The Post-Oscar Report (and the Very-Belated Top 10 Movies of 2007 List)

Yay, Once won for Best Original Song!! All in all, tonight was a good night for great movies. No Country for Old Men took the top prizes, There Will Be Blood secured the Actor and Cinematography awards, and Atonement won next to nothing! Still, there were a few upsets. I mean, Tilda Swinton for Best Supporting Actress? Even she looked surprised! And who would've thought The Bourne Ultimatum would take home so many technical awards?

And now, for the unveiling of my unbelievably belated Top 10 Movies of 2007 list:

1. Zodiac (dir. David Fincher) Fincher has always had a knack for making a great-looking movie, though only one film in his repertoire (Se7en) melds the visuals with an equally engaging story (in Fight Club, the over-indulgent visuals clearly overpower the story). Thankfully, Zodiac finds Fincher finally combining his meticulous attention to detail with a story truly worthy of such scrutiny. Despite the film’s long running time and the fact that all of the murders happen during the first half-hour, Zodiac never loses its pace, as long as the audience is as willing to become as ensnared in the intrigue as lead actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr. are. With Fincher at the helm, that shouldn’t be a problem.
2. There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson) It’s ironic that the film P.T. Anderson dedicates to the memory of Robert Altman is also his first film to deviate from the Altman formula of ensemble casts and intersecting storylines. Rather, the ghost of Stanley Kubrick permeates through every oil-soaked frame of There Will Be Blood, a moral fable of sorts, in which Daniel Day-Lewis gives what may be the best performance of his career. Anderson also continues his talent for picking excellent young actors by casting the unknown Dillon Freasier as Day-Lewis’ son, reviving the theme of father/son relationships that played such a major role in other Anderson films like Magnolia and Boogie Nights. Jonny Greenwood also plays a major role in There Will Be Blood, supplying one of the most unsettling musical scores this year, conjuring up the spirit of György Ligeti, another frequent Kubrick collaborator and supplier of the infamous “monolith music” from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
3. No Country for Old Men (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen) The Coen brothers had begun to slowly sink into the land of over-indulgence and self-parody with their mediocre comedies Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers. Thank God they came to their senses and turned out their darkest and most gripping crime thriller since Fargo. No character says any more than needs being said, and no music is heard throughout most of the film, creating an overall sense that our lead actors (Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin) are simply biding time until their imminent demise, quite possibly in the form of Javier Bardem, whom the Coens have turned into one of the most terrifying killers since…well, Peter Stormare in Fargo.
4. Juno (dir. Jason Reitman) What sets Juno apart from the recent string of quirky comedies like Napoleon Dynamite, Little Miss Sunshine, Eagle vs. Shark, and countless others, is how it takes all of the clichés of the genre (dialogue with countless pop-culture references, silly props like a hamburger phone, a soundtrack with at least one Kinks song in it) and makes them feel fresh by injecting a truly heartfelt storyline about a young girl’s quick and perilous journey into womanhood. Also, any movie that can get a good performance out of Jennifer Garner is surely worthy of some sort of award.
5. Once (dir. John Carney) In a year where nothing but depressing, dark mood pieces are making everyone’s top ten lists, it’s nice to see John Carney’s sleeper hit make it near the top of most of them. Glen Hansard and newcomer Marketa Irglova turn out one of the most heartfelt, effortless, and downright honest movies of the year, with a soundtrack that rivals the best musicals.
6. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton) Tim Burton has always walked a tightrope between harmless children’s horror (Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands) and full-on dread and doom. His adaptation of Sweeney Todd, however, makes Sleepy Hollow look like the animated Disney version, as Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter sing and dance their way through countless gory murders, usually followed by dinner. The music isn’t particularly memorable in individual chunks (with the exception of “Not While I’m Around,” sung wonderfully by newcomer Ed Sanders) but as a whole entity, the score feels entirely born out of the material, and it would’ve been impossible for Burton to envision a Sweeney Todd movie without it.
7. Great World of Sound (dir. Craig Zobel) This movie could have been really bad. Writer/director Craig Zobel could’ve focused solely on how ridiculous some of the musicians seem, unaware that they’re being played for saps in a motion picture. But instead, he focuses on the integrity of his main character, played deftly by stalwart character actor Pat Healy, as his dream of being a music producer slowly disintegrates right before his eyes. Kene Holliday provides a wonderfully entertaining counterpoint to Healy before revealing that he has yet to come to terms with his own demons. The best film I saw at Cucalorus 13.
8. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (dir. Sidney Lumet) Sidney Lumet is a fucking institution in the movie industry. With at least three landmark movies under his belt (12 Angry Men, Network, Dog Day Afternoon) there was no need for him to make another movie ever again. But Lumet was persistent, and at the ripe old age of 83, turned out this unbelievably taut and morbid thriller, featuring what may possibly be Philip Seymour Hoffman’s greatest performance, a hard-earned accomplishment considering this is also one of the best showcases for Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney.
9. Ratatouille (dir. Brad Bird) Cars may have been Pixar’s first stumble in an otherwise stellar canon of animated features, but Brad Bird easily put fears of a creative dry spell to rest with his charming tale of a Parisian sewer rat destined for culinary greatness. Once again, Pixar prides itself not on big names to provide its voice work, but on actors who genuinely fit the characters’ personalities. Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, and (of course) Peter O’Toole all shine.
10. Hot Fuzz (dir. Edgar Wright) Say what you will about the comic team of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They have a knack for not only sending up every stereotype of whichever genre they tackle, they also do the genre justice with an engaging storyline and fascinating characters. Hot Fuzz aims a little higher than its zombie-centered counterpart (the film breathlessly combines elements of police procedural, crime thriller, slasher film, and buddy cop movies) but it remains one of the most engaging comedies of the year.

