Since everyone else is putting up their top ten films of the year, those of us all sitting in the same row of seats put our lists together, compared, contrasted and argued; and finally assigned a point system to come to some sort of agreement, or consensus if you will, of the ten “best/favorite” films released in 2007. The list seems fairly standard with a couple of welcome, oddball titles thrown in for good measure. The curious absence of Once from the list has this author seriously considering leaving this site, but otherwise it looks pretty good. So without further ado, I give you the ROW THREE TOP TEN FILMS OF 2007…
10) Exiled
9) Inland Empire
8 ) Rescue Dawn
7) Gone Baby Gone
6) Grindhouse
5) Atonement
3) TIE: Paprika / Zodiac
2) The Assassination of Jesse James
1) No Country for Old Men
You can see all of our lists below the fold…
MARINA:
10) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
9) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
8 ) I Just Didn’t Do It
7) Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6) Eastern Promises
5) The Namesake
4) The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
3) The Band’s Visit
2) Control
1) Atonement
KURT:
10) Gone Baby Gone
9) The Darjeeling Limited
8 ) My Winnipeg
7) M
6) No Country For Old Men
5) Death Proof (Grindhouse)
4) There Will Be Blood
3) Paprika
2) Zodiac
1) Inland Empire
JOHN:
10) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
9) Nightmare Detective
8 ) Michael Clayton
7) The Host
6) No Country for Old Men
5) Gone Baby Gone
4) Fido
3) Black Snake Moan
2) Exiled
1) Paprika
JONATHAN:
10) 3:10 to Yuma
9) Lars and the Real Girl
8 ) Hot Fuzz
7) The Lookout
6) Rescue Dawn
5) Gone Baby Gone
4) Zodiac
3) There Will Be Blood
2) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
1) No Country for Old Men
ANDREW:
10) Zodiac
9) I’m Not There
8 ) The Man from Earth
7) Paris Je t’Aime
6) No Country for Old Men
5) Rescue Dawn
4) Atonement
3) Once
2) Grindhouse
1) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
@jonathon – 7) Lars and the Real Girl
Please see Devin’s recent article on Ryan Gosling for his definitive take down of that insipid and uterally phony piece of shmaltz.
I really liked Little Miss Sunshine but can still appreciate that it’s not everyones cup of tea, I’ll concede the characters are on the shallow side. It’s a an satisfying and endearing film but also a pat and simple one.
but when I hear people attack that film for being shmaltzy and conventional while celebrating Lars Von Trier and the Sex Doll or to a lesser extent Juno (a much better film than Lars) I don’t know whether to blow a gasket or go on some smug Henrik-eque (you’re an adjective now, congradulations you made it) condescending superiority trip and lecture the commoners about their psuedo-intellectual pedestrianism.
Thus concludes the longest sentence I have ever written.
whether or not its intended, i find it very subversive in “Lars..” how the entire religious community accepts his delusion because it makes them feel better.
Was I moved by Lars? No. I was simply entertained by it and thought it was a good story. If anyone doesn’t like Lars, I imagine they may count themselves among those who didn’t care for Six Feet Under either. Oh well, their loss. I don’t think Gosling will get too upset about that article when he gets his Best Actor nomination
Devin says: “I was still on the Gosling bandwagon when Half Nelson came out, despite the fact that I really didn’t like the movie.”
Sorry, dude… he didn’t like Half Nelson. Which is easily in my top ten of last year too. He also hates The United States of Leland and The Notebook, which I also like, despite their obvious flaws. Devin’s entire argument is not only bordering on the asinine, but it’s obvious from the start that he decided he wasn’t going to like this movie even before he saw it.
I feel like tearing into what he wrote piece by piece (I actually started to, but then deleted it, deciding it really wasn’t worth my time, especially when I need to get to bed here), but I’m not sure what the point would be, so I won’t……… for now.
It’s a great little film. Flawed, sure, I would agree – maybe some of the actions of the townsfolk aren’t believable, whatever… but c’mon, I could make that argument in so, so many movies (movies I absolutely love), but that’s WAY too easy of a criticism – but Lars has top notch acting and with a plot that could have easily been make into a slapstick, sex-joke filled, National Lampoon straight-to-DVD affair, they managed to pull off a smart, funny, mature, and touching dramedy.
Obviously, it doesn’t work for some people and that’s fine, but a bad movie? Please… far from it, any way you look at it.
“…but it’s obvious from the start that he decided he wasn’t going to like this movie even before he saw it.”
I can forgive Devin because of his awesome rant about Scott Holleran (I think it was him), but yeah, he’s got a similar retarded grudge against Christian Bale.
Unfortunately on the CHUD boards theres an awful lot of Campea/Maddox-esque sycophants who treat Devin like the final word on anything. Hope you’re not one of them, Rusty.
