The Top 20 Movies of 2007

1. There Will Be Blood
2. No Country For Old Men/Zodiac
3. Once
4. Superbad
5. Michael Clayton
6. Blade Runner: The Final Cut
7. The Bourne Ultimatum
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
9. No End In Sight
10. Ratatouille
11. Grindhouse
12. Crazy Love
13. Margot At the Wedding
14. Into the Wild
15. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
16. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
17. Juno
18. Lars and the Real Girl
19. Waitress
20. In the Valley of Elah

Honorable mentions: Dan In Real Life, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, , Romance & Cigarettes, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Snippet Reviews: The Best of 2007 (Part I)

Zodiac (2007)

By far the most masterful and impressive work of director David Fincher's long career, this epic documentation of the Zodiac killings throughout the 60's and 70's, which marked the end of the flower power era with a deafening thunder, is equally riveting and goose bump-inducing. Seen through the eyes of San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), the majority of the film functions as a police procedural as local authorities tirelessly comb the streets of San Francisco for any hint of the elusive killer, while the last third acts as a portrait of Graysmith's own intense fixation with the Zodiac. The sharp, perfectly paced script is aided by one of the most fantastic soundtracks in recent memory. The film's true brilliance is that rather than narrowly focusing on the details of the Zodiac's crimes, it acts as a character study, painting a dark portrait of obsession and paranoia among those who spent years of their lives attempting to crack the case of the Zodiac, many finding themselves destroyed by it. Final grade: A

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Despite numerous filmmakers having attempted to successfully tell the doomed tale of Jesse James and his infamous gang, never before has it been executed such grace and skill. Andrew Dominik's sophomore effort recalls the work of such innovators as Terrence Malick, with it's breathtaking cinematography and fragile pace, but still manages to carve it's own creative path. Brad Pitt gives one of the best performances of his career as James, the infamously charismatic and yet viciously erratic outlaw. Likewise, Casey Affleck is perfect as Robert Ford, James' admirer and eventual assassin, pulling off a nearly impossible high-wire act as he delicately negotiates the boundary between sympathetic bystander and spiteful killer. The intelligence of the film comes from it's unwillingness to place judgment on either character, leaving it to the viewer to decide just who’s shoulders the title of protagonist ultimately falls upon. Final grade: A-

Michael Clayton (2007)

Tony Gilroy's directorial debut is as perfectly understated as it is powerful, emulating what every director of a John Grisham adaptation wishes they were capable of. In this meticulously crafted legal thriller, George Clooney carefully and quietly constructs the portrait of a man worn down by countless years as the "fixer" at a prestigious New York law firm. The supporting cast is excellent, but in the end it's Tom Wilkinson who truly steals the show, giving a phenomenal performance as the lead defense attorney for a corrupt farming company who may be turning the tables on his own clients. Final grade: A-

Snippet Reviews: Youth Without Youth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Enchanted

Youth Without Youth (2007)

It's especially difficult to critique the work of a man who seems to make movies that require no approval but his own. Obviously startled by his newfound financial independence from the pesky production heads who've hounded him and his creative ambitions for decades, Francis Ford Coppola's unnecessarily oblique meditation on the nature of language, time and human consciousness is nothing more than a migraine-inducing ode to the director's inflated ego. Nevertheless, Tim Roth gives an intruiging performance as Dominic, a 70 year-old professor who's struck by a bolt of lightning. Miraculously he survives, and unexplainably wakes up to find himself thirty five years younger and in the sudden possession of a few questionable intellectual abilities. Coppola's first feature in ten years is the cinematic equivalent of an overly eager cocker spaniel peeing on the carpet. Unsure how to cope with the possibilities allowed to him by financing his own projects, this labor of love is a thematic mess. Despite the film's rampant faults, Coppola's efforts to create a new and challenging piece of work are at the very least admirable. Let's hope that by his next film he will have learned to tame his creative eruptions a bit more effectively. Final grade: C-

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

In 1995, the handsome, successful editor of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby, suffered a massive stroke which left him completely paralyzed, save his left eye. Using only his eye, Bauby painstakingly dictated his memoir; a series of etherial observations and musings on the world around him from inside the cold cell of his body. Director Julian Schnabel recreates Bauby's world with an incredible grace and artistry. We see through Bauby's eyes as he wakes for the first time. We hear his panicked thoughts as he begins to understand the nature of his predicament. We experience the same frustration and sorrow as Bauby as he muses on his inability to perform simple actions, such as run his fingers through his son's hair. He's forced to communicate with his father (Max Von Sydow, in a decidedly small, but Oscar-worthy performance) over the phone by proxy, and can do nothing to respond but blink, even as his aging father breaks out in tears over the speakerphone. Janusz Kaminski's gorgeous cinematography adds a dreamlike quality to the wanderings of Bauby's imagination as he travels through the halls of his memory, reliving the glory of his former life to the piercing sound of Tom Waits and U2. As ironic as it may sound, Schnabel's achievement is a feast for the senses in every way. Final grade: A-

Enchanted (2007)

Comedic self-reflection has never exactly been Disney's strong suit. Hence my relatively low expectations for their live-action Princess tale musical/comedy starring a rather brightly-clad Amy Adams. To my pleasant surprise, my expectations were far from correct. Adams lends a winning smile, melodious voice, and unstoppable charm to the role of Giselle, a fairy tale princess who mistakingly finds herself in New York City. After being met with less than a warm welcome in the Big Apple, Giselle finds herself under the roof of Patrick Dempsey's stuffy divorce lawyer, Robert. Sparkls fly between Giselle and Robert as she awaits rescue by James Marsden's well-intentioned, airheaded prince, and blah, blah, blah, you know how it goes. Despite a somewhat lackluster final act, this fairy tale send-up manages to be just what it should; well made cotton candy fun. Final grade: B+