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Year in Review: 2007 in Perspective

Posted by Nathan Deen (nathan@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 1, 2008

My first year as an online film critic has been a very, very memorable one. Most professional critics have said that this was a great year and I agree with them. 2007 was infinitely better than 2006. 2006 was awfully disappointing as I barely had enough films on my list that I considered to be Top-10 material. Even the Oscar bait dramas disappointed and believe me, I saw them all; from Volver to Little Children to Letters From Iwo Jima. It’s pretty clear that whatever 2006 was lacking, 2007 has more than made up for. There are quite a few films that I’ve seen that would have made my Top 10 list last year but didn’t make it this year. This was a very strong year for all of cinema, maybe the strongest year of this decade. Why? Because we saw a very broad range of quality works.

Let’s break down some genre’s real quickly. What stood out the most was the salvation of the comedy, which started last year with Little Miss Sunshine. There were good films in all types of comedy from romantic (No Reservations and Waitress) to sex (Knocked Up) to teen (Juno, Superbad) to animated (Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie).

How about the musical? Sweeney Todd came home for the holidays (which I didn’t care for much but it’s everyone else’s favorite). The indie gem Once took everyone by surprise. Across the Universe was quite enjoyable as was Hairspray. And let’s not forget Amy Adams in Enchanted.

Foreign films really kicked ass. Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution is one of the year’s best as is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others. The Host is the best monster flick to come out in quite some time. Three notables I haven’t seen are The Kite Runner, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.

Last but not least, this was an outstanding year for American Cinema itself. My favorites were American Gangster, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country For Old Men. Notables I haven’t seen include the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There and There Will Be Blood, which is apparently the next Citizen freaking Kane.

Before we get to my top 10, I’d like to give some honorable mentions to films that just missed but I still really enjoyed. In alphabetical order, they are: Days of Glory, Eastern Promises, Enchanted, Gone Baby Gone, The Hoax, The Host, Hot Fuzz, The Hunting Party, The Invisible, Juno, The Kingdom, Lars and the Real Girl, TheNamesake, Once, Resurrecting the Champ, Sicko, Talk to Me, Things We Lost in the Fire, 300, Waitress, We Own the Night, Zodiac.

And now the prestigious ten best films of 2007

10. No Country For Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
No way I was leaving this one off my list. I don’t think it’s perfect nor is it quite a masterpiece, but as far as pure entertainment goes, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better film.

9. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
Far and away the best animated film of the year. A pure delight from beginning to end. Brad Bird is a mastermind.

8. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
A fascinating and compelling espionage tale with stellar performances and the year’s most haunting music score by Stephane Moucha and Gabriel Yared.

7. Away From Her (Sarah Polley)
A beautiful film and a stunning directorial debut by actress Sarah Polley. Julie Christie gives quite possibly the best performance of her career.

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates)
It may not be Oscar bait, but who cares. They say a great film is one in which you learn more about it with each viewing. I was surprised after watching it on DVD to see how psychologically riveting it was. This may yet be the best of the series.

5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
All of you who hate long movies can just stop reading right now. Roger Ebert says that a great film is never too long and that certainly holds true with Jesse James. It features the year’s most lucious cinematography, Brad Pitt has never been better, and Casey Affleck will be in a neck-and-neck race with Javier Bardem for Best Supporting Actor.

4. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee)
Ang Lee immediately follows up one of 2005’s best films with one of 2007’s. Another fascinating and beautiful foreign language film about espionage

3. The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach)
It’s easily the year’s best war movie and it may even be the decade’s best war movie. Cillian Murphy is pitch-perfect and is involved in one of the most devastating endings I’ve seen all year. You’ve probably seen movies about an underground resistance before but rarely will you see it done better than this.

2. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Sidney Lumet)
An instant American crime classic and perhaps the quintessential film of Lumet’s career.

1. American Gangster (Ridley Scott)
Speaking of an American crime classic, this goes down with Road to Perdition and The Departed as the best gangster films of this century. Ridley Scott took my top spot in 2005 with “Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut” and he hits another homerun here.

Awards (Winners indicated with*)

Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Sidney Lumet (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
Sarah Polley (Away From Her)
Ridley Scott (American Gangster)*

Best Actor
Don Cheadle (Talk to Me)
Russell Crowe (American Gangster)
Viggo Mortenson (Eastern Promises)*
Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Benico Del Toro (Things We Lost in the Fire)

Best Actress
Amy Adams (Enchanted)
Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire)
Julie Christie (Away From Her)*
Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)
Ellen Page (Juno)

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)*
Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)
Albert Finney (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ)
Irfan Khan (The Namesake)

Best Supporting Actress
Kelly Macdonald (No Country For Old Men)
Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan)
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)*
Marisa Tomei (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
Tabu (The Namesake)

Best Original Screenplay
Joon-ho Bong and Chul-hyun Baek (The Host)
John Carney (Once)
Alan Loeb (Things We Lost in the Fire)
Kelly Masterson (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)*
Nancy Oliver (Lars and the Real Girl)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)
Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
Sarah Polley (Away From Her)
Steve Zallian (American Gangster)*

Man of the Year
Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone/The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead/The Savages/Charlie Wilson’s War)*
Richard Gere (The Hoax/The Hunting Party)
Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ/Black Snake Moan)
Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah/No Country For Old Men)

Woman of the Year
Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire/After the Wedding)*
Zooey Deschanel (Bridge to Terabithia/The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Jennifer Garner (Catch and Release/The Kingdom/Juno)
Marcia Gay Harden (The Mist/Into the Wild/The Invisible/ The Dead Girl/The Hoax)
Nicole Kidman (The Invasion/The Golden Compass)

Best Independent Film
Away From Her
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead*
Namesake, The
Once
Wind That Shakes the Barley, The

Best Documentary
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Maxed Out
No End in Sight
Sicko *

Best Foreign Language Film
After the Wedding
Days of Glory
The Host
Lives of Others, The
Lust, Caution*

Best Animated Film
Beowulf
Meet the Robinsons
Ratatouille *
Shrek the Third
Simpsons Movie, The

Underrated Films
Golden Compass, The
Invasion, The
Invisible, The*
No Reservations
Resurrecting the Champ

Overrated Films
Blades of Glory
Dan in Real Life
Golden Door
Mist, The
3:10 to Yuma*

Worst Film
Condemned, The
Dragon Wars *
Epic Movie
Hitcher, The
Hot Rod

This feature is part of our 2007 Year in Review. For more, visit the Year in Review Homepage.