Devin also put 28 Weeks Later on his ‘worst’ list.
I rest my case
okay, so that was rubbing it in. Devin gave Once the #1 spot on his list and unlike Nick had the good sense to not at least not nullify his LATRG hate by putting Juno on his list.
that said, CHUD is an ugly ugly site with piss poor navigation that I generally avoid despite occasionally great content
I don’t want it to sound like I was putting him down, because I wasn’t. Devin’s entitled to his opinion and he’s a great writer and I enjoy reading his stuff sometimes. He can just get carried away trying to prove his points, that’s for sure.
“…Henrik-eque (you’re an adjective now, congradulations)…”
mad LOLz
Jonathan – way to defend your choice of “Lars.” I couldn’t say it better, so I won’t. I too quite like the film and I admit to being a little moved at the end (more so than Hanks’ volleyball affair anyway). And yes, Half Nelson was like #4 on my list last year.
And Goon, the Maddox reference was not lost on me. Love that dude.
Oh I’ll put him down. That article was ludicrous. I stopped reading half way through as he clearly is wrong.
I like Half Nelson too. You know what, there’s room in my heart for the tremendously flawed United States of Leland. Devin’s a curmudgen to be sure, a guy who drives you crazy but when he tears into a movie you hate there’s few better at flushing a piece of shit down the toilet.
In any case, I don’t see what any of those other films have to do with Lars. And when you say it’s obvious he went in looking to hate the film I don’t think it’s obvious at all. I went in expecting to like the movie but hated it for the exact same reasons as Devin, right down to Keli Garner as the plain looking secretary who has nothing better to do than sit around waiting for dim, deranged, uncharasmatic Lars to finish burying his make believe fiance so they can hook up, I guess literally over her dead body. Whoops, spoileer. Although, frankly if you can swallow that ending as is I don’t see how I could possibly spoil it.
In conclusion, I think it might be worth your time to write that rebuttle. Love him or hate him Devin’s one of the best critics writing in any medium. Any reviewer is instantly improved by reading him. There’s a lot more to his argument than you’re aknowledging.
Glad to see Eastern Promises on your list, Marina. Finally got to see it – Donnie Brasco meets the Russian Sopranos, but much darker. Does it count as a Canadian film?
No There Will Be Blood? Blasphemy.
But if you’re excluding the Planet Terror half of Grindhouse, then I’m with you all the way; absolutely loved all ten. I especially like the Atonement selection because it has five minutes of the purest, most profound cinema you might ever see.
“In any case, I don’t see what any of those other films have to do with Lars.”
It has to do with the fact that a) it shows Devin decided he wasn’t going to like this before he saw it and b) it shows that Devin and I just plain don’t AGREE on Gosling’s movies
“There’s a lot more to his argument than you’re aknowledging.”
True, and I said I was writing my rebuttal point for point. And I will write one then, I have no problem with that at all, but I’m off to Washington, D.C. until Sunday, so I’ll tackle it when I get back.
P.S. I have not seen There Will Be Blood yet, but I have a feeling it’s going to be high on my list. It’s nowhere around me playing though.
But, I might make a trip to the 11 PM showing down in Washington, D.C. while I’m there. Because I just can’t wait any longer!
@”I hope you’re not one of them Rusty”
… sigh… can’t a guy appreciate someone for being great at what they do without being a “sycophant”, ironically regarding The Camp, you’re the exact opposite of a sycophant; your ire is dramatically disproportionate to the crime. You’re like a sycophant on opposite day.
Maybe I just happen to really think that Chud is great. The best stable of writers on the web (you’ve got to hand it too them, they’ve got a great line up right now), my favorite podcast (Justin Waddell cracks me up more than Nagey, and I love Nagey.) and I think Devin consistently writes witty, observant, devestating and still hilarious criticism.
But I have to point out that in the very same post where I’m praising Devin I’m sticking up for Little Miss Sunshine, a film he despised. Devin also like Transformers and Leslie Vernon; and I think my opinion on those films is a matter of public record as documented here and TMB (I don’t post on Chud). So it’s not like I’m taking the guy’s word as krishna.
@Andrew, I’m glad you liked that Henrik bit. But I can’t take your perspective seriously on this issue if you’re not even going to read the article.
@”Devin and I just plain don’t AGREE on Gosling’s movies”
I don’t agree with him on Gosling movies either. I agree with him on Lars and the Inanimate Object.
@”Devin decided he wasn’t going to like this before he saw it”
Well, that’s pure conjecture and as such, weak. I think it’s especially weak since he describes himself as a fan of The Goose prior to Lars and the Horse Shit. In any case, regardless of whatever he decided to hate when, his reaction mirrors my own exactly and I went in expecting to like it. I like Gosling, I like Paul Schnieder and I never heard of the direct so I had no reason to hate him. Plus I like Keli Garner a lot as I said.
