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Moriarty Picks His 24 Favorite Films Of 2007! PART ONE! The Runners-Up! C*NT! Kids Flicks! Three Different Ends Of The World!
Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
Wow. I can’t believe 2007 is done.
I think one reason is because so much of what began in 2007 for me is still unresolved. My wife’s been pregnant for what seems like forever now, and isn’t due until March. And the writer’s strike keeps grinding on as well, unresolved, no immediate end in sight.
And for the last few weeks, I’ve been immersed in a number of last-minute films from 2007, films I needed to catch up on to feel like I had an accurate sense of the year as a whole. Even with all that last-minute work, I still feel like there are titles I’ve missed, things I wish I could have seen, things that may well have changed this list if I had seen them.
But that’s the way it goes. And in a year like this, asking for more treats makes me a big fat Augustus Gloop, a bitchy little Veruca Salt who can’t keep her hands to herself. This has been a phenomenal year of film, a year that reminds you why you love movies in the first place. This has been the sort of year where a top ten list just won’t do the trick. Where even a top twenty list doesn’t quite cover it.
Nope... this year, I’m doing a top twenty-four list.
There are only twenty spots on the list itself... ten runners-up, and the top ten... but there are ties in two places, and so I’m going to be precise and call this a top twenty-four. These are my favorite movies that were released or screened in LA in the last twelve months. The only requirement for the film to be on the list is for it to be either new to 2007 or unreleased prior to 2007, and for me to have seen it. I know that must frustrate some of you if limited release titles haven’t made it to your neck of the woods yet, and I’m sorry about that, but this is my list... and all I can do is be honest about what the films were that meant the most to me. I’m amazed how often people get angry or defensive or crazy about what is or isn’t on someone’s list.
For example, I was reading the talkback over at Capone’s Best Of List, and I came across this very well-reasoned response:
What I dont understandand about AICN
by theycallmemrglass
Jan 4th, 2008
06:19:12 AM
Is the sight hypes up about and geeks the shit out of blockbuster films such as Transformers, Rocky Balboa, Pirates, Spiderman, harry Potter, snakes on a plane etc. Then totally ignore them in their ARTY top 50. I've been an AICN reader for years and I see the same pattern. I remember how Harry loved Attack of the Clones and then totally ignored it in his list. Then revenge of the Sith. SO what about this years blockbusters that AICN geeked out on? Spiderman 3 for instance, not the greatest film but it sure had entertainment factor on the high end of the scale and harry dug it (apart from the venom). Pirates of the Caribeean was a major major dissapointment so I will move on! Transformers was geeked to high kingdom (I personally just thought it was fun but no geeky love for it). How about Rocky? I just dont understand why this site is about COOL not ART oscar calibre films, and to be fair most of it is but that geekness and COOL factor never reflected in the best of the year lists. I dont knock most of the best of list either but I find it somewhat hypocritical. How about a geeky top 10 then, films that were enormous fun and rewatchable for the fun factor.
Okay... fair enough. But I think there’s something wrong with the idea that we “hype up about and geeks the shit out of” the big giant blockbuster movies. Those films get a lot of coverage here, but I guarantee that there’s stuff we just plain don’t post about those films, and in every case, someone complains we didn’t post it. Even if it shows up on 37 other sites and I don’t see any reason to post it just to post it, someone will give us shit about it. You guys want excessive coverage of those films. You demand it. You are angry if you don’t get it.
I’m happy to do it, of course. And so is Harry. And Quint. And Merrick. And everyone else who contributes. Because that’s the nature of being a geek.
But take some responsibility, people. You are hype. You. The audience. You feed the hype in an organic way that can’t be manufactured. You choose what you want to get hyped about, and then you let yourselves get hyped. Over and over and over again.
I do it, too, of course. You can’t be a movie lover without coming to terms with that give and take. You know that you’re going to get burned sometimes. And you know that sometimes you’ll get blindsided by things you didn’t expect. But sometimes, films will live up to the hype, and when that happens... oh, man. It’s like watching an athlete do something perfect, something superhuman, or watching a musician pull off some particular impossible move.
I mean, speaking for myself, I always want those giant films to be great. I always want them to be every bit the movies that the trailers all promise.
But the other day, Harry and I were talking on the phone, geeking about this and that, and we were talking at one point about Alex De La Ygelsias, and that’s the whole reason Harry and I are friends in the first place... because he’s enough of a film nerd that he can HAVE that conversation with me. Being a film geek the way I live it, it’s about the whole world of film. Big stuff, small stuff, foreign language titles, American independent cinema, comic book movies and remakes and sequels, festival fare, direct-to-video... I’ll pretty much give anything a shake, and I hope all of it is good. That’s not hype. That’s just a general philosophy about film. Of course it’s not all good, but if I didn’t approach every single movie I watch with some degree of optimism...
... I’d stop watching them. I mean, I read some people who post in our talkbacks, and it’s like they hate and dread the entire experience of seeing a movie, like they hate filmgoing and can’t relax enough to enjoy anything they see, and I wonder... why would you read a movie news and review website? And more importantly, why would you post on it?
But I digress. Let’s get back to the point that “TheyCallMeMrGlass” made. Why do we seem enthusiastic about geek cinema most of all in terms of coverage, but our year-end lists don’t always reflect that? If someone goes crazy for a SPIDER-MAN movie during the summer, shouldn’t it end up on their best-of list at the end of the year?
Well, it depends. I don’t draw any distinction between “geek cinema” and “regular cinema,” so I don’t go out of my way to put only “real” movies on an end-of-the-year list. I’ve certainly ended up with summer movies on my list in the past, and I’m sure I will in the future as well. But for me, when I get to the end of a full year of cinema, my perspective is very different than it is as we’re actually living through the year, week after week after week. When I’m writing reviews, I am trying to contextualize not only the experience I had watching a movie, but the movie itself in terms of genre, careers of the people who made it, and the film industry as a whole. I always try to judge a film based on its intent, not on some absolute scale where everything is exactly equal.
For example... if I see a comedy, the thing that is most important to me is whether or not I laugh. And in judging that film, how much I laugh is going to be a major factor. And when I write about that film, I’m going to do my best to talk about how it succeeds or fails at what it is trying to do. And maybe it succeeds completely at what it’s trying to do, and I say so. Does that mean that at the end of the year, it’s automatically going to end up on my list of my favorite films? Nope. And there’s nothing hypocritical about that. A superhero film might be a great superhero movie, loads of fun to watch, and I still might not put it on a list because there are other films that I think work better overall. That’s not a slam on the superhero movie, either. It’s just that the very nature of making a list is the inclusion a very few things and the exclusion of everything else.
I mean, my god, the films that aren’t on my lists. I’m a little bit shocked, frankly. I’M NOT THERE. LUST, CAUTION. TEKKONKINKREET. GONE BABY GONE. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. THE DARJEELING LIMITED. JUNO. MICHAEL CLAYTON. RESCUE DAWN. STEPHANIE DALEY. THE TV SET. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY. CONTROL. These are all movies that I think are amazing. Not just good, but amazing. I will own all of those movies. I will watch them more than once, I’m sure. If I were to publish that list of the Top Twelve Movies that aren’t on my Top Twelve Movies list, it would be an amazing list, all of them worth your time and attention.
Another reason I’m late is because, frankly, I was worried about writing the piece. I was scared I couldn’t do justice to the year that we just witnessed. The last time this happened, it was 1999. I decided to write the now-infamous ‘90s list as a way of warming up to the task of writing about 1999, one of the best movie years I’d ever lived through.
Never got there. I’ve still never published a list for 1999. I never weighed in on IRON GIANT vs FIGHT CLUB vs THREE KINGS vs AMERICAN BEAUTY vs THE INSIDER vs THE STRAIGHT STORY vs BEING JOHN MALKOVICH vs MAGNOLIA and on and on and on. I just plain hit a wall with writer’s block in terms of writing about what that year meant to me personally here at AICN and as a filmgoer.
So the fact that I’m writing this 2007 piece and it’s still January… that’s progress. Give me some fucking credit. Please. Besides, one of the things I hate most in this world is people who want to influence the Oscars. I know that writing a best-of list is, by definition, a political act. You’re making a statement about what art has more value to you. But it’s not just political... it’s also deeply personal. When you read someone’s list, you’re getting a very intimate look at who they were emotionally that year. I think that’s why people get so defensive about the ordering on lists, and it’s definitely why I’ve taken so long putting my own together. So... we’re here for the countdown. But before that, a special award that simply has to be given. There’s no way to put 2007 to bed without talking about this in some form...
by theycallmemrglass
Jan 4th, 2008
06:19:12 AM
Is the sight hypes up about and geeks the shit out of blockbuster films such as Transformers, Rocky Balboa, Pirates, Spiderman, harry Potter, snakes on a plane etc. Then totally ignore them in their ARTY top 50. I've been an AICN reader for years and I see the same pattern. I remember how Harry loved Attack of the Clones and then totally ignored it in his list. Then revenge of the Sith. SO what about this years blockbusters that AICN geeked out on? Spiderman 3 for instance, not the greatest film but it sure had entertainment factor on the high end of the scale and harry dug it (apart from the venom). Pirates of the Caribeean was a major major dissapointment so I will move on! Transformers was geeked to high kingdom (I personally just thought it was fun but no geeky love for it). How about Rocky? I just dont understand why this site is about COOL not ART oscar calibre films, and to be fair most of it is but that geekness and COOL factor never reflected in the best of the year lists. I dont knock most of the best of list either but I find it somewhat hypocritical. How about a geeky top 10 then, films that were enormous fun and rewatchable for the fun factor.
THE EVENT OF THE YEAR
The WGA Strike
Duh.
In the future, this is the image that 2007 will bring to mind for me:
I haven’t written a lot about the strike here on AICN. And now that it’s almost done... god willing... it seems like any attempt to sum this all up will fall short. It meant something to me personally as a working writer, something I don’t expect anyone else to understand.
Yes, there’s a chunk of our readership that works in the industry, but there’s a much higher percentage that don’t, that simply love movies as an audience and as fandom. And based on the mail I’ve gotten, the conversation is so difficult to have with someone not living and working in Los Angeles that it’s not worth the effort. I don’t want to fight with someone about how I make my living or have to defend my professional choices to someone who reads my reviews. That seems so intrusive that I can’t believe people really feel invested in this.
Fighting about it in the media is a mistake, in my opinion, because it somehow creates the impression that the public gets a vote in how things end. And they don’t. Not in any significant way. The only way the public could ever really force the AMPTP signatory companies to change is if they used organized, surgical, significant financial boycotts. If they shut down Disney’s money machine for seven days... if they seriously interrupted the cash flow on a level that could not be ignored... that might make a difference or send a signal.
That will never. Ever. Ever. Ever happen. And short of that, the public isn’t going to end this strike... a signed deal is going to end this strike. And I don’t think that’s going to happen tomorrow, but I hope sincerely that it’s going to happen before too long.
Before we move on, and because I haven’t seen anyone in the Writer’s Guild say this to anyone else in the business, allow me to say the following:
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry for every dollar this is costing every single real human being in the Los Angeles area. People in the business, people who work in industries that depend on the people who work in the business... the families of the people this strike is directly affecting... to all of you, I am sorry that this strike happened, is happening, and will continue to happen for a little while longer.
I’m sorry for the real human impact this is having on family life for people, and I’m sorry to anyone who is struggling with keeping their home as the market collapses. I’m sorry about the perfect storm of shit that I’ve heard several people have struggled with as this strike has worn on. I’m sorry, because my own personal nightmare is the loss of comfort or security for my family. I work as hard as I do because I want to make sure they are provided for, and right now... in a strike economy...
... well, like I said... I’m sorry. And I want to say one other thing. I made a crack not too long ago in one of the many strike-related talkbacks, in which I rolled a hand grenade into the conversation of who the “creators” of a movie are.
I laid out the argument that the only “creative” force on a film is the writer, since the writer is the one who creates what everyone else then works on. That makes everyone else an “interpretive” artist, and the writer the “creative” artist. It’s an asshole argument, of course, and a dumb semantics game, and I don’t mean a word of it.
Anyone who has ever worked on a film set knows the truth of it, which is that every single person on that set has something to do with that film being either good or bad.
And so as films and TV shows are shut down all over the city, and people have to sit it out, not working at the crafts they’ve chosen, I know exactly how that feels right now... only I got to at least vote about it. You didn’t. And for that, as much as anything else... I absolutely want to say to all of you... I’m sorry.
And if we don’t take the DGA deal, and we feel like we have to strike for a while longer to get what we need to get from the AMPTP... well, I’m sorry for that, too. I’ll still be at NBC Burbank on Monday picketing, but I’m sincerely sorry all the same.
No one has to agree with me about the strike. No one has to agree with the excellent UnitedHollywood. I’m saddened when I see people blindly swallow AMPTP propaganda, and I’m also puzzled why anyone would be reflexively pro-studio. But let’s try to keep the sloganeering to a dull roar in the talkback below, okay? Let’s talk about the movies, the real reason we’re here.
And now let’s get into the runners-up list. The following twelve titles are ranked from #20 to #11 on my list, with a tie at #11.
I’ll let you in on a secret... most years, the film that finds itself at #11 is one of my very faves... something that will end up getting an abnormal amount of play in my DVD player. I’ve got a real soft spot for #11, historically speaking. Is that true this year as well? We’ll see...
