Here it is. My first entry in this movie blog of mine, and it's of the best films of 2007. This has been a GREAT year for film, so narrowing it down to 10 was no easy task. But, I did my best (sort of), and if you are looking for a good movie to see, any of these will do just fine.





10. Knocked Up / Superbad

I’m putting these movies together for two reasons. One, it’s what they stand for. These two films are HUGE step forwards for comedy. Films were either smart and clean, or dumb and vulgar. Because of Judd Apatow, we now get films that are smart and vulgar and fucking hilarious. The other reason is because it’s my list, and I can do whatever the fuck I want. One film is a smart, vulgar, adult oriented comedy, and the other is a smart, vulgar, teen oriented comedy. Both are worthy of being comedy classics, both from the Apatow team, both (despite their adult/teen orientation) are fun for the whole (matured) family. They get to be horribly over the top at times, but they both have a tremendous amount of heart. Mushrooms at Cirque Du Soleil and the final scene of Seth and Evan finally parting ways have both stayed with me throughout the entire year.



9. Atonement

A little girl sees something she doesn’t quite understand, tells one terrible lie, and ruins the lives of two people that love each other. Keira Knightley is once again worthy of an Oscar nomination is this tragic love story. It’s a shame this movie wasn’t so popular. It looks like a boring period drama, but I was hooked in from the start. It has a highly inventive score, and cinematography worthy of endless praise, including one, five minute tracking shot that is truly among the best ever filmed.



8. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

This is Tim Burton’s best film since Ed Wood… You could even argue it’s the best film of his career. And he has once again re-teamed with Johnny Depp, who gives one of the best performances of his career (but they kind of all are), and Helena Bonham Carter, who is also arguably doing the best work of her career. And, not to overuse the word “best,” this film is adapted from the Stephen Sondheim musical in what is one of the best stage to screen adaptations ever done. Perhaps it works so well because of the way Sondheim makes his plays. They really do call to be acted out more than sung, and Depp and Carter (and Rickman and Cohen) act out every single note perfectly.



7. Into the Wild

It took Sean Penn some ten years to get the family of Christopher McCandless to give him their blessing in his pursuit to make this film, telling the story of a young, bright, college graduate, who leaves his family, abandons his car and burns his money, all to take a trip into the wild. Emilie Hirsch plays Chris with a raw intensity, you can see it all in his eyes. If you are familiar with Chris’s story, you would know it ends tragically, but Penn manages to make it uplifting. I felt moved and inspired by what I saw on screen. Add on top of that there numerous great supporting characters, beautiful cinematography and one killer soundtrack by Edddie Vedder .



6. Away from Her

You know that blond chick from the Dawn of the Dead remake? Well she made one of the best films of 2007. This is about as great a first film as a director (Sarah Polley) can make. It’s about a woman who gets Alzheimer’s, and her husband coping with the disease. She doesn’t really forget him, as a lesser movie might have happen. Instead, she seems to forget that he was once so important to her, and she forgets how immensely important she is to him. It’s heartbreaking to watch, and Julie Christie gives one of the best performances of the year.



5. Gone Baby Gone

The Affleck brothers, Ben and Casey, both did a lot with this movie. Ben said showed us that he is a good film maker and all this totally unexplained “I can’t stand Ben Affleck” talk about him needs to stop. Anyone who said that before was stupid, and anyone who says that now is a fucking retard. And Casey showed us that (along with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford), after a decade of doing nearly nothing but small supporting roles, he is ready for and has what it takes to be a leading man. You just know these guys grew up in Boston, because of the way it is shot with so much love, despite the disasters taking place on screen. This movie is gripping from start to finish, has great supporting characters from many great actors (including Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and the terrific Amy Ryan), and has a final chapter that will really leave you contemplating where the lines between right and wrong are drawn.



4. Once

So yeah, I’m a sucker for a good love story, and that’s what this movie is, among other things, including one of the best musicals I’ve seen in my entire life. Is it a musical? They sing more than they talk, so I guess it is. But these aren’t “musical” characters. They are two, real people, that love music. Their love doesn’t make them break out into song. Their love makes them create songs. Watching them sing together for the first time in a music store warmed my heart, and watching them finally get into the studio together and lay down a song… It is such a corny scene. I knew what was going to happen, I’ve seen it a million times before, but because of these characters, the great directing and editing (he knew just how long to hold each shot to make them feel fresh), and the AMAZING music, the scene was touching and inspirational.



3. Juno

“I’m in love! I’m in love! And I don’t care who knows it!” So Will Ferrell said that in Elf, and I try to find as much use as I can for it in my life. Well, I’m in love with Juno. The movie, the character, and the actress. Never has dialog so phony been so real. A teen movie that is better than the title of ‘teen movie.’ Ellen Page is phenomenal as Juno, and she is supported by half a dozen terrific actors in this film that I really hope I get to see again before it is taken out of theaters. It’s only been popular for a couple weeks, and it’s already picking up major hatred (it took months before Napoleon Dynamite got this kind of backlash). But there is no way the people who hate this could have been actually paying attention to what they were watching, because they could not hate a film with so many pleasant (some pleasantly disturbing) surprises, with characters and plot twists that are far smarter and truer than the average comedy is allowed to be.



2. Zodiac

In might be sounding overused by now, in a year where countless great actors and filmmakers have made their best “whatever” to date, but this is David Fincher’s best film. He, and writer James Vanderbilt, looked at a story that I was already very familiar with, and made every second of it completely engrossing. It’s over 150 minutes, and when the final credits came on I though “No, please keep going.” Tremendous mention must go to Fincher and the entire cast. There are dozens of characters, some we see for a few seconds, some we only hear by name, and through the entire course of the film, we never forget a single one. Of all the award nominations that have been coming out in recent weeks, I’m most upset to not see Zodiac anywhere. This film deserves writing, directing, acting, and score nominations.



1. No Country for Old Men

The is the only film on my list that I am sure of it’s place. You can take places 2-10… well actually, probably places 2-20 (had a hard ass time narrowing it down to 10), you can take those movies, randomize them in any order you want, and I wouldn’t argue. But No Country for Old Men, without a doubt, is in my number one film of the year. This film is just amazing. If Shakespeare were a film maker, had he used different shots to portray his poetry, they would look like they do in this film. The dialog, the acting, the cinematography, the story, the pacing, everything, it’s all poetry. It is done so perfectly that I think even the people who love this movie don’t fully understand what is so great about it. I’ve seen it many times, and I know I still don’t have half of it.







Besides those 10, there are a lot more movies that couldn't make the list, but deserve to be there, including: Eastern Promises, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Grindhouse, The Lookout, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, and probably quite a few more. Like I said, great year for movies.