January 2008

What would be better than getting this totally rad retro toy robot? That would be seeing my top picks for 2007.

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Few films stood out in 2007, but ones who did shined awfully bright. To follow are my top 5 films that are a must experience. Yes only 5, I’ve decided one of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep things simple and easy. How easy is it to accomplish viewing 5 great films? Pretty damn easy, that’s how easy. Others that didn’t make top 5, but worth a watch are No Country for Old Men, The Bourne Ultimatum, 3:10 to Yuma, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Eagle vs Shark.

Here are the top 5 “TOTALLY RAD” films of the year.

1. Into the Wild: Let’s give another one up to Sean Penn; not only can that boy act, but has a hell of a set of directing chops. Brilliant cast, beautiful cinematography, jam’n soundtrack and a story that takes the whole audience on an epic adventure, how could anyone go wrong with Into the Wild? Based on the bestselling book by Jon Krakauer, this film reaches past the boundaries of everyday existence and delivers us into a world of thought, reasoning and love for life. Here is a young man who is tired of being what society and his parents expect and wants his freedom from the drudges of everyday life. He takes a long journey towards his goal of living in the wilderness in the cold depths of Alaska. Along his trip he runs into so many characters that shows him what true family is all about and how accepting your love and forgiving, you can accomplish anything.(read the full review)

2. Juno: Juno is a fresh twist to a teenage accident. Interesting how she originally chose to abort, but simply couldn’t bring herself to the task. Instead Juno and her buddy gathered up a PennySaver and found the want ads for babies. Cute white couple, looking to adopt beautiful newborn, will pay big dollars or something like that; Juno wanted the perfect couple to take care of what she new in her heart she couldn’t. The family dynamic and the humor that comes from everyday life makes Juno a pleasant surprise and a joy to watch. (read the full review)

3. Once: Once is an unpretentious film that has all the makings of a huge hit, between the music and chemistry amongst the leads there is no escaping the compassion that overwhelms. Humorous and poignant, this independent Irish driven musical doesn’t get caught up in the mundane, but rather keeps in tune with an inspiring romance. Once showcases the talents of Glen Hansard, singer/songwriter for the popular Irish band The Frames, and the delicate voice of Markéta Irglová, a new and refreshing face to the big screen. No worries if you are not a big musical fan, Once doesn’t pound you over the head with one song after another, but adds a perfect mix of dialogue and character interaction to accompany the music.(read the full review)

4. In the Valley of Elah: This film scared the shit out of me. To think the youth we have across seas right now and what type of mental capacity they have to handle everything being thrown at them. We have school shootings by teenagers not much younger than the ones we are intrusting with death and devastation in a third world country. The point of the this film should certainly make people set up and take notice, there is something so wrong with murder and to take it so lightly to commit it and cover it up and have absolutely no remorse for the crime, unbelievable. Tommy Lee Jones put on one of the best performances of his career and the way he and Charlize Theron worked together mesmerized the audience. She could have used a little more finesse and pizzazz behind her character and Susan Sarandon has played the grieving mother before. Interesting to see so much talent in one film and not expecting it, Jason Patric, James Franco and Josh Brolin, I didn’t see them coming. In the Valley of Elah is a must see with 4 razors.

5. Hairspray: Hairspray is a delightful toe tapping head bobbing experience. A remake of a musical of a remake of a…whatever, it fits perfect with today’s generation and what we would expect of a musical. Superstars like John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken and Queen Latifah grace the screen and the younger cast, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley and newbie Nikki Blonsky really add that special spark. Hairspray was a load of fun and a very unexpected and pleasant experience to watch. (read the full review)

Guess what guys?  Here’s a list of movies I liked this year.  IN FACT, it’s a list of the ten movies I like the very most.  I liked them all, and would totally give a thumbs up to anyone who helped to make any of them (except Halle Berry)!

Well go ahead man, what are you waiting for!?

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Let’s just get right to business, my favorite films of the year – with the order sure to change a whole lot of times before I bite the bucket – are as follows:

10 – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

What makes this french film, based on the real life events of a paralyzed man who wrote a book by winking his eye, isn’t the strong story of the the likewise acting; but the unique voice of the movie’s director,  Julian Schnabel.  Beautiful, tragic and full of life without ever drawing attention to itself, it’s a joyous reminder that the greatest gift given to everyone is the imagination.  Look for it to become the most praised foreign film of the year.

9 – Things We Lost in the Fire

It really bugs me that I’m giving the annoying Halle Berry a spot in both my best and worst of the year lists; but I’d be lying to myself if I said that Things We Lost in the Fire weren’t a strong film that doesn’t have any trouble doing what it wants to do.  Mostly following the death of a father, husband and best friend (of a Benicio Del Toro character, who deserves an Oscar nom that the actor won’t get), the movie is about moving on and learning to take advantage of the good things in life.  Susanne Bier directs this clean cut of cinema clearly and gracefully, matching the beauty of the story in every technical aspect.  Read my review for more.