Really, it’s such a weak point it practically concedes Devin’s argument through shear lameness.
@ “i find it very subversive in “Lars..” how the entire religious community accepts his delusion because it makes them feel better.”
I don’t find it very subversive since the conciet of the film is that devout belief in the unreasonable and stupid is in of itself a virtue.
I think the parallel is intentional and not at all critical.
@”I don’t think Gosling will get too upset about that article when he gets his Best Actor nomination”
I guess. How many oscars does it take to turn a shite film into pudding? Is Crash good yet?
Alright, he describes himself as a fan of Gosling, sure… but not a fan of any of his movies except The Believer. I’m just going to leave it at this for now, and I’ll flesh out my rebuttal here when I get back in a few days.
Until then, farewell!
That is a top ten I can stand behind!
I still have not seen There Will Be Blood, but besides that here is my best of list for 2007, taking into consideration that it was within this calendar year that I saw these films (and some may have opened outside of this time frame) and that I select according to the degree with which I was personally affected by the work, factoring in secondarily the particular ‘cinematic’ significance of the film.
1) Inland Empire
2) Silent Light
3) Once
4) No Country for Old Men
5) I’m Not There
6) Zodiac
7) Gone Baby Gone
9) Alexandra
10) A Mighty Heart
Inland Empire (David Lynch) – I was predisposed to hate this film knowing its stylistic parallels to Mulholland Drive a film I loathe with rare zeal. To be honest, I do not remember what circumstances lead me into the theater to see Inland Empire, but there I was, enraptured for the entire three hours of its uncoiling psychosis. I fell deep into this film, teetering on unconsciousness and swept away by the nightmarish scenarios set before me. I remember stumbling out into the night with a sensation like drunken abandon as my senses slowly returned.
Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas) – My favorite film at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, a film I had not even originally shortlisted to see. A powerful musing on the paradoxical nature of love that genuinely moved me.
Once (John Carney) – as I wrote in my review: as precious as a mix-tape made by a lover or intimate friend. Pure joy.
No Country For Old Men (The Coen Brothers)– Absurdity run amok in wide open spaces, a surprisingly pensive subtext for a film that is fundamentally a crime story.
I’m Not There (Todd Haynes) – Not the masterpiece I wanted it to be but a sprawling approximation. This is the future of the biopic genre, ‘Art Film’ with a capital “A”. I caught this twice in the cinema, still not fully registering the minutiae of biographic details that it unloads on the unsuspecting viewer, alas. There is a truly beautiful moment near the end of this film where Cate-as-Dylan is giving a speech on not being a folksinger: he/she is sitting in the back of a car and the response seems categorically Dylan in its esoteric elusiveness, but then suddenly there is a real directness, perhaps the first of the entire movie, and you feel like finally something is being said, and with that Cate-Dylan looks directly into the camera and gives a Mona Lisa smile that sent tingles down my spine.
Zodiac (David Fincher) – A movie one can live within, saturating an era.
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck) – Second only to Silent Light in its mature rendering of an ethical dilemma. Drama for adults, by Ben Affleck no less.
Control (Anton Corbijn) – while situated within the conventional music biopic format this expose of Ian Curtis short-lived life raises above the par with its stunning black and white cinematography (director Anton Corbijn is best known for his still photography and it shows) and buoyed by the best performance of the year in Sam Riley’s channeling of Ian Curtis.
Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov)– Sparse tale of a burly grandmother in amongst the warfare of her grandson’s station. Just brilliant
A Mighty Heart (Michael Winterbottom)– I’m not sure what I am more impressed with: the note-perfect performance of Angelina Jolie as the wife of a captive journalist in Karachi, or the masterful employment of suspense through the fragmentary storytelling of Michael Winterbottom and his Oscar-worthy editor. This year’s United 93.
Honorable Mention: The Darjeeling Limited, Atonement, Paranoid Park, Into the Wild
“since the conciet of the film is that devout belief in the unreasonable and stupid is in of itself a virtue.”
I dont see a case for this as that is completely out of character with Nancy Oliver’s other, much more cynical work. To me its just a quirky oddball story.
I mean… when we get to the funeral scene, are you looking at the eulogy at face value, like we’re supposed to feel the same as the congregation? Because I don’t. I’m not outright saying we’re supposed to laugh at it either – its just another in a very long series of moments in a film that does a Farrelly Brothers level concept with a more straight face. Where people started getting this idea we’re supposed to cry for Bianca is beyond me.
The critiques against the movie read to me like what I expect out of Bucket List. I don’t feel like I saw the same movie that you did.
As for the best actor nomination thing, it was just a tease.
