Introduction
And so the end is here. Yes, finally this time! (Check out the previous post for my best and worst of the year.) A nice round 25 entries, too... well, 26 with the Star Wars one...
Anyway -- As we've reached the end, here's the full alphabetical list of everything I saw, followed by some intensely interesting statistical whatsits.
What a year, eh?
The Full List
300
Alfie
American Dreamz
Annie Hall
Basil the Great Mouse Detective
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Berlin: Symphony of a Great City
The Black Dahlia
Blood Diamond
Bonnie and Clyde
Boogie Nights
The Bourne Ultimatum
Breathless
Brick
Brief Encounter
Bringing Out the Dead
Bullets Over Broadway
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America
Capote
Casanova
The Cat's Meow
Chinatown
Citizen Kane
Chocolat
A Cock and Bull Story
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Confetti
The Crowd
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Doom
Educating Rita
Eragon
Fantomas: In the Shadow of the Guillotine
Fantomas: Juve Versus Fantomas
Fargo
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Flight 93
For Your Eyes Only
Garden State
Goodfellas
Great Expectations
Happy Feet
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Heat
Hellboy: Director's Cut
Hello, Dolly!
Hidden
Hot Fuzz
An Inconvenient Truth
It
It's All Gone Pete Tong
Johnny English
The King and I
The King of Comedy
Kinky Boots
Kramer vs. Kramer
Ladies in Lavender
The Last Days of Pompeii
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Manhattan
Manhattan Murder Mystery
March of the Penguins
Mean Creek
Mean Streets
Miracles
Monster
Mrs Brown
Mrs Henderson Presents
Mystic River
The Naked City
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
The New World
New York Stories
Night Watch
Nosferatu
Notes on a Scandal
Ocean's Twelve
Octopussy
On the Town
Ong-Bak
Over the Hedge
The Paleface
Pan's Labyrinth
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Piglet's Big Movie
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Play Time
Point Break
The Prestige
Primer
The Pursuit of Happyness
Ray
The Reckless Moment
Right at Your Door
Ringers: Lord of the Fans
Road to Morocco
Romance & Cigarettes
Secretary
Sense and Sensibility
The Sign of Four
South Pacific
Spider-Man 3
Starter For Ten
Stormbreaker
Stranger Than Fiction
A Study in Scarlet
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Taxi Driver
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
This is Spinal Tap
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Three Colours Blue
Three Colours White
Three Colours Red
Thumbsucker
Thunderbirds
Traffic in Souls
Trainspotting
Transporter 2
United 93
West Side Story
While You Were Sleeping
Wild at Heart
Wilde
The Woodsman
Alternate Cuts
Crash: Director's Cut
Gone With the Wind*
Spider-Man 2.1
Star Wars - Episode 4: A New Hope - DVD Edition
Star Wars - Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back - DVD Edition
Star Wars - Episode 6: Return of the Jedi - DVD Edition
Shorts
Bus Stop
The End
Manhatta
Nine 1/2 Minutes
Park
A Propos de Nice
Skyscraper Symphony
Telling Lies
* Not strictly an alternate cut; see the review for more.
The Full Statistics
In the end, I watched 129 new feature films in 2007.
I also watched 6 features I'd seen before that were extended or altered in some way. (All of those are left in the statistics that follow unless otherwise indicated.)
I also watched 8 shorts (none of which shall be counted in any of the statistics).
I've already seen 2 films from this list again (specifically, Happy Feet and Hot Fuzz).
I saw 9 films at the cinema this year. That's far beaten by the number of new films I saw on DVD though, which stands at 97 (rising to 103 with those extended/altered ones). I also saw 14 on TV, 4 via downloads, and 5 on good ol' VHS.
The most popular decade by far was the 00s, with 70 films -- that's 52%! Of the rest, 4 were made in the 10s, 5 in the 20s, 1 in the 30s, 8 in the 40s, 2 in the 50s, 6 in the 60s, 7 in the 70s, 12 in the 80s, and 20 in the 90s. That's every decade of the 20th Century covered!
The average score was 3.7 out of 5. That includes 16 five-star films and just 1 one-star film. The majority of films scored four stars, with a total of 72 receiving that mark. There were also 32 three-star films and 14 two-star films.
21 of my new films appear on the IMDb Top 250 Films at the time of writing. Their positions range from 15th (Goodfellas) to 247th (Manhattan). None of them are bad enough to make it onto the Bottom 100.
Additionally, 4 films appeared on Empire's 25 Greatest Films of the Year -- Notes on a Scandal (at #14), Letters From Iwo Jima (at #11), Hot Fuzz (at #8) and The Bourne Ultimatum (at #1). Many of the films undoubtedly appear on other 'Best Films Ever' lists, but I'm hardly going to go research them all!
A total of 111 directors (or directing partnerships) appear on the list. Martin Scorsese appears most often with 7 films. He's closely followed by Woody Allen with 5 and Krzysztof Kieslowski with 3. Others with multiple films are Clint Eastwood, Louis Feuillade, Lewis Gilbert, John Glen, Paul Greengrass, Lasse Hallstrom, David Lean, Richard Linklater, Ian Mackenzie & Alex Nicholas, F.W. Murnau, Sam Raimi, and Guillermo del Toro. Also, Gene Kelly and the pairing of Hideaki Anno & Kazuya Tsurumaki directed 2 films each, but in both cases one of them was co-directed with someone else. Obviously, the other 94 just directed one film here.
The actors and actresses who appear multiple times are too numerous and difficult to list. There were at least a few though.
In film titles, the most common first letters are B and S (the latter thanks to a big boost from the alternate cuts). The next-closest were T, C, M and P. A total of 17 titles begin with "The", while just 3 start with "A" or "An". (Also, can you see the places where I've cheated slightly in the alphabetical list above?)
57 of the films are currently in my DVD collection.
The End...
So that was 2007.
Here's to 2008!
Monday 31 December 2007
2007 In Retrospect
Introduction
And so the end is here! Finally. For this entry I've chosen my five least-favourite films that I've seen this year, and (more interestingly, I'm sure) my top ten -- in a lovely countdown and all!
A Bit of an Explanation
I'd like to point out that these lists aren't based on the ratings I gave at the time. That is to say, if I gave out precisely ten 5-star ratings it doesn't mean those will be my top ten. A slightly strange thought I know, but opinions can change and therefore so may mine. The title of this entry sums it up: in retrospect these are the films I wanted to pick out as the best I've seen in 2007. Hard work it was choosing too!
I've included a "see also" section for each of the top ten. These aren't supposed to be the ten next-best films I've seen this year, but are instead other films I've seen this year that are in some way related (with the briefest of explanations as to how). These are really just a chance to point out films that are of similar interest; I wanted to stress that they're not necessarily numbers 11 to 20 on my list.
As a final note, I've not considered any of those controversial different-cuts-of-films-I've-seen-before for inclusion here. If I had then I'm sure Crash would've been high in the top ten.
The Five Worst Films I've Seen in 2007
Flight 93 (#26, Week 12) 1/5
The only film all year to achieve the lowest possible score; if this list were numbered, it would surely be my worst film of the year. Nothing in it is above the level of cheap TV movie -- which it is, but that's no excuse. The script, acting, direction, effects... I genuinely failed to find anything worthwhile here, especially in light of the excellent United 93, a truly brilliant film of the same story. Some say this makes a good companion piece to the movie, but I really don't think it does: the latter is a respectful, realistic, thoughtful piece of filmmaking; this is tacky and unrealistic, and tries so hard for an appropriate level of sentiment that it often winds up being laughable. And laughable is not something this event was. In short, don't even bother.
New York Stories: Life Without Zoe (#117, Week 47) 3/5
It seems almost churlish to pick out one segment of a film, but as it's an anthology where the other two parts are pretty good it would be even more churlish to slate the whole film. The centre short of New York Stories, an anthology film by Scorsese, Coppola and Allen, is second only to Flight 93 as the most painful thing I've had to sit through this year. The characters are irritating, the performances weak, the writing twee... Sofia would obviously go on to better things (Lost in Translation mainly), but Francis Ford seems to be firmly leaving the quality filmmaking behind at this point. (As a side point, I thought Scorsese's short in this film was decent enough, while Allen's is utterly brilliant. The listed score is the one I gave the whole film.)
