Best in Film 2007

Rating: Not reviewed


1. There Will Be Blood
In adapting Upton Sinclair's 1927 muckraker "Oil!," Paul Thomas Anderson has fashioned a character study posing as an epic. Daniel Day-Lewis inhabits the very shell of self-made oilman Daniel Plainview. One could argue there's little more to the film than Anderson's dread-filled direction and Day-Lewis' staggering performance; the first 15 minutes prove this could hardly be a disparagement. Without dialogue, "There Will Be Blood's" first movement traces Daniel's initial discovery of oil, a near fatal accident that leaves him with a limp and another accident that results in his ad hoc adoption of a baby boy who he will raise as his son H.W. (Dillon Freasier).

Daniel's attempt to secure his status as an oil baron leads him to the town of Little Boston, Calif. – where crude seeps from the ground – and into conflict with the town's power-mad faith-healer Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). It's in the battle between these two egomaniacal opponents that "There Will Be Blood" tackles the larger theme of the competing interests that form the backbone of America – not the country's romanticized and barely realized democracy, but religion and capitalism – and no matter the winner, the loser is sure to be Little Boston. And so goes the nation.

Anderson has often invited comparisons to Robert Altman because of his ensemble dramas (Anderson even served as an insurance-required "back-up director" on the set of Altman's last film "A Prairie Home Companion"), but his work here more frequently resembles Stanley Kubrick's style of elegant foreboding. Anderson and longtime cinematographic collaborator Robert Elswit ("Magnolia," George Clooney's "Good Night, And Good Luck.") concoct astounding cinematic sequences that never call attention themselves, thereby allowing the astonishing long takes and stately mise-en-scčne to overwhelm all the more.

This work of madness concludes with an epilogue that connects the Xanadu of "Citizen Kane" (a manor of loneliness paid for with oil money) and the Overlook of "The Shining" (a hotbed of violence and masculine desperation). In it, Daniel and Eli have their final confrontation, souls are finally lost to voracity, the meaning of "milkshake" is irrevocably changed and Daniel declares, "I'm finished."

"There Will Be Blood" invites hyperbole and earns every superlative. This momentous journey into the darkness of one man's cold-fist of a heart already warrants consideration as one of the 100 greatest American films ever made, and history seems likely to judge it with higher esteem.

2. No Country for Old Men
"No Country for Old Men" semi-ironically takes its title from W.B. Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium," in which a realm is described as being so full of youth that it forces a "paltry" "aged man" from his home. In the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is set adrift from the world and realizes he's among the "those dying generations" Yeats speaks of, but not because of the vitality he sees around him; it's because of the deadly mayhem. Vietnam vet Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) sets off Bell's epiphany when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong, steals the $2 million left behind and is chased across Texas by pitiless psychopath Chigurh (an electrifying Javier Bardem), leaving Bell to clean up their bloody trail. To paraphrase another Yeats poem, Moss turns and turns in the ever-widening gyre in an attempt to escape Chigurgh's passionate intensity while Bell loses his conviction, awash in the loosed blood-dimmed tide. Far from pretentious, "No Country's" poetical aspirations are apt: in its depiction of a mad world slouching toward Bethlehem, the film is already part of cinema's "artifice of eternity."

3. Killer of Sheep
"Killer of Sheep" has played at film festivals and in bootleg editions since director Charles Burnett made it as his UCLA film school thesis in 1977. The film is already well known enough to have made lists as one the most essential American films ever made and profoundly influenced Spike Lee and David Gordon Green's "George Washington." But it took until 2007 for Burnett's masterpiece to receive a legitimate (albeit limited) release. "Killer of Sheep's" portrait of a slaughterhouse worker (Henry Gale Sanders) fighting poverty in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles is often compared to the similar painfully realistic, slice-of-life films of Vittorio De Sica and John Cassavettes. However, Burnett's film has more in common with the work of French filmmaker Robert Bresson ("Au Hasard Balthazar," "A Man Escaped"). Bresson worked with nonprofessional actors to bring added realism to his scenarios, as does Burnett in "Killer," but its Bresson's gift for a poetical view of humanity amidst dire circumstances that Burnett truly shares.