…and I’m not saying that the film isnt trying to be sweet or crowd pleasing, I just really do NOT see any emotional pandering beyond simply trying to make people smile. When I think of schmaltz, I think of like, K-Pax. Lars is innocuously cute and ultimately without much of a lesson, and definitely not a hard handed one. The math of how people think this is some calculated effort to pander just doesnt add up… considering how easy this movie would have been to fuck up – casting nearly anyone BUT Gosling and Kelli Garner, the concept itself should inherently alienate people, 5 degrees to either direction and you have a gross out movie or, like, “Radio”.
(sorry, sometimes i break up my points)
back to
“since the conciet of the film is that devout belief in the unreasonable and stupid is in of itself a virtue.”
if you FORCED me to find a lesson in Lars, I seriously seriously do not see any devotion to devout belief, but can see “Delusional beliefs that hurt noone else are nothing to get upset about” – theres a scene with the neighbors when they talk about Lars being crazy, about all the other people they’re related to that they overlook, and that they shouldnt be hypocrites about it. They decide that Lars is a good kid. He gets angry/scary when he’s actually accepted. A lesser, pandering film would have the one EVIL character like in Edward Scissorhands or for that matter, the Darabont coupling of Green Mile and Shawshank, that wants to tear him down and smear him.
Lars skips that sort of bullshit and just lets the characters be, without silly additional plot contrivances forcing you to like anyone. You either connect with the characters through the performances, or you don’t. This is very consistent with Oliver’s Six Feet Under work, a show that made no bones about letting you hate characters – that show developed characters that went and did what they WOULD do, not what was convenient to the plot, or shock value. When crazy shit DOES happen in that show, it makes sense.
I’m an adjective? Oh well… I can take abuse. I’m not condescending though, it’s just that I think everybody is retarded except for myself.
@Jeremy – Yup. Eastern Promises is billed as a Canadian/UK co-production. It’s considered Canadian!
@Rot – love your list. I’m curious about Silent Light and Alexandra. And the only reason TWBB is not on my list is because I haven’t seen it yet. It doesn’t open here for another week *sigh* Sometimes, the movies you least expect to see are the best ones. 2 years ago one of my first VIFF picks was replaced by a film that wasn’t even on my radar. I ended up seeing 12:08 East of Bucharest, a hysterical retelling of the Russian revolution as it took place in one small town.
Hey Henrik, I think you contribute to this site enormously. I don’t want to inhibit you expressing your beliefs in any way, I like reading your posts.
I just want to confront your statements in a strong language as you use.
You and I are alike in that we both circumnavigate the border of propriaty.
There is no greater honor than to be parodied.
@”characters that went and did what they WOULD do, not what was convenient to the plot, or shock value.”
Goon, are you telling me that you believe a town full of people would’ve attended the funeral of a plastic doll. You’re telling me that felt authentic?
This question will end the debate for me. We don’t need to discuss it beyond. I’m just curious about your answer is to this one issue.
I have no idea what Shawshank Redemption or Six Feet Under has to do with anything.
Here are the movies that almost made my top 10 list:
A Mighty Heart
Aachi & Ssipak
Away From Her
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Black Book
Eastern Promises
Grindhouse
I’m Not There
Into the Wild
King of Kong
Lust, Caution
Notes on a Scandal
Once
Perfume – The Story of a Murderer
Ratatouille
Rescue Dawn
Sleuth
Smokin’ Aces
Sunshine
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tekkon Kinkreet
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Darjeeling Limited
The Lookout
The Mist
Triangle
Zodiac
Control
Here are the ones that I wanted to include on my list but most people would feel they are from 2006:
Children of Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Here are the ones that I had not seen at the time of making my list that may have ended up on it if I had seen them:
Lars and the Real Girl*
Juno
There Will Be Blood
The Orphanage
The Hoax
Southland Tales
Persepolis
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Talk to Me
La Vie En Rose
The Savages
The Namesake
Starting Out in the Evening
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
The Great Debaters
* I just saw it last night and while I enjoyed Lars, I would have been at most in the contenders list.
As for why There will be Blood is not on the list that comes down to the fact that only Andrew and Kurt have seen it and while Andrew enjoyed the movie somewhat it did not make it onto his Top 10. It ended up only getting one vote by Kurt at the number four spot. This is why I often get annoyed at movies that get limited releases. I’m pretty sure I will want to put it on my top 10 of 2008 but everyone will look at me funny and say that it was a 2007 film.
I guess I should also admit that Exiled is a 2006 release in Hong Kong but I love that movie enough and there was no way I had a chance of seeing it till 2007. I guess the same goes for Paprika also now that I think of it.