Play Time (#118, Week 47) 2/5
Jacques Tati has his fans. Filmmakers such as him (especially foreign ones) inevitably do. But I just can't fully get to grips with his style of comedy, and I suspect many truly discerning critics wouldn't either. There are gags, but they're slipped in among long stretches of interminable boredom where literally nothing happens, and when they arrive they have a tendency to run on too long. Tati is undoubtedly making some points about the state of the modern urban world with this, but that doesn't make it any more entertaining. Repetitive and flat, it's not worth sitting through for the handful of genuinely good comic moments.
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (#79, Week 32) 2/5
As well as being a poor film in its own right, this represents a variety of films which failed to live up to my expectations. In this case, I was looking forward to a well-developed alternate history of America, where things were vastly different because the Confederates won the American Civil War. Instead, the film is almost solely concerned with the idea that, if they had won, black people would still be slaves. This preoccupation is unsurprising when you learn the background of the filmmakers, but the film isn't sold as simply a "what if black people were still slaves?" piece. Most major historical events play out as they did anyway... except that black people are still enslaved! It's far too one-dimensional.
Thunderbirds (#85, Week 33) 2/5
I was left with a few potential final choices from my short list of bad films, all of fairly equal poorness. This is the worst though, because, like C.S.A., it's so disappointing. I didn't have great expectations for this film thanks to all the bad press it received at the time of release, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Thunderbirds is a great TV series full of wonderful and entertaining ideas, most of which are squandered in this poor Spy Kids rip off. The only good thing about it are the ship designs, which faithfully modernise all of the Thunderbird craft. Other than that, it's a poor script, poor story, and pretty poor acting too (even from Sir Ben Kingsley, who camps it up something rotten). What a waste.
The Ten Best Films I've Seen For the First Time in 2007
10) Blood Diamond (#19, Week 8) 4/5
Ed Zwick pulls off the impressive task of making a Moral Message Movie that is also a proper action thriller, something which (as far as I've seen) usually leads to a film winding up greatly more in one camp than the other. The action sequences are exciting and impressively staged, the message is conveyed but not over-played, and within this there's still room to focus on the characters and their personal journeys. All of the actors perform well in their roles, though Djimon Hounsou can still be singled out as the best of the bunch. Important and entertaining -- a rare feat.
See also: The Bourne Ultimatum, a more widely praised gritty action-thriller.
9) 300 (#101, Week 40) 4/5
Pure testosterone-fuelled entertainment. That's a pretty simply way of summing up what is, at the end of the day, a pretty simple film. It looks gorgeous, with cinematography, design and CGI combining to create a series of hyper-real, beautiful visions. The fight scenes are brutally excellent, though in danger of becoming a bit repetitive if they're not your thing. The story is also a little slender, padded out with copious slow motion and a bolted-on political subplot in the final act, which could have been excellent if integrated better. But none of these flaws really matter, because 300 does what it sets out to, and it does it bloody well.
See also: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, an equally CGI-heavy bit of constant action.
8) Three Colours Red (#42, Week 15) 5/5
This really (slightly cheekily, but unashamedly) represents the whole Three Colours trilogy. You see, while each film is completely standalone and works excellently in its own right, they still work best when viewed together, in order, at which point the ending of this (the third part) is wonderfully effective. The trilogy explores the three values represented on the French flag: freedom, equality, brotherhood; but these are clearly themes with broader resonance, which gives these films a more universal appeal. They do tend toward the slower-paced and slightly 'arty' end of the filmic spectrum, but, considering that's a style I don't generally get on with either, these are nonetheless brilliant.
See also: Hidden, another French film with occasionally similar themes.
7) Citizen Kane (#100, Week 36) 5/5
Widely regarded as one of, if not the, best films ever made, Citizen Kane has certainly had to fight hard for such an accolade. But it's pretty well deserved: almost everything about the film still stands up well today, from the engaging mysteries of the plot, to the collage of styles, timeframes and unusual camera moves that can still seem innovate 66 years on. As I said in my original review, there is masses that can (and has, and will) be said about this movie. You shouldn't need me to tell you that if you have any real interest in films you ought to at least give it a go. For me, it mostly managed to live up to its colossal reputation.
See also: Chinatown, an acclaimed noir-ish & unsolvable mystery of America's wealthy.
6) Brief Encounter (#76, Week 31) 5/5
Most classics are so for good reason; and, chances are, the older a film oft-cited as a classic gets, the better the chance of it genuinely being one (as the lesser films drop away in favour of newer 'classics', you see). At 62 years old, then, Brief Encounter stands a fair chance of being a damn good film. And, lo and behold, it really is. The social conventions of a bygone age are beautifully played out -- while things certainly wouldn't go this way today, one can still oddly relate to it all. With a touching, funny script, note-perfect performances, and terrific direction, you don't get them much more classic than this.
See also: Before Sunrise, a modern take on railway-related romance (that only narrowly missed a spot here).
5) Stranger Than Fiction (#81, Week 32) 4/5
This is a wonderful conceit for a film: one day, a man begins to hear his life being narrated, as if it were a novel. And then the novelist tells him he's going to die. To explain what happens from there would ruin it, of course (and take too long), but it's variously fantastical, romantic, thoughtful, and fun. It's stylishly directed by Marc Forster, who's fast becoming one of my favourite directors (I expect Bond 22 to cement that opinion), and has plenty of originality. While some plot threads may be pretty standard fair, they're well executed too, which makes for a highly entertaining whole.
See also: While You Were Sleeping, a quirky (though not as fantastical) setup for a rom-com.
4) The Prestige (#14, Week 7) 4/5
I must confess to being a bit unsure about The Prestige at first. Not that I didn't think it was good, just that I wasn't sure how good. In retrospect, it's good enough to make it this high on my list (beating off a most of the films that I rated higher than it!) Nolan is a great storyteller: the chronology of the film is all over the place, yet never once is the viewer lost as to what we're seeing when. It's all propped up by a brilliant cast and a central mystery that is intriguing, with a number of neat twists in its resolution. The more I remember it, the more I like it.
See also: Primer, a somewhat similar mystery in a (sadly) less satisfying film.
3) Mean Creek (#69, Week 30) 5/5
It's a simple concept: a group of kids take the school bully out to teach him a lesson and it all goes horribly wrong. But it's not a sanitised, irritating kids movie, with shiny little brats and a beautiful message about friendship; it's an indie with a realistically dark heart, and thankfully not one that has succumbed to the "nothing happens because it's about the characters, see" school of 'intelligent' filmmaking. The kids carry the movie (barely an adult is seen, and even then only briefly) and their performances are all strong, often a worry with child actors. It's a tense, believable story, with a good exploration of the consequences of their actions, including an appropriate level of ambiguity. A fantastic little drama.
See also: Brick, another indie of middle American kids in potentially murderous situations.
2) Hot Fuzz (#20, Week 8) 5/5
The Shaun of the Dead team return, this time spoofing action movies (as opposed to zombies). Many say this isn't as good as Shaun, but I rather suspect they're mostly the sort of people who are into the niche-y zombie films in the first place (don't get me wrong, mind, I love Shaun). Hot Fuzz is funny throughout, has a good stab at some exciting action sequences, and the cast of British stalwarts are fantastic. It was a big hit in the UK and deservedly so. It's set to form a loose trilogy with Shaun and an as-yet-unrevealed project, which I feel we should all be looking forward to immensely.
See also: Stormbreaker, a kid-centred slice of tongue-in-cheek British action.
1) United 93 (#22, Week 9) 5/5
Paul Greengrass didn't stand a chance at the Oscars, as Scorsese had finally got round to making another film good enough for them to finally give him an award. Greengrass deserved it more though. The Departed was a decent film, but as this is the only mention of it in this entire article you can see I was hardly blown away. But this is all beside the point: United 93 is a great film. The direction is perfectly suited to the subject matter, the storytelling appropriately tense and with a good dose of realism, and the performances utterly believable. The fact that this is endorsed by the families of those who died is the final stamp of approval. The men and women who were on board United 93 are all heroes -- not in some cheesy Hollywood way, but in a very real-world way. This captures that, and feels an appropriate tribute.