8 – 300

I don’t know if this movie is making too many year-end lists – and I don’t know that it wholly deserves to – but for a style-over-substance guy like me, it’s at home in its top ten spot.  I don’t have any complaints with the story; but everyone knows that this movie’s forte was its technical aspect.  Action films age pretty badly; but will enough time ever pass that one shot of 300 won’t make you pump your fist and scream “Fuck Yeah?”  Zack Snyder imagery, along with Larry Fong‘s pulpped, reddened photography were revolutionary for a studio picture, and one that will hopefully lead other films down less conventional visual paths.

7 – The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

This documentary on two men racing for the world record high score at the classic Donkey Kong arcade game is one that’s destined to have a massive cult following.  With archetypically good and bad characters like Steve Wiebe, an everyman father/teacher who’s always number two and Billy Mitchell, a selfish hot sauce salesman evil enough to be a bad guy played by Ben Stiller in a movie; King of Kong is too undeniably fun to dismiss.  Documentaries, for whatever reasons, tend to deal with serious stories out of life; but this one proves that there’s no reason you can’t document something hilarious and outlandish in one too.  You’ll never boo, hiss or applaud so much at a documentary.

6 – Death Proof

It’s long.  It’s talky.  But I can’t think of another movie to ever take so much advantage of its build-up in its last act.  If all I saw of the movie were the first ninety minutes, it wouldn’t be on my list; but Quentin Tarantino‘s organic and most thrilling car chase in god knows how long wins every speck of attention in your brain, plastering you to your seat and sending you into cheers for characters you didn’t even think you liked, just for saying something as simple as “Nuh-uh, Motherfucker!”  That, and Tarantino’s aesthetic tribute to exploitation cinema is unknockable – it’s a perfect homage that, at the same time, awesomely outdoes any movie or style it’s imitating.  With a movie this fresh after fifteen years of directing, Tarantino isn’t losing his edge – he’s just getting started.

5 – Alpha Dog

The most flawed movie on this list, Alpha Dog just might be the most emotionally powerful.  It’s preachy and melodramatic around the edges, but the inside is a 100% authentic, believable story about a bunch of not-a-boy, not-yet-a-man guys trying to act tough; but they don’t realize how stupidly they’re behaving when they kidnap the kid brother of a guy they have beef with.  It’s a furious but solid argument against the machismo so many guys at the beginning of adulthood feel like they have to project.  I don’t know that I needed two prologues, a home video montage or worst of all, Sharon Stone crying in a bad fat-suit; but everything else in the film will get you more worried and angry than anything else this year.  You can go back a long ways and read my first opinion of the film.

4 – The Mist

Did anyone expect a giddy, pulpy horror picture about monsters coming from another dimension to be so damn good?  I didn’t, but I have a hard time thinking of this movie as anything short of amazing now.  Director Frank Darabont takes this scary thriller the philosophical route – he’s more interested in the demons that reveal themselves in the frightened human than the ones that walk on eight towering, hairy legs.  Let’s give some marks to Marcia Gay Harden for her just-right over-the-top performance as a self-appointed prophet, along with everyone else in this strong ensemble cast.

3 – No Country For Old Men

The Coens’ return to their merciless, humorless but often hilarious style of filmmaking is probably the most heralded film of the year, and I’m not disagreeing on this one.  Javier Bardem is damn petrifying as the grim reaper, and the everything else about this clean, ironic film makes it the most Coenish to date.  Haunting and lingering, this movie about the lack of glory that inhibits our lives is one you won’t ever forget.

2 – There Will Be Blood

Every one of the five years spent waiting for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s follow-up to the dizzy but exquisite Punch-Drunk Love were painful – but at least now we know they weren’t in vain.  Anderson’s exploration of business, religion and ethics feels so easily collected, only a real pro could do it.  Of course this is just as much P.T.A.‘s show as it is Daniel Day-Lewis’, who slowly makes his oil baron character more and more disconnected from reality until he finally pops out and off of humanity.  I could go on, but I think I’ll stop since I just wrote a review for the film last week.

1 – Zodiac

I’m surprised to see it at number one, and to be fair it only beats out the number two film after hours of thought; but my favorite movie of the year is probably Zodiac.  Few people can take a two-and-a-half hour+ picture that takes place over a quarter century without a resolution this satisfying and tense; but you have to hand it to thrill-master David Fincher that he handles the job with flying colors.  The terror and mythology of a serial killer run rampant through the Bay area keep this massive picture on the tracks, headed for one conclusion and one conclusion alone.  The gorgeous digital picture handles the retrospect perfectly – it gives us the allure of the 70s while looking current and undated.  And, while I’m automatically going to love any movie with Robert Downey Jr. in it, he’s got some great company in Zodiac with the boyish Jake Gyllenhaal and the frustrated Mark Ruffalo, alongside countless thankless character actors that only pop up for one or two scenes.  I can’t say it’s my number one film by a mile, but it’s a movie I haven’t stopped thinking about since I saw it in March, and I don’t know that I ever will.