Here is how the voting fully came out:
No Country For Old Men 25
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 21
Paprika 18
Zodiac 18
Atonement 17
Gone Baby Gone 14
Rescue Dawn 12
Inland Empire 10
Control 9
Exiled 9
Grindhouse 9
Black Snake Moan 8
Once 8
The Band’s Visit 8
Fido 7
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters 7
There Will Be Blood 7
Death Proof (Grindhouse) 6
The Namesake 6
Eastern Promises 5
The Lookout 5
Diving Bell and the Butterfly 4
Lars and the Real Girl 4
M 4
Paris Je’Taime 4
The Host 4
Hot Fuzz 3
I Just Didn’t Do It 3
Michael Clayton 3
My Winnipeg 3
The Man from Earth 3
3:10 to Yuma 2
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead 2
I’m Not There 2
Nightmare Detective 2
The Darjeeling Limited 2
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber from Fleet Street 1
I think THERE WILL BE BLOOD fell victim to many of the writers here not having seen it yet.!
“Goon, are you telling me that you believe a town full of people would’ve attended the funeral of a plastic doll. You’re telling me that felt authentic?”
“Authentic” in film to me is relative to the world created by the film. In that respect, absolutely the townspeople would have gone to that funeral.
That same relativity is what makes me buy Tarantino’s dialogue in his own films, yet get off-put by things like “Honest to blog” in another.
I think Lars did an okay job of showing that not everyone was going along. There were a lot of people looking at him and the doll constantly.
The people at the funeral were Lars’ friends not the entire town. I can totally buy the friends showing up to support Lars.
I’m curious: was the amalgamated list weighted, so that if a film came number one it held a higher value in the calculation then if it was eighth? That would be a better way to calculate value.
Also, if the community of people who comment on this site could share their own top tens it would be interesting to have a secondary list which is more comprehensive of everyone to see what differences there may be.
Yup, 1 point for a movie that was #10 on the list and 10 points for a movie that was #1.
So with only 5 people voting if you put a movie at #1 there was a good chance it would make it in the top 10 overall. I am the only one who put Exiled on the list but I ranked it really high (where it deserves) and it ended up being on the overall list.
I’d also really like to see everyone’s list. I’m also more than willing to spend some time joining them all together into an overall (contributors and readers) Row Three definitive top 10 list.
Thanks John for putting the rationale behind how the ranking works! I was doing all kinds of speculative number crunching in my head…
I would be cool to see an overall list of contributors and readers!
Nice call on Son of Rambow, Kurt. It’s one of my “must see” movies of 2008. Right now I believe it is slated for release in the spring here in the US.
Crap, wrong thread. Ah well, Kurt will find it.
(Exiled was on my 2006 Top 10 list. It’s a great (GREAT!) piece of stylish fun). (For that matter so was THE HOST)…
(Yes Matt, Kurt Found it.) I saw the film at TIFF, it is exactly what a nostalgic feel-good movie SHOULD be. It’s a lot of fun and many many warm moments are embedded in a pretty slick (but not overly in-your-face) package. Nice.
Have you heard about the sequel (or more specifically the prequel) of The Host. Unfortunately its a new director and I seriously doubt it will be anywhere as good but I’ll still check it out when it comes out.
I’m also dieing to see Mad Detective, Johnnie To’s new film. I’ve enjoyed everything that I’ve seen of his so far even Breaking News which I think Kurt didn’t like, except for the opening.
Yea, Todd put a post up about The Host 2 over at TWITCH, it’s not being directed by Bong Joon-Ho so I’m less interested in the film, prequel or otherwise (I think it is a bad idea, but 28 Weeks Later turned out fine, so what do I know?)
Mad Detective is an absolute blast, even if the middle cannot live up to the knock-out opening sequence and the jaw-on-the-floor closing sequence involving broken mirrors.
I wholeheartedly recommend PTU if you haven’t seen it yet. (And of course the two Election films are top shelf quality)
PTU has been on my list for a while and the Election films are what actually turned me on to Johnnie To.
Did you get a chance to see Triangle yet? I love the closing gun fight in the field.
Its interesting to note that if we combine the Grindhouse rankings it moves up into #6 spot the year but I don’t want to do that since it will knock Exiled off the top 10.
Triangle is on my ‘anticipated list, I just haven’t caught up with the R3 dvd yet.
Even if you don’t post about it on here or Twitch let me know what you think.
@rot “Also, if the community of people who comment on this site could share their own top tens it would be interesting”
I want to write an “official” list after I see a few more films but as of right now:
1. Assassination of Jesse James
2. Gone Baby Gone
3. Factory Girl
4. No Country
5. Redacted
6. Death Proof
7. Superbad / Walkhard
8. Pirates 3
9. The Lookout
10. Atonement
Other films that could’ve been there: ZOO which I think was too indepted to Herzog. RESCUE DAWN wasn’t Herzog enough. KILLER OF SHEEP which I think would have been on my list except that I barely remember it, take that as you will. BLACKBOOK was sort of the film I wanted Munich too be. Two little seen films that left a huge impression on me TV SET and the very disturbing GIRL NEXT DOOR. I don’t know why I didn’t like INTO THE WILD more. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD is a great film but a relentlessly unpleasant one.