Honorable Mentions:
The Darjeeling Limited (dir. Wes Anderson)
Everyone gave Wes Anderson a hard time this year because his newest film wasn’t “different enough.” Let’s face it; India already looks like a Wes Anderson film. What is different is Anderson’s focus, not on an old man at the end of his rope, or on a grade school wunderkind, but on three brothers, already alienated from themselves and their indifferent mother, and their desperate attempts (or, rather, Owen Wilson’s desperate attempts) to reconcile their differences before abandoning one another forever. As a matter of fact, Anderson makes some bold choices this time around, especially regarding the inclusion of the short prequel Hotel Chevalier, which boils the Anderson formula down to thirteen minutes, and also complements several scenes in the subsequent feature.

Rocket Science (dir. Jeffrey Blitz)
Blitz, coming off the heels of his Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, again deals with the struggle kids face when they’re forced to grow up too quickly, albeit in a fictional setting. Reece Daniel Thompson stars as a stuttering young man who is practically forced to join the high school debate team by the domineering Anna Kendrick. Blitz uses the tried-and-true Napoleon Dynamite formula when it comes to creating quirky characteristics, but he deftly subverts them in a genuine attempt to show what happens to kids when the pressure is applied and nothing less than excellence is expected.

Superbad (dir. Greg Mottola)
The one thing lacking from the countless Judd Apatow comedies this year and last was an overall sense of style, and while there’s certainly nothing in Superbad to justify the blaxpoitation-drenched soundtrack or retro graphics, at least it’s something. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera do a great job carrying the main plotline of the film, but it’s Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, and the downright hilarious Christopher Mintz-Plasse as “McLovin” Fogell who help carry this film into the upper echelon of high school comedies like Dazed and Confused and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

The TV Set (dir. Jake Kasdan)
Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow know a lot about the television industry. The two collaborated on a pair of shows (Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared), both of which got cancelled early on, and both of which found massive cult followings, propelling Apatow to the head of the pack in the film industry, helming nearly every successful American comedy of the last four years. In The TV Set, we find executive producer Apatow and writer/director Kasdan at their most venomous, as they stick a red hot poker to the television executives they’ve had to put up with for the better part of a decade. Their scorn and hatred is encompassed in Sigourney Weaver’s character, a producer who embodies all that is wrong with the television industry. Her character is only concerned about the bottom line, and thinks nothing of canning writer David Duchovny’s new show in favor of a second season of something called Slut Wars. While The TV Set isn’t the laugh-riot that movies like Superbad and Walk Hard are, it doesn’t try to be. Instead, it’s a dark satire of how regulated network television is, and how good TV executives are at weeding out talent and diluting creativity.