#20. SUNSHINE
dir. Danny Boyle
scr. Alex Garland
I’ve watched it three times now, and I have no idea what it cost. That’s exciting. Could be $30 million. Could be $95 million. I have no idea, and it’s impossible to tell. I like movies where it could be just plain ingenuity that created the visuals I’m seeing, and SUNSHINE’s a great example of that. I’ll bet Danny Boyle is a big fan of Peter Hyams’s 2010: THE YEAR WE MADE CONTACT. Well, me, too. I think SUNSHINE’s script is flawed in a few fairly major ways, and there are a number of films that just narrowly didn’t make this list that are much better-written. No doubt.
Scientifically, it’s sort of ridiculous and insane. Like THE CORE in space.
But the look of it... the feel of it... the persuasive way Boyle brings this deep-space trip to life... it’s the detail and the reality of it that I find so seductive. It’s a great “space truckers” movie, a sub-genre I have a real fondness for anyway. It’s hypnotic. There are a couple of characters in the film who love to use this one observation chamber where they can open the outer shields a little bit so they can get some direct exposure to the sunlight they’re flying into. They can only handle something like .00002% direct exposure, of course. It’s still super-heavily shielded. But just that flirtation with incineration is a rush for the characters. The images that Boyle created have that same kind of hypnotic draw, even when Alex Garland’s script is laughably lunkheaded. There were films with much, much better scripts than this that did not make it onto my list, but they didn’t equal SUNSHINE as a visual experience, and sometimes, that’s what I want from a movie.
As a science-fiction fan, there are times I feel like I’m starving to death, and then a film like SUNSHINE comes along, and it scratches the itch, nourishes me deeply. It’s not perfect. It goes off the rails a bit in the third act that, oddly, recalls the disastrous ending of KRULL in some ways. That ridiculousness has long been the burden of the serious science-fiction fan, and I have a pretty high tolerance for it. And there’s just a little bit of it, thanks to Boyle’s mostly-sure hand as a director. He and Garland are an interesting team... I’m not sure I think Garland is as strong a writer as John Hodge overall... and the best stuff in this film plays to Boyle’s strengths. Anything that has to do with the hardships of space travel is pretty great. For a long time, the film looks like it’s just going to be a slice-of-very-difficult-life adventure-drama. But there’s something ominous about the overall aesthetic that had me worried, and well over an hour into the film, I turned to my buddy Scott and said, “Oh, god, I hope this doesn’t turn into EVENT HORIZON. Please… pleeeeeease… don’t let the devil show up.” If Garland had just trusted himself and his ability to create tension and fear using just the difficulties of deep space, I think SUNSHINE would be much higher on this list. That’s how deeply I respond to the things this movie does right. It’s just that, sure enough, things get sort of HELLRAISER or, like I said, sort of KRULL. Still, one of the things that keeps me so interested in Boyle is the fact that he’s so imperfect, so frustrating, so uneven. His gifts as a filmmaker are undeniable, and at his best, Boyle is world-class. He just makes crazy decisions, and I find them so crazy at times that it makes me like his movies even more.
Cliff Curtis, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans… they all do strong character-driven work, and they’re one of my favorite crews in a film since Ed Harris and his team in THE ABYSS. I always judge a science-fiction film by how well the cast inhabits their science-fiction environment, and pretty much everyone deserves special mention here. Chris Evans should be treated better by fandom in general based on how he’s the MVP in the FANTASTIC FOUR series and based on how well he anchors this film. Cillian Murphy has worked with Boyle before, of course, and I wonder if he’s becoming Boyle’s new Ewan McGregor, his everyman he’ll take from film to film. Murphy’s eyes are too creepy for him to truly be an everyman, though, and I really like the way Boyle uses him here.
Cinematographer Alwin Kuchler is, simply put, the shit. I love his work on MORVERN CALLAR and CODE 46, but with SUNSHINE, he has taken a huge leap forward in terms of ambition and accomplishment. I think the great cinematographers have to do genre films in order to really push the boundaries of their craft. I’m excited that he’s shooting Romanek’s THE WOLF MAN next based on how his work’s been evolving so far.
I’m not sure SUNSHINE is for everyone, but based on everything I’ve written, you should know by now if it’s the sort of thing you’re interested in. It’ll all boil down to one question: can you set aside a few major stumbling blocks in order to enjoy something as precisely and powerfully crafted as this is?
#19. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
dir. Sidney Lumet
scr. Kelly Masterson
What an exciting collision of the old and the new. Sidney Lumet is, of course, one of the best of the old-school ‘50s TV directors still working, a defining voice in ‘70s cinema, and still vital. Kelly Masterson is a new writer making a debut here. As a result of that particular alchemy, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD is familiar material brought to life with a master’s touch, but told with the urgency and reckless radical disregard for narrative convention of a young man. I love the way the sleaze in this film is turned up to high. The opening is a sexually graphic liason between Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the frankness of the moment and the onscreen presentation of it is enough to let you know just how rough Lumet intends to play everything. It’s dark and funny and a little creepy, and it sets a tone that much of the movie matches.
What surprised me is how bleak things get, and how the movie puts the screws to Hoffman’s character, Andy Hanson, as well as Hank Hanson, his brother, played by the jittery and maddening Ethan Hawke. Tomei’s a player, but she’s not the one who has to pay according to the rules of tragedy. And this is, make no mistake, big-time Greek tragedy. A family member ensnares another family member in something, and then it spreads like cancer until it burns their entire family down, erasing years of good in a spiral of horror.
And did I mention that Tomei makes 42 look goooooooooooood?
Here’s my original review!
#18. ATONEMENT
dir. Joe Wright
scr. Christopher Hampton
based on the novel by Ian McEwan
For those of you keeping score at home, I can’t stand Keira Knightley. And I didn’t have much reaction at all to Joe Wright’s PRIDE & PREJUDICE aside from a sort of detached bewilderment when people started freaking out about it. So color me shocked that this film ended up anywhere near my list at all this year.
Much credit has to go to Christopher Hampton for his remarkable, creative adaptation of Ian McEwan’s literary, largely-internal and unadaptable novel. McEwan’s book is built around a conceit that seemed to me, upon first reading it, impossible to duplicate on film. I’m not sure I’d say Hampton exactly equals the impact, but he finds a way to play the same sort of perspective game with someone watching the movie. The last third of the film is where I found myself really reacting to it, impressed by where it takes you. When you look at the trailer for this film, it appears to be cut from the same Merchant-Ivory/Miramax Oscar bait cloth that I normally don’t have much tolerance for, but again… that book. The source material. It could easily be turned into a really stiff and lifeless movie genetically designed to play nice with the Oscar voters, or it could be made into something angrier, something that weaves a complicated story of timing and class and honesty and our almost pathological need as a culture for happy endings. It’s a smart film that carries a real emotional punch, a rare combination. One of the things that surprised me is just how credible Knightley is in her scenes with James McAvoy, who emerges here as a real leading man, someone with some weight and some substance to him that I haven’t seen in anything else he’s done.
The discovery of the film is Saoirse Ronan, playing the equally-hard-to-spell Briony Tallis. She’s the one who basically drives the entire film. Her actions set a series of devastating events into motion. It’s her testimony that destroys so many lives in so many subtle ways. She’s the one who intercepts a private letter, the one whose shocked reaction to a single word (“CUNT” has never been utilized to more devastating personal effect in a movie) combined with jealousy so raw and unformed that she can barely articulate it leads her to make a snap decision that she regrets for the rest of her life. The atonement of the film’s title… it’s hers. And this is the character and these are the performances (Briony is played by two other actresses as well, Romola Garai and the great Vanessa Redgrave) that make this movie something more than just a period romance set against the backdrop of war. That stuff is well-done, sincerely-played, and familiar in many ways. I will confess… I was so startled by the scene on the beach the first time I saw it that I had to play it back twice. Much has been written about the five-minute continuous tracking shot that Joe Wright pulls off, and most of the time I think it’s a shame when people talk about a particular shot removed from context. To me, that normally is a moment where a director is very clever, but sometimes at the expense of the honesty of a moment. It’s great to put together one shot that features thousands of extras and featured cast and a huge outdoor set and pyro and horses and everything else… but if it doesn’t communicate some idea, something essential to the movie at that particular moment, then it’s just an empty camera move. I thought in PRIDE & PREJUDICE, there were moments that felt like showing off, choreography for the sake of it. Here, this beach scene tells a complete story. It’s beautiful. It’s a class in economic storytelling on a grand scale. And it’s right for the moment, right for the movie. Yes, it’s an amazing technical moment, but more than that, it’s right. Like when Cuaron pulled off a few spectacular moves in CHILDREN OF MEN... they felt like more than an FX reel. They pulled you into those moments viscerally.
I think all involved come off looking good, and ATONEMENT has to rank as one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I love being proven wrong in a case like this.
#17. BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
dir. Gabor Csupo
scr. Jeff Stockwell and David Paterson
based on the book by Katherine Paterson
This stuck with me. I saw it early in the year, and then I saw it with my wife when they sent it to us on video, and since then I find that it’s really stuck with me. It’s a shaky beginning for the film. It feels like a thousand other youth market movies… sort of plastic and trying too hard and a little on the cute side. But then the two kids (Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb) meet and they visit the forest together for the first time and…
… and it just works. The film is never what it seems like it’s going to be, with some big surprises throughout its running time, and since I’m unfamiliar with what I’ve since learned is an ubiquitous book in the American public school system, I didn’t know the third act twist. Let’s just say it did the trick... and it did it to my wife, as well. It’s a beautifully acted piece, and I’m impressed by the work by Gabor Csupo, known for his work in the world of animation but not for live-action fare. He gets better-than-average work from his whole cast. Even Zooey Deschanel in a small role comes in and kills, adorable as can be.
A story like BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA can make all the difference to a young person in equipping them to understand some of life’s most important moments. It’s rare that Hollywood gets hold of a piece of material that’s written with this kind of sensitivity and then they actually translate it to the screen intact, with integrity and with real heart. It’s due in no small part, I’m sure, to the involvement of David Paterson, the son of the author of the original book. As we start to really dig deeper in to the catalog of youth fantasy and youth fiction in general and as studios desperately try to tap into that POTTER-primed market, I can only hope that more filmmakers will (A) pick material this good and (B) treat it with the same respect. I have a feeling I’ll be sharing this one with my own kids in years to come.
Here’s my original review!
#16. THE MIST
dir. Frank Darabont
scr. Frank Darabont
based on the novel by Stephen King
On the other hand, here’s a film my kids will never, ever see.
If they did, they’d probably sleep with one eye open for a while, scared shitless that Daddy might stop by while they’re snoozing. This is one bleak, painful movie, and as much as I thought I knew what it was going to be based on knowing King’s novella and hearing Frank Darabont talk about it over the years, I really wasn’t ready for something this… wounded.
Billy Wilder impresses me as an artist because of the way he evolved. He was amazing throughout his career, but his voice changed. His outlook on life changed. He wrestled with an abiding cynicism and occasionally lost that battle, and there are jet black moments in his career that shock me even now because I can’t believe any studio on earth let him make those films, especially in the ’50s and ‘60s.
I bring this up because I think Darabont is changing as he gets older. For one filmmaker to bring both THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE MIST to the screen is hard to imagine. In a way, though, they both make the same point, which is that hope is the one thing we can never give up. When we do, we die. It’s that simple. Hope keeps us moving. Hope keeps our hearts beating. The death of hope is worse than death itself. It’s just that SHAWSHANK shows us a best-case scenario that lifts us up, inspires us, while THE MIST rubs our noses in the worst-case scenario hard enough to leave scars. People think of Darabont as sort of sunshiney and mainstreamy and he is indeed a preposterously nice and charming guy. But he’s not some bland Pollyanna. He’s capable of blistering anger, focused and articulate, and I think he’s reached a place in his career where he’s so absurdly well-off that the only thing that can get him to show up to a set or sit down at the typewriter is passion. He has to mean it. And it’s obvious watching THE MIST that Darabont was not in a sunshiney place when he set out to tell this particular story.
It’s not just the monster stuff that’s bleak, although he certainly makes it seem impossible to survive an encounter with the twisted biology that rolls in when the mist does. It’s the view the film espouses of society, of our behavior when left to our own devices in small groups. Cut off the outside world, leave 50 of us alone, and see how long they last. They will die from the inside like an animal with cancer before the things outside ever get a chance to finish them off. That’s just the nature of human beings, and that’s what makes THE MIST such a bitter pill. Even the film’s final awful lesson about hope is a case of a gesture meant well that goes godawfully wrong. A decision is made. It seems like the only decision. And then… that bit of daylight that seemed impossible, that hit of fresh air, all a moment too late. People in this film are punished for their own nature, a sign that no matter how the mist is explained away, its real purpose is practically Biblical. It is rolling metaphor, Travis Bickle’s cleansing rain finally falling hard, and this is one of the great horror films of the last few years as a result.
Here’s my original review!
#15. PARANOID PARK
dir. Gus Van Sant
scr. Gus Van Sant
based on the novel by Blake Nelson
The more I think about this one, the more amazed I am by it. Gus Van Sant has been working towards this film for the last five years, and with the help of Christopher Doyle, I think he’s finally done it just right.
