Skeet On Mischa, Skeet On...Movies; The Best of 2007

Skeet On…Movies; The Best of 2007

Looking back on 2007, it was a great year for film. Quite a few critics and writers have been comparing this year to 1999 in terms to the amount of quality films. For me, the jury is still out on comparing this year to 1999 because of the impact that 1999 had overall on the movies. Never the less, 2007 was the finest year for films of this decade. Not only because much beloved filmmakers shook the cobwebs off and returned with a furious passion that has been seen in far too many years, but the films of this year or at least the films that knocked me out seemed to proudly go against the grain of modern storytelling. Long and lingering shots with actors lost in the midst of the scenery. Open-ended films that drove audiences crazy with its lack of resolution or its abandonment all conventions and techniques of that particular genre.

Perhaps my biggest complaint with modern filmmaking is that it doesn’t seem people aren’t making films to be seen in the theater, but to be watched on a semi scratched up DVD from Netflix two or three months after the initial release. Yet with the current crop of films, these filmmakers are not only making films to be seen in theaters, preferably at palaces like the Arclight, but also for DVDs as well. These films require multiple viewings in order to fully appreciate not only the story and the performances, but the technical aspects as well. Finally, filmmakers are challenging audiences to think about the meaning, significance and the fate of the characters for themselves.

Without fail, here’s my list for what represented some of the best and the worst of 2007. I know that it’s not the most original or compelling lists out there, but it’s what I dug, a lot.

1. There Will Be Blood Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

I still remain at a lost of words to describe There Will Be Blood. It’s been roughly ten years or so since the release of Boogie Nights, the film that PT Anderson a house hold name amongst the film goons of the world. Anderson burst onto the scene with a film that wore its influences on its shelves yet managed to save him from drowning in a sea of homages. With each succeeding film, Anderson became a much more focused filmmaker, but it hadn’t really found a voice for himself. With Boogie Nights and Magnolia, he was known a Altman knock off and Punch-Drunk Love was an experimental romantic comedy with hints and flashes of his early trademarks. Yet with There Will Be Blood, PT Anderson has finally found his voice as a filmmaker; it’s like his previous films, but at the same time, it acts like a complete rejection of his previous work. The emphasis in sequences isn’t placed on the nifty camera move, but Daniel Plainview’s quest to devour all of Little Boston. There Will Be Blood feels like Anderson’s most personal film to date. Daniel Day Lewis is perfect. It’s a sight to behold and will live for years to gone.

2. No Country For Old Men Written & Directed by the Coen Brothers

A perfect thriller. If perfection means to you an Hitchcock film with parts directed by Sam Peckinpah, then assembled by Michelangelo Antonioni. Yes, it’s the come back film for the Coen Brothers after a couple of clunkers and abandoned projects. And yes, it’s the best Coen Brothers since Miller’s Crossing. And I don’t mean to get all Film Studies 101 here, but it’s a stunning example of postmodern filmmaking. It’s not a film ware of its self and prior works within the genre, but it’s post modern with that whopper of a third act. Using excellent source material, Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant novel, the Coen Brothers crafted an excellent mediation of the perils of aging and that ever-present ticking clock in our lives. Not to mention that Javier Bardem gives one of the scariest performances ever.

3. Zodiac Directed by David Fincher

This is the first film that Fincher has directed where the style doesn’t over power the story. It’s not the exercise in production design and minimal lighting that Panic Room was. Zodiac is an honest to goodness picture that keeps one on the edge of their seat and forces one to think long after the film is done. It’s the anti thriller.

4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford Written & Directed by Andrew Dominik

Where Zodiac is the anti thriller, The Assassination of Jesse James is the anti western. The reason why this film was such a tough sell was because it’s a film that one has to be seen to be understood. It can’t be summed up in thirty seconds or a few lines. It’s a film about little moments and characters standing in fields. It’s just beautiful to look at.

5. Le Scaphandre et le papillon Directed by Julian Schnabel

Everything on this is the ‘anti’ something and The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is the anti sick guy movie. Instead of being a movie about a guy stuck in a wheel chair, Schnabel makes a film that manages to take the depression out of what should be an extremely sad subject matter. The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is a celebration of life and cinema in its purest form. It’s plain and simple visual storytelling.

6. The Savages Written & Directed by Tamara Jenkins

Sure, it’s a film about a bunch of over educated people arguing about being too smart and how shitty things are, but it’s done so well. The performances especially Laura Linney are great. It’s the best written film of the year.

7. Manda Bala Directed by Jason Kohn

Manda Bala is the perfect documentary; informative and entertaining. A sweeping look at not only the corruption within the Brazilian government, but also at how far people will go to protect themselves from being kidnapped to the survivors of kidnapping. It’s an all-encompassing look at a life style that fortunately few of us will have experience. After watching this film, one will learn that Brazil is not all bossa nova tunes and Victoria’s Secrets models don’t grow on trees.

8. Superbad Directed by Greg Mottola

Far more clever and honest than Juno and far more funnier than Knocked Up, Superbad is the best comedy of the year. Not since Dazed & Confused and Sixteen Candles has a film captured the awkwardness and the pressure of high school so well. The film is grounded in a sense of reality. The high school kids look like actual high school kids. The screenplay should be taught in school because it’s structured so well. Our heroes are on a quest and will do anything to order achieve their goals. The film also has a big heart that’s lacking from the other Apatow comedy, Knocked Up. Superbad isn’t a bunch of jokes thrown against the wall and hopefully one will stick, but it’s constructed well enough that there doesn’t have to be a joke every 2.5 seconds.

9. I’m Not There Directed by Todd Haynes

The last “anti-“ film on the list; the anti music biopic. I think I told a friend that I’m Not There is the best Fellini film ever made. The black & white sequence featuring Cate Blanchett’s wonderful performance as Bob is obviously a riff on Fellini, but there’s something more to it. The surrealism fits and feels less like the work of a dirty old man. The film its self is nothing more than styles and pieces lifted from other films, but at the same time, that’s what the film wants to imply about Dylan as a musician. Dylan is a mysterious enigma and the film treats him as so.

10. Control Directed by Anton Corbijn

Control for the most part is a garden variety music biopic, but instead of making a saint of Ian Curtis or heaven forbid, a boring person, Corbijn despite his obvious love for Curtis and the music of Joy Division, presents Curtis as a troubled man. Curtis was a tormented man who wanted to do something more than working a desk job. Sam Riley’s performance is a marvel to be hold.

Honorable Mentions:

-American Gangster

-Hot Fuzz

-Juno

-Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

-No End In Sight

-Michael Clayton

-Grindhouse (The Double Feature)

The Worst:

-Rob Zombie’s John Carpenter’s Halloween; Sure, it’s easy to take a shot at Rob Zombie’s reimagining of a classic, but the dude deserves it. It’s such a useless and point less remake. Not to mention, it feels half cooked. So much time is spent with young Michael Myers that the slasher aspect of the film feels like an after thought. Oh yeah, he’s supposed to kill a bunch of teens. There’s nothing inventive or special with the film. The film made the music of Gram Parsons seem kind of wimpy.

-Quentin Taratino’s Death Proof; this refers to the extended version that was released on DVD and screened in Europe, but what a boring film. I like Rosario Dawson and all, but I don’t want to watch a film where she talks for about 15 minutes straight about insipid stuff. You know, I’m beginning to think that Taratino should just take a break from the movie game for a minute or two and just make foot fetish porn.

-Sean Penn’s Into The Wild; The kid was a dick and I could care less that he ate the wrong berries.

-David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises; What a mess. A loud, boring, bloody mess of a film. It wants to be too many things and never succeeds at any of them.