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The Good, the Bad, and Superbad

31 Dec

You know it’s been a good year for the movies when you go through the list of films you’ve seen (in my case, 56) and when separating out those you remember fondly, the list is close to 20. So narrowing those down to only 10 is quite a challenge. And yet, I’ve done that — but with one caveat: I still have not seen There Will Be Blood (it’s a 2007 release but it doesn’t open in Boston until Friday), and I’m almost positive that it, too, would have earned a spot on this list. So, this may be a top 11 list come next weekend. [Update 1/5: I’ve now seen There Will Be Blood. The list has been amended accordingly.]

But anyway, so without further ado, here are the 10 [now 11] films I saw in 2007 that brought me the most pleasure:

11. SUPERBAD
I laughed harder and more frequently at this film than I did at anything else all year.

10. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones give memorable, iconic performances, but the Coen brothers deserve plenty of credit too.

9. GONE BABY GONE
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut gets Boston right, and tells a compelling tale whose conclusion stays with you.

8. AMERICAN GANGSTER
A thunderous, exciting performance by Denzel Washington takes this one over the top.

7. 3:10 TO YUMA
A real man’s man’s movie, this one boasts some great action and acting (by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale).

6. REIGN OVER ME
One of the year’s most overlooked gems. It’s not perfect, but what’s good about this film (e.g. Don Cheadle’s performance) is so good. And Adam Sandler breaks your heart.

5. JUNO
Snark perfectly mixed with sweetness in a fantastic screenplay, plus a wonderful lead performance by Ellen Page.

4. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
Sure, it’s a preposterous premise, but Ryan Gosling’s heartwarming performance helps turn this film into a really sweet tale of loneliness and love.

3. HAIRSPRAY
Maybe this isn’t the actual third-best movie of the year, but it’s certainly one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had at the movies all year. And it’s one of only two movies on this list that I saw in the theater twice.

2. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
An epic movie featuring one of Daniel Day-Lewis’ best performances ever, this film is just brilliant. It must be seen, and on a big screen.

1. ONCE
Can’t say enough about how much I love this movie. The music, the acting, the story, the writing … nearly everything about it is perfect. At just under 90 minutes, this is the rare movie you want to be longer. Once is an instant classic, a film of such magic that its effect stays with you for days, months, and (time will tell) years after you see it.


And what about the worst movies? Well, that list was a lot easier to compile. I’d like to think I stay away from the obvious stinkers, but every now and then I do get suckered or disappointed. So here are those films I wish I could say I didn’t see:

10. EVAN ALMIGHTY
9. SPIDER-MAN 3
8. FACTORY GIRL
7. SING NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE
6. LIONS FOR LAMBS
5. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
4. BECAUSE I SAID SO
3. FRED CLAUS
2. IN THE LAND OF WOMEN
1. RENDITION

This Isn’t Therapy. It’s Real Life.

28 Dec

In The Savages, John and Wendy Savage (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) have the unenviable task of putting their estranged father (Philip Bosco) in a nursing home. You might think that would make for a depressing movie, and make no mistake, The Savages is no Superbad or anything (despite what the trailer might imply), but writer/director Tamara Jenkins has found a way to turn this ordinary situation that so many must go through into one we can all sympathize with, wringing some genuine laughs from a painful situation. John and Wendy are themselves distant — one lives in New York City and the other up in Buffalo — but when they come together in Arizona to learn what’s become of their father (who was abusive earlier, thus one reason why they’re estranged from him), it’s clear they have a tight bond. These are not terribly happy characters, but they have each other and you get the sense that they are better people when they’re together.

In the lead roles, both Hoffman and Linney make very strong impressions. For Hoffman in particular, it’s his third great performance in one year (the others being Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Charlie Wilson’s War). The Savages doesn’t really have a plot other than the basic premise of John and Wendy dealing with their dad’s dementia, and after a while I got a little antsy waiting for the film to reach its natural conclusion, but it’s Hoffman and Linney who makes The Savages worth seeing. I’m giving this one a strong B.

A Tale of Two Photos

23 Dec

It struck me the other day how similar these two photos are, and yet how utterly different the films they’re from — Dreamgirls and Sweeney Todd — are. Perhaps the only thing these two photos have in common is that they both capture killer performances of very different kinds. What a difference a year makes.