But what is “it”? What has Van Sant been doing in GERRY and ELEPHANT and LAST DAYS? What is this sort of meandering aesthetic of his, this real-time long-take mundane reality thing that he’s been doing, refining from film to film? I finally saw Alan Clarke’s ELEPHANT from 1989, and it’s obvious that was what inspired Van Sant to adopt this style as his own, right down to making his own version of ELEPHANT. That was the opposite of his PSYCHO remake, though, which was notable only for how faithful it was to Hitchcock’s original. ELEPHANT was simply him taking the visual plan and the basic idea -– show an act of violence in a removed, distanced context that is almost completely realistic, shot on location with complete unknowns –- and doing it in a whole new time and place, holding a mirror up to high school shootings instead of IRA violence. GERRY is a sort of Ionesco comedy, wandering idiots talking about big issues and low ideas. LAST DAYS is the biopic through that filter, missing the big moments, painting an oblique picture on purpose as a sort of meta-statement about the unknowable nature of celebrity.
Here, Van Sant’s taken a novel that was written for teenagers, a first-person diary piece about a kid who is involved in a terrible accident and who doesn’t tell anyone. It got decent reviews and was evidently well-written and had some well-drawn characters. Van Sant saw something in it, a chance to make a movie in this style he’s been developing that has a great little story, a compelling mystery driving it forward, and an authentic voice.
Gabe Nevins is the lead in the film, and if he never works again, it doesn’t matter. He’s given one great performance, real and unaffected and devastating. I really believed in this kid, and it reminded me of the performance Linda Manz gave in DAYS OF HEAVEN. He’s got that same heavy-lidded disconnect, this way of looking through people that makes him seem so much more than just a kid sometimes. Van Sant shot the film in Portland, and it’s got a great grounded sense of time and place. Like I said... Christopher Doyle was the director of photography on the film, and it’s hard to overstate just how great his work is here. I’ve seen most of the great skate films, seen most of the ways people have shot skateboarding and skateboarding culture, and the coolest part about the film is that I don’t think Chris Doyle has watched much of that stuff at all. It’s not shot the same way we see everything else shot. There’s a dreamy underwater feeling to the entire movie. Something terrible has happened to Alex, the character that Nevins plays, and he’s sort of moving through his whole life wide awake but dreaming, drowning in this surreal series of unfolding events. My favorite subplot involves his girlfriend Jennifer (Taylor Momsen), a self-aware little hottie-in-training who is determined she’s going to lose her virginity to Alex.
Momsen (who is, shockingly enough, the little girl who played opposite Jim Carrey in THE GRINCH, and who is also on GOSSIP GIRL at the moment, all growed-up) is pitch-perfect, and considering how many movies and TV shows she’s been in, and how few (as in none) Nevins has been in, they never feel mismatched. She makes him better in their scenes together. Van Sant deserves enormous credit for the work he does with his young cast. I feel about this film the way I do about THE OUTSIDERS. I think it’s got a great young cast, I think it tells a big sweeping emotional teen story, and I was genuinely moved by the way it all comes together. This is sort of storytelling that I think Haggis aspired to with CRASH, but done with a grace and a feather touch that Haggis is incapable of. I think if you don’t mind that sort of unsubtle approach, it’s fine, and believe me… I’m the guy who wrote PRO-LIFE, so I know unsubtle when I see it. Van Sant takes this style he’s been developing, he plays pick-up sticks with the chronology (in a way that snaps every single dramatic step into sharp focus), and he delivers a lean hour-and-a-half long film that points the way to what I hope is the rest of his career. I never want him to make another FINDING FORRESTER or GOOD WILL HUNTING again. I never want to see Van Sant directing Robin Williams in tears again or Sean Connery growling, “Where’s my Oscar, you cunts?” I want to see him push this further.
The thing the movie captures so perfectly is the way you make choices at that age that you can’t take back, and some of them result in these amazing adventures that belong only to you, things you know you can never tell your parents, things you might not even ever tell your friends. And some of those choices result in catastrophe. And you find yourself at a loss to explain what led you to that place. It’s like you’re dreaming it. I know there was one weekend when I was 17, when I was first driving, and I was working at a theater in Brandon, Florida. It was a rainy winter Saturday afternoon when I got to work to open the theater, and my manager was losing his shit because we were supposed to have a studio sneak of a movie that night, and the print was delivered to a theater in Orlando by mistake.
Orlando, keep in mind, is about two hours away if it’s raining so hard you can’t see ten feet. Which it was.
I was under strict orders from my parents to only take the van to work and then home. I had not proven myself to be the most reliable of human beings by that point. Shocking, I know. And I knew full-well that my parents were not going to love the notion of me venturing out in a storm to pick up a print. But I used to really bust ass at that job, and I was already the head projectionist. I saw it as my responsibility to get that print. So I went. With a busted heater. With zero visibility.
And along the way, I managed to fuck up the entire passenger’s side panel of the van. I peeled it back like the top of a tuna can as I tried to leave a parking lot. I rolled over a cement divider and then in trying to back the van off, I made things worse.
And I lost it. I panicked. I had made a bad decision to get to that place, and all I could do that that point, it seemed, was make more bad decisions. One after another, each one compounding it. On the way back to Tampa, absolutely terrified about what was going to happen to me, I managed to stop at a gas station and fuck up the other side of the van as well. It was just so impossible to imagine it happening that, of course, it did. And it only compounded my panic. I’m lucky I made it back to Tampa alive. To this day, I’ve never really been able to explain the day to my parents, and not because I don’t want to... it’s because I can’t. I just can’t explain how it all went so insanely wrong. It doesn’t seem real. Watching Alex as he works his way through his dilemma in this film, I felt for the kid. Van Sant’s crafted an honest movie that still works as an unconventional thriller. It’s also got perhaps the single greatest money shot of Van Sant’s entire career, one of those images that I’ll never shake when I think of this year in film. I really can’t say enough good things about this film.
#14. EASTERN PROMISES
dir. David Cronenberg
scr. Steven Knight
In a perfect world, this would turn out to be only one in a series of films that David Cronenberg, Steven Knight, and Viggo Mortensen make about Nikolai, the provocative anti-hero they created with this film. He’s an awesome character, and one of my favorite things about this film is the way it hints at Nikolai’s larger story without giving it all up in one ridiculous expository monologue.
We pick up Nikolai at a particular point in his life, and when we last see him, his story is far from over. The film tells the story of the character played by Naomi Watts, and the way her life intersects with Nikolai... that’s the drama. That’s the meat of the thing. She steps into a larger story that’s already in progress, and when she finally leaves this world behind, changed permanently for having dipped into it, that’s where the film ends, even though this larger story is still unfolding. This is just one of several films this year that pulled this sort of thing on audiences, and some people seem to hate it. Me? I just want them to eventually give us more stories. Sequels that are about characters I love sound like heaven instead of sequels based on release dates and brand awareness.
The crime world that Cronenberg and Knight create here is a meticulously researched one, and they use this world to simply deal with the basic struggles of the human heart. I think Cronenberg has turned the corner into a new phase of his career where he is making films about human monsters, about the things that live beneath the skin of all of us. I think he loves to show the weakness in monsters, the way even the most unrecognizable of them still has something human about it. It’s an awful thing to consider sometimes. Here, Nikolai wrestles with his own nature as a result of the lifestyle he has chosen to lead. He is a monster. Sometimes. And sometimes he is a man sworn to stop monsters. And neither side is pretend or just a role, but neither side is really him, either. Nikolai has a laser focus until Anna (Watts) crosses his path, and she stirs that small remaining bit of beating human heart. She touches that essence of humanity in him. And it changes the way he behaves. He is forced to adapt and change the way he goes about his business. I love the way Nikolai seems constantly shocked by his own reactions to Anna. I’ve never seen a character wish more fervently that they were able to disconnect their moral compass, and it’s striking the way Cronenberg and Knight dramatize it. Mortensen and Watts bring a great adult weariness to their roles, and they both do beautiful work. Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl both chew the scenery with aplomb as members of the family that Nikolai works for. Peter Suschitzky’s work is some of his best with Cronenberg in his long history as cinematographer for him (DEAD RINGERS, NAKED LUNCH, M. BUTTERFLY, CRASH, eXistenZ, SPIDER, and HISTORY OF VIOLENCE), lurid and pulpy and sort of hyper-noir without the self-consciousness of something like SIN CITY. The much-discussed bathhouse fight scene is one of the great action sequences of the year, thrilling and brutal, and it reminds me that even at this stage in his career, Cronenberg still feels like a director with something to prove, something he has to say, someone with a reason to keep making films. He’s long been a favorite of mine, a hero to me artistically, and to see him continually deliver films of this caliber is reward for all the faith I’ve had in him over the years.
Here’s my original review!
#13. THE NAMESAKE
dir. Mira Nair
scr. Sooni Taraporevala
based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri
What a beautiful, generous movie this is. There was a lot of darkness on display in the theater in 2007, and I loved a lot of it, but no film this year had more to say about the beauty of family than this one.
I’m not one of those people who thinks you have to have a family to be complete, or even that you have to be married to be complete. I think we all need different things in this world to make us whole, to balance us, to connect us to whatever community it is we are drawn to or born into. I know that I was one person before I had a family, and I’m a very different person now that the word means “my wife and my child” and not “my parents and my sister.” I’m no longer defined as someone’s child. I have people who depend on me, people who I am responsible for, responsible to. And I love that. It has made me a much better person, a much happier person. There have been large parts of my life where I’ve been positively rock-bottom, and I somehow soldiered on as we all do, making all my little compromises and accepting all the various disappointments we are so often dealt, and during those times, I’ve felt like I was never going to be happy again. And then I turned a corner, unexpectedly, thanks to someone’s arrival in my life, and everything was right again. And those passages in our lives, those defining seismic shifts, are hard to portray with any degree of delicacy on film. You have to do a lot of legwork, and it can be phony, forced. This film covers something like thirty five years in the life of an extended family, and it runs 122 minutes, so it’s always pushing forward. I was afraid it might feel too episodic, but the screenplay is almost surgical about what it shows and what it doesn’t, wisely picking its moments. It allows room for intimacy, for the film and the characters to slow down at times and really breathe.
I haven’t read the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, but the film is rich and culturally specific, and as someone married to a person who is still part of the immigration system, still working her way towards a citizenship, I loved the way it painted the immigrant experience. I think most people casually glancing at the cover of this or at a description of it are going to focus on Kal Penn, the one generally familiar face here. Irfan Khan is the real star here, though, and he deserves to be remembered for his work as Ashoke Ganguli. I think it’s the most wrenching and spiritual portrait of fatherhood since IN AMERICA, and it affects me the same way. This movie says so much about the hopes we have for our children, the things we want for ourselves, and Ashoke is the one who makes it all happen. He’s in a horrific train crash near Calcutta at the start of the film (particularly odd if you remember his work in THE DARJEELING LIMITED this year as well), and he is changed by the experience. He decides to fulfill his part in an arranged marriage, but only if she’ll move with him to New York City. It’s the late ‘70s, and nothing’s easy for Ashoke and his bride Ashima (the great Tabu).
What really makes the film powerful is the difference between Ashoke and Ashima and their kids, Gogol Ganguli (Penn, who is so good here he changed my opinion of him) and Sonia (Sahira Nair). That gap between first and second generation immigrants is almost unbreachable, and the film expertly captures the small ways it breaks Ashoke and Ashima’s hearts every day. Gogol grows up with a ready tap of fury thanks to the way he feels like an outsider, a freak, with a strange name and a strange background and strange parents. He hates the things that make him different. Many of the families I’ve met thanks to my wife have kids who are living the same life that Gogol does in this film, foreigners in the homes of their parents. They are American, unshakably, and their parents don’t recognize themselves in these kids they’re raising. It’s the way it works, but it can be incredibly painful at times for the parents to have their culture rejected wholesale. They want to pass on some sense of where they came from to their kids… they need to. It’s such a natural urge. And the process by which Gogol comes to peace with his father and his name and his identity… it just flattened me.
Mira Nair’s had some ups and downs in her filmography, but when she has a good piece of material, she can put together a lush and inviting final product. She worked with screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala before on some of her best early films, like MISSISSIPPI MASALA and SALAAM BOMBAY! I’m not really sure why they haven’t worked together since then, but now that they finally have, the results make the wait completely worthwhile.
#12. JOSHUA
dir. George Ratliff
scr. David Gilbert and George Ratliff
I loved George Ratliff’s documentary HELL HOUSE in 2001, and I thought the thing it did best was balance tone. It’s definitely roasting the people it presents, but it’s hard to say exactly what wrong the film does to them. They are, after all, given room to present their own material their own way, so they can’t really claim anything in the movie is out of context. How Ratliff pulled off that balance is what made the film so exciting, and he’s done much the same thing with this year’s most egregiously mis-marketed picture, the disturbing and terribly sad JOSHUA. Based on how this was sold, I was under the impression this was an art-house riff on THE OMEN, but it’s not. It’s not a horror film at all. Instead, it’s about the fears of parenthood and, more significantly, what it’s like growing up in a family where you don’t feel any connection to the people around you. Jacob Kogan’s performance as Joshua is astonishing, especially when you consider than he’s only 12 years old, and most adults couldn’t pull off what he does here.
