen demolish theatres with their seemingly improvised one-liners. My only hope is that Judd Apatow shows some restraint and doesn’t flood the market with films that he producers and directs.
8. Into The Wild: Despite the fact that I think Sean Penn is a pretentious ass, this was a beautifully shot movie. Emile Hirsch digs deep into the role of Christopher McCandless, a young man who runs away from a privileged life to try and make it in the harsh Alaskan climate.
9. Michael Clayton: More thrilling than any John Grisham novel! Hard to believe, I know.
10. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead: This film is a great thriller about trying to change your life through any means necessary. Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives one of three great performances this year and shows how hard it is to change who you are. Great.
8 Comments
December 19, 2007 at 1:38 pm
I agree, No Country for Old Men was phenomenal.
December 20, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Your picks are really scraping the bottom of the barrel Justin. You never mentioned the 2007 film Norbert…which I’m pretty sure has Eddie Murphy up for 4 oscars: best original screenplay, best fat suit special effects, and best murphy film to date. (The Last Oscars mentioned are usually not aired during the televised account of the award ceremony…but you wouldn’t know that because your picks obviously show a lack of film knowlege in general.)
December 21, 2007 at 4:35 am
i would have liked to have mentioned NORBIT on my top ten but Eddie Murphy called me personally and told me that he doesn’t need anymore recognition for his stellar career. Obviously he will win for best fat suit special effects but i think “Coming To America” still holds onto the best EM film to date
December 22, 2007 at 9:58 am
Bite your tongue, Justin. The Sonic Youth and Jim James covers were brilliant.
I finally got around to seeing “Once” the other day and I don’t get what all the fuss is about. Sure, the music was incredible, and perhaps just not have a heart, but I didn’t think the two main characters had any chemistry. Plus the Hoover vacuum gimmick was… kind of stupid.
December 23, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I actually have to disagree with Donny. I’m delighted to see “Once” on the list. Maybe it’s because I didn’t hear the fuss and didn’t have any preconceptions regarding the movie, but I loved it. It was one of the best movies I saw this year. And I think the point was that the two main characters weren’t supposed to have much of any chemistry aside from when they were playing together. For a low-budget movie with actors that hadn’t even acted in a movie before, I thought it was wonderful. And I like the vaccuum.
December 24, 2007 at 2:00 am
that is very true, donny stevens, the jim james cover was outstanding. I was just saying that they could have messed around with the songs more. It seems like something Dylan would do if he had done the whole soundtrack. Change compositions, etc.etc. I also don’t understand why Jack White didn’t get to do any covers as he is Bob Dylan’s favorite modern musician.
Instead of responding to the once criticism with something new, I will just agree with what Jenn said. She said it well. I do think that the characters had good chemistry together and didn’t feel any problems with them interacting. They are dating in real life and I thought that it was pretty believable.
The way the music flowed in and out of the film also made it flow better than other musical films.
December 26, 2007 at 1:02 am
I guess my biggest problem with Once was how boring Markéta Irglová’s character was. I didn’t believe she was really into music…or at least compared to Glen Hansard’s character. I think that Once could’ve taken some pointers from P.T. Anderson’s 2002 film, Punch-Drunk Love. No, it’s not a musical, but it follows the same formula as Once, sans singing. The two protagonists are searching, lonely soles who find solace in one another, as well as each other’s awkward, strange personalities. Their romance seems effortless, whereas in Once, I felt like Hansard was the aggressive boyfriend who kind of pressured his girlfriend into music for the wrong reasons.
December 30, 2007 at 1:56 am
Having seen the last two films on my need-to-see list, I’ve got a final top ten.
01. There Will Be Blood
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02. I’m Not There
03. No Country for Old Men
04. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
05. Knocked Up
06. This Is England
07. Death Proof
08. Juno
09. Away from Her
10. Zodiac
Runner-Up: Atonement