Kurt, it’s a durn tragedy you haven’t gotten a chance to see SOUTHLAND TALES. I still want to read your review when you get to it.
My top ten for 2007
1. Control
2. King of Kong
3. No Country for Old Men
4. My Winnipeg
5. Atonement
6. Counterfeiters
7. Eastern Promises
8. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead
9. Juno
10. Hot Fuzz
I find it strange that a Biopic and 2 Documentary’s are in my top 5. weirdness. Not my normal genre of film. Three british films too…
@John “Its interesting to note that if we combine the Grindhouse rankings it moves up into #6 spot the year but I don’t want to do that since it will knock Exiled off the top 10.” – Grindhouse IS on the list.
@Rusty: Definitely see a few more films. Anything to bump Pirates 3 off your list.
Pirates 3 is pretty much non negotiable. Partly because it doesn’t get enough love. If you look at the other big fantasy series they feel so formal to me. I don’t hate Lord of The Rings and Jerry Porter but they feel like a chore, like paper work. Pirates feels like anything goes, it’s filled a sense of absurdist humor and surreal invention.
Depp and Rush are a brilliant comedic team. Moriarty from AICN called Rush Bugs to Depp’s Daffy and I think that’s not only really clever but dead on.
The whole journey to the end of the world is great. Imaginative and cinematically awesome.
And most importantly Verbinski and Depp deserve a lot of credit for never compromising with Jack Sparrow. They never soften his rough edges throughout the series. He’s always selfish and out for himself. George Lucas sold out Han Solo by the end of the very first Star Wars film. But Pirates never gets the recognition it deserves.
“Pirates never gets the recognition it deserves.”
I saw the first two Pirates movies in the theater. The first one was alright, a bit too long, but the second one is probably the worst theater experience I have ever had in my life. Not only is it the longest movie ever created, it also has the most complicated plotline. So no matter how many babies Jack Sparrow kills, that series is fucking shit.
@ “So no matter how many babies Jack Sparrow kills, that series is fucking shit.”
Except that you like half of it apparently.
Sat through Pirates 1 bored. Slept through half of Pirates 2. Slept in front of a DVD copy of Pirates 3.
kinda liking the first one doesn’t constitute as “half”. i wasn’t necessarily a fan of the first one either, but at least it was consistently entertaining and didn’t overstay its welcome. the second one bored me to tears. i decided (wisely it seems) to stay away from the third installment.
I didn’t kind of like it, I thought it was alright. Meaning that I didn’t feel pissed off after it, but it was way too long. The trailer for the second movie looked absolutely amazing though, so I went and saw the second one. I never should have done that.
Oooo, the dreaded PotC franchise doesn’t do much for me either. THe first one was boring except for some pretty fun moments with Depp. The second one was more crazy (structurally) and had even more silly set-pieces and for that I did like it (I also dig on Bill Nighy). I felt no (zero, nada, zilch) reason to bother with a third one. I’d rather Verbinski was doing more stuff like THE WEATHERMAN which came out of left field to be a film I enjoyed a heck of a lot more than any of the Pirates otC films.
c’mon Henrik and Goon where are your top tens?
^I’ve posted mine a bunch of times now. but well, here you go.
1. Once
2. Ratatouille
3. No Country For Old Men
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. Rescue Dawn
6. Lars and the Real Girl
7. Grindhouse
8. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Knocked Up
10. Sweeney Todd
Hon. Mentions: Enchanted, Zodiac, 28 Weeks Later, Atonement, Hot Fuzz, Sicko, Helvetica (which was my no. 10 until a couple days ago)
Favorite male performances: Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn), Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl)
Favorite supporting male performances: Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men), Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma), Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn), Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton), Kurt Russell (Grindhouse), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War)
Favorite female performance: Amy Adams (Enchanted)
Favorite supporting female performances: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
Favorite soundtracks: Once, Ratatouille, The Darjeeling Limited, Grindhouse: Death Proof, Walk Hard
Favorite songs from a soundtrack: “Falling Slowly” (Once), “That’s How You Know” (Enchanted), “Guaranteed” (Into the Wild)
Favorite ‘06 movies I didn’t see till ‘07: Little Children, The Lives of Others
Favorite 10 individual scenes of 07: The Beach (Atonement), In the Basement (Zodiac), Final Review (Ratatouille), Chase (Grindhouse: Death Proof), Song during Lightning Storm (Black Snake Moan), the Controversial Dance/Jazz Sequence (Spiderman 3), Central Park Dance Number (Enchanted), Tangier Chase (The Bourne Ultimatum), Final Action Sequence (Hot Fuzz), Hotel Room Face Off (No Country for Old Men)
Worst of 07: Transformers (keep in mind I dont see a lot of the really bad movies. i have a good record for avoiding pure crap)
Biggest “Let down, but still good”: Gone Baby Gone, Sunshine
Most overrated of 07: Juno
Most underrated of 07: The Darjeeling Limited
Biggest surprise: Enchanted
Best DVD Bonus features: Knocked Up 2 Disc
Favorite TV movies: Battlestar Galactica “Razor”, Futurama “Bender’s Big Score”
A lot of fun but I almost entirely forgot: Harry Potter 5, Die Hard 4, Oceans 13
Most pissed off I wont see till 08: There Will Be Blood, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, My Kid Could Paint That, Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Zoo
My Top Ten list. It’s waaaaaay better then all of yours, because it’s mine.