It’s one thing to watch a person act in a film, but to spend a film watching a character think, and more importantly, to know what they’re thinking... well, that ain’t easy. As Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby Cairn (Vera Farmiga) should be celebrating the birth of their baby girl, things are complicated by a subtle change in the behavior of their son Joshua. He’s a strange kid, but it goes deeper than that. The first clues you get about what’s wrong with this family come when Joshua starts gently insisting to his parents that “it’s okay if you don’t love me.” He’s basically warning them from the start of the film that he feels incapable of being part of the family, incapable of being loved by them. He craves love, obviously, but he doesn’t think he can get it from his parents because he feels so radically different from them. He is an alien in their house, and it’s obviously eating at him even before the new baby is born. But her birth changes things, and Joshua realizes that if he’s going to be happy, he’s going to have to take responsibility for that happiness, no matter what.
As I said in my thoughts about THE NAMESAKE above, I am not one of those people who believes that everyone has to do the same things or have the same sort of family experience or even want a family. And watching JOSHUA, I am reminded why I believe that. Some people just aren’t wired right for family life, and I can’t think of anything more awful than realizing that after you’ve started the family, once there are people depending on you, believing in you. Sam Rockwell doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to play a lead, and I’m always intrigued when someone uses him that way. He’s not the sort of bland everyman that most people use in horror films. In fact, he’s so odd, so prickly and eccentric that Joshua doesn’t seem like that much of a mistake. He’s very much his father’s son. And Vera Farmiga does really harrowing work here as a woman who struggles with massive post-partum depression after both of the pregnancies. We see videotapes of her first go-round with it while Joshua was still nursing, and then it hits her again once she brings the new baby home. The difference this time is that it seems to get worse as it goes, accelerating from day to day, and the film drops hints that Joshua not only understands what’s happening to Mommy... he may actually be encouraging it, helping it along. Farmiga is not afraid to look weak here, not afraid to let herself look terrible, and I love the way the film never quite answers whether Joshua is trying to destroy his mother or whether she’s just unable to get a grip on her own mental health issues. Ratliff mines every bit of sorrow implicit in the idea of realizing that you are raising a child you cannot possibly connect with, and Farmiga sells it.
What startled me most is how the film was sold as an overt horror film, and it’s anything but. In order to explain why, I have to spoil the film a bit, so if you haven’t seen it and you’re concerned, you should stop reading here. But what really struck me is how this is basically a film about a kid who realizes very early on that he’s gay and that his immediate family will never understand or accept him, so he sets out to make sure that they don’t love him so he won’t feel rejected. He does it on his terms, and it’s chilling even if there’s nothing overtly violent or evil happening.
In particular, watch the final scene when Joshua is finally alone with his Uncle Ned (Dallas Roberts), who the film strongly suggests is gay without quite spelling it out. Throughout the film, Joshua is drawn to his Uncle, and in scene after scene, we see a difference in the way Joshua is with him and the way Joshua is with anyone else. There’s an eagerness to please, a genuine desire to connect. Around Uncle Ben, Joshua’s the boy he can’t be around anyone else. And in that final scene, Joshua connects the dots, spills his guts, lays his heart out there, confident that his life is finally on-track and he can finally be himself. Watch Roberts. Watch him put it together. This is a film that works on many levels, that has a lot to say about the fears that come with parenting and the worst possible sorrows of childhood, and in the film’s final frames, Ratliff lets the silent recoil that Joshua never notices sum it up.
#11. (THREE-WAY TIE)
GRINDHOUSE
dir. Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Edgar Wright, and Rob Zombie
scr. Robert Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Jeff Rendell, Eli Roth, and Quentin Tarantino
HOT FUZZ
dir. Edgar Wright
scr. Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg
300
dir. Zack Snyder
scr. Zack Snyder & Kurt Jonstad and Michael Gordon
Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lyn Varley
Nerdvana. All three of these films have already been internalized. They’re movies I feel like I know inside out, and I can’t imagine not enjoying them. My reaction to them borders on the chemical. If you don’t like them, that’s fine. I think all three speak to very specific film nerd fetishes, and in a way, I’m amazed they even exist. I can’t believe geek culture has become so pervasive that we’re actually allowed to make and release movies like this. But thank god, because these are the types of experiences that recharge my battery more than any other.
Do I think GRINDHOUSE is high art? Hell, no. Do I think it’s a “better” film than something like GONE BABY GONE or I’M NOT THERE? I don’t even know how to answer that. I know that there were very few experiences I’ve ever had in a movie theater that were as much fun as all four times I saw GRINDHOUSE in the theater. And for my money, the only version that matters is the giant three hour plus version with the fake trailers and everything else. That’s GRINDHOUSE. That’s the experience that I adore. I love the way it’s sequenced, the edits of the two films, the insane length of it. It’s BNAT in a box. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a condensed version of what QT Fest is like, and for those who can’t understand the genuine non-ironic thrill of great trash, I can’t imagine that GRINDHOUSE makes a lick of sense. For those who would have braved the worst of Times Square in order to soak up the insane programming at the height of the grindhouse era, though, the film is overloaded with things to love.
I think Rodriguez made a movie that is one of the most unabashedly fun and playful things in his career, and by enjoying the cheese and embracing it, he seems to have been set free. It’s liberated filmmaking, fast and dirty and ridiculous, and you can feel a genuine joy in every single set-up. It’s the most inspired visual work Robert’s ever done, and I sort of wish he’d just go nuts and make a shitload of direct-to-video lunatic crazy exploitation movies that don’t apologize for being what they are. That’s an art form, and it’s not something everyone can do well. I think Rodriguez may be better at it than he even realizes. Tarantino, on the other hand, made what I think is the most personal film of his career disguised as a drive-in movie, and I’m sort of amazed he was willing to bare himself to the public to the degree that he does in this film. I wonder if anyone’s ever going to decode the entire thing in public, though, or if Quentin thinks he’s hiding in plain sight. By turning all of his biggest fetishes and peculiarities and libidinal indiscretions into fodder for this film, it just becomes part of the lore. Again… you can tell that this film was something he burned while making. There’s a feverish manic feeling to the whole thing that builds to almost unbearable tension in a few places. Seeing it in the theater with a full crowd, watching them react to the final car chase with Stuntman Mike, it was a mainline spike of audience connection, one of the reasons I go to the theater. I love it when the audience just snaps into a sort of group high, all of them riding the same wave of adrenaline and excitement and laughter and screams. GRINDHOUSE did that for the audiences I saw it with, and for the entire time I sat there each and every screening, I felt like I was really getting the most out of what you can experience with a movie. I left full. Stuffed. Satisfied to the point of stagnation. Add the fake trailers to the meal, like the “wafer-thin” mints offered to Mr. Creosote, and I honestly feel spoiled by something so rich and rewarding. If I could have justified it, I would have seen the film another four times while it was out, and I resent that I can’t have that version on DVD.
On the other hand, I’m going to officially ask Universal here and now to stop releasing new versions of HOT FUZZ. It’s been less than a year, and I have 47 different editions of it already between regular DVD and HD.
Not that I’m really complaining. I love how hard Edgar Wright and Nick Frost and Simon Pegg all work to promote their films and to pack the DVDs with original content. HOT FUZZ, if you’ve got all the various stuff they’ve put out, gave birth to a pretty amazing batch of stuff from the boys, not the least of which is the movie. I think the film is as good as Zemeckis-Gale in their prime. I think the script is tight and smart and funny and it manages to make nimble jumps from genre to genre without ever once feeling like one of those pathetic fucking jukebox parodies like MEET THE SPARTANS. Yes, Edgar Wright gets his Michael Bay on something fierce in this film, but that’s not the point. At the heart of it, it’s still about the characters, and the cast, and Wright put together this INSANE cast of English character actors that any real movie fan should be celebrating. They’re all incredible, all funny, all of them game for anything Edgar throws their way.
And the last thing anyone can accuse HOT FUZZ of is being mean. So often, really slick action movies with a giant body count are somewhat nihilistic amoral affairs. One of the reasons I love BAD BOYS 2 is because of how vile it is. It’s GRAND THEFT AUTO as a film. It’s reprehensible. There’s not a single person in that film to like or admire, and I don’t care. With HOT FUZZ, I love both Nick Angel and Danny Butterman. They’re so richly played that by the end of the film, I don’t want it to end. I’d like to see what Angel and Butterman are doing now. I’d like to see more adventures from them. I’m not literally saying I want the guys to just churn out sequels… but I don’t feel like the movie said everything you could say with these characters. Just like I was saying about Viggo Mortensen in EASTERN PROMISES.
Hey… what if Nikolai moved to Sandford..?
300 is an unapologetic celebration of and ode to the iconography of film heroism. It is an action movie as thesis paper on action movies, pretty much pure kinetics for much of its running time. I think there are things about it as a dramatic piece that are indefensible, and so I won’t bother defending them. I think the film is amazing to watch. It’s beautiful and terrible. It’s empty, but that allowed a lot of people to bring their own agendas to the film, and different people had very different experiences with it. It’s like an action movie litmus test. Is it a film about the tradition of storytelling as propaganda? Is it, in fact, propaganda? Is it an attack on current political leadership? Is it simply a historical fantasy conveniently timed? I’m not about to tell someone else that what they see in the film is wrong… I just think that it’s based on the viewer, not the movie. I saw it a few times, including an IMAX screening, and I’ve watched both the Blu-Ray and the HD-DVD versions, and I feel like I know the film pretty well at this point. I think it should be studied by kids in film schools, if for no other reason than because it didn’t cost half of what you think it did. Zack Snyder is one thrifty and slick motherfucker, and if you aren’t at the very least excited by what kind of visual thunder he can summon, then I’m afraid you and I have different definitions of what we want from action films.
These are all movies that are easily attacked, easily torn down, easily dismissed as indulgent. These are all films that had enormous fan expectations placed on them before they came out, only to experience plenty of inevitable (but in my opinion unwarranted) backlash. And I think all three are going to endure as movies and experiences worth having.
Oh… and one last thing. I want to keep those theatrical prints of GRINDHOUSE in release. Keep them circulating at midnight films. Don’t let that version go away. Or get it out on home video on a realistic time-table and treat us like adults and tell us when to expect it. If you’d like to give us a domestic version of that Japanese mondo box set coming out soon, I’d appreciate that. Thanks.
Here’s my original GRINDHOUSE review!
Here’s my original HOT FUZZ review!
Here’s my original 300 review!
And on that note, I’m going to take a quick break, then come back to finish up my top ten list, which will also feature the films I most loathed sitting through this year, better known as The 20 Hours I Want Back.
See you soon.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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yeah
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Jan 27, 2008 11:38:40 PM CST
An Eastern Promises trilogy would absolutely make me happy
by ryanmurray
...the end. :)
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I would love that.
Less male nudity though. -
bravo! some great picks and some interesting omissions. can't wait for the next installment.
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...EASTERN PROMISES is in my top 10 of 2007 and BRIDGE OF TERABITHIA is in my bottom 10 of 2007. I really didn't like it. To be fair though, Anna Sophia Robb was good in it. Looking forward to part 2. BTW, when will we see part 2?
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Nice job! Sunshine and Joshua were terrific.
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http://tinyurl.com/35fepl
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If it was mentioned here before, I missed it. That's cool news indeed. I must admit I'm curious if the next kid gets a name as worthy of movie "nerdvana" as the first. :- )
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Although I like HOT FUZZ, I think it was the third overrated of the year, SUPERBAD was second and the mediocre-at-best KNOCKED UP was the most overrated of the year by far. I still haven't see THERE WILL BE BLOOD, THE MIST, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, JUNO, RESCUE DAWN, MICHAEL CLAYTON, LUST, CAUTION, THE DARJEERLING LTD, I'M NOT THERE, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY and a few others, so I really can't give my definitive top 10 yet, but here's my top 10 of 2007 what I've seen so far... 1-300 2-EASTERN PROMISES 3-LAST KING OF SCOTLAND 4-ZODIAC 5-LITTLE CHILDREN 6-NOTES ON A SCANDAL 7-SUNSHINE 8-AMERICAN GANGSTER 9-BLOOD DIAMOND (I loved it!!) 10-THIS IS ENGLAND. That's my list.. so far. Great piece by the way, Mori.
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...NOT THIS IS ENGLAND.
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I just rented this movie a few days ago and it was a wonderful surprise on so many levels. Kal Penn is officially not just Kumar and I hope to see him signed on for other dramatic roles now.
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Jan 28, 2008 12:14:56 AM CST
Nobody has said it better...
by film_fanatic_in_the_original_black_and_w
...Moriarty. I've had that philosophy about film for years. I could NOT have written a piece explanatory enough about my pure love of cinema...ALL of it. You've voiced my very soul. My hat is off to you.
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Any list that does not include Hot Fuzz and Sunshine needs to be wiped from the Earth(hows that for extreme Mori)
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I loved the music for this film aswell.
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Why not just make a Top 26 list then?
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Cause I swear I'm gonna fuckin' shoot someone if I see that manipulative tripe on one more best of the year list. It isn't even THAT bad a movie, but seeing it get so much undeserved hype has made me HATE it. Ditto for Sweeney Todd, which just completely fails as a good musical and no one seems to have figured it out yet. ARGH!
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It baffles me that a handful of dodgy CGI tentacles were all anyone wanted to talk about.
