Martin's Musings

Just like the way the oil flows from the oil wells in There Will Be Blood, so flows my enthusiasm for this movie.

Wow. It is so good.

This is why I should have waited to write my top 10 list.

The latest from P.T. Anderson (Magnolia, Boogie Nights) tells the epic story of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a greedy sumbitch oil man at the turn of the century who will stop at nothing to lease land and drain it of all its oil.

Plainview and his son travel from town to town convincing the residents they live on valuable real estate and that they can all share in the wealth. (Ha!) It’s all pretty easy until he meets Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), whose evangelism and greed when it comes to his church rivals Plainview’s financial greed. Continue reading →

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

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.

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 →

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+.