Moving on to my second great love, movies. Last year was a damn good year for movies. Without any further ado, here goes.
Hands down the best movie I saw last year was Children of Men. I know, I know, technically it came out in '06 but by "came out" I mean "was shown at a festival or two and then given a theatrical release in 2 cities so that it could be in Oscar contention." It wasn't released wide until January so I count it as an '07.
Anyway, it was the first movie I saw in '07. I went to see it the first week of the year if memory serves and I walked out thinking, "There's no way in hell I'll see a better movie than that this year." I was right.
It's not just a great movie but, in my not at all humble opinion, an important movie. It's not just the story, which was very good, or the acting, which was superb. The cinematography was flat out amazing. I've never seen anything like it before. The scene in the car that was done in one long take is nothing short of brilliant. I still can't wrap my head around it. Plus the little things that most people wouldn't notice like the fact that most of the music is right in the movie with people listening to radios and such. When was the last time that happened?
It is your duty as humans to see this movie. Go ahead. I'll wait.
Other very worthy films:
Pan's Labyrinth
Technically also an '06 for the same reasons as above but I'm counting it as an '07 also for the same reasons as above.
This was '07's visually yummy film like The Fountain was for '06. It's a beautiful and dark fairy tale that is very much not for kids but will make you connect with the kid still in you. It's standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival was 22 minutes long and deserved every second of it.
These two were easily the best movies of the year.
As for things that officially came out in '07:
No Country For Old Men
The Coen brothers adapt a Cormac McCarthy novel and nail it. Hard. Let that shit sink in for a minute. On the surface the pace would seem slow to a cretin but it's actually relentless. The film, like the book, is brutal but strangely calm at the same time. Damn near perfect.
Juno
An ensemble dark(ish) comedy that is perfectly written and cast doesn't happen often but when it does, damn. Ellen Page, who delivered the equivalent to a blow to the head with last year's Hard Candy, is the centerpiece of this film. It's scary that she's this good so young.
Lars and the Real Girl
On the surface it sounds like a ridiculous plot (and could have easily tipped over into camp or just plain stupidity in other, less capable, hands) but they pull it off. Ryan Gosling walks a tightrope with the main character but never falls.
American Gangster
Ridley Scott directing Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Who cares what the movie is about? I'd pay money to see Ridley Scott direct those two reading their grocery lists.
The Savages
Utterly black comedy, how I do love thee. Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman (who is one of my favorite actors) and Laura Linney deal with their father, who all but abandoned them leaving them with massive emotional damage, who has dementia is pure gold.
Sweeney Todd
It's a musical directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp about a serial killing barber that is insanely bloody. Shit, man, they had me at Burton directing Depp. The rest is just gravy.
These were the best films of the year. You are, as always, free to disagree. It is your right to be wrong. And now for some other stuff!
The Why Isn't This Person In More Roles Preferably Of The Leading Variety Award goes to Jason Bateman. His supporting turns in both Juno and The Kingdom were yet more proof that he is made of pure awesome. Jennifer Garner was also in both of those movies and makes amends for Elektra. I forgive you Jennifer. Now if you'd just ditch that loser you married...
The Breakthrough Award goes to Michael Cera ( who you may remember from Arrested Development) for turns in Superbad and Juno. He's 19 and has the comedy chops and timing of a seasoned veteran.
The award for Best Idea That Tanked Because People Are Fucking Stupid goes to Grindhouse. Two movies complete with fake trailers and ads all in celebration of the grand grindhouse tradition and no one got it. People make me sick. For the record, Planet Terror is superior in EVERY way to Death Proof.
What the hell? Another good comic book movie? After Sin City and Batman Begins I was all set for a long drought full of shitty comic book adaptations like those asstastic Fantastic Four movies and such but no, here came 300. 300 will kick your ass, have sex with your woman, ruin her for other men, kick your ass again and then have its way with your prone body. And you will love it.
Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost should make movies together forever. Hot Fuzz was everything you'd ever want in an action comedy.
What the hell 2, the sequel? A good remake? Have I somehow crossed into a different dimension? Maybe. Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween was perfect. It even fixed some of the problems I had with the original. Zombie knows his shit. He's one of those people that you wish you could be friends with.
You Missed The Point Of The Source Material Award goes to I Am Legend. While a decent popcorn movie in and of itself it doesn't come anywhere close to doing justice to the book.
Best use of frontal nudity goes to Viggo Mortenson in Eastern Promises who did a loooooong nude scene in which he fights off two thugs trying to kill him while he is completely naked. The added vulnerability of his exposed danglies makes the scene very BOOYA!
The best DVD releases were the special editions of Serenity and Hot Fuzz. I already owned the original editions but the new ones, especially Hot Fuzz, had so much more on them that not buying them was not an option.
The best B movies (and I do not use that term disparagingly. I love B movies) were, in no uncertain terms:
Hatchet. A good old fashioned slasher movie starring Kane Fucking Hodder. It arouses me just thinking about it.