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Figured I should give credit.
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makes me very nervous...get ready to wait another month for part 2 of this list.
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a-fucking-men, Mori. that's exactly what your cohorts should have been saying weeks ago.
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He liked Bourne and Tekkonkinkreet and the shitfest that was Terabithia. What I mean to say is, dude, you are teh lame. Bad taste. But I really hate you because you already got to see Paranoid Park. Asshole. Big ups to Namesake. I really dug that film.
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hey look its Matt Groening! But hell I'd do the same damn thing if i were in his shoes.
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Sunshine is criminally underrated - it has some of the most beautiful imagery to hit the silver screen in years. I'm glad I was one of the 17 people in the US that saw it in theaters. The Mist deserves the praise as well, as does Grindhouse and Hot Fuzz. I can only hope Zodiac is in your top 10, because that was #1 for me in 2007... although I have yet to see TWBB.
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Honestly does everyone still care about top ten lists from something someone saw a year ago? Who cares.
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...and your contributions to the site, but this is the first time I gotta say, you're full of shit. Well, at least paragraphs 7-9. "I think there’s something wrong with the idea that we “hype up about and geeks the shit out of” the big giant blockbuster movies. Those films get a lot of coverage here, but I guarantee that there’s stuff we just plain don’t post about those films, and in every case, someone complains we didn’t post it. Even if it shows up on 37 other sites and I don’t see any reason to post it just to post it, someone will give us shit about it....You are hype. You. The audience. You feed the hype in an organic way that can’t be manufactured. You choose what you want to get hyped about, and then you let yourselves get hyped. Over and over and over again." Bullshit. When this site was giving JLA and Man of Steel a talkback every other day, WE fed the hype? When Quint posted that no-news of a story regarding the poster for Superman vs. Batman in I Am Legend, WE FED THE HYPE? Get real. There have been several stories, that yeah, were on 37 other websites (like the Wolverine casting), that should have gotten a mention none the less, because not only was it something major, but something NEW for our community to discuss besides the day in, day out of "Who's gonna be DC hero X?" "Who do you think DC hero X should be?" "Guess who's rumored to be DC hero X?" "Do you think this person would work as DC hero X?" "Looks like those casting rumors of DC hero X were false." SINGER'S IN. SINGER'S OUT. SINGER'S IN. BRANDON'S OUT. BRANDON'S IN (if they do another stand alone). Don't sit there and tell us WE FEED THE HYPE. You guys. You guys with your constant pimping of every little piece of news whether it was worth it or not, when you could have just as easily setup one dedicated talkback for this type of stuff. Instead we've been discussing the same shit for months now. FOR MONTHS. Every god damned talkback. Hell I've got to the point where I just copy & paste a casting choice and get the fuck out because it's become so fucking sad around here as of late. Yes, you guys cover a vast array of topics, but theres so much more you aren't spotlighting (in all areas of the site), or just seem to be flat out ignoring. And yes, I realize certain studios, or celebrities are most likely backing AICN and it effects the content, as well as other studios pulling access to coverage due to poor reviews or whatever, but with this going on you turn the blame game of the hype machine back at us? C'mon dude. That's not fair. Yeah we contribute, but you guys are who supplies the gasoline and the matches. And like I've said before, I only complain, because I care. And I'm sure a good portion of the talkback community probably feels the same way. I've honestly got more news from lurking in The Zone in the past few months than the main section of the site. Information that you guys should have brought to our attention. Now, I'm sure some of the other staffers will jump in and give the old "We are in that winter dryspell for news." line, but we all know that's not true. I ask you. Please. If you're able to, hire some new blood, organize the site a little. What harm could it do? You and I both know, I'm not the guy for that job, but there are more than enough longtime, and respected talkbackers that would make a fine addition to the crew. Just think about it. Now, it's late, and I'm probably not gonna be able to read that entire article tonight, however, I look forward to doing so tomorrow (er...later today). And like I've said before I enjoy your shit, but this time, ya just struck a nerve. Peace.
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It is most likely tied with No Country-F-O-M on Mori's #1.The best time I've had watching movies this year was going to see No Country''' and then going home to watch Eastern Promises on DVD, unlike tonight, which brought me Meet the Spartans.
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Totally uninteresting and crappy visuals. Did you really honestly care about anyone in that movie? It was a by the numbers turn into horror crap.
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Seeing Moriarty pull out a talkback from my Top 50 list reminded me of something that "theycallmemrglass" brings up. Nearly every single 2007 film he mentions I gave a bad-to-luke-warm review of. True, these were all films me and my comrades geeked-out over BEFORE they were released, but once they were screened and reviewed, many of us were disappointed. You'll find that happens a lot on this and other sites. The claim that my list was somehow 'arty' truly cracks me up. Just because a film has subtitles doesn't make it arty. Just because a film has a modest budget doesn't mean it's not worthy of geeking-out over. And just because a film's reputation is built up on the film festival circuit doesn't mean I can't put it on my top 10 (or 24 or 50) list posted on a geek site. We all need to loosen our definitions of both kinds of films and realize that the number of times geek and art cross over is too numerous to count. Can't wait to see the rest of Mori's list!
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Jan 28, 2008 1:04:12 AM CST
Eastern Promises is excellent,but it sadly flopped in North Amer
by greenflame0
It certainly would be awesome
seeing Viggo's Nikolai character from 'Eastern Promises', in a couple more films, but the film unfortunately did rather poorly in North America (it made less than $US 20 mill), so it's unlikely to happen. -
People were really brainwashed by this "movie event". It was just awful. A bunch of crap trailers and Tarentino at his worst.
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Be honest with yourselves. If you liked Rocky Balboa that much just put it in your top ten. Or what have you.
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but the year end top ten lists are just like every other site that lists movies that aren't blockbusters.
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Geeking is geeking - I can be a geek about PTA and Wes Andersen as much and more than about the new Bourne movie. At the end of the day, what matters is how much a movie "rocked" me. I look at Capone and Mori's lists, and they don't really betray their reviews. They call something a great movie, they even call something a member of their top 20 well before the end of the year. Harry? maybe not so much, but evaluation at the end of the year, in retrospect, would be different from first impressions on something we have been waiting for, wouldn't it?
I understand MrGlass' points; I understand how it would look hypocritical to someone to come to aintitcool and see No Country and There Will Be Blood as the best (just like everywhere else). But AICN geeked out on a small clip/trailer of TWBB a LONG time before people started hailing it as the new Citizen Kane. I'll take that for consistency - one that happened to get matched by the product after release, instead of being a disappointment.
And re: to Mori's commenting on who feeds the hype, I think a talkback count on movie news will show you what is being asked for. Lonely TBs on great movies ain't that rare, not when you compare them to 300+ posts on the smallest Transformers and Star Trek news. Just look at last week's talkback counts. I agree with the idea that Mori puts forward, if not the exact phraseology. -
I like everything from Rambo to Transformers to Schindler's List. That's why I hate these "top favorites" lists. They always seem to give a big snobby finger to the "blockbusters".
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That is all.
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Fuck you, that's why.
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Really? I mean, didn't everyone else pretty much think it sucked?
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Are as bad as they have ever been, and with technology where it is they have less of an excuse to be terrible then ever. It's time to be a lot harder on these films than we have been. I look at something like Transformers and Spider Man 3 and I see films that I would have bet my mortgage (if I had one) were going to be God awful but when I looked around on this site I saw almost nothing but people making justifications and apologies. It's time we start treating these project for what they are inevitably going to be rather than what we want them to be. A guilty until the filmmaker proves that he is innocent path if you will. I think G.I. Joe is a good place to start.
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but BRA-FUCKING-O so far, good sir. You can always tell when Mori has spent some time on his pieces . . . and not just by length.I've had the argument MANY, MANY times about good/geek film, and a lot my friends don't understand how I can go from something like 'The Barbarian Invasions' to total, loveable fluff like 'Little Big League' in one day (and I will champion 'Little Big Leage' till the day I die!!). If a film can move you to the limits of your senses, be it tears, laughter, fright, or FUCKMERUNNINTHATWASAWESOME!!, then it's good filmmaking. So while 'There Will be Blood' and 'No Country' will definitely be on my list, guess what? So will 'Shoot 'Em Up'. . . and I dare ANYONE to say they are a film lover and DIDN'T have fun with that one.And to the guy who thought 'Grindhouse' was actually bad and that people just got caught up in the event aspect of it, well . . . can't that still be a valid attribute of a film? If it can move an entire audience to cheer, scream, laugh, and applaud in unison, or even just SHOW UP at midnight on the same night, then I say that flick has got somethin goin for it!! I didn't like 'Deathproof' as much on it's own when I saw it later, but that screening of 'Grindhouse' at midnight at Grauman's Chinese for the first time? Sweet zombie JESUS that was a good film experience!!Mori, I look forward the rest of the list, and while I certainly HOPE to see 'Once', 'King of Kong', and what I consider a very important release this year, 'Bender's Big Score', I'd still rather see YOUR list than see mine reflected . . . that'll give me somethin to argue about!!
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not on the list??? Why???????? :p
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the image you're gonna have is of guys with really bad haircuts?
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Hot Fuzz deserves better.
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That is all.
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is actually this little Romanian gem called '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days' - fucking awesome film. Definitely rivals There Will Be Blood & No Country For Old Men.
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Don't forget that it's not just LA crews feeling the pain of the strike. We in the UK are in the shit also.
Many fingers crossed that a deal is struck soon and that it's one that's good enough for the actors too! -
movies for midnight movies? or at least movies that were better than grindhouse? i mean, i'd rather see the original TCM, a clockwork orange, eraserhead, and quadrophenia. which were the staples in my town growing up. oh yeah, the local drive-in showed gore and softcore triple bills too. tombs of the blind dead and chained heat for the win. grindhouse? not so much for the win, IMO.
i thought sunlight could have been amazing and then it was just such a giant disappointment. that was one severely flawed script and i was willing to overlook ALL of it, it was so gorgeous. then they brought in the sun zombie and lost me completely. so, so unnecessary. -
How fucking great is The Abyss? Pretty fucking great if you ask me.
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the audience I saw it with walked out comatose. Hope Watchmen is better.
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...still, that's just my opinion. What isn't merely opinion though is that having multiple films tie for a single position is a cop out bullshit way to do any list of this sort, and undermines the whole concept of what a top ten/twenty/fifty/whatever list is supposed to be, in turn making it that much easier on the writer to compile, which again goes against the very nature of what these lists are supposed to represent. They are supposed to be difficult and agonizing and frustrating to create, and you should be forced to cut films off your list that you genuinely liked, but when all is said and done and you honestly evaluate everything you've seen, they just don't quite make the cut, much as it might pain you to admit. Still, when all is said and done and you have your list and you want 23 films represented then do a top 23, don't do a top 20 with 23 films jammed into it and have certain films tieing for a single position. Don't do a top 20 with three "honorable mentions". That's just a bullshit copout way of fitting everything in under the illusion of a proper "best of" list without having the balls to make the hard choices. So I call giant fucking shenanigans on that, and I call it right here, right now.
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glad that it at least made the 20, as i haven't seen it in any other AICN list, even though it is definitely worthy.
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along with the bourne ultimatum O_O madness.
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I can't wait to read your thoughts for the next part. You just intelligently state your thoughts so well, that even if i don't always agree (but for the most part I do) it's always fascinating and enjoyable to read.
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This is like trying to watch a Halloween special on November 1st. It isn't the same.
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Let´s see for the rest. Good article.
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It's an endless cycle of these movies at my house. With a sprinkle of Rush or Streets of Fire once in a while, just to mix things up. Once No Country and The Mist comes out, I might have to give up masturbation.
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Seriously, you unemployed bastard. J/K, good read Mori. I am conflicted regarding the strike. The image of Hollywood is one of over indulgence and wealth. It is hard to feel sorry for anyone associated with Hollywood. On the other hand, I am sure in all reality that most Hollywood writers are not super wealthy. I too hope this business is over soon, and I hope it works out well for the writers. Look forward to the rest of your list.
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Is this movie really that great? Like The Queen last year, I just can't bring myself to watch it. If it's pretty descent I'll pass, but if it truly is awesome I might force myself to give it a shot.
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That editorial-like intro was great. We need more of those!
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even though I don't agree with a lot of the picks, I'm always glad to read your opinions
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Last year, Grindhouse totally won the bang-for-buck award. I pulled some friends to go see it who were iffy at first, but loved the hell out of the event. I am pissed I can't have the theatrical release complete with the trailers too.
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they are bent over dropping demands and getting ready to get corked up the ass worse than they did in 89..thanks for ruining the TV season douchebags!
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...all that shit about the writers? Honestly, fuck 'em.
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Just pick a fuckin' position on the list, you bitch. Tie? TIE? FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKIN' TIE! By the way, HOT FUZZ should have been #5. Love you.
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The third act... it changes the movie from some cute little movie that would have been completely forgettable into something that will stick with most people who are not complete asshats (which is why I am surprised Mori loved it). Still, does it deserve to be on this list? Well, he put 300 on it too and that is an awful fuckin' movie, so...
