Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Year in Review Pt 3: The Top Ten of 2007

In order to get this up... I'm just publishing as I go. Ah, the rough draft magic of online publishing. The year's best films (13 will be name-checked --you gotta include those honorable mentions) stretch across the Globe from dusty American landscapes to sterile Romanian dormitories. There's milkshakes, damning legal documents, one particularly gobsmacking green dress, and a sensitive hoover repairmen among other things.


Honorable Mentions
If, when you look at the three titles that didn't quite make my top ten list, you feel as if someone has stifled your civil liberties, slit your throat or shot you in the back for fame and existential fortune, please console yourself with the fantasy that all three are tied for 10th place. If I believed in ties they probably would be....

Read the rest...
10... 9... 8... 7... 6... and the top five. My Best Picture Ballot
the film bitch awards have begun
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30 comments:

Sam Brooks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sam Brooks said...

Can't wait for the rest of these! I agree with them thus far! Love your comments on these four films so far, too.

WickedScorp said...

Though I admired The Sweet Hereafter, I remember her more for her role in one of my all time favs GO!.

Emma said...

I really liked Away from Her too.

Emma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

YAY for the Away from her love! No-one I know (in reality, not the far superior computer generated land I spend most of my time in) has seen it and I love that it's getting praise.

Glenn Dunks said...

So, wait? Is there a #10 or are Jesse James, Sweeney Todd and Persepolis actually tied for the number 10 spot?

Anonymous said...

Of the nearly 200 new films I saw from 2007, I'd say Away From Her was my favorite.

Darryl S said...

Nat, 3:10 to Yuma DVD is coming out today. I don't think it will be in your top 10 but if your other categories are not set up yet, you might wanna catch it.

Colin Low said...

"... my five favorite [foreign film]s were: Black Book, The Host, Lady Chatterley, Lust Caution (more on that one later) and Ten Canoes."

I may be raising false hopes, but could this mean that Lust, Caution has found its way onto your top eight list? I would be jubilant; too many American critics have maligned this masterpiece, to the point that I can only blame it on a myriad of cultural differences/misunderstandings -- a topic I should take the time to write about.

Anonymous said...

Does it mean that "Ratatouille" is in the five? I'm amazed ;)

Lyn said...

Thanks for your Atonement review. Instead of arguing about the film, I can now point to the review and say - "what he said". Much quicker!

Anonymous said...

Once for #1!

Anyway, my Top 10 looks like this, just for the hell of it.

10. Away from Her
9. Ratatouille
8. Redacted
7. Jindabyne
6. The Assassination of Jesse James...
5. Knocked Up
4. Into the Wild
3. I'm Not There
2. Atonement
1. Once

Anonymous said...

Ooh, Nathaniel. I'm getting jitters.

Jason Adams said...

Nat, your link to your Zoom In Atonement review isn't working for me. So I can't really argue with you about it!

But I will say as a non-believer, that perhaps I'd have found more to like about the film if I hadn't found Briony's fake vision of the past to be so terrifically boring. The irony of her having changed the entire story to give it a happier ending might've meant more if any of the people she'd been telling us about had come across as more than window dressing. To me. Obviously. But I can't start caring about people in retrospect because I find out what really happened was a thousand times more interesting than what I just spent an hour and a half watching.

NATHANIEL R said...

fixed the link to the review

also i must sleep. sorry. BUT MY BEST PICTURE NOMINEES ARE UP.

which means the FILM BITCH AWARDS have begun

Chris said...

Seeing as my two favroite films of the year (Lars and the Real Girl and Juno) aren't in the top five, I would like to give support for Once being #1.

adam k. said...

I'm also putting my chips behind Once for the #1 spot. That film was just such a breath of fresh air... and so criminally underrewarded this season. I need it to win SOMETHING, Nat, or I'll explode. Please help me.

If not Once, then I'm hoping for an 11th hour coup by There Will Be Blood.

After seeing No Country a second time, I have a really hard time loving it. I get that it's brutal and dark and honest and whatnot and I respect it for that. But I just have no deep love for it whatsoever. In fact, watching it a second time was kind of a chore.

Anyway, I'm gonna go watch my Once DVD now... it just came in the mail the other day.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, I totally forgot about Lust, Caution! That goes in my #7, everything else gets knocked down a peg. No Country and Blood are hanging out just outside. I didn't get to see 4 Months this year, sadly.

NATHANIEL R said...

steve... 4 months only got a qualifying release. It open properly this month.

Deborah said...

I haven't seen enough films this year, but Once is my film of the year, hands down; the kind of film that makes you grab your friends and explain how they MUST! SEE! IT! How to explain how something so gentle it practically flutters away on a breeze can knock all the breath out of your body?

NicksFlickPicks said...

What is that graphic underneath the 2 in 2007?

NATHANIEL R said...

oh it's nothing cryptic. Tis just hte light that's shining on George Clooney's movie looks.

gabrieloak said...

Thank you for putting Once and Lust, Caution on your list, two of my favorite movies for 2007. I'm afraid neither NCFOM or Michael Clayton would make my top 10 list--both worthy films but a bit overrated. But I like your other choices very much.

I recently had an argument with a friend of a friend over Ang Lee--she hates everything he's done since Eat Drink Man Woman. I didn't know what to say to her after she tore apart Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution. Of course we can't all agree but then she told me how much she liked Crash. She actually knows her movies, but I'm afraid I don't get those who think Ang Lee is a bad filmmaker.

Anonymous said...

Props for not jumping on the Juno locomotive.

I love your top five except, I think I am the only person in the world who was totally bored by No Country. I knew where it was going every step of the way, and I didn't care.

Anonymous said...

Great list, agreed with everything on it, great stuff man.

Gordon said...

Pretty good list, but The Assassasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford should be in the top 5.

1. No Country for Old Men
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. There Will be Blood
4. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
5. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
6. I'm Not There
7. Eastern Promises
8. Lust, Caution
9. Persepolis
10. Rescue Dawn

Anonymous said...

My Picks for… THE TOP 10 FILMS OF 2007
01. No Country for Old Men
02. Atonement
03. Zodiac
04. Knocked Up
05. Once
06. Lust, Caution
07. There Will Be Blood
08. Grindhouse
09. I’m Not There
10. Ratatouille

My Picks for…
BEST PICTURE
“Atonement”
“Knocked Up”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Once”
“Zodiac”

My Picks for…
BEST DIRECTING
GRINDHOUSE - Robert Rodriquez, Quentin Tarantino
LUST, CAUTION - Ang Lee
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - The Coen Bros.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD - P.T. Anderson
ZODIAC - David Fincher

Anonymous said...

Ratatouille, No Country and Once also made my top five. Once was duking it out with Sweeney Todd for #1, before slipping through. I do think though, that the most beautiful ending of a movie is a tie between Sweeney Todd and Away From Her. The constant use of Fiona's face throughout the film had a purpose after all. Wow.

Anonymous said...

Is this list or the film bitch awards every going to get finished? It's been dragging out for a month now.