See also: Right at Your Door, a fictional tale of terrorism's potential effect on ordinary people.
Special Mentions
I just wanted to take a moment (or, a section) to highlight a few other films, for various reasons.
Firstly, I can't end this without mentioning the 13 films that earned themselves 5-star ratings this year, as only six of them made it into the top ten -- those being Brief Encounter, Citizen Kane, Hot Fuzz, Mean Creek, Three Colours Red, and United 93. Perhaps I was less certain about rating some so highly in retrospect, but, regardless, the other seven were: Chinatown, Educating Rita, Goodfellas, Heat, The King of Comedy, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Trainspotting.
As the year went on I kept a running list of potential contenders for both my bottom five and top ten. The former eventually totalled 15 films (some were shortlisted not because they were truly bad, but due to the level of disappointment involved, such as Spider-Man 3). The list for the top ten reached the giddy heights of 48 films -- 37% of the total! Maybe I'm just the generous sort. As well as the top ten itself (obviously), some of these were the other 5-star-ers listed above, and several more have been named in the "see also" sections. Rather than list all the remaining 24 (you do the maths), here's nine of them that stuck in my mind enough to warrant mentioning:
- Night Watch, an entertaining epic/fantasy/horror mash-up from Russia.
- Perfume, a visually pungent, thoroughly bizarre adaptation of the popular novel.
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, a classic silent urban fairytale.
- Manhattan, a beautiful black & white relationship drama.
- The Woodsman, an intelligent and character-centric study of a difficult issue.
- Pan's Labyrinth, an engaging blend of fantasy and cruel reality.
- Bullets Over Broadway, an amusing and entertaining take on the mob and the theatre.
- Octopussy, a surprisingly entertaining Roger Moore Bond film.
- Basil the Great Mouse Detective, an underrated Sherlock Holmes-riffing Disney flick.
The Films I Didn't See
Of course, this obviously isn't a Top 10 of 2007 in the traditional sense. But, nonetheless, new films do feature, and with that in mind there were a number of notable films released this year that I've yet to see.
Here, then, is an alphabetical list of 50 films made in 2007 that I've missed. (To be fair, some of these aren't actually out over here yet... but when I finally see them they'll be listed as 2007, so on this list they go! Equally, a fair few films have cropped up on best-of-year lists but are technically from 2006, so have been left off.) The films listed here have been chosen for a variety of reasons, from box office success to critical acclaim.
2 Days in Paris
28 Weeks Later
3:10 to Yuma
30 Days of Night
Across the Universe
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
American Gangster
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
Becoming Jane
Beowulf
Blades of Glory
Charlie Wilson's War
Control
Die Hard 4.0 / Live Free or Die Hard
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Enchanted
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Ghost Rider
The Golden Compass
Grindhouse (or its constituent parts individually)
Hairspray
Halloween
I Am Legend
I'm Not There
Juno
Knocked Up
Lions For Lambs
The Man From Earth
Michael Clayton
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
No Country For Old Men
Ocean's Thirteen
Ratatouille
Resident Evil: Extinction
Rush Hour 3
Shrek the Third
Sicko
The Simpsons Movie
Southland Tales
St. Trinian's
Stardust
Sunshine
Superbad
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood
TMNT
Transformers
Waitress
Zodiac
A Final Thought
It's been very strange, looking back over this list to pick my choices. Some films I saw at the beginning of the year feel like they were just the other week; others seen more recently feel like they were an age ago. It's quite an interesting experience -- one that I'd recommend.
And so the end is here! Finally. For this entry I've chosen my five least-favourite films that I've seen this year, and (more interestingly, I'm sure) my top ten -- in a lovely countdown and all!
A Bit of an Explanation
I'd like to point out that these lists aren't based on the ratings I gave at the time. That is to say, if I gave out precisely ten 5-star ratings it doesn't mean those will be my top ten. A slightly strange thought I know, but opinions can change and therefore so may mine. The title of this entry sums it up: in retrospect these are the films I wanted to pick out as the best I've seen in 2007. Hard work it was choosing too!
I've included a "see also" section for each of the top ten. These aren't supposed to be the ten next-best films I've seen this year, but are instead other films I've seen this year that are in some way related (with the briefest of explanations as to how). These are really just a chance to point out films that are of similar interest; I wanted to stress that they're not necessarily numbers 11 to 20 on my list.
As a final note, I've not considered any of those controversial different-cuts-of-films-I've-seen-before for inclusion here. If I had then I'm sure Crash would've been high in the top ten.
The Five Worst Films I've Seen in 2007
Flight 93 (#26, Week 12) 1/5
The only film all year to achieve the lowest possible score; if this list were numbered, it would surely be my worst film of the year. Nothing in it is above the level of cheap TV movie -- which it is, but that's no excuse. The script, acting, direction, effects... I genuinely failed to find anything worthwhile here, especially in light of the excellent United 93, a truly brilliant film of the same story. Some say this makes a good companion piece to the movie, but I really don't think it does: the latter is a respectful, realistic, thoughtful piece of filmmaking; this is tacky and unrealistic, and tries so hard for an appropriate level of sentiment that it often winds up being laughable. And laughable is not something this event was. In short, don't even bother.
New York Stories: Life Without Zoe (#117, Week 47) 3/5
It seems almost churlish to pick out one segment of a film, but as it's an anthology where the other two parts are pretty good it would be even more churlish to slate the whole film. The centre short of New York Stories, an anthology film by Scorsese, Coppola and Allen, is second only to Flight 93 as the most painful thing I've had to sit through this year. The characters are irritating, the performances weak, the writing twee... Sofia would obviously go on to better things (Lost in Translation mainly), but Francis Ford seems to be firmly leaving the quality filmmaking behind at this point. (As a side point, I thought Scorsese's short in this film was decent enough, while Allen's is utterly brilliant. The listed score is the one I gave the whole film.)
Play Time (#118, Week 47) 2/5
Jacques Tati has his fans. Filmmakers such as him (especially foreign ones) inevitably do. But I just can't fully get to grips with his style of comedy, and I suspect many truly discerning critics wouldn't either. There are gags, but they're slipped in among long stretches of interminable boredom where literally nothing happens, and when they arrive they have a tendency to run on too long. Tati is undoubtedly making some points about the state of the modern urban world with this, but that doesn't make it any more entertaining. Repetitive and flat, it's not worth sitting through for the handful of genuinely good comic moments.
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (#79, Week 32) 2/5
As well as being a poor film in its own right, this represents a variety of films which failed to live up to my expectations. In this case, I was looking forward to a well-developed alternate history of America, where things were vastly different because the Confederates won the American Civil War. Instead, the film is almost solely concerned with the idea that, if they had won, black people would still be slaves. This preoccupation is unsurprising when you learn the background of the filmmakers, but the film isn't sold as simply a "what if black people were still slaves?" piece. Most major historical events play out as they did anyway... except that black people are still enslaved! It's far too one-dimensional.
Thunderbirds (#85, Week 33) 2/5
I was left with a few potential final choices from my short list of bad films, all of fairly equal poorness. This is the worst though, because, like C.S.A., it's so disappointing. I didn't have great expectations for this film thanks to all the bad press it received at the time of release, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Thunderbirds is a great TV series full of wonderful and entertaining ideas, most of which are squandered in this poor Spy Kids rip off. The only good thing about it are the ship designs, which faithfully modernise all of the Thunderbird craft. Other than that, it's a poor script, poor story, and pretty poor acting too (even from Sir Ben Kingsley, who camps it up something rotten). What a waste.
The Ten Best Films I've Seen For the First Time in 2007
10) Blood Diamond (#19, Week 8) 4/5
Ed Zwick pulls off the impressive task of making a Moral Message Movie that is also a proper action thriller, something which (as far as I've seen) usually leads to a film winding up greatly more in one camp than the other. The action sequences are exciting and impressively staged, the message is conveyed but not over-played, and within this there's still room to focus on the characters and their personal journeys. All of the actors perform well in their roles, though Djimon Hounsou can still be singled out as the best of the bunch. Important and entertaining -- a rare feat.