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Great list so far. I gotta give it up to you for still giving love to The Mist. Man that was such a great experience for me. I've loved the story for as long as I can remember and seeing what Frank did was amazing and was still able to hit me as hard as the story did. I don't think people give it the credit it deserves, and again like Frank's other movies I think it will grow a huge following when it hits DVD
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I would like to speculate that maybe the reason The Mist was hyped was because the last two movies that Frank Darabont did with Stephen King was Shawshank and Green Mile. That, to me, is more than enough of a reason to hype it up. It would be like if Fincher decided to do another Palahniuk adaptation. That being said, it would be nice if the coverage for JLA would be replaced with Benjamin Button.
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I would like to speculate that maybe the reason The Mist was hyped was because the last two movies that Frank Darabont did with Stephen King was Shawshank and Green Mile. That, to me, is more than enough of a reason to hype it up. It would be like if Fincher decided to do another Palahniuk adaptation. That being said, it would be nice if the coverage for JLA would be replaced with Benjamin Button.
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look at these fucking write ups on his list. Take "eastern Promises" for instance...fuck he is practically telling you the screenwriter made the movie putting him on par with Cronenberg mentioning them as if they were a fucking tag team tandem of filmaking..read the original review BEFORE the writer's strike..one toss away mention of the name of the screenwriter nothing about his contribution to the film..fuck he practically blows Cronenberg as a master auteur for fuck sakes!
Now every film on the list has a long winded diatribe about the screenwriter and their overall place in the firmament of film creativity..like your writing Mori you are completely obvious. -
written articles I have ever read on this website.
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Speaking of hope. Hope is one of main indegredients for hype. It's our HOPE that feeds our HYPE for most of the these big blockbuster movies(excluding media coverage haha). Who wouldn't want to have the most realized characters and completely original story taking us on an adventurous escape that would be impossible for our human lives to experience and have the have the title of "Superman" . Who wouldn't get excited over that?...Credits roll and it's a bittersweet feeling after 'cause our hope/hype is rarely ever satiated with our aftertaste of most of these movies...Yes, we have a blast, but many a time that is because we've come to accept the flaws of the film during the actual experience. Those big movies have the potential of using the power of this medium to the fullest. In order to do that though things can get expensive and producers need to get that money back. Unfortunately the result is a stock story with the guarantee that it will appeal to the masses......We want it all To have a great thrill ride and something substantial that'll stimulate us way after the theater lights up is enough to get me hyped up.
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no shit man, it's in my top 5 of the year
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was AMAZING! I love movies that use genres to explore some very interesting aspects of the human condition. The least interesting parts were the monster attacks... Seeing these REAL people cope with a wierd situation like this fascinated me, unlike the "other" movies that skip "easy" steps in a survival situation this one explored how it's not so easy( even explaining the true nature of the mist to each other was a freaking task), as well as establishing "generic" characters (inspired by real types of personalities)and seeing how instincts and beliefs would cope when their life's at stake.
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I especially loved your van story. If you haven't had an experience where a perfect storm of shit just builds and builds until it fundamentally changes who you are, you haven't made it through your teen years yet.
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Man, I have just lost about two levels of respect for you! I really wanted my money back after watching Grindhouse. I forgot about the film within hours (except for my disgust with myself for actually paying to watch it). ATONEMENT, on the other hand, molested my thoughts for several days. It was a beautifully created tragic masterpiece (if that can make sense). My wife and my friends couldn't stop talking about the plot during the drive home and over dinner. It was well worth the $8.50 admission fee. They say that you can tell a lot about a person by their interests in music, art and film. What does this say about you, Moriarty? I love your reviews -- but I cannot fathom your preference of a simple and forgettable film like Grindhouse over one of the year's best and most thought provoking. * sigh *
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I really liked where it was going and until it was revealed that Viggo was an undercover cop. Congratulations. You just took a movie about a career criminal finally having a crisis of conscience (an underexplored genre) and turned it into every Donnie Brasco wannabe ever made. And there was no reason for it. I thought I saw it coming when the hooker disappeared after he gave her something but I tried to convince myself that Cronenberg had something much bigger in mind. Turned out, he just wanted to make his version of the oldest plot in the world.
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Sure, as in Bill Gates has a bit of money and Uwe Boll has a bit of a lack of talent. I'd be hard pressed to think of a film whose third act was more of a letdown / disaster compared to the first two.
And I don't know why anyone would be starving to death for sf after a year that included THE PRESTIGE, CHILDREN OF MEN, A SCANNER DARKLY, V FOR VENDETTA, and THE FOUNTAIN, just for starters. Or in a millenium that included DONNIE DARKO, PRIMER, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, MINORITY REPORT, and SERENITY. This had been a Golden Age for SF cinema and 2007 was an unfortunate exception -- and the point where it went wrong for me was exactly where SUNSHINE jumped not just the shark but all of Seaworld. -
Really truly agreed with you on 1999 Moriarty. It's funny because I had the same recollection about that year in 2007. I wrote it about on my blog Fookpop. I was here back then reading reviews everyday about this terrific, terrific string of films. Many of them linger with me today and I want to express my sincere thanks to the AICN staff for letting me know about movies I normally would never have cared about. I can still recount how I snuck into an 18+ (Canada) screening of FIGHT CLUB alone afterschool in a packed theatre and not knowing what-the-fuck just happened to me or my life.
I had the good chance of meeting Chuck Palahniuk last summer and telling him that I saw FIGHT CLUB when I was 15 and he was just sort of shocked. *evil laughter*
But uh, 300 sucked. I expect more than 20 minutes of action out of a 2 hour action movie instead of an hour of speeches and a dumb sub-plot about the King's wife. Jeez. -
I went to see that movie the other week and I walked out not that satisfied. I'd say the 1st half is quite good, and the tension between Knightly and McAvoy was great, but then when the story switched to the war, it seemed to lose focus. The beach scene WAS incredible, but the whole 2nd half just felt like it was wandering, as if the story had been told and we were seeing an hour long epilogue (which then itself had an epilogue). I never read the book, but I could see how this would work on the page; but on the screen, it just fell flat for me.
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The only way I will end up liking that film is if they make sequels. Which, if you think about it, is a very strange thought.
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For example, you go 1. 2. 3(T). 3(T). 5. See that? You skip 4. Why? Because 4 movies have already been covered. Right now, your number 12 movie isn't number 12. It's like number 15. So why is it labelled number 12?
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Mori is allowed to be sorry for all the people put out of work due to the writer's strike, but if we try to show them sympathy and support, we're being swayed by propaganda? Is that how it works?
Newsflash from reality-ville: I assure you your apology is not accepted. The WGA fucked up royally. The strike is splintering (we're on strike ... unless you work for someone that we made an agreement with ... so they're getting paid, but if you work for Leno, too bad). The DGA made the WGA look like asshats. Countless good people aren't working because of the strike, and that's the best you can do? Say you're sorry while still toeing the fucking corporate line? -
EASTERN PROMISES was not so much about a crisis of conscious as it was a crisis of identity. While I agree that the "twist" was fucking lame, and nearly ruined that movie for me, I suppose it does work thematically. However, it was not explored in any depth which I think sucked teh dikc. Eastern Promises was a disappointment for me, and I'll never understand the uberlove for this movie, no matter how many people try to tell me that I just "didn't get it."
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Make that "conscience," not "conscious."
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at all the 300 bashing going on in this talkback . . . and frankly, I don't believe most of it. 300 kicked ass in all sorts of ways, and someone is going to try and knock it for 'just being a bunch of pretty pictures', then you've missed the point completely. A Dickens novel it ain't . . . a badass time at the movies with spectacle and fire-in-the-belly it IS.As for Atonement, I thought everything in the beginning, in the house, was BRILLIANT, but then we changed perspective from the character we've been seeing the story through, which drives the ENTIRE film, and as someone else said, we just wandered around the rest of the time without point . . . we lost personal connection to the story. I liked it, but overall it left me kinda cold.
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...in Zoolander (when Derek looks in the puddle and says, "Who am I?") was handled with more depth than the one in Eastern Promises.
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Cool to see Sunshine make the list. I don't think it's the best work either Boyle or Garland have done, but it was certainly better than I expected it to be after reading all the Event Horizon-type rumor endings. I wasn't nuts about the last third, but it didn't invoke EH as much as I thought it would. I wasn't a big fan of the Namesake, though. It had some nice moments and the acting was solid, but it felt forced in a lot of ways. Still, I wasn't sorry I saw it.
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I loved it. Every fucking minute of it. I don't think the twist was lame. I think it came in at the appropriate time and was handled just the way it should have been. It adds so much more depth to Viggo's character and to the lengths he has gone and to what extreme he has become part of what he was investigating in the first place. I love Cronenburg, and I know at lot of people will disagree with me on this, but I did't like History of Violence. I liked parts of it, but once it got to John Hurt it was just silly. I thought EP was much deeper. and my God the acting was just fantastic.
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please add which movie just missed the cut. I'm dying to know #25.
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was WAY overrated! I had no idea how these two fell in love (Knightley and McAvoy), none what's so ever. The "rape" nonsense was completely ridiculous, and the "twist" ending was lame. Basically Joe Wright thought he made a beautiful tragedy, but instead made a dumb movie, with some decent performances and good cinematography. He thought this movie was a lot smarter than it really was.
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...until it pooped the bed in the last 15 minutes. The serial killer story was tacked on and did not work AT ALL. It ruined what could have been an otherwise fantastic Sci-fi movie.
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The story was about a young girl who makes up the "rape" allegation because she is jealous of her sister's boyfriend. This happens all of the time! The story is called "Atonement" because the little girl grows up wanting to atone for the terrible circumstances brought about by her lies. The "twist" was quite tragic. It shows that, for some, a true attonement might never be reached. Think about all of the lives that have been destroyed by such lies! Those people can NEVER fully get their lives back -- even if they are proven to be honest in court. This movie is about the everlasting damage that can be done over childish jealousy, and how such damage can often never be undone. Compared with GRINDHOUSE, this film (ATONEMENT) was a masterpiece! If it gets snubbed, it will go down as one of the all-time great snubs by Hollywood (up there with EMPIRE OF THE SUN, THE COLOR PURPLE and LEGENDS OF THE FALL.
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how Mori waits for everyone else to post their opinions before he posts his?
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People describe actors as being generous -- as in, they let their fellow performers shine -- but, a movie?
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I dont think any of us asked for ten articles on Hostel 2 in one day. In fact, I believe most of us were protesting any further stories almost to the point where I believe it was Capone had to apologize before hand before posting an article. Cloverfield...anyone? I think we were getting an article a day on that one. Not to mention a review that was simply.."It was awesome!!!" And then we had Harry practically telling us it was the best movie we will ever se ein out sholw lives. At best Cloverfield was cheap popcorn fun, at worse it was a money wasting insult to our intelligence. Point being, some of us TBers may fall into the hype, but its generally generated from the editors.
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I would like to speculate that maybe the reason The Mist was hyped was because the last two movies that Frank Darabont did with Stephen King was Shawshank and Green Mile. That, to me, is more than enough of a reason to hype it up. It would be like if Fincher decided to do another Palahniuk adaptation. That being said, it would be nice if the coverage for JLA would be replaced with Benjamin Button.
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1982 called, it wants it's bleached-blond rat-tail haircut back.
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Seriously hated this movie. I was profoundly irritated by the whole presentation. If this movie was truly about "not fitting in your family" it did a poor job of creating and empathy or sympathy for Joshua. I wish the movie would have gone with what I thought was the original premise, "What if there was something incurably wrong with your sons mind?" Another lowpoint, when Vera Farminga started rubbing blood all over leg. It was uninetionally funny in the worst way.
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The news that AICN posts lives and dies by its sources and those scouring the net for information. Who are these sources? The readers. The fanboys. The cinephiles. And as the gossip system is designed by and for those who crave news of the big movies versus the art house movies, there will always be a large lean to the former. In talkbacks, I hear over a 50-to-one ratio of people demanding news on comic book movies, action films, big budget extravaganzas over something like the latest from David Gordon Green, Sally Potter, Tom DiCillo, and even AICN friends like Richard Linklater. Rare do I see a clamor for the little films, and that is the fans.
As aforementioned, the stories come from what is sent to people like Harry, Mori, Quint, etc. The writers and editors on this site get bombarded with movie info, and I can guarantee you that their inbox is flooded with info on Superman, Transformers, Indiana Jones to an almost terrible ratio over something like Atonement, The Kite Runner, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, and so on and so on. The general public just doesn't seem to clamor for the indie film scene, and to blame AICN for that is, to me, ridiculous.
AICN has been wonderful about supporting art house films, don't get me wrong, but they can only post what they have, and what they have is people chronicling every single nook and cranny and news item from the big guns. To say otherwise seems foolish to me. From somebody who, in Capone's list of the Top 50, said he had only seen three (or was it four?) and doesn't feel the need for digital cable, I would say that you are part of this machine, whether or not you know it. This is not meant as an insult, but to try to contextualize what it is Mori said and against what you railed. -
...your namesake is one of the funniest sitcoms I've ever seen, and that's why I'm confused as to why you feel the need to confine Mori to doing things the way you think they should be done. Your sitcom namesake broke all the rules and yet you try to say that he has to do it the way you say. Says who? There are no rules, and it would go against his personal opinion and feelings to put 300, Hot Fuzz and Grindhouse over another. Me, pretty much every year I have two favorite movies, and I cannot possibly put one over another, because that would be untrue to myself.