4. Zodiac
An obsessively made film about obsession, David Fincher's "Zodiac" fanatically details the zealous pursuit of the infamous San Francisco serial killer by cartoonist-turned-amateur-sleuth Robert Graysmith and SFPD Inspector David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo). "Zodiac" essentially subverts Fincher's own "Se7en," replacing the mad dash to catch the mortal sin-killer "John Doe" with a meticulous, fact-based examination of a case that was never solved. Knowing the impossibility of resolution actually adds tension to the plot as Graysmith and Toschi descend into their own forms of madness in their futile attempts to identify the Zodiac killer. In addition to its character studies, the story also provides a commentary on the media and its arguably unwitting complicity in the killings by giving Zodiac the celebrity he sought (the media's subsequent reaction to the Virginia Tech shooter makes the film all the more relevant, if not prescient). With a talent for ultra-realism never hinted at in his previous films, Fincher renders "Zodiac" as a procedural worthy of comparison to "The Wire," "All the King's Men" and the data overload of "JFK."

5. I'm Not There
Director and co-writer Todd Haynes idolizes and then demythologizes the "many lives of Bob Dylan" in his post-modern fantasia "I'm Not There." Using six actors – including one woman (an electrifying Cate Blanchett) and one 11-year-old black boy (Marcus Carl Franklin) – and six distinct film styles to explore the many facets of Dylan's ever-evolving persona, Haynes shows Dylan as "the poet, prophet, outlaw, fake and star of electricity." Although the film lionizes Dylan early on as an iconoclast, it also cracks his façade: Dylan is depicted as a rebel who failed to join the cause, an inattentive husband and father and, in one startling sequence, an occasionally contemptible human being. Even Franklin's innocuous-seeming Dylan is revealed to be insidious once one realizes almost everything he says comes from "A Face in the Crowd," Elia Kazan's film about a folk singer who becomes drunk with power and uses it to fool his fans. What Haynes does would be a gimmick if it wasn't executed with such panache and if it didn't actually coincide with his elusive subject matter. In its sprawl of Dylan references and homages, the exceptionally daring "I'm Not There" eats into its own boundaries to become a grand piece of termite art.

6. Away From Her
Films about Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases usually result in crass Oscar bait that feature ostentatious performances from the sick and grandiose hand-wringing from those left to care for them. "Away From Her," the directorial debut from gifted Canadian actress Sarah Polley, is by contrast a tender film that's deeply involved in the emotions of Grant (Gordon Pinsent) as he sadly copes with his fading wife Fiona (Julie Christie), herself terrified by the departure of her mental acuity and her eventual self-imposed exile at a nursing home. Fiona soon becomes unable to remember the recent past, but what's even more devastating are the old memories that come forth, coloring Grant's guilt with an even deeper shade of remorse. Polley's unpretentious direction allows Christie and Pinsent to turn in heartbreaking and acute performances of love and loss that quietly break the heart.

7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
A fatalistic Western in the same vein as Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven," Robert Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller," Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" and Monte Hellman's practically forgotten "The Shooting," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" artfully imagines the final days of outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) as a series of predetermined moments leading to his inevitable killing by Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). Andrew Dominik's film captures the Old West with the feel of authenticity comparable to "Deadwood" even though its style is decidedly more portentous: Roger Deakins' gorgeous cinematography captures waves of grain, passing clouds and, in one classic scene, the steam from a train engine with iconic gravity. Like "I'm Not There," the film is as interested in myth-building as it is in tearing it down. Pitt, in perhaps his best performance, conveys the charisma that made James an outlaw for the people and also his paranoia-based spontaneous fits of violence. Affleck (also great in "Gone Baby Gone") is even more exceptional in complexly portraying Ford's pursuit of celebrity and foolish endeavor to prove his masculinity. When Ford ponders what he was expecting from his pusillanimous killing of James – "Applause," he says – he may as well have been contemplating the film's reception by confused studio executives, critics and audiences alike. As another member of James' gang says, "Poetry doesn't work on whores."

8. Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi, along with animator Vincent Paronnaud, translates her acclaimed autobiography "Persepolis" with the same simple yet stylized artistry she brought to her graphic novel collection of the same name. Charmingly yet tragically told, Marjane relates her childhood in Iran beginning in 1978, when a revolution toppled the repressive regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and gave rise to an even more oppressive "democracy" under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Marjane's liberal parents send her to Vienna to escape the horrors of Kohmeini's rein and attacks from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, resulting in Marjane's extreme sense of alienation. Marjane's return to Iran a few years later proves the old maxim of "you can't go home again." Marjane's story is a coming-of-age tale writ large – it's as much about Marjane's struggles with love and self-discovery as it is about Iran's troubles. Westerners who see Iranians as "violent, bloodthirsty lunatics" will find "Persepolis" a revelation in its depiction of a people not unlike themselves and who live in fear of their government, not entirely in support of it. As a child, Marjane says she wants to become a prophet; in her nostalgic, eye-opening vision of Iran, "Persepolis" allows her to become one.

9. Ratatouille
Auteur Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Iron Giant") continues his streak of bringing wit, grace, intelligence and beauty to American animation with "Ratatouille." Despite a queasy premise that features a rat in the kitchen and seemed destined to bore with its depiction of French culinary arts, Bird turns the latest Pixar triumph (the company's best film since "The Incredibles") into a feast for the senses. Even more impressive is the fact that "Ratatouille" provideds a forum for Pixar to takedown its distributor Disney: the story of a dead chef, Gusteau, whose renowned culinary artistry has been turned into cheap microwave dinners by the new greedy chef who takes over his kitchen can only be read as a metaphor for the way Walt Disney's artistry has been cheapened by direct-to-DVD sequels. Fortunately, an unassuming rat saves the restaurant, just as Pixar has saved Disney's legacy of animation excellence.

10. Once
"Once" is a musical about a Guy and a Girl who tentatively fall in love, but have no way of expressing their feelings to each other except through the songs they play and write together. John Carney's film is technically a musical, but it's the gentlest, most natural musical imaginable. Rife with intense yearning and melancholy, the film begins as the nameless couple (played by Glen Hansard of "The Commitments" and the band The Frames and Markéta Irglová) meet-cute while the Irish Guy is playing songs on a street corner that's otherwise empty except for the Czech Girl. The Guy and Girl go on to make literal beautiful music together as they – in the tradition of musicals – attempt to record an album, but it's their first song together that's the real heartbreaker. In a music store where the Girl is allowed to practice, the Guy teaches her one of his songs, allowing them to sing to each other the things they dare not say. "I don't know you / But I want you / All the more for that," he sings. "Falling slowly sing your melody / I'll sing along."

11. Into the Wild
12. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
13. This is England
14. Exiled
15. Fay Grim
16. Knocked Up
17. Regular Lovers
18. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
19. Brand Upon the Brain!
20. Margot at the Wedding
21. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
22. The Mist
23. Offside
24. Manufactured Landscapes
25. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
26. The Wind That Shakes the Barley
27. Superbad
28. Atonement
29. The Bridge to Terabithia
30. Sunshine
31. Michael Clayton
32. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
33. Syndromes and a Century
34. Paprika
35. Control
36. La Vie en Rose
37. The Bourne Ultimatum
38. Gone Baby Gone
39. Hannah Takes the Stairs
40. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
41. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
42. Hotel Chevalier and The Darjeeling Limited
43. 28 Weeks Later
44. No End in Sight
45. Grindhouse
46. Runnin' Down a Dream
47. The Other Side of the Mirror
48. Music and Lyrics
49. Eastern Promises
50. Rescue Dawn


Best Actor
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"
Runners-Up: Gordon Pinsent in "Away From Her"; Thomas Turgoose in "This is England"; Emile Hirsch in "Into the Wild" and "Alpha Dog"; and Sam Riley in "Control"

Best Actress
Winner: Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose"
Runners-Up: Julie Christie in "Away From Her"; Nicole Kidman in "Margot at the Wedding"; Louisa Williams in "Day Night Day Night"; and Parker Posey in "Fay Grim" and "Broken English"

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"
Runners-Up: Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild"; Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Josh Brolin in "No Country for Old Men," "Grindhouse," "In the Valley of Elah" and "American Gangster"; and Robert Downey Jr., "Zodiac"

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"
Runners-Up: Markéta Irglová in "Once"; Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Margot at the Wedding"; Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"; and Samantha Morton in "Control"

Best Ensemble
Winner: "I'm Not There"
Runners-Up: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Zodiac," "No Country for Old Men" and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"

