Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Best Films of 2007-- Redux

There were so many changes after I played 'catch up' that I decided it was easier to delete the old article and post the whole list again, with some changes and additions.

The Best of the Year--
1. No Country For Old Men 
2. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
3. Zodiac
4. Margot at the Wedding
5. Lars and the Real Girl
6. Rescue Dawn
7. Gone Baby Gone
8. I'm Not There
9. Atonement
10. Away from Her

This almost never happens.  Usually, it's hard enough to find enough great films to populate one list--it was a testament to what a great year in movies it was that after compiling the list above there were at least ten other films that deserved mention.  So here's the next ten, in alphabetical order:

-The Darjeeling Limited
-Eastern Promises
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
-Into the Wild
-Knocked Up
-Lust, Caution
-Once
-The Orphanage
-Ratatouille
-Stardust

I tend not to see films that I know are going to suck.  That would be stupid.  So I try to only see films that are particularly relevant to the canon, or that I expect to like, or that I've heard great things about.  Sometimes, I make mistakes.  

The Most Disappointing of the Year--
1. Rendition
2. Across the Universe
3. A Mighty Heart
4. In the Valley of Elah
5. American Gangster

The Performances of the Year--
Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn)
Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl)
James McAvoy (Atonement)
Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises)
Gordon Pinsent (Away from Her)

Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)
Julie Christie (Away from Her)
Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding)
Ellen Page (Juno)
Tang Wei (Lust, Caution)

Casey Afflek (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises)
Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad)
Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn)

Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)
Jennifer Jason Leigh (Margot at the Wedding)
Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Marisa Tomei (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead)

1 comment:

Cheshire Cat said...

Josh. You MUST update this to reflect the genius of There Will Be Blood. The genius of Daniel Day-Lewis, specifically.