See also: The Bourne Ultimatum, a more widely praised gritty action-thriller.
9) 300 (#101, Week 40) 4/5
Pure testosterone-fuelled entertainment. That's a pretty simply way of summing up what is, at the end of the day, a pretty simple film. It looks gorgeous, with cinematography, design and CGI combining to create a series of hyper-real, beautiful visions. The fight scenes are brutally excellent, though in danger of becoming a bit repetitive if they're not your thing. The story is also a little slender, padded out with copious slow motion and a bolted-on political subplot in the final act, which could have been excellent if integrated better. But none of these flaws really matter, because 300 does what it sets out to, and it does it bloody well.
See also: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, an equally CGI-heavy bit of constant action.
8) Three Colours Red (#42, Week 15) 5/5
This really (slightly cheekily, but unashamedly) represents the whole Three Colours trilogy. You see, while each film is completely standalone and works excellently in its own right, they still work best when viewed together, in order, at which point the ending of this (the third part) is wonderfully effective. The trilogy explores the three values represented on the French flag: freedom, equality, brotherhood; but these are clearly themes with broader resonance, which gives these films a more universal appeal. They do tend toward the slower-paced and slightly 'arty' end of the filmic spectrum, but, considering that's a style I don't generally get on with either, these are nonetheless brilliant.
See also: Hidden, another French film with occasionally similar themes.
7) Citizen Kane (#100, Week 36) 5/5
Widely regarded as one of, if not the, best films ever made, Citizen Kane has certainly had to fight hard for such an accolade. But it's pretty well deserved: almost everything about the film still stands up well today, from the engaging mysteries of the plot, to the collage of styles, timeframes and unusual camera moves that can still seem innovate 66 years on. As I said in my original review, there is masses that can (and has, and will) be said about this movie. You shouldn't need me to tell you that if you have any real interest in films you ought to at least give it a go. For me, it mostly managed to live up to its colossal reputation.
See also: Chinatown, an acclaimed noir-ish & unsolvable mystery of America's wealthy.
6) Brief Encounter (#76, Week 31) 5/5
Most classics are so for good reason; and, chances are, the older a film oft-cited as a classic gets, the better the chance of it genuinely being one (as the lesser films drop away in favour of newer 'classics', you see). At 62 years old, then, Brief Encounter stands a fair chance of being a damn good film. And, lo and behold, it really is. The social conventions of a bygone age are beautifully played out -- while things certainly wouldn't go this way today, one can still oddly relate to it all. With a touching, funny script, note-perfect performances, and terrific direction, you don't get them much more classic than this.
See also: Before Sunrise, a modern take on railway-related romance (that only narrowly missed a spot here).
5) Stranger Than Fiction (#81, Week 32) 4/5
This is a wonderful conceit for a film: one day, a man begins to hear his life being narrated, as if it were a novel. And then the novelist tells him he's going to die. To explain what happens from there would ruin it, of course (and take too long), but it's variously fantastical, romantic, thoughtful, and fun. It's stylishly directed by Marc Forster, who's fast becoming one of my favourite directors (I expect Bond 22 to cement that opinion), and has plenty of originality. While some plot threads may be pretty standard fair, they're well executed too, which makes for a highly entertaining whole.
See also: While You Were Sleeping, a quirky (though not as fantastical) setup for a rom-com.
4) The Prestige (#14, Week 7) 4/5
I must confess to being a bit unsure about The Prestige at first. Not that I didn't think it was good, just that I wasn't sure how good. In retrospect, it's good enough to make it this high on my list (beating off a most of the films that I rated higher than it!) Nolan is a great storyteller: the chronology of the film is all over the place, yet never once is the viewer lost as to what we're seeing when. It's all propped up by a brilliant cast and a central mystery that is intriguing, with a number of neat twists in its resolution. The more I remember it, the more I like it.
See also: Primer, a somewhat similar mystery in a (sadly) less satisfying film.
3) Mean Creek (#69, Week 30) 5/5
It's a simple concept: a group of kids take the school bully out to teach him a lesson and it all goes horribly wrong. But it's not a sanitised, irritating kids movie, with shiny little brats and a beautiful message about friendship; it's an indie with a realistically dark heart, and thankfully not one that has succumbed to the "nothing happens because it's about the characters, see" school of 'intelligent' filmmaking. The kids carry the movie (barely an adult is seen, and even then only briefly) and their performances are all strong, often a worry with child actors. It's a tense, believable story, with a good exploration of the consequences of their actions, including an appropriate level of ambiguity. A fantastic little drama.
See also: Brick, another indie of middle American kids in potentially murderous situations.
2) Hot Fuzz (#20, Week 8) 5/5
The Shaun of the Dead team return, this time spoofing action movies (as opposed to zombies). Many say this isn't as good as Shaun, but I rather suspect they're mostly the sort of people who are into the niche-y zombie films in the first place (don't get me wrong, mind, I love Shaun). Hot Fuzz is funny throughout, has a good stab at some exciting action sequences, and the cast of British stalwarts are fantastic. It was a big hit in the UK and deservedly so. It's set to form a loose trilogy with Shaun and an as-yet-unrevealed project, which I feel we should all be looking forward to immensely.
See also: Stormbreaker, a kid-centred slice of tongue-in-cheek British action.
1) United 93 (#22, Week 9) 5/5
Paul Greengrass didn't stand a chance at the Oscars, as Scorsese had finally got round to making another film good enough for them to finally give him an award. Greengrass deserved it more though. The Departed was a decent film, but as this is the only mention of it in this entire article you can see I was hardly blown away. But this is all beside the point: United 93 is a great film. The direction is perfectly suited to the subject matter, the storytelling appropriately tense and with a good dose of realism, and the performances utterly believable. The fact that this is endorsed by the families of those who died is the final stamp of approval. The men and women who were on board United 93 are all heroes -- not in some cheesy Hollywood way, but in a very real-world way. This captures that, and feels an appropriate tribute.
See also: Right at Your Door, a fictional tale of terrorism's potential effect on ordinary people.
Special Mentions
I just wanted to take a moment (or, a section) to highlight a few other films, for various reasons.
Firstly, I can't end this without mentioning the 13 films that earned themselves 5-star ratings this year, as only six of them made it into the top ten -- those being Brief Encounter, Citizen Kane, Hot Fuzz, Mean Creek, Three Colours Red, and United 93. Perhaps I was less certain about rating some so highly in retrospect, but, regardless, the other seven were: Chinatown, Educating Rita, Goodfellas, Heat, The King of Comedy, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Trainspotting.
As the year went on I kept a running list of potential contenders for both my bottom five and top ten. The former eventually totalled 15 films (some were shortlisted not because they were truly bad, but due to the level of disappointment involved, such as Spider-Man 3). The list for the top ten reached the giddy heights of 48 films -- 37% of the total! Maybe I'm just the generous sort. As well as the top ten itself (obviously), some of these were the other 5-star-ers listed above, and several more have been named in the "see also" sections. Rather than list all the remaining 24 (you do the maths), here's nine of them that stuck in my mind enough to warrant mentioning:
- Night Watch, an entertaining epic/fantasy/horror mash-up from Russia.
- Perfume, a visually pungent, thoroughly bizarre adaptation of the popular novel.
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, a classic silent urban fairytale.
- Manhattan, a beautiful black & white relationship drama.
- The Woodsman, an intelligent and character-centric study of a difficult issue.
- Pan's Labyrinth, an engaging blend of fantasy and cruel reality.
- Bullets Over Broadway, an amusing and entertaining take on the mob and the theatre.
- Octopussy, a surprisingly entertaining Roger Moore Bond film.
- Basil the Great Mouse Detective, an underrated Sherlock Holmes-riffing Disney flick.
The Films I Didn't See
Of course, this obviously isn't a Top 10 of 2007 in the traditional sense. But, nonetheless, new films do feature, and with that in mind there were a number of notable films released this year that I've yet to see.
