Year

So, woefully underprepared, I offer up the following tentative year-end stock-taking, knowing full well that at least three or four of the ones not yet seen may easily displace current residents. Still. It’s fun to do this.

Great:
Zodiac — the only film I’ve paid to see twice, one I definitely want to own, one I definitely plan to teach. I have a feeling I could watch this a few dozen times and enjoy it, still. It’s the only thing I’m confident stands out.

Red Road might creep up there, too… or it might be near the top of the next batch–

Very fine:
No Country For Old Men
Stephanie Daley (fuck Jeff!)
Michael Clayton
Eastern Promises? I just relished its craft.
The Bourne Ultimatum (as above)
Death Proof
Juno
The Mist (a guilty pleasure? It’s really good, and when you’re dying for a good horror film, really good is damn near great.)
Ratatouille
Darjeeling Limited
The Boss of it All
Margot at the Wedding

A. Payne’s piece from Paris Je T’aime

dvd finds (but older films):
Death of Mr. Lazarescu
The Motel
The Secret Life of Words
Exiled
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Welcome to Happiness
Vengeance is Mine — hell, almost 30 years old–but damn good, and first time for me…

Things I really enjoyed but seem on reflection more disposable:
Knocked Up
Superbad

Haven’t seen: There Will Be Blood; Charlie Wilson’s War; The Savages; I’m Not There; Gone, Baby, Gone; Into the Wild

Fucking hated: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Performers: sure, sure, Javier Bardem. But I think I’m more impressed by Josh Brolin there. Clooney as Clayton. Tilda Swinton, Tilda Swinton. Ellen Page and Michael Cera, both.

Shooting: Savides, for Zodiac.

10 thoughts on “Year”

  1. Good list. I’m waiting until the first week of January. Need to see Sweeney Todd, Juno, There Will Be Blood, Persepolis, and The Savages. Fincher’s extended, director’s cut of Zodiac is out on DVD in the first or second week of January. I’m buying that as well but want to take another look before I figure out where it fits in my best of list.

  2. Zodiac bored me. I can’t imagine watching it a “dozen times.” And an extended version? Please.

    did anyone here see Once? It’s on nearly every Best of 07 list I’ve read so far, frequently near the top. I posted on it briefly before its release, but it didn’t get mentioned here again. I’m just curious if anyone else saw it.

  3. i thought i’d cheer myself up from the terminal depression of christmas by going to see the savages. we couldn’t take more than an hour. i realized it was time to leave when laura linney downed her ex-stepmother’s percocet and i found myself doing a mental scan of my medicine stash. i’m looking forward to seeing this on dvd, with tea breaks and the cat purring on my lap, but on a gray christmas day, nah, i don’t think so.

  4. ah, christmas medication. Some thoughts: every two hours one 20 mg ritalin with one 20 mg xanax, during intervals a glass of spanish shiraz. so far so good!

  7. BEST
    1. There Will Be Blood
    2. Zodiac
    3. No Country for Old Men
    4. I’ll Be There
    5. Syndromes and a Century
    6. This Is England
    7. The Lives of Others
    8. In the Valley of Elah
    9. Michael Clayton
    10. Once

    Performances: Irfan Khan (The Namesake, The Darjeeling Limited, A Mighty Heart), Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton), Allison Janney (Hairspray, Juno), Cate Blanchett (I’ll Be There), Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding), Margo Martindale (Paris Je’Taime), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War), everyone in There Will Be Blood, Micheal Cera singing The Guess Who!

    Most deserving of camp/cult status: Joshua.
    Happy discovery: Vengeance is Mine,
    Worst film of the year: Across the Universe.

  8. Hmmm . . . it’s actually I’m Not There, which leads me to wonder how I managed to mangle the title of my 4th favorite film of the year. Perhaps I’ve been listening to The Jackson Five a bit too much recently.

  9. Don Martin’s versions of Jeff’s favorite films:

    1. There Will Be Blecch
    2. Zodiblecch
    3. No Country for Old Blecch
    4. I’ll Blechh There
    5. Syndreck and a SPLATury
    6. This is Blecch
    7. Blecchity Blechh Blechh
    8. In the Valley of BLECCCH
    9. George Michael ClayBlechh
    10. Irish Laddies Whingeing and Crying

  10. At first I was thinking Don Pardo. Then I had to go back a few decades to the salad days of reading MAD Magazine while listening to Alice Cooper’s “Billion Dollar Baby” LP on my parents’ stereo. My mom had a family room couch which sported a western motif (literally . . . it was a great place to perch while watching “Bonanza” and “The Rifleman”).

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