Fuck those who say anyone HAS to follow some made up rules. Why should they be difficult and agonizing and frustrating, as you say? Is that because that's the way you do it? Shouldn't he make a list out of joy for film, not agony? Once again, I'm baffled. His honest evaluation is that those three movies are equal. To do anything else would be dishonest. If we had to follow the "rules" all the time, we wouldn't have good art in the first place to rank. -
did not see her attacker, and in a cruel twist of literary faith, marries her rapist. The impression I got from the book is that in a deep place in her mind, Lola still kind of knew, but the mind of a rape victim is a complicated thing and they often do more to punish themselves than the rapist ever does. They find themselves trapped inside their own mind, doing worse things to themselves, and I've actually known very similar situations in reality.
And we are never meant to believe Robbie was the rapist. That's my personal view and I'm sticking to it. -
in this media age. The writers are pisses for getting screwed over the tiny sized mobisodes on the internet.
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I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on that particular Talkback post. It is sad that the 'big geeky' films often don't achieve the greatness we geeks want out of them. It is, in a way, our fault for hyping them up so much. But as true movie fans, we can't help but get excited. I think 2007 was hit-or-miss with the blockbusters. 300, Bourne Ultimatum, and Ratatouille all impressed but Spidey, Pirates, and several others failed. I think we all love a good big-budget spectacle, but a good majority of the time the movie will never live up to the super-hype.
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1) Re: THE MIST, if Mr. Darabont wanted to tell a bleak story about dissolving hope, maybe he should have written his own rather than retrofit another which actually even ends with the word "hope".
2) Does no one else see those shitty painted-on muscles in 300? They knock me out of the movie everytime, with GALES of laughter and derision of Hack Snyder. All that CG on display, and painted-on muscles ... it's like the one still that I've seen fr: his DAWNOTD remake (I think it was even "Official"), where the "zombie" is hauling ass down the road, and all is well, EXCEPT for the fact that his shirt has ridden up and exposed his fat, fleshy, no-make-up-having belly (thus clashing with his "Oooh scary" facial makeup). These "minor" oversights are what is going to KILL Watchmen. -
I recommend JUNO. It was a pleasant surprise. Sure, I managed to see RAMBO (without the wife, mind you). But yeah, JUNO was very well made. I was impressed with the dialog, as it's a movie that makes you really take notice of the writing. And all the actors and the director contribute so much to make it all happen. If you guys have to see a "chick-flick" with your date, you should check out JUNO. That's my recommendation. And by the way, I'm most always right about spotting talent that will be around for a long time...and the lead actress...uh,...something Page, is it? (Oh, well.) I think she's gonna be around for a while. She might even be this generation's Julia Roberts. I might be wrong. But then again, I might be right.
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Haven't seen JUNO, but she was good in HARD CANDY. (my GF sez she was good in Juno. Whatever.)
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If you were impressed with the diaogue in Juno then God help you. ANd Ellen Page the next Julia Roberts? WHile I didn't like juno I think Page has a future, I would say she is much closer to a Sally Field (minus the flying nun) than just a pretty rom-com face like Roberts.
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I don't specifically mean that painted on muscles and fat fleashy bellies from other films are going to ruin Watchmen, I just mean that Snyder seems to me to be a filmmaker more concerned with the "Final Product" than the level of attention to detail necessary to creating a truly great "Final Product".
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Am I arguing with myself in this TB?
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And I am watching Robocop 2 in HD right now, and realizing how pussy movies are today. People yammering on about the graphic nature of History of Violence and Eastern Borings and No Country. Those movies are all pussy's compared to Robocop 1 and 2. Seeing that 08 is filled with movies people are already skeptical about (Rambo = Amazing by the way), means it'll probably be good. 07 was a year filled with movies that were considered great before anyone had ever seen them. At least Sunshine got some love, really how much did that movie cost??? GOOD THING fox searchlight finally broke the 100 million mark with Juno. Why they had the rights to Sunshine and Daywatch is beyond me. Bitches leave.
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because your points suck.
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I enjoyed the ride up until the end. -SPOILER- No loving father would ever in a million years consider killing his own child to "spare him" from possibly being eaten by monsters. Absurd. Where there is life, there is hope. We are asked as an audience to cheer for these people, then the director/writer stabs us in the back with a big "Fuck You!". You can argue that that's the point of the story, but it seems like a shock ending just for the sake of shock. No rhyme or reason. 300 was actually kinda boring for me. A few cool scenes, but talk about style over substance. A little too homo-erotic or something. Too many people tried to convince me that 300 was the greatest "guy film" ever and I was ultmately let down. Sin City was much better. For balls-out gore, I'll take Rambo over 300 any day of the week. Grindhouse was enjoyable. Hot Fuzz was "ok". The worst episode of SPACED is much funnier than Hot Fuzz though.
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Yeah Mori, why wasn't Tekkonkinkreet on this list?
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It wasn't supposed to be an all accurate history channel special. It was based on a comic book.
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except '300'. It's empty movie like you said, and yes it's visually impressive but if I want to see CGI I rather play videogames. Im also surprised that Mr. Lumets masterpiece is only nr.19. When I read your review I was sure that it's going to be in your top 10. Great story, perfect performances, maybe little bit over-the-top ending. I love that oldchool back-and-forth cut he is using and even the title sequence is so cool. Hoffman and Marisa are fucking...then...MAY YOU BE IN HEAVEN HALF AN HOUR...BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU ARE DEAD. So cool. (isn't that suppose to be whole title?)
Totally agree with you about SUNSHINE. Does anyone like that ending? They fucked it up and now it's like EVENT HORIZONT for adults. Im waiting for 2nd part and I hope you I'll see BUG somewhere. -
Moriarty, in the time it took you to write your yammering intro, you could have just compiled the whole damn list.
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...Just please tell me you don't have JUNO in your TOP 5....
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Gotta agree with everyone else. I'll tell my grandchildren to look out for Part 2. Sorry Mori, but your reputation proceeds you. Not griping. I enjoy what you write, but why must you end every article with a slew of promises/deadlines you won't meet?
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I wasn't referring to indie films (they do a bangup job in that area), I was talking of mainstream geekworthy casting, rumblings and news that SHOULD have been brought to our attention. Stuff that ISN'T the same 'ol JLA shit every other day (thank god that "news" has died down thanks to the postponement). And I'm well aware that most of the stuff is put up from the tips of talkbackers. I've sent my fair share in as well in the past, BUT there are factors at play if the stories get posted or not, a jampacked mailbox isn't always the case.
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...Juno isn't in his top 5, he already listed it in the "top 12 that aren't his top 12" list. TWBB will probably be #1 from his review, and No Country and Jesse James will be up there.
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How many of these were free DVD Screeners?
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The coverage for Knocked up was embarassing! Along w/ that other one he produced, Superbad, etc. For whatever reason if Apatow, Quintin, Robert Rodriguez, Del Toro, and of course Lord of the Rings dude, have something coming out then it's balls to the wall coverage! And of course everybody that writes for this site loves everything these guys ever touch! Fucking everything! That embarassment of a failure, Grindhouse was loted as a masterpiece by everyone. Tell you what, it will really surprise me the day that just one of them gives a bad review for any of those dudes......
Can't wait for Rodriguez's "Barbarella" to come w/ his now girlfriend taking over the Fonda title role. I wonder if all involved will call that one a brillant adaptation?
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Sorry. I couldn't help myself.
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..."mainstream geekworthy casting, rumblings and news that SHOULD have been brought to our attention"?
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this fall it's JJ Abrahms news. When Iron Man comes out it will be Aint it Jon Farverou news.
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Thank goodness someone at AICN gives a solid nod to Sunshine. Danny Boyle is a top notch director. Hot Fuzz and Grindhouse are also favorites of mine. But I utterly HATED the sappy Bridge to Terabithia and OSCAR bait Atonement. Both of these movies are laced with blatant emotion manipulation for some reason that seems outside the realm of why someone makes movies as opposed to why someone wrote the books. I, for one, am glad Juno didn't make it. Overhyped about 200%. I HATED her overly clever wise-ass quips. But the movie succeeds because geek guys wish there was such a 16-year-old girl and geek girls are all in love it Michael Cera. Thought The Namesake was a decent movie but not "best of the year" material. Gosh darn, I sound like such a hater...but I am not. I like your list...agree with a third, disagree with a third and have yet to see a third. I like this article because it is so thoughtfully written.
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That's cool if it wasn't to your taste. I do see it quite differently as you said. It may not be an epic war film, one that the real battle would warrant, but taken in the context of a graphic-novel derived movie, I thought it was totally a classic. Every shot was a feast for the eyes. As a translation of the graphic novel genre, I think it probably ranks a little higher than Sin City. For me, it must be the colors. The movie is like a moving painting, climaxing in that shot of the dead Spartans on the ground. Gorgeous to behold. Zack Snyder was robbed of an Oscar nom. Meet The Spartans is to 300 what Ephialtes is to Leonidas.
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I just can't wait to hear how Saoirse Ronans name is pronounced at the oscars, if the show actually goes on, should be very funny.
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can't wait for the next ten! I would love to just talk to you about these movies after hearing what you have to say about them. It's nice to see Sunshine get a little more recognition. And an Eastern Promises trilogy would be amazing.
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Then why have a numbered list at all? If you can't follow the simple concept of how to number things correctly, which wasn't invented by me but which has been around, ooh, pretty much as long as numbers have, then why number things at all? When you count *anything* you don't do so by going "1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4...", numbers and their usage have basic rules, just like words do. Hell, they even have rules for the way that ties are supposed to work, which would be "1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 6...". You can't have more objects represented than the total number of objects that you say you have, that's simple basic numerics. If he wants to have ties he can have ties, but having multiple films tie for one position which only reduces the total represented count by 1 is bullshit. And I stand by that.
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Another movie spoiled by Spoiler_Man!
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I wish they'd get back to fucking work and stop being lazy bastards. No scrap that. Lazy GREEDY bastards. Go get a fucking real job like the rest of us and earn your money for a change, you lazy shitheads, instead of moaning about something you didnt earn. Sitting in front of a fucking pc isnt a real job.
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People get into business to earn as much money as they can. It is irrational to try to paint studio execs as greedy just because many are millionaires. If they weren't creating profitable products, presumably they'd be out of a job.
Whatever you're paid is what you "deserve". If the writers strike ends up with writers getting more money, then they "deserve" it. If the writers strike is a failure, then they "deserve" whatever comes of that too. -
Seems to be the occupation of many a people, not just writers.
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Or am I stupid?
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His top ten, its good to know that Juno is not in it, he'll be the first movie person in history to not include it. It really does baffle the mind that Fox Searchlight can convince the world that this movie is good, but couldn't sell Sunshine in a year void of any sci fi movies. The more I think about 2007 the more I realize I do not think I really have a top ten, maybe top five, and half of those are movies that came out in 06 but for like 2 screenings. 07 is no where near as good as 99, probably because the movies from 99 actually had some balls.
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All that money they want for some 2 second Internet mobisode that you have to squint to see.
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I was wondering how long it would be until I'd get a strong reaction to my post (above) about Ellen Page and the surprise that was JUNO. And actually, I thought your comparison (talkbacker IndustryKiller) of the JUNO star to actress Sally Field was very good. But understand that what I was trying to say (rather quickly before leaving my desk) is that I believe Ellen Page has staying power and a certain uniqueness about her that may put her in a Julia Roberts league, so-to-speak. I'm just surprised that nobody chimed in to say that Jennifer Garner is the next Julia Roberts (and she's already here). What's it all matter, anyway? They all seem to be wonderful ladies.
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THeyre just greedy douche bags. They should try getting a real job and learning that life isnt all about sitting in your fucking condo with your laptop eating donuts. Fat fucks. Get back to work or get a proper job if you can handle it.
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Someones a real smartass arent they?
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See what I mean? Your comments are so removed from the reality of why this strike happened and who participated in it that it's pointless to discuss it with someone like you. Tell you what... I'll quite writing for a living as soon as you give up sucking dick. Then again, if we're both lucky enough to make money doing what we love...
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Where's the Top 10, but it's 17 cuz I have lots of semi-ties?
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...get really angry at the Neilsen ratings when things tie for a certain place?
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It's what the individual lends to the characters that matters. You and Mori disagree, because you are using the numbers purely as a statistical character while he is using them to attribute his own feelings. Would you rather he say "This is the best," "this is almost best," "This is less than that, but equal to another"?
You, my friend, are going to lose this because you clearly have no sense of the equality of respect. -
..."do you get really angry at the Neilsen ratings when things tie for a certain place?" I didn't read carefully enough, Sledge. Sorry, bourbon.
But seriously, you're trying to impose rules that YOU believe should be followed in a field where those rules don't have to be followed. Lighten up your idea of what should and shouldn't be in this world and you'll probably end up a much happier person. -
... that's why I made it a "top 24." I called it what it is. There are 12 runners-up, and 12 in the main list. I was explicit in the headline, and I still have someone complaining. And since there are no rules for writing a best-of list, I'll list the ties anyway I choose. It's amazing how that works when you're the one making the rules, isn't it?
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in his 08 top movies list for the exact reason he elaborated on in the intro. It is an utterly visual sensational experience and whether we like it or not won't be forgotten for a while. Much like 300.