Here, then, is an alphabetical list of 50 films made in 2007 that I've missed. (To be fair, some of these aren't actually out over here yet... but when I finally see them they'll be listed as 2007, so on this list they go! Equally, a fair few films have cropped up on best-of-year lists but are technically from 2006, so have been left off.) The films listed here have been chosen for a variety of reasons, from box office success to critical acclaim.
2 Days in Paris
28 Weeks Later
3:10 to Yuma
30 Days of Night
Across the Universe
Aliens vs Predator: Requiem
American Gangster
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
Becoming Jane
Beowulf
Blades of Glory
Charlie Wilson's War
Control
Die Hard 4.0 / Live Free or Die Hard
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Enchanted
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Ghost Rider
The Golden Compass
Grindhouse (or its constituent parts individually)
Hairspray
Halloween
I Am Legend
I'm Not There
Juno
Knocked Up
Lions For Lambs
The Man From Earth
Michael Clayton
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
No Country For Old Men
Ocean's Thirteen
Ratatouille
Resident Evil: Extinction
Rush Hour 3
Shrek the Third
Sicko
The Simpsons Movie
Southland Tales
St. Trinian's
Stardust
Sunshine
Superbad
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood
TMNT
Transformers
Waitress
Zodiac
A Final Thought
It's been very strange, looking back over this list to pick my choices. Some films I saw at the beginning of the year feel like they were just the other week; others seen more recently feel like they were an age ago. It's quite an interesting experience -- one that I'd recommend.
Weeks 51-52
Introduction
And so here we are: my 23rd entry, the final two weeks of 2007, and the end of my quest! 2008 is just around the corner, meaning the imminent restarting of my quest. New-look entries will appear soon, but before that there'll be summaries of this year (back-dated to December 31st! Hurrah!). They'll appear in the next few days. Then it'll be a fresh start as it all begins again for 2008...
Weeks Fifty-One and Fifty-Two
After the emptiness of my last entry, I have actually watched some films this time. Three of them, in fact -- my final three films of the year! And one short too. And they were...
127) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, Paul Greengrass, DVD) 4/5
This final installment in the action-thriller trilogy was recently announced as Empire magazine's film of the year, following wide praise on release that dubbed it the best action movie in a long time. Unfortunately, I fear it may've become a victim of its own hype. It's certainly a good film for many reasons: its appropriately unrelenting momentum, even in dialogue scenes; several stunning action sequences; a mostly decent plot. But it's also flawed: despite the globe-hopping, complex plot, it feels somehow slight; several villains and plot devices seem tacked on to create an over-arching plan for the trilogy, when Bourne had really dealt with all these matters in the first two. Ultimately, it simply didn't feel as entertaining as the first two installments, though I had an odd sense that I should be liking it more. Perhaps future re-viewings will aid my appreciation.
127a) Telling Lies (2001, Simon Ellis, DVD) 4/5
A simple idea, very well executed: as we listen to a series of phone conversations, the speakers' dialogue appears on screen... except instead of transcribing their exact words, it reveals their true thoughts. At only a few minutes long this doesn't out stay its welcome, instead maintaining the basic idea well and crafting a neat and amusing little story with it. Worth checking out if you have a chance. (Available on the DVD Cinema16: British Short Films.)
128) While You Were Sleeping (1995, Jon Turteltaub, TV) 4/5
I wound up accidentally watching this on TV, and was ultimately glad I did. If you've ever seen a '90s rom-com then the general shape of everything here will be familiar, though it does have a neat coma-related twist at its core. In spite of this predictability, and Sandra Bullock, I found it to be very enjoyable. It's not a laugh-out-loud comedy and it is (of course) heavy on the sentiment, but it does have a lovely Christmasness that is perfect for this time of year. It made me all nostalgic for the '90s -- they don't make 'em like this any more. I don't think. I don't really watch rom-coms... I can easily see myself tracking this down in time for next Christmas, and probably Christmasses after too.
129) Piglet's Big Movie (2003, Francis Glebas, TV) 3/5
I used to enjoy the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh series when I was younger. I also used to love the original books by A.A. Milne. In fact, I still enjoy the books -- they're witty, knowingly written, and often sweet. Sadly, Disney's interpretation seems to have faired less well. In this case it's largely down to the first half, where the mostly original storyline and weak & randomly inserted songs simply aren't up to scratch. However, things improve massively with a couple of fairly straight adaptations of Milne's original tales. Mildly amusing at times and with a positive (if predictable) message about friendship and self-worth, this would undoubtedly entertain young children -- which, to be fair, is its intended audience. While it initially seems to fall far short for older audiences, it turns out to be not all bad.
And so here we are: my 23rd entry, the final two weeks of 2007, and the end of my quest! 2008 is just around the corner, meaning the imminent restarting of my quest. New-look entries will appear soon, but before that there'll be summaries of this year (back-dated to December 31st! Hurrah!). They'll appear in the next few days. Then it'll be a fresh start as it all begins again for 2008...
Weeks Fifty-One and Fifty-Two
After the emptiness of my last entry, I have actually watched some films this time. Three of them, in fact -- my final three films of the year! And one short too. And they were...
127) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, Paul Greengrass, DVD) 4/5
This final installment in the action-thriller trilogy was recently announced as Empire magazine's film of the year, following wide praise on release that dubbed it the best action movie in a long time. Unfortunately, I fear it may've become a victim of its own hype. It's certainly a good film for many reasons: its appropriately unrelenting momentum, even in dialogue scenes; several stunning action sequences; a mostly decent plot. But it's also flawed: despite the globe-hopping, complex plot, it feels somehow slight; several villains and plot devices seem tacked on to create an over-arching plan for the trilogy, when Bourne had really dealt with all these matters in the first two. Ultimately, it simply didn't feel as entertaining as the first two installments, though I had an odd sense that I should be liking it more. Perhaps future re-viewings will aid my appreciation.
127a) Telling Lies (2001, Simon Ellis, DVD) 4/5
A simple idea, very well executed: as we listen to a series of phone conversations, the speakers' dialogue appears on screen... except instead of transcribing their exact words, it reveals their true thoughts. At only a few minutes long this doesn't out stay its welcome, instead maintaining the basic idea well and crafting a neat and amusing little story with it. Worth checking out if you have a chance. (Available on the DVD Cinema16: British Short Films.)
128) While You Were Sleeping (1995, Jon Turteltaub, TV) 4/5
I wound up accidentally watching this on TV, and was ultimately glad I did. If you've ever seen a '90s rom-com then the general shape of everything here will be familiar, though it does have a neat coma-related twist at its core. In spite of this predictability, and Sandra Bullock, I found it to be very enjoyable. It's not a laugh-out-loud comedy and it is (of course) heavy on the sentiment, but it does have a lovely Christmasness that is perfect for this time of year. It made me all nostalgic for the '90s -- they don't make 'em like this any more. I don't think. I don't really watch rom-coms... I can easily see myself tracking this down in time for next Christmas, and probably Christmasses after too.
129) Piglet's Big Movie (2003, Francis Glebas, TV) 3/5
I used to enjoy the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh series when I was younger. I also used to love the original books by A.A. Milne. In fact, I still enjoy the books -- they're witty, knowingly written, and often sweet. Sadly, Disney's interpretation seems to have faired less well. In this case it's largely down to the first half, where the mostly original storyline and weak & randomly inserted songs simply aren't up to scratch. However, things improve massively with a couple of fairly straight adaptations of Milne's original tales. Mildly amusing at times and with a positive (if predictable) message about friendship and self-worth, this would undoubtedly entertain young children -- which, to be fair, is its intended audience. While it initially seems to fall far short for older audiences, it turns out to be not all bad.
Monday 17 December 2007
Weeks 49-50
Introduction
It's the last month of the year! The winter holidays have started! There's only a week (and a bit) til Christmas! And, after the fourteen-film craziness of the last entry, in the past two weeks I've only watched... well, NO films!
Yet there is still an entry. Why? Well, I resolved that, regardless of how many films I watched, I'd post double-week entries for both this one and the next. And I haven't watched any films, so there's none here. A silly resolution, obviously. Incidentally, this all means you can expect the final chapter of my 2007 quest to appear on Monday December 31st. How very appropriate.
