Good/interesting 2007 films that didn't quite rise to "Best of" level, Part II

More from 2007:

Black Book: This Paul Verhoeven film about the survival of a Jewish woman during WWII is a pretty gutsy film. The approach it takes is quite different from other movies with similar subject matter, and the lead performance by Carice van Hoeten is brave and striking. In the end, it gets a little melodramatic at times, and I'm not sure the framing device was necessary or helped much (though it's worlds better than the atrocious and embarrassing framing device in Saving Private Ryan) but it remains gripping throughout, and admirably subverts our expectations.

Grindhouse (Planet Terror/Death Proof): Yeah, it's a stunt. Yeah, we may be a little weary of Quentin Tarantino's insatiable desire to fetishize Z-grade 70s exploitation films. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this was still a gonzo trip to the movies. Robert Rodriguez's front half, the zombie film Planet Terror, is decent little thrill ride with some admirably perverse grossout effects, but it left me wishing for an actual Z-grade film. Do we have to spend so much money to imitate super-cheap films? Tarantino's half is awful talky for the first 2/3, but he makes up for it by finishing with one of the most insane sustained stunt/chase/action sequences I've ever seen. It also helps that a demonic Kurt Russell gleefully chews scenery like he hasn't since the Escape From movies.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley: The Irish begin to fight back against English oppression in the early 20th century. It'll make you angry, and it'll make you think hard about war as a solution. Those are both good things in these times.

Weird/avant garde section:
Brand Upon the Brain!: Guy Maddin is back with another strange silent film. This time we have strange experiments on a remote island, and the vagaries of memory. As usual, he weaves a dreamlike state onto film, and the effects linger (like a brand upon the brain!) long afterwards. (His The Saddest Music in the World or Cowards Bend the Knee are probably better places to start with his oeuvre.)

What is it?: Crispin Glover's first film in his "It" Trilogy is... well, who knows what it is. It freaks me out. It's disturbing and anti-narrative, but it contains some rather indelible (for better or worse) imagery. I've gleaned, from his Q&A sessions he gives after showing this (and other "It" films) that his main purpose in this film is exploding the various taboos that have crept into American filmmaking. Yeah. He explodes them. This one's hard to see, since he only shows it in person, but it's an... experience. (He also does a slide show of his odd books before each showing. You can see one of these marvelously strange performances here.)

It is Fine. Everything is Fine!: Crispin Glover is back for Part II of the "It" Trilogy, this one written by Steven Stewart, a man afflicted with cerebral palsy, who also starred in the film, and who died about a month after completing filming. Again, Glover pushes our buttons, but this time there's much more of a narrative flow. Still, it's unlike anything you've ever seen before, a nightmare that forces us to explore the reality of life for the disabled. Many members of the audience squirmed and/or giggled uncomfortably at various points, so be ready, if you ever have the chance to see this one. (Glover doesn't expect to even begin the third film in the trilogy (It is Mine) for about a decade.) (Also, technically I saw this in 2008, but it's a 2007 film, and it makes sense to write about it in tandem with What is It?.)

Films I missed but expect to like (or at least find interesting):
Day Night Day Night, The Savages, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Michael Clayton, Sweeney Todd, Southland Tales, Into Great Silence, Killer of Sheep.

Good/interesting 2007 films that didn't quite rise to "Best of" level, Part I

These ones might not make the pantheon (for me) but each had either some great elements or some strikingly fresh approaches and/or subjects:

The Darjeeling Limited: Strange for me to leave a Wes Anderson film off the "Best of", I know. And it's not that there's anything wrong with this film, so much as that it feels so much less fresh now. Even with a few new touches here and there, even with the exotic locales, it still felt familiar. That said, it still contained some fantastic moments, and the short film prologue (sometimes shown before the film, sometimes not) Hotel Chevalier is absolutely fantastic.

Bug: This is an intense disturbing little descent of a film. Ashley Judd delivers a raw performance and Harry Connick Jr. is terrifying as her ex-con boyfriend. Danger and paranoia just oozes from the screen, and the finale doesn't cheat you.

The Host: This is a great monster movie import from South Korea. Suspenseful, surprising, and, as with most of the best scary movies, packing some rather cutting social/global critique beneath the chills.

Eastern Promises: Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg team up again on this film about a lonely nurse, a baby, the flesh trade, and the Russian mob. There are fewer missteps in this film than in their A History of Violence, but it's also less formally inventive. It's a solid crime thriller, though, with many unexpected moments, and the most armrest-grippingly unbearably intense fight scene ever filmed when Viggo's character has to take on two knife-wielding foes naked in a steam room. (Also, though I can't judge this for myself, I've heard that Viggo's Russian accent is flawless.)

Zodiac: David Fincher's latest found him expertly balancing style and substance. (Some might whisper to themselves, "At last!") The police procedural/serial killer might seem like something that's pretty played out at this point, but Fincher's exploration of an unsolved case brilliantly maps (and models) those times in life when the answers remain elusive, and there are too many possibilities, rather than too few. He also expertly manipulates and plays upon our expectations to generate suspense and suspicion. Add in a good performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and a fantastic performance from Robert Downey Jr. (do you remember how good he can be?) and you've got a worthy flick.

To be continued...

Eddie the _____ vs. Loan _____

After months of hype, our long-awaited viewing of Eagle vs. Shark somehow managed to justify the hype. Not only did we set a TNFN attendance record, but the film itself transcended its own quirkiness to actually have a bit of an emotional impact by the end.