Black Sheep. A movie from New Zealand about, wait for it, mutated, man eating sheep. Dude. This movie rocks on so many levels I can't even tell you.
Fido. A zombie movie set in the fifties after people have mostly won the zombie war and keep zombies as pets with restraining collars. Imagine the full on Leave it to Beaver treatment with flesh eating zombies. I can neither confirm nor deny that I rubbed the DVD case on my swimsuit area.
The best theatrical re-releases (we get quite a lot of those here thanks to The Senator and The Charles) were Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Seeing classics on the big screen is a treat that little else compares to.
I'm sad and weepy that I missed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. An indie western that got raves for acting? I also missed Michael Clayton. George Clooney is Cary Grant reborn. Damn it why did I wait so long!? I can't wait until these come out on DVD.
And finally, my serious awards for the year:
Best Film: Children of Men. If you want to make an issue of the release date then it's No Country For Old Men.
Best Director: Guillermo del Toro for Pan's Labyrinth. Ridley Scott if the release date thing is an issue.
Best Screenplay: Juno written by Diablo Cody. Taking in just the screenplay without adding the actors is difficult but this is clearly the best. The lady is hilarious.
Best Actor: Javier Bardem as the psychotic Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. He plays the character with such a quiet rage and intensity that it's unsettling to watch.
Best Actress: Ellen Page for Juno. How can she be this good so young? Don't know, don't care. All that matters is that she IS this good.
10 comments:
I'm digging the lists, mate. Can't give a proper comment since I'm at work (and a little jaded since you haven't responded to my comment / album upload in your Christmas post) but they've been a great read... bring on the music list, I know you want to!
Coen Brothers plus Cormac McCarthy? How the fuck did I miss this wonderful thing? Damn it!
I watched Children of Men just 3 weeks ago. Probably not the wisest idea to watch it just before going to bed, because I was pondering it's awesomnity for hours afterwards.
Pan's Labyrinth is also on my list - for the same reason Children of Men was. My Atomic magazine (of which my subscription just ran out) recommended both of them very highly. Being a geek magazine I figured they'd know best. Clearly, they do.
Children of Men was amazing. I read the book a while after seeing the flick, and hot damn. The weird thing was that for once, I loved both the movie and the book, just for totally different reasons.
"Plus the little things that most people wouldn't notice like the fact that most of the music is right in the movie with people listening to radios and such. When was the last time that happened?"
The Wire does it all the time. One of the reasons I love both of them so hard.
I finally saw Children of Men, and loved it hard as well. The scene where Clive Owen's character was carrying the baby through the huge raging gunfight, and everyone stops as they hear the baby crying was nothing short of surreal. It literally brought tears to my eyes.
You will kindly refer to my long review of Children of Men on geekpreserve for what I thought about the sound work in that film.
Here, I'll give you the short version.
*splooge*
*Children of Men spoiler alert*
That and Pan's Labyrinth were also my favorite movies of the year (although didn't Superbad come out this year?). I haven't seen all the ones on your list (although surprisingly I've seen more of them than I thought I would have) but that's because I finished AmeriCorps and moved twice last year and once so far this year so money has been weird. But yeah I remember the moment when they carry the little baby through the building and everybody stops and looks at it, and all the army guys are like, "They're so small. I had forgotten how small they are," and they all have a "Look at da bebe!" moment. And a single tear rolled down my left cheek. And I was absorbed in the moment and then all of a sudden I realized, "Oh my god, an actual single tear! I joke about them all the time but now it's really happening, there's just one!" So I made it count and let it continue on its salty path over my chin and dry out somewhere on my neck. It was a good moment.
Also, when I watched Pan's Labyrinth and that insect turned into a fairy, I turned to my friend Sarah and said, "This is going to be my ultimate movie." And it was.
300 had sex with me and ruined me for other men. And women. And I really, really want it to do it again.
I'm not gonna go on about the other ones on there that I've seen. Mostly because I don't want to stop the groin-happy from thinking about 300. I gotta go... Cross my legs now.
Juno finally made it to the theaters around here. Which actually surprised me as if it ain't main stream action, it doesn't show up 'round here.
Damn fine in all respects.
Damo, I'm actually listening to it as we speak. I dig it. It reminds me of something but for the life of me I can't say what. The music list is indeed forthcoming.
The scene in Children of Men with the baby and the battle also made me drop a tear. That was...yeah.
I think I'll go see Juno again, maybe tonight. The Orphanage (a Spanish language horror film that Guillermo del Toro is connected to *SEX*) is out but at a theater that I avoid at night like the plague due to issues I have with crowds. Probably see it tomorrow in the early afternoon. I'm very excited.
Arundel Mills? I've been looking forward to the Orphanage for MONTHS! El Orfano... con Guillermito... ayayay. Pay day this weekend so I'll get both of those under my belt before Sunday sets.
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