So instead of film reviews, but in light of the fact I'm posting this anyway, I've decided to share with you some of the changes I have planned for 2008. I'm sure there's nothing mind-blowingly exciting here, but maybe it'll be of vague interest.
2008 Preview
The most notable change to the blog will be that, instead of large week-spanning multi-film round-ups, I'll be posting reviews individually. The weekly format is a hold-over from the blog's deviantART origins and obviously isn't as blog-like as individual entries will be.
In a similar vein, there'll be a few more details beyond the current year/director/format selection -- for example, the running time, or the BBFC classification (perhaps the MPAA one too). These things are hardly integral to the content, I know, but it might make the whole thing feel a bit more well-informed.
In the unlikely event anyone particularly enjoys my little introductions and updates, something like these will crop up from time to time in a new format -- expect 'editorials' scattered amongst the film reviews at imprecise intervals.
I had also considered adding in reviews of other things, such as re-watched films and TV shows, in a similar way to the editorials. I decided this would dilute the focus and clutter the blog, however... but be sure to check out my new sister blog, Smaller Screens, which will cover those things with a broadly similar 'voice' to this blog.
Finally, I might actually start using keywords. I tried initially for this year, but it seemed a little pointless. I'll try to keep them general and helpful, rather than bogging them down with one-off things like the film's title. Information like the director, the genre, the year of production, the format, and so forth, will likely go in the keywords, to create some sort of browsable thingamie on the sidebar.
Maybe one day I'll go back and mix some of these changes into how the 2007 posts are organised, just to streamline the whole thing. But don't count on it.
Next Time
It's the final entry of the year! And then two more... You'll see.
See you on New Year's Eve...
It's the last month of the year! The winter holidays have started! There's only a week (and a bit) til Christmas! And, after the fourteen-film craziness of the last entry, in the past two weeks I've only watched... well, NO films!
Yet there is still an entry. Why? Well, I resolved that, regardless of how many films I watched, I'd post double-week entries for both this one and the next. And I haven't watched any films, so there's none here. A silly resolution, obviously. Incidentally, this all means you can expect the final chapter of my 2007 quest to appear on Monday December 31st. How very appropriate.
So instead of film reviews, but in light of the fact I'm posting this anyway, I've decided to share with you some of the changes I have planned for 2008. I'm sure there's nothing mind-blowingly exciting here, but maybe it'll be of vague interest.
2008 Preview
The most notable change to the blog will be that, instead of large week-spanning multi-film round-ups, I'll be posting reviews individually. The weekly format is a hold-over from the blog's deviantART origins and obviously isn't as blog-like as individual entries will be.
In a similar vein, there'll be a few more details beyond the current year/director/format selection -- for example, the running time, or the BBFC classification (perhaps the MPAA one too). These things are hardly integral to the content, I know, but it might make the whole thing feel a bit more well-informed.
In the unlikely event anyone particularly enjoys my little introductions and updates, something like these will crop up from time to time in a new format -- expect 'editorials' scattered amongst the film reviews at imprecise intervals.
I had also considered adding in reviews of other things, such as re-watched films and TV shows, in a similar way to the editorials. I decided this would dilute the focus and clutter the blog, however... but be sure to check out my new sister blog, Smaller Screens, which will cover those things with a broadly similar 'voice' to this blog.
Finally, I might actually start using keywords. I tried initially for this year, but it seemed a little pointless. I'll try to keep them general and helpful, rather than bogging them down with one-off things like the film's title. Information like the director, the genre, the year of production, the format, and so forth, will likely go in the keywords, to create some sort of browsable thingamie on the sidebar.
Maybe one day I'll go back and mix some of these changes into how the 2007 posts are organised, just to streamline the whole thing. But don't count on it.
Next Time
It's the final entry of the year! And then two more... You'll see.
See you on New Year's Eve...
Tuesday 4 December 2007
Weeks 46-48
Introduction
Welcome to the second most film-packed entry ever! And possibly the longest, thanks to some ramblings. Why has this come to be so? Well, I'll come to that shortly, after those ramblings I mentioned...
An Extended Musing
First, another issue that's come to my mind while writing this entry (specifically after viewing film #123): when was the last time I 'fell in love' with a film? It's got me pondering not only that, but what caused me to fall for things I liked. Was it the critical reaction as much as my personal opinion? The in-built notion of This Is A Good Film making sure I liked it? I don't think that's quite true: I was certainly aware of the high praise for films like Pulp Fiction or Fight Club (both of which I adored from first viewing) when I saw them, but I'm sure there was something more to them that impressed me. Certainly, there are films I've enjoyed to a similar degree where my awareness of its wider praise has followed, such as Donnie Darko or Children of Men. By a similar token, there are films where I knew of the praise, such as Memento and The Departed, and still didn't come to love them.
It leaves me wondering if, as I grow older, I'm less prone to being swayed by received critical opinions and finally just judging films on their own merit; or, possibly, I'm so eager to try to have my own thoughts and to therefore avoid things that I'm not taking them in the right way? It's a very self-reflexive question and consequently a hard one to answer, especially as all opinions on art are so subjective anyway.
As for the issue of films I've 'fallen in love' with, the issue is slightly complicated by a division between Entertainment Films and Proper Films (I use these terms loosely, for the sake of this argument). To use some of the same examples, I would class all the films thus far mentioned as Proper Films (we can already see the line blurring as they all certainly have high entertainment values too), whereas things like Pirates of the Caribbean or Serenity are more clearly of the Entertainment variety. Handily, I have a list of all the films I've seen in the past eleven months, so I can see what I may've loved in the past year.
And, indeed, there are some. Under the Proper banner we might find the likes of Mean Creek, Brief Encounter, or, probably most of all, United 93. Under the Entertainment heading there could possibly be 300, Stranger Than Fiction, or, undoubtedly, Hot Fuzz. But it can be tricky to designate the difference between "liked a lot" and "loved" -- there were several more films I nearly listed, but then just wasn't sure.
Indeed, how much I love even the ones mentioned, and even more so whether they rank amongst films I'd call all-time favourites, is a complex proposition. When does "liked a lot" become "loved"? In the past, the likes of Se7en, Apocalypse Now and Magnolia, as well as one or two others mentioned earlier, easily jumped straight to the top of my favourites list after just one viewing... but then maybe I was just young and impressionable. Or maybe I wasn't as easily persuadable as I seem to think, and I'm just still waiting for something to capture me the same way they did...
Weeks Forty-Six to Forty-Eight
With all that (partially) exorcised, let's finally move on to what I was wittering about in the introduction.
I've had a little bit of a theme season (one might say) these past few weeks, so I've been waiting for those films to appear in a single entry -- plus there are other films watched in between, making the list even longer. So, what was the theme? Well, being the dedicated student that I am, I've watched all the suggested viewing for a seminar in which my group had to pose the questions. The seminar was on "Urban Rhythms"... but in film-viewing terms that translates to four Scorseses, four Woody Allens, and an anthology featuring shorts by both of them and Francis Ford Coppola (plus a fifth Scorsese that wasn't on the list but was on TV). Such respectable viewing!
Throw in another four films and this is the most film-packed entry since the seven-week, fifteen-film behemoth that was the first entry! And it makes it to only one film less in under half the time! Well blimey. Best get on with it then...
113) On the Town (1949, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, VHS) 4/5
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra lead the cast in this musical comedy about three soldiers who have 24 hours of shore leave in New York. The plot is sometimes predictable, but at least it's not as standardised as many. Equally, none of the songs are truly memorable but most are fun while they last. The humour may be quite gentle (though be prepared for some sexed-up female characters!), but as a whole it's never less than entertaining (with the exception of a third act dance almost as incongruous as Oklahoma!'s change of cast). Several of those who watched it with me were surprised to find they actually enjoyed a musical.
114) Bringing Out the Dead (1999, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 3/5
It's hard to know what to make of this, because by the end it all seems a little pointless. The storyline, which follows Nicolas Cage's paramedic across three nights in New York, is a mixture of short episodic medical incidents with longer threads that continue throughout. These connect and fall apart, feeling as episodic as the rest, and most of them don't really lead anywhere. Perhaps the best description is that it's a collection of subplots in search of proper story. There are some decent scenes and good shots, but the film doesn't seem to have anything to say, and it doesn't end so much as simply fade to black when it runs out of things to do.
115) Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Widely considered to be Woody Allen's breakthrough movie and winner of four of the 'Big Five' Oscars. One might call it a romantic comedy, but it's very much an indie comedy-drama (for one thing, it utilises the ever-popular tactic of not taking place in chronological order), rather than the mainstream cliche-fest that first springs to mind whenever "rom-com" is mentioned. Annie Hall is either the basis for or just exemplifies all the cliches of Allen films (essentially, neurotic Jew who struggles with life), but that doesn't make it bad. It's very funny in places, suitably realistic in others, and has a nice line in comedic philosophy too.
116) Wild at Heart (1990, David Lynch, DVD) 4/5
My experience of David Lynch's work has so far been limited to Dune, the first short season of Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive. Admittedly, a list including the latter two isn't that bad, but it fails to encompass any of the acclaimed films that made his name. Wild at Heart doesn't come much closer: a quick look at IMDb reveals that it only beats Dune and the Twin Peaks movie in user ratings. I think I can see why: it's filled with mannered performances that can seem cheaper than those in daytime soaps (I presume this is deliberate, but some people just won't get, or like, it); characters and plot threads that meander off and seem pointless, while others don't come to anything; plus it lacks the opaqueness that many seem to hold as the key worthy feature of Lynch's work. In spite of its many faults I quite liked a lot of it, so my rating falls on the generous side. I still have no idea why there were so many Wizard of Oz references though.
117) New York Stories (1989, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola & Martin Scorsese, DVD) 3/5
Anthology of three shorts, connected only by the New York setting (which, incidentally, may as well be anywhere in all but the last segment). Scorsese's Life Lessons opens the film, a tale of an artist and his love for his younger assistant. It's an alright little drama. Next is Coppola's dire Life Without Zoe, concerned with an irritating rich little brat and her irritating rich little brat friends (none of whom can act). Mercifully the shortest piece, but its very existence is lamentable. Finally, Allen's Oedipus Wrecks drags the quality up. It may largely be typical Allen fare (see the Annie Hall review), but its quite funny and the fantastical twist halfway through is brilliantly bizarre. As a whole, then, an unsurprisingly mixed bag.
118) Play Time (1967, Jacques Tati, DVD) 2/5
I know some people love the work of Tati, just like there's always someone who loves everything; personally, I find his films largely dull. His character, Monsieur Hulot, is like Mr Bean but less funny (don't worry, I know Hulot comes first by a good few decades). There are some laughs to be had in Play Time, but they're a long way in and not necessarily worth waiting for. Play Time is certainly pertinent to the Cityscapes course we were shown it as part of, but even the subtext (which is about as 'sub' as a space station) about the depressing similarity of modern cities is repetitively over-done. Recommended only as a cure for insomnia.
119) Manhattan (1979, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Drama (though it does include some very funny bits) focusing on the interrelationships of a handful of 40-something New Yorkers. Allen fails to convince as a bit of a womaniser, even if he is notably less neurotic than usual; however, once the viewer gets over that little fantasy of his, I believe there's a lot to be had here. It's a much more traditional film than Annie Hall -- events occur in chronological order, with no unusual comedic breaks, or monologues to camera -- and, as a drama, it's all the better for this. The black & white photography is gorgeous throughout, helping the city to shine far brighter than any of the characters -- for me, the best bit of the entire film is the opening three-and-a-half minutes, in which the beautiful images, Allen's narration and Gershwin's music combine in a tribute to what must be the most genuinely loved of all cities. (A 5-star rating system only allows minimal delineation, so for the sake of clarity I'd like to point out that I personally preferred this to Annie Hall, though it falls just off attaining a full five.)
120) Hellboy: Director's Cut (2004, Guillermo del Toro, DVD) 4/5
A surprise hit on release, this live action adaptation of the cult comic book is an exciting and entertaining, though flawed, mix of pulp fantasy, gothic style and action. Surprisingly, it spends more time focused on the characters than the plot; while this is nice, and those scenes are expertly played, they do seem to throw the pacing off kilter somewhat. And, in an amusing reversal of the usual action movie cliche, while the character bits are great the action scenes are a tad underwritten! The score is also pretty lacklustre: it sounds like a typical, appropriate SF/F action score, but one where the cues have all been incorrectly placed. But these flaws are easily overlooked when the characters are such fun, the dramatic moments suitably poignant, and the action passable enough. Hopefully the forthcoming sequel can see to the faults and be even better. (I haven't seen the theatrical cut of Hellboy, hence why this is numbered.)
121) The King of Comedy (1983, Martin Scorsese, TV) 5/5
Underrated black comedy from the prolific partnership of director Scorsese and star De Niro. De Niro gives an excellent performance as an obsessive wannabe comedian, stalking the host of a popular talk show in his desperation for a guest spot. The depth of his delusion is both hilariously funny and deeply unsettling; subtly woven between the laughs is the impression that this sort of behaviour must be all-too-real among those over-obsessed with celebrity culture. Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard are also worthy of note in their supporting roles. Rarely mentioned when it comes to discussions of Scorsese's work, I think its the best film I've seen from him. (This closing comment is subject to the fact that I've only seen The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York and Bringing Out the Dead, a list clearly missing most of his highly-praised work! Expect a more informed opinion to appear when I see them (later this entry!))
122) Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 4/5
Much praised, discussed and quoted, Taxi Driver needs little introduction. The weight of expectation also makes it hard to judge when first viewed. Personally, I didn't buy Travis' slide into psychosis, which is unfortunate as it's the core of the film and why it's meant to be so great. In fact, I found Robert Pupkin's broadly similar, self delusion-based, character arc in The King of Comedy more believable. The ending was also dubious, although one theory does make it work better, so it perhaps depends on what you choose to believe. Further viewings may help the film work better for me -- as my rating shows, I still liked the film as a whole, but I wasn't as impressed as I'd been led to believe I would be.
123) Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 5/5
These days perhaps even more praised than Taxi Driver, Goodfellas tells the true story of Henry Hill's 25-year career as a gangster. It's certainly a notable achievement on virtually every level, which are too numerous to list here. The use of popular music struck me especially though, creating a sense of time (and never too obviously) while also complimenting the visuals in its own right. In the lead role, Liotta seems to have been underrated, lost behind the top billing of De Niro and the award-winning craziness of Pesci; he carries the film, with a performance that isn't showy but is perfectly pitched. I didn't fall in love with the film as so many seem to have, but I also don't think there's really any denying its worthiness for full marks.
124) Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Woody Allen mixes a bit of the thriller into his usual relationship-based comedy/drama style, with effective results. The combination produces an engaging thriller with the usual character-focused drama woven around it, and a decent dash of comedy too. The first half hour or so is a tad slow, but the pace picks up as the story rattles into the second half. Murder Mystery has been criticised as lightweight -- the comedy stops the thriller being too serious, the thriller stops the drama being the focus, and they both prevent the comedy from overpowering -- but Allen has dealt with these elements in isolation elsewhere, so it's refreshing to see him do more than merely repeat himself. This is an underrated gem in Allen's relatively vast body of work.
125) Bullets Over Broadway (1994, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
The final Allen film of this little 'season' is that rare thing: one that doesn't star him! This is its biggest flaw, as Cusack spends the entire film doing a blatant and middling impression of the writer/director. But he nonetheless does OK, and when the rest of the cast are note-perfect, the script pacy and funny, the photography gorgeous and the long takes never more appropriate, it's hard not to be impressed. Special mention to the final scene, a four-way shouted conversation between two high windows and the street -- it's beautifully written and executed. Another underrated Allen film, and probably the most down-right entertaining of his I've seen so far.
126) Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 4/5
Semi-autobiographical New York gangster movie, guaranteed a place in history as the first collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro -- what a place to end my little season! As with Goodfellas, it's someone else who's the main character; and, as with Goodfellas, De Niro's supporting character is a disturbing presence even when off screen. The similarities don't end there, but I'm not going to go into them in detail. Suffice to say, Mean Streets feels a bit like a less epic, oddly less focused, grittier, and perhaps more realistic, prototype for Goodfellas. But even then it's only that in some ways -- the two are notably different enough to make each worthwhile.