Not the first film to match a clueless (unworthy?) boy (Jarrod) with a semi-clueless but decidedly-more-worthy girl (Lily), to be sure. (And should we not perhaps one day have a discussion of that ragged cliche? Or is this part of a vast unworthy-boy-hatched conspiracy to convince the women of the world that the right thing to do is select one of these boorish, self-centered Peter-Pans so that the happy ending of the film can happen for them too? Only then what, when Peter-Pan keeps his (literal or metaphorical/emotional) mullet and keeps on playing video games? But again, that's probably a discussion for another day.) And maybe in the end it was mostly just the Kiwi element that kept this incarnation feeling so fresh, but it did feel fresh, and it did feel sweet amidst all the awkwardness and confusion.

We compared this unworthy boy to the unworthy boy played by Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love and wondered why it was that (some of us) could better root for Jarrod. As I thought about it more it seemed to me that we were given a much more compelling (or at least more explicit) justification for Jarrod's damage. The lost brother looms large in this story, and that absence is what gives it, in the end, some weight. Yes, these are all misfits, lost and clueless. Yes, they probably all would have been lost and clueless regardless. Yes, even the lost brother appeared rather lost and clueless (if a little better at sports). But that unexplained suicide left a crater that they're all unable to see beyond, now. They're all kind of just living in there. Even Lily finds it difficult to get out once she's tumbled in, but you get the sense that maybe her presence there somehow reminds them all that there is something up there, beyond the lip of the crater, and that up there the horizon isn't so near.

Finally, we must salute Loren Horsley's fantastic performance as Lily. Has anyone ever managed to pack so much awkwardness, sweetness, and cuteness into such a tiny little film? She's maybe a little too good to be true, maybe not very so convincingly messed-up. (I mean, isn't just about the only evidence that she's messed-up the fact that she falls for Jarrod?) But she takes the part as it's written and inhabits it. Here's hoping more directors figure out how to use her.

Oh, and one other thing: I'm not going to go fish through reviews, but all those annoying critics that always whine about how the Coen brothers supposedly "make fun of" or "condescend to" their regional characters better have written the same things in their reviews of this movie. I don't think it's true of this movie either, but it's pretty much the template the Coens always get dinged for. (Goofy track suits! Bad haircuts! Cheesy video games! Ha ha.)

Question of the day: Better or worse than Napoleon Dynamite, and why?

Best of 2007, Part II

Juno: Many (but far from all) of the snappiest lines are in the trailer for this comedy about a pregnant teen, but in a way this just allows it to sneak up on you more effectively. Amidst all the laughs are well-observed characters that ring true. By the time major choices need to be made you've become thoroughly invested in the possible outcomes. This is an exceptionally well-written movie (by Diablo Cody), and is also nicely acted by a wide array of actors. (Ellen Page could have carried the picture with her utterly winning (and bracingly sarcastic) Juno, but JK Simmons, Alison Janney, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman all nail their scenes too.)

Margot at the Wedding: This is a chilly, talky, very dark comedy. It's spawned from the same DNA as director/writer Noah Baumbach's last film, the stunning The Squid and the Whale, but this time the characters are even more self-involved and destructive. It's a good thing they're also so funny. Nicole Kidman gives an amazing performance as Margot, brittle and biting. I should probably at this point state that I'm a big fan of Eric Rohmer (Claire's Knee, Love in the Afternoon), and this seems like a film Rohmer might have made if he were American, a little funnier, and a little more bitter. (Read: if you don't like Rohmer, you might want to take a pass on this one.)

The Lives of Others: Technically this is an older film, but it didn't open in Seattle until 2007, so I'll note it here. It won the foreign language Oscar in 2007, so it should be easy to find in the video store. This is a fascinating, suspenseful, and ultimately quite touching portrayal of the horrors of living in a totalitarian state and the difference that small kindnesses can make. Don't miss it.

Best of 2007, Part I

Such lists are a little silly of course, it being impossible to tell in this moment which films will stand the test of time, but here is my first attempt at listing what I felt were the great films of 2007:

There Will Be Blood: Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) and star Daniel Day-Lewis deliver a unique and powerful portrait of capitalism and ambition. Anderson reins in many of his more showy techniques for this film, but the central character of Daniel Plainview commands plenty of attention anyway. Feel free to bet the farm that Day-Lewis will be nominated for an Oscar. A word of warning: this film doesn't telegraph to the viewer just what to feel, which can be a little unsettling at times. But the actions and fates of the various characters linger in the mind long after the final notes of the brilliant soundtrack fade. (Jonny Greenwood, lead guitar for Radiohead, composed the score, though you'd never have guessed he's in a rock band. Like the director, he seems able to stamp down his own idiosyncrasies when the project needs it.)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: This film surprised me with its power. Brad Pitt's performance as Jesse James is somewhat inscrutable, but this is the point, in a way. Casey Affleck does an incredible job as Robert Ford, a starstruck hanger-on whose eventual disillusionment can be read a number of different interesting ways. This is another film that is beautifully and fully realized. The soundtrack is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis is fantastic and absolutely vital to the mood and tone the film creates. (They also wrote a strong (but not this strong) soundtrack for The Proposition last year.) Roger Deakins' cinematography is absolutely fantastic. But in the end it's the heartbreaking (self-imposed?) isolation of the major characters that sticks with you. Director Andrew Dominik is clearly one to watch.

No Country for Old Men: The Coens perfectly capture the doom-soaked heart of Cormac McCarthy's novel. More fantastic performances here, and the suspense just keeps ratcheting higher. There are some challenging narrative choices made near the end (in keeping with the McCarthy novel) but I would contend that these narrative choices are precisely that which raises the whole affair from being merely a supremely well-made entertainment to being art. We leave the theatre forced into contemplation of what is important, what endures (or doesn't), and the nature of evil. (I should mention that Roger Deakins also shot this film, again brilliantly. The only way he loses the cinematography Oscar next year is if he gets nominated for both films (as he should) and somehow splits his voting block.)