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your spoiler. And this garbage about Juno being the next Juila Roberts? Interesting theory I supose but couldn't be farther from the truth. She's closer to a Thora Birch in Ghost World than Roberts. Zany and quirky juno girl was and impossibly annoying as hell. God that voice. That shit that came out of her mouth. To be fair, it just wasn't her w/ the totally outlandish dialoge. It was all of them.
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are you a writer? I had no idea. bad luck for you then. meanwhile the rest of us get on with our jobs and our lives. because we live in the real world it seems so enjoy your time off.
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Moriarty can do whatever he wants at the end of the day, just pointing out a pet peeve of mine in the way he chose to do his numbering is all. I called shenanigans, not a jihad. Honestly, it's not like it's going to keep me up at night or anything.
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it's same as last year when you put 'step up' as Nr.1 and suddenly everyone was talking about numbers instead of movies...
What do you think about Coens decision not to put music in No Country For Old Men? Maybe it's question for part 2 of your top 24, but anyway. I was surprised when I saw movie for the first time because it's not what Im used to in Coens movie. Music was always very important part of their movies but now when I think about it, maybe it's that lack of music that helped them create this empty helplessness. I was also surprised to hear people said that NCFOM has funny scenes. I think that there is nothing funny about this movie. I can agree that in Fargo there were cruel scenes that was also absurdly funny but not in this one. It's sad and depressing movie and only heartwarming scenes I can sense are those little moments between Ed Tom and his wife.
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Tom Jane's acting made me want to shoot myself. Horrible movie. Just because he shoots his kid in the end doesn't make it anything special. He ruins that scene anyway with his fucking overwrought theatrics once the soldiers show up. Mediocre at best. You sir, have shitty taste in horror movies.
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Ellan Page is the next Shia LaBeouf. Is that better?
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I guess that would be "Ellen" Page.
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I suspect that's probably a fairly accurate comparison. If they were casting INDY 4 right now, what do you bet he'd have a daughter?
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Idiot. Keep the spoilers for yourself!
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Fuck you, rost.
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I will hunt you down and break your arm.
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All this talk about being hilarious. Hilarious to boring jaded people who are boring cunts with no sense of humour. You know what is hilarious? Naked Gun. That is hilarious. Smart? Why is it smart. I don't fucking understand this? Because you namedrop The Melvins and Sonic Youth, somehow you have culture and intelligence? Fuck you. Does that mean i'm a genius because I mention Mogwai and Neurosis and play Cult of Luna's first album? Fuck you. Juno has realistic quirky dialogue? Does it mean something if that comment is only coming from rich old critics who don't live in the real world? Fuck You. Second A top 10 movie implies it was a well made movie but also one you liked. Can you seriously tell me you will can put Juno in your DVD player and watch it again and again like you would Back to the Future. It's entertainment motherfuckers. Think like that first.
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end of story. if you didn't think it was entertaining or the fight scenes were awesome. you suck.
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I guess I won't hunt you down. but FUCK! Control was amazing and so was Rescue Dawn. Rescue Dawn> No country for old men.
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I don't get this whole "Ahhh 2007 ruled", there were alot of good movies, alot of them. 2006 didn't have as many but they were better. Look at the two that are generally considered the best of 2007 - There will be Blood and No Country for Old Men. Now put them up against the best of 2006 - CHILDREN OF FUCKING MEN and Pan's Labyrinth. Then add the other films of 2006. Babel, The Fountain, The Departed, The Prestige, United 93, The Queen, Letters from Iwo Jima etc. 2006 wins.
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That's right.
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because it was simple, it was a stedicam shot, with chaos in the backgrouns, just going across a beach. Children of Men's shots were masterpieces, and far far far more complicated than the simple Atonement shot.
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As for Sunshine, I couldn't bring myself to finish watching it, sorry but so far i still prefer Event Horizon over Boyle's space "opera" debut.
Oh Mori,why so serious? XD -
It's fucking old school scorsese and a goddamn enjoyable film and a well made film. Plus Stephen Graham owns Bardem with his performance.
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ever.
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Another overlooked film, but a very good one. Good call messi, but it's kinda hard to top Javier's performance in NCFOM.
And yes one of my favorite scenes from Before the devil knows you're dead (which is like requiem for a dream of 2007, minus the drugs.)is Tomei getting ball slapped doggy style. Niiiccceee. -
Well, with the exception of Joshua (a film I loathed), I really like this list so far. Anything with both Hot Fuzz and the Namesake on it is "A OK" in my book.
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Must be a cheap Álex de la Iglesia copycat
Typical american: screw up foreign names and probably laughing at it.. -
Even if it didn`t make the list. A great, little film that seemed more like a failed pilot, and another showcase of Duchovony. Good list, and I`m sure towards the end, there will be the usual No Country For Old Men/There Will Be Blood, etc., but in spite of how that may be predictable, they were AMAZING movies and deserve it. Also, I didn't realize how good a year 1999 was for film.
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bring it on!
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like Johnny Fairplay is a professional wrestler...guy has got a couple co-writing credits on a bs low end cable series produced by a friend so they could get him to pimp the series endlessly on this site to the geek crowd..doesn't stop him from flashing his laminated WGA card at Subway and asking for a free sodee-pop tho.
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That Indy sure is a busy guy. (heh,heh) But then again, Shia could have a girlfriend in "INDY 5",...whatever it takes to team-up Shia and Ellen Page for our fellow talkbackers! (snort!) Personally, I do think that both Shia and Ellen have talent that will give them longevity, no matter what my fellow talkbackers say. In fact, why don't we hope for an INDIANA JUNO & SHIA? :-D
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Here are two blowacious movies that sucked for completely different reasons, yet they both inhaled through small openings. I saw Joshua at Sundance last year. The acting was very good. I love Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga is both smokin' hot and very nice. However, there were about 10 identical shots of people turning around with that stupid kid standing there. There is a blatant plot device where the kid somehow video tapes his antics and absurdly leaves it where it can be found. The movie is pure turd. I can't believe it could wind up on anyone's list.
300 was, in my opinion, actually better although it too was like chewing on aluminum foil. The look of the film was good, but that only worked until the oiled up, completely shaven, always screaming totally gay cast kicked in. I appreciated the art direction but the whole time I was in the theater I thought of nothing but Peter Graves in Airplane. "Do you like Gladiator movies, Billy?" -
I have not seen it because it looked so awful in the previews. I have never seen Core for that same reason. Maybe it's great. Is that the general consensus? One thing, while I do not need every "t" crossed or "i" dotted, I can only swallow so much scientific inaccuracy or bullshit.
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I am pretty sure lola was lying and that there never was a rape in the first place but she was embarrassed and didn't want to get the chocolate guy in trouble. she lied to protect him. so not only does brionys "lie" set robby on his path lola could just have easily have stopped everything. and briony realises this when she goes to the wedding. thats how I saw it anyway.
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who'd have thought it....
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As always, you've presented a well-grounded preamble and what appears to be the beginning of a solid "best of" list for 2007 (too bad you can't soothe the savage TB best by simply copying and pasting your annual disclaimer to the front-end of these lists - perhaps an impossible feat based purely on the topical nature of your posts in general). I don't know that I've so much as heard a word of your writing committed to the screen (be it big or small), but I can definitely say that you're a good film critic. In assembling your list, you've once again managed to avoid the biggest pitfalls - namely, uninteresting summaries containing the usual play-by-play and an equally uninteresting description of why you liked or disliked it. Rather, as with all good critics, you've taken a passionate position in explaining what it was that made you fall completely for a particular film, and without apology. You get wrapped up in it and the casual reader (one with a half a brain mind you) picks up on that - regardless of their respective disposition. I'm pretty sure 'theycallmemrglass' is himself void of any inherent geekdom as every AICN end of year list I've ever seen seems to be chocked full of geekiness. Fuck, I'm geeking out right now just thinking about some of the flawless movies I saw this year - and not one of them is based on comic book. Unfortunately, you're correct in that the most popular TBs usually involve what could be considered as pure comic book/sci-fi/fantasy based news, but there is also a big support base on this site for good 'ol fashioned dramas, indies, comedies, docs, and foreign flicks alike. Finally, I appreciate that you respect the TB community enough to post what you may have thought was a valid TB post, or to involve yourself in the occasional sparring match, but holy cow - I started having fits (complete with spit bubbles) after reading one sentence of 'mrglass's' talkback. Anyhow, keep it up.
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I may have to reevaluate how I see the Lola/Paul relationship and at least consider your side as an option. I never got the impression from the book, and therefore brought that impression into the movie, but it's definitely worth noting that it at least can be questioned whether or not she was raped. I don't think either of us can say what is true, but it can definitely go either way. Good job, Ian McEwan.
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He has a track record of often recognizing really good and/or artistic "children's films" in his end of the year lists. I recall previous best of's have included Babe: Pig in the City and the 2003 Peter Pan. I think its great he takes the time to recognize these films, and its cool to see people actually re-considering Terabithia due to it's placement here. For the heck of it, this is what my top twelve would look like(with a few ties).
1.There Will Be Blood 2.The Lives of Others/Diving Bell and the Butterfly 3.No Country for Old Men 4.Zodiac 5. Ratatouille 6.Into the Wild 7.Lars and the Real Girl 8.Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 9.Once/ Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet St. 10.Bridge to Terabithia.
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it's nothing groundbreaking, nothing 'arty' about the filmmaking, a movie that could have been made anytime. it's a well made film, but it ain't no Children of Men. Which is weird since it's reviewed even higher, but people will forget about it whilst History will dictate Children of Men is life.
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...a month before it was released, so I got it immediately when it dropped. Works quite well.
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Give it up. Nature abhors your TB entries. Children of Men was not the greatest film ever made. It wasn't even the best film of 2006. A good film yes... but not of the ilk you have seen fit to assign it. Technically, it may be Cuaron’s masterpiece, but I’m afraid the script and its inherent banality eventually pushed it down on my list in 2006. Nor would I consider 'No Country’ to be the best film THIS year, though it may be more deserving of recognition than the last three best picture winners combined. But then, life often imitates “art” in the midst of those towering Oscar-beasts insofar as cozy, tidy endings are concerned. You certainly could not place ‘No Country’ in that category and on that basis alone I believe it deserves some credit, right? It may be simultaneously morally bombastic and hypocritical, but whooooooeeee - what a ride!
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Just finished it--stressed me out to no end. Creepy, and the kid...jeezus. But I didn't put Mori's gay kid theme together for the end. Sure, I guess it could make sense, but I don't think that was the only way the end could've been interpreted. All of a sudden gay at the end? Hmm--seems to me there would have been small different allusions to this at other times during the movie. I thought that maybe Joshua was searching for the next person to latch onto to F up because the boy was getting off on exercising his power over people. The gay theme was an "entrance" to get to the uncle--which Mori, you did call Uncle Ben once in your review--funny.
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What a cop-out! Just call it a top 27 list then.
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since when the fuck are you here. shut the fuck up. everyone here says Children of men is a masterpiece. Just because you are fucking stupid and apparently your top list is somehow scripture, it applies to everyone else. You know how stupid it sounds to say "it was banal blah blah blah which is why it scored low on my list". Dumb cunt.
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...take this shit to the Zone. You're not wanted here.
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I suppose I’ve underestimated the sensibility of some of the folks that roam these hallowed halls. Sorry for bursting your proverbial bubbles; pissing on your snowmen; pooping on your birthday cakes. I suppose I would be asking too much to enter into a solid debate regarding my list of favorite films released this year (thus far TWBB would be positiioned in my #1 spot) versus your respective faves – a seemingly on-topic post. Instead, I’ve fallen prey to the usual assortment of playground tactics and barbs lobbed by prepubescent fan boys. I never asserted my position as being gospel (that’s ‘gospel’, fan boy), but clearly those who would characterize me as such have themselves succumbed to the very same evils. Shame on you. And since I’ll post wherever I prefer (thanks for the advice though, I’ll cherish it always), I’ll “see” you chumps on the back twelve.
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Down with Apatow!
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Moriarty, I love reading your stuff but I'd love it more if there was stuff to read.
I understand you're busy, but I am nowhere close to a professional writer but i wrote 10 pages of what i felt to be educated comments on my top 25 films of 2007 in a couple hours.
This took you several weeks to come out with, and now it's been days for the second part.
If it's done, POST IT.
If it's not, WRITE IT THEN POST IT.
It shouldn't take this long. I think I speak for other people when I say that I care more about this than any other random story on the website, so put other stuff off and just write this then move on. -
...Mori felt that he had to catch up on 2007 releases before he could come up with a more complete list. As for the second...I don't know, but I bet it'll end up being pretty good.
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... I swear it's all I'm working on this week, but with a wife as pregnant as mine is, my work time is down to a bare minimum at the moment. It's almost done. Just gotta put the final touches on two more entries...
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just lookin' forward to it is all
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It seems like there haven't been hardly any best of 2007 lists yet. We've been fretting over Mori's but what about Harry's? Are we ever gonna get to see any of these lists?
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first time i can remember Mori beating Harry with his year end list for as long as i've visited the site.
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What really gets me about guys like spoiler_man is that they're upset that the writers are not working because it means they can't park their ass in front of the TV as long as they used to but they're solution to the problem is that the writers go out and get "real" (other) jobs. Wouldn't that just make it worse for you're lazy ass?
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... that short break took a little longer than I'd hoped. It's up.
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