Welcome to the second most film-packed entry ever! And possibly the longest, thanks to some ramblings. Why has this come to be so? Well, I'll come to that shortly, after those ramblings I mentioned...
An Extended Musing
First, another issue that's come to my mind while writing this entry (specifically after viewing film #123): when was the last time I 'fell in love' with a film? It's got me pondering not only that, but what caused me to fall for things I liked. Was it the critical reaction as much as my personal opinion? The in-built notion of This Is A Good Film making sure I liked it? I don't think that's quite true: I was certainly aware of the high praise for films like Pulp Fiction or Fight Club (both of which I adored from first viewing) when I saw them, but I'm sure there was something more to them that impressed me. Certainly, there are films I've enjoyed to a similar degree where my awareness of its wider praise has followed, such as Donnie Darko or Children of Men. By a similar token, there are films where I knew of the praise, such as Memento and The Departed, and still didn't come to love them.
It leaves me wondering if, as I grow older, I'm less prone to being swayed by received critical opinions and finally just judging films on their own merit; or, possibly, I'm so eager to try to have my own thoughts and to therefore avoid things that I'm not taking them in the right way? It's a very self-reflexive question and consequently a hard one to answer, especially as all opinions on art are so subjective anyway.
As for the issue of films I've 'fallen in love' with, the issue is slightly complicated by a division between Entertainment Films and Proper Films (I use these terms loosely, for the sake of this argument). To use some of the same examples, I would class all the films thus far mentioned as Proper Films (we can already see the line blurring as they all certainly have high entertainment values too), whereas things like Pirates of the Caribbean or Serenity are more clearly of the Entertainment variety. Handily, I have a list of all the films I've seen in the past eleven months, so I can see what I may've loved in the past year.
And, indeed, there are some. Under the Proper banner we might find the likes of Mean Creek, Brief Encounter, or, probably most of all, United 93. Under the Entertainment heading there could possibly be 300, Stranger Than Fiction, or, undoubtedly, Hot Fuzz. But it can be tricky to designate the difference between "liked a lot" and "loved" -- there were several more films I nearly listed, but then just wasn't sure.
Indeed, how much I love even the ones mentioned, and even more so whether they rank amongst films I'd call all-time favourites, is a complex proposition. When does "liked a lot" become "loved"? In the past, the likes of Se7en, Apocalypse Now and Magnolia, as well as one or two others mentioned earlier, easily jumped straight to the top of my favourites list after just one viewing... but then maybe I was just young and impressionable. Or maybe I wasn't as easily persuadable as I seem to think, and I'm just still waiting for something to capture me the same way they did...
Weeks Forty-Six to Forty-Eight
With all that (partially) exorcised, let's finally move on to what I was wittering about in the introduction.
I've had a little bit of a theme season (one might say) these past few weeks, so I've been waiting for those films to appear in a single entry -- plus there are other films watched in between, making the list even longer. So, what was the theme? Well, being the dedicated student that I am, I've watched all the suggested viewing for a seminar in which my group had to pose the questions. The seminar was on "Urban Rhythms"... but in film-viewing terms that translates to four Scorseses, four Woody Allens, and an anthology featuring shorts by both of them and Francis Ford Coppola (plus a fifth Scorsese that wasn't on the list but was on TV). Such respectable viewing!
Throw in another four films and this is the most film-packed entry since the seven-week, fifteen-film behemoth that was the first entry! And it makes it to only one film less in under half the time! Well blimey. Best get on with it then...
113) On the Town (1949, Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, VHS) 4/5
Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra lead the cast in this musical comedy about three soldiers who have 24 hours of shore leave in New York. The plot is sometimes predictable, but at least it's not as standardised as many. Equally, none of the songs are truly memorable but most are fun while they last. The humour may be quite gentle (though be prepared for some sexed-up female characters!), but as a whole it's never less than entertaining (with the exception of a third act dance almost as incongruous as Oklahoma!'s change of cast). Several of those who watched it with me were surprised to find they actually enjoyed a musical.
114) Bringing Out the Dead (1999, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 3/5
It's hard to know what to make of this, because by the end it all seems a little pointless. The storyline, which follows Nicolas Cage's paramedic across three nights in New York, is a mixture of short episodic medical incidents with longer threads that continue throughout. These connect and fall apart, feeling as episodic as the rest, and most of them don't really lead anywhere. Perhaps the best description is that it's a collection of subplots in search of proper story. There are some decent scenes and good shots, but the film doesn't seem to have anything to say, and it doesn't end so much as simply fade to black when it runs out of things to do.
115) Annie Hall (1977, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Widely considered to be Woody Allen's breakthrough movie and winner of four of the 'Big Five' Oscars. One might call it a romantic comedy, but it's very much an indie comedy-drama (for one thing, it utilises the ever-popular tactic of not taking place in chronological order), rather than the mainstream cliche-fest that first springs to mind whenever "rom-com" is mentioned. Annie Hall is either the basis for or just exemplifies all the cliches of Allen films (essentially, neurotic Jew who struggles with life), but that doesn't make it bad. It's very funny in places, suitably realistic in others, and has a nice line in comedic philosophy too.
116) Wild at Heart (1990, David Lynch, DVD) 4/5
My experience of David Lynch's work has so far been limited to Dune, the first short season of Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive. Admittedly, a list including the latter two isn't that bad, but it fails to encompass any of the acclaimed films that made his name. Wild at Heart doesn't come much closer: a quick look at IMDb reveals that it only beats Dune and the Twin Peaks movie in user ratings. I think I can see why: it's filled with mannered performances that can seem cheaper than those in daytime soaps (I presume this is deliberate, but some people just won't get, or like, it); characters and plot threads that meander off and seem pointless, while others don't come to anything; plus it lacks the opaqueness that many seem to hold as the key worthy feature of Lynch's work. In spite of its many faults I quite liked a lot of it, so my rating falls on the generous side. I still have no idea why there were so many Wizard of Oz references though.
117) New York Stories (1989, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola & Martin Scorsese, DVD) 3/5
Anthology of three shorts, connected only by the New York setting (which, incidentally, may as well be anywhere in all but the last segment). Scorsese's Life Lessons opens the film, a tale of an artist and his love for his younger assistant. It's an alright little drama. Next is Coppola's dire Life Without Zoe, concerned with an irritating rich little brat and her irritating rich little brat friends (none of whom can act). Mercifully the shortest piece, but its very existence is lamentable. Finally, Allen's Oedipus Wrecks drags the quality up. It may largely be typical Allen fare (see the Annie Hall review), but its quite funny and the fantastical twist halfway through is brilliantly bizarre. As a whole, then, an unsurprisingly mixed bag.
118) Play Time (1967, Jacques Tati, DVD) 2/5
I know some people love the work of Tati, just like there's always someone who loves everything; personally, I find his films largely dull. His character, Monsieur Hulot, is like Mr Bean but less funny (don't worry, I know Hulot comes first by a good few decades). There are some laughs to be had in Play Time, but they're a long way in and not necessarily worth waiting for. Play Time is certainly pertinent to the Cityscapes course we were shown it as part of, but even the subtext (which is about as 'sub' as a space station) about the depressing similarity of modern cities is repetitively over-done. Recommended only as a cure for insomnia.
119) Manhattan (1979, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Drama (though it does include some very funny bits) focusing on the interrelationships of a handful of 40-something New Yorkers. Allen fails to convince as a bit of a womaniser, even if he is notably less neurotic than usual; however, once the viewer gets over that little fantasy of his, I believe there's a lot to be had here. It's a much more traditional film than Annie Hall -- events occur in chronological order, with no unusual comedic breaks, or monologues to camera -- and, as a drama, it's all the better for this. The black & white photography is gorgeous throughout, helping the city to shine far brighter than any of the characters -- for me, the best bit of the entire film is the opening three-and-a-half minutes, in which the beautiful images, Allen's narration and Gershwin's music combine in a tribute to what must be the most genuinely loved of all cities. (A 5-star rating system only allows minimal delineation, so for the sake of clarity I'