The Weather Man was awesome. Michael Caine has never been better, and Nicolas Cage fucking rules.
As far as a Top 10 list goes, I haven’t made one. I might make one at some point, but definitely not before I have seen No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. NCFOM opens here march 7th by the way…
Jesus. It’s no wonder people resort to downloading. I’m not sure I could wait 3 months if everyone else was talking about how great the bloody movie was.
Exactly! I’m hoping it gets released on DVD before March 7th so that I can download it and fuck whoever’s distributing it in the ass.
I actually downloaded Superman Returns in a crappy recorded version because that movie got delayed 2 months because of the soccer world cup. But that’s no way to watch a movie, I just did it to make a point. Then downloaded it from a DVDrip later on.
Yeah, unfortunately, that’s the problem with downloading. Sometimes, you just can’t tell what the quality is going to be like.
“NCFOM opens here march 7th by the way”
Where is “HERE” out of curiosity?
Danmark.
@Kurt There Will Be Blood #4?! oh boy. I am feeling another Magnolia coming on because the buzz for this film is so high and I am left wondering if they saw the same film as me. There is no arc, no significant character development, no great payoff for the slow unwinding of events. somehow P.T. Anderson was able to take a note-perfect performance from Daniel Day Lewis and not give it much to do, but well, drink and conive. There was so much opportunity to really investigate the church state relationship, to interject some kind of spiritual component into the capitalist ambition, to draw biblical paralells in the father/son relationship, to stimulate some kind of epiphany. there is nothing of the sort in this film. and it has none of the charm of P.T.’s earlier scripts, the dialogue, with the exception of the speeches used in the trailer, very unremarkable… the final speech with its milkshake analogy just dies. the cinematography is on the whole unremarkable, and for the novelty of the score it seems to exist often separate from the drama as some kind of cloak for how unremarkable the things onscreen actually are. There is the suggestion of greatness everywhere but nowhere is greatness manifest.
I realize I am probably a minority on this view but if there was ever someone pre-programmed to love this film it was me and I cannot see beyond its many faults.
I think someone unknowingly had their milkshake drank.
And I don’t think you listed off a fault, merely ways in which the film didn’t follow your expectations. Hell, that he broke away from his typical conventions is probably why I loved the film.
I look at all the faults you mention above as strengths. The picture just grabbed a hold of me and didn’t let go for 2.5 hours. There was a majesty to its plainness that is not often encountered in American Cinema (exceptions: The Brown Bunny, 2 Lane Blacktop, Gerry, Last Days). I thought they handled the church/free-market angle quite well. The lack of dramatic arc set this apart from typical films of its ilk, and I say, more of these please!
heh. Matt, we’re on the same wavelength simultaneously
“somehow P.T. Anderson was able to take a note-perfect performance from Daniel Day Lewis and not give it much to do”
Substitute Martin Scorsese in there and you’ve just described Gangs of New York. That was a mightily-flawed picture saved by a great DDL performance.
That’s a pretty solid comparison Kurt. I think one of the biggest flaws with Gangs is that no one’s character besides Day-Lewis was interesting. Every time they focused on someone else the film lost all momentum. It really felt like a tug of war to me.
I’d love (love!) to see Scorsese’s original cut before Harvey Scissorhands got to the film and sliced and dice the thing into the train-wreck it is today (albeit an interesting and entertaining train-wreck!)
Maybe we’ll get a director’s cut before Scorsese kicks the bucket. I’m hoping so.
forced majesty… sometimes plainness is just plainness. and this is coming from someone who adores Gerry and Last Days… those films operated in a sort of minimalist meditative way focusing on the tiny inflections of human experience under duress… There Will Be Blood rarely dipped into that realm. so much of it was the mechanics of the vocation, and the exercising of the main character’s insatiable greed and want of competition. that was it, virtually no impediments to this end, just a continual unwavering pursuit. this is a thesis without an antithesis, and not a particularly interesting thesis at that.
my complaint about the lack of an arc in this film derives from the film’s own suggestion that there should be… the mysteries surrounding Paul/Eli, Daniel’s brother, the father/son relationship… none of these go anywhere they just fizzle out. Even the confrontation between church/state fizzles out, there appears to be no division between the two portrayed in the film, and that is hardly held up as a shocking twist but rather situated from the very first encounter.
there was mention of Kermode’s saying about a film going from point A to point A in another post, well TWBB is just that, a film that is designed in such a way as to suggest a storytelling arc but which never gets the ambition to fulfill this end. Withholding plot development does not de facto make this a meditative musing on a character study, the film has to work towards that end, and it just stalls, unless I am supposed to glean significant character development from the act of drinking and calculating profit.