Best Director
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood"
Runners-Up: David Fincher for "Zodiac," Ethan & Joel Coen for "No Country for Old Men," Todd Haynes for "I'm Not There" and Andrew Dominik for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Todd Haynes & Oren Moverman for "I'm Not There"
Runners-Up: John Carney (with music by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová) for "Once," Shane Meadows for "This is England," Kelly Masterson for "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and Olivier Dahan & Isabelle Sobelman for "La Vie en Rose"

Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood"
Runners-Up: Andrew Domink for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," James Vanderbilt for "Zodiac," Sarah Polley for "Away From Her" and Joel & Ethan Coen for "No Country for Old Men"

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: "Persepolis"
Runners-Up: "Exiled," "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," "Regular Lovers" and "Offside"

Best Animated Film
Winner: "Persepolis"
Runners-Up: "Ratatouille," "Paprika," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters" and "Surf's Up"

Best Documentary
Winner: "Manufactured Landscapes"
Runners-Up: "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten," "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," "No End in Sight" and "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

Best First Feature
Winner: Sarah Polley for "Away From Her"
Runners-Up: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi for "Persepolis," John Carney for "Once," Gabor Csupo for "The Bridge to Terabithia" and Tony Gilroy for "Michael Clayton"

Best Cinematography
Winner: Robert Elswit for "There Will Be Blood"
Runners-Up: Roger Deakins for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and "No Country for Old Men"; Edward Lachman for "I'm Not There"; Tetsuo Nagata for "La Vie en Rose" and Harris Savides for "Zodiac," "American Gangster" and "Margot at the Wedding"

Best Film Editing
Winner: Dylan Tichenor for "There Will Be Blood" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"
Runners-Up: Jay Rabinowitz for "I'm Not There," Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter for "Zodiac," Roderick Jaynes (Ethan & Joel Coen), "No Country for Old Men" and Darren Holmes for "Ratatouille"

Best Art Direction
Winner: "Ratatouille"
Runners-Up: "The Golden Compass," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Zodiac," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

Best Costume
Winner: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Runners-Up: "The Golden Compass," "La Vie en Rose," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and "Atonement"

Best Make-Up
Winner: "La Vie en Rose"
Runners-Up: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "Norbit," "Grindhouse" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

Best Dramatic Score
Winner: Jonny Greenwod for "There Will Be Blood"
Runners-Up: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," David Shire for "Zodiac," John Murphy and Underworld for "Sunshine" and Michael Brook for "Into the Wild"

Best Musical or Comedy Score
Winner: Glen Hansard & Marketa Iglóva for "Once"
Runners-Up: Michael Giacchino for "Ratatouille," Adam Schlesinger for "Music and Lyrics," David Torn for "Lars and the Real Girl" and Andrew Hollander for "Waitress"

Best Visual Effects
Winner: "The Golden Compass"
Runners-Up: "Sunshine" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"

Best Sound
Winner: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Runners-Up: "Sunshine," "There Will Be Blood," "La Vie en Rose" and "Ratatouille"

Best Sound Effects Editing
Winner: "Ratatouille"
Runners-Up: "Sunshine," "The Golden Compass," "Beowulf" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Best Song
Winner: "Falling Slowly" performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglóva in "Once"
Runners-Up: "When Your Mind's Made Up" performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglóva in "Once," "Once" performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglóva in "Once," "Lies" performed by Glen Hansard in "Once" and "Guaranteed" performed by Eddie Veder in "Into the Wild"

Best Soundtrack
Winner: "I'm Not There"
Runners-Up: "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten," "Runnin' Down a Dream," "Once" and "La Vie en Rose"

Biggest Disappointment
Winner: "American Gangster"
Runners-Up: "Spider-Man 3," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "Across the Universe" and "300"

Most Overrated Film
Winner: "The Lives of Others"
Runners-Up: "Into Great Silence," "Starting Out in the Evening," "Juno" and "The Savages"

Most Pleasant Surprise
Winner: "The Bridge to Terabithia"
Runners-Up: "Hairspray," "Music and Lyrics," "Vacancy" and "The Mist"

Most Underrated Film
Winner: "Fay Grim"
Runners-Up: "Hostel Part II," "Music and Lyrics," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and "Hannah Takes the Stairs"

Posted Monday, December 31, 2007

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/best.film.2007