Attend This Tale of Sweeney Todd

22 Dec

How excited was I to see Sweeney Todd?

Well, as I’ve previously stated, it’s one of my favorite musicals of all time, and I had high hopes based on the trailer.

And now, having seen the film, I’m happy to say I was not disappointed.

Sweeney Todd tells the story of Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a wrongly imprisoned barber who returns to London having rechristened himself Sweeney Todd. He’s hellbent on having his revenge against the judge who took his wife and child away from him. But when Sweeney decides not to stop at just the judge, and that “they all deserve to die,” he hatches a plan with Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), his downstairs neighbor, to grind up the bodies and turn them into meat pies.

Soon the city population is a fraction of what it once was, and Mrs. Lovett is making the most popular pies in London.

The film is directed by Mr. Macabre himself, Tim Burton, so needless to say, it’s a very dark film and there’s a lot of blood.

And yes, if you missed it above, this is a musical. But it’s safe to say you’ve never seen a musical quite like this. Continue reading →

Not Doubly Great

20 Dec

All those self-important musical bio-pics — like Walk the Line and Ray — were due for some mockery, but they don’t quite get the ribbing they deserve in Walk Hard.

While the film does make fun of many of the conventions of the genre, it’s more of an affectionate tribute than a satire, and that, ultimately, makes the film less impressive. Continue reading →

It’s All Emma Thompson’s Fault

15 Dec

When I Am Legend begins, we’re listening to a sports reporter say that the American League team in New York, of course, is the best and that they will play the Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

So you know right off the bat that this film is a fantasy and you shouldn’t take any of it seriously.

Then Emma Thompson appears on screen playing a doctor who has found a cure for cancer simply by reorganizing the structure of the measles virus.

Cut to three years later and the entire city of New York (and, apparently, the entire planet) has been totally wiped out by this “cure,” except for virologist (and of course he’s a virologist) Robert Neville (Will Smith) and plenty of animals.

Oh, and the zombies.

Lots of rabid zombies — the folks who had been affected by the cure and now only come out at night and are out for blood.

We don’t quite know how Neville managed to be the only one to survive, but somehow over the years he has figured out the zombies’ behavior and has made a life — albeit a lonely, solitary one — for himself. Continue reading →

Putting the ‘Dys’ in Dysfunctional

9 Dec

When I see a movie like Margot at the Wedding, I can’t help but be thankful that my own sister isn’t a blunt, insensitive, unsupportive, bitchy, insulting, manipulative woman like the title character here is. As played by Nicole Kidman, she may be more of a villain than, say, Darth Vader or The Devil Wears Prada‘s Miranda Priestley. Her weapons are words, and when she arrives for her estranged sister’s (Jennifer Jason Leigh) wedding, she gets under everyone’s skin. Margot isn’t in town for the wedding; she’s there for a bookstore appearance with a man she’s cheating on her husband with. She hates the groom (Jack Black). She doesn’t keep secrets. She says all the wrong things and leaves emotional distruction in her wake. Noah Baumbach (who also wrote and directed the excellent The Squid and the Whale) has made a film that will ring true with anyone who has family (i.e.: everyone). It makes you laugh and cringe, sometimes simultaneously, and at 92 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome — though it does end sort of abruptly. This character piece is light on plot (not a bad thing in this case) and features some great performances. I’m giving it a B+.

A Losing Battle

6 Dec

I didn’t really think I was going to like Charlie Wilson’s War. After all, I’m sort of over the whole “Tom Hanks Is Holier than Thou” thing, and I can’t get too excited about Julia Roberts anymore either.

Plus, I’m skeptical of a major studio movie that’s billed as Oscar bait based on pedigree alone.