Rot… well said. While I liked the film and long to see it again, this is exactly my problem with the movie. Everything stalls out and no other character in the story means anything to anything. This is Eli’s journey, but it’s not really all that interesting without others to interact with and make that story come to life.
I know there is that old adage that less is more, but sometimes less is less. you mentioned The Brown Bunny, Kurt, case in point. I have seen too many films that seem to think that if they slow things done and disrupt anticipation that something will come of it and they just indicate to me how much more sophisticated something like Gerry actually is.
take away the historical curosity, the eventness of seeing a P.T. Anderson film, and DDL chewing scenery and there is very little left. No great story, no insight into the human condition, no twists, no payoffs. each scene is charged with the anticipation that something is coming, and that anticipation is carried over and carried over and credits.
Paul was meant to be a throw away character. The film was filmed in sequence, and Paul Dano was only cast as Paul. But the actor who was originally cast as Eli was dropped part way through filming, and Dano was recast as Eli and all scenes between Eli and Daniel were re-shot.
And that the film chooses to not answer any mysteries isn’t a fault, it is merely a different direction then PT Anderson has ever taken. A film isn’t required to answer a single question to still be a great film, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a perfect example of how this is done, and that Anderson has been so focused on tying up loose ends and inserting metaphors and meaning to even the most inconsequential of storylines in past films doesn’t mean he should do the same in every film. You aren’t meant to understand every nuance of Daniel or his relationships, but you are supposed to be witness to his descent into ruin.
@Matt the casting issues explains a lot of the problems I had with the Paul/Eli subplot.
“You aren’t meant to understand every nuance of Daniel or his relationships, but you are supposed to be witness to his descent into ruin.”
one of my main problems with the film is that there is virtually no descent to speak of, and certainly no gradual observational decline to witness… Daniel is a self-involved misanthrope from frame one and merely drinks more by the last frame. there is no epiphany, and this is different from ‘answering’ questions, I hate pat answers, but Daniel as a character is not given an opportunity to be challenged and react outside of this narrow scope. Compare him to David Thewlis’ Johnny in Naked, another misanthrope who goes through the majority of the film spewing his bile at the world… but there is a moment of recognition in the film, and a struggle for something more that does not exist here… its not even profound cynicism that marks Daniel, and that can justify the lack of development to his character, like he is so jaded that he cannot exist in the world, and taken to the extreme that could be interesting. Instead he for the part exists well enough in the world, and even this is a let down. He is unremarkable… what is remarkable is Daniel Day Lewis, the actor acting becomes the point of interest.
why would I want answers? The score alerts us to foreboding, that events are going to happen, that tragedy is in the air… this is why I expect some sort of story arc… its implied in the film! afterall the title is There Will Be Blood, what could be more foreboding than that!although I think the original ‘Oil!’ would have been more accurate. If this was just a quiet character study it would have benefited from a different score or none at all, and a more thorough examination of the relationships between Daniel and his son, and Eli…
all that said there is one development to Daniel I did enjoy in the film… and I do not think this is much of a spoiler… but when he is confronted with the prospect of what he is to do once he has achieved his goal… that sense of anxiety in the face of one’s emptiness… that I liked.
At least 1 of the films in my Top 10 made it to yours!
Here’s mine:
10. Ratatouille
9. Enchanted
8. Zodiac
6. Die Hard 4.0
5. Transformers
4. The Bourne Ultimatum
3. Hot Fuzz
2. Zwartboek (Black Book)
1. Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others)
Simone – you lost me at Transformers
HAHAHAHA
You must have cringed upon seeing it rot!
There was a dearth of good films released in the UK last year, I had no choice but to see most of the Hollywood rubbish.
“I had no choice but to see most of the Hollywood rubbish.”
There is always Choice. There is a massive repository of cheap and easy DVDs out there. But I’m guilty of laying down good $$$ to see the gut-chruning visual diarrhea that was the TF film too. So I can’t really throw stones here.
I agree with you totally Kurt, that’s why I have switched to unlimited rentals. Not really wanting to defend Transformers, I wasnt a fan of this show when I was young so to enjoy it was also shocking. I put in my top 10 because I personally found it highly entertaining, mindless yes, but still entertaining.
I am hoping to see more good films in 2008 though, to atone for my sins.