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Films that I enjoyed in 2007
Published December 30, 2007
It’s time to look back and remember my favorite films of the past year:
10. “3:10 to Yuma.” It was a good year for the western, of all things, as this slick morality play, bolstered by fine performances by Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, brought the oater back to the multiplexes. A little gritty, a bit unbelievable, but always fun to watch.
9. “American Gangster.” Director Ridley Scott’s film is yet another example of why gangster pictures will never die in Hollywood. Denzel Washington dazzles as drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Not as deep as it might want, but a roaring good times at the movies.
8. “The Darjeeling Limited.” It’s not as sharp as “Rushmore” or as sprawling as “The Royal Tenenbaums,” but Wes Anderson’s newest meditation on family and melancholy is still a funny time at the movies.
7. “Hot Fuzz.” This send-up of American cop movies and British drawing room mysteries is a gut-busting comedic slap to the face. Michael Bay-style pyrotechnics hit a sleepy British town with a bang.
6. “Grindhouse.” A loving, self-referential homage to the gory, awful movies of yore, this 3-hour mash-up of violence, sex, great trailers and bad dialogue is one of the best crowd experiences you could ever have in a theater. It’s over the top and gleefully amoral, and it’s also a tour-de-force of loving affection for the worst film has to offer.
5. “Eastern Promises.” David Cronenberg reunites with Viggo Mortensen after 2005’s “A History of Violence” for their second masterpiece of violence and redemption. It’s smart, tightly paced and Mortensen is fantastic opposite Naomi Watts as a Russian hitman with a secret.
4. “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” The second western on the list is not only a great showcase for actors Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, it also is one of the most gorgeous movies to look at in years. Slow and languorous, yet always riveting, it’s the western brought back to its glorious best.
3. “Ratatouille.” Yes, it’s a cartoon about a rat who can cook, but it’s also one of the best meditations on the creation of art you’ll see at the movies. It’s magnifique.
2. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” It’s a musical about a barber who kills people and his landlady who cooks the corpses into meat pies. In a list filled with violent films, this is one of the goriest, as this tale of personal revenge is elevated to epic proportions by Johnny Depp’s brooding turn as Todd, Tim Burton’s gothic direction and Stephen Sondheim’s operatic music and lyrics.
1. “No Country For Old Men.” While “Sweeney Todd” was cinematic excess at its finest, the Coen Brothers embraced minimalism for their neo-western based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. A nourish tale of the bad things men do, anchored by Javier Bardem’s murderous assassin and Tommy Lee Jones’ world-weary sheriff, this is why we go to the movies: Oscar-caliber performances, a rip-roaring story of crime and punishment and the most searing portrayal of man’s corruption you’ll see this year.
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