But I’ll admit, Hanks is real good here in the true story of a Texas Congressman with questionable ethics, and he won me over. And generally, I was entertained by the movie, which documents how Charlie Wilson raised money — $1 billion annually — in Congressional funds to support Afghanistan in its war with Russia in the 1980s. (Those are your tax dollars at work, folks!) Continue reading →

Thanks, Jeff

5 Dec

Jeff Wells, one of my favorite film columnists, is in town for a month. I know this because he’s mentioned it on his site in recent weeks, but Tuesday night at the critics screening of Charlie Wilson’s War that I was at, I saw him in person for the first time. It’s funny, because you read a blog like Wells’ — or David Poland’s — and you get an idea of what these guys must be like. And then there he is, and it’s sort of cool — like he’s some minor, D-level celebrity or something. (And yes, I have read the article in Los Angeles magazine that ran last year.) (And no, I didn’t say hello or introduce myself.)

The reason I’m mentioning this is because Wells went on a bit of a rant Wednesday about one of my least favorite movie theaters, the AMC Boston Common. Regular readers of this blog know I had a bad experience there a couple months back when I went to see In the Valley of Elah. And I’ve long thought the presentation quality there is subpar — especially compared to the Fenway 13, which is my favorite area theater, despite its awful parking garage. At the AMC, the sound is never right. It’s either too loud or too soft, and it’s never mixed right; instead of coming out of all the speakers the way surround sound is supposed to work, it seems to all be coming out of the front ones. Basically, it’s like they just don’t care about the movies there. They just want your money, and the ushers can’t be bothered to actually ush, or make sure the films are unspooling properly, or get rid of inconsiderate customers. Which, of course, sucks for those of us who hate that kind of crap and just want to enjoy a movie without being distracted. And don’t even get me started about the frequency that the fire alarm goes off. Blah blah blah …

So anyway, I appreciate Wells writing what he did — that the critics’ screening of Sweeney Todd was ruined due to shoddy presentation — because he does seem to wield some form of influence in the film world, but I think it’s worthless, unfortunately. That theater is a lost cause, and it gets worse every year. When I have a choice, I’m going to keep on going to the Regal Fenway 13, where the sound and the screens are bigger and better. But thanks anyway, Jeff. Nice try.

The Cautionary Whale

3 Dec

If you enjoyed the raunchy unplanned-pregnancy comedy Knocked Up earlier this year but wished it was a little bit sweeter, then Juno is the movie for you.

It’s the very funny story of a sardonic high school girl (Ellen Page) in Minnesota who gets bored, has sex with her awkward best friend (Michael Cera), and then finds herself pregnant. (Oops!)

Not ready to deal with being a mother (and an adult), Juno decides to give the baby to a seemingly perfect couple (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner) she finds in, of all places, the Pennysaver.

Alright, so maybe that summary does a disservice to the movie.

In actuality, Juno is one of those quirky little films that packs in a lot of laughs and a lot of heart, and announces the arrival of an original new voice and a great young actress (it’s sort of like this year’s Little Miss Sunshine). That’s the hype you’ll be hearing from now until the Oscars, but it’s actually true and well-deserved.

The writer is Diablo Cody (a former stripper making her screenwriting debut here), and she has crafted a screenplay that is so packed with laughs and strong characters that it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite in that every other line is quotable and hysterical.

And Ellen Page (who was in, among other things, the third X-Men movie) plays Juno confidently, but as the character begins to learn more about herself and the people around her, she becomes more and more endearing. I’m sure we all can remember a person from high school who acted like and thought they had everything all figured out, but really was very unsure of him/herself. That’s Juno, and Page captures all of that uncertainty in a star-making performance.

Both women will be Oscar-nominated for sure.

Of course, there are other folks in this movie, and it’s worth noting that my girl, Jennifer Garner, also acquits herself quite well. She and Bateman (reteaming again after The Kingdom) are at first the perfect adoptive parents — so perfect they’re quite scary — but as with Juno, beneath the surface they are not what they seem.

Michael Cera is more awkward here than he was in Superbad — just check out those shorts — but he, too, is sweet and endearing. And Rainn Wilson (from The Office) makes a brief appearance early on and utters what will likely be the film’s most quoted line, “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid, homeskillet.”

I suppose it’d be wrong to overlook director Jason Reitman’s work here because a good screenplay is only half or a third of what makes a movie great. But Juno‘s screenplay is so good, so quotable, so original, so funny, so winning, so clever, and so dominant here that it’s impossible to really notice anything else. It’s that tandem of great words and a perfectly-cast actress that makes Junoa real must-see.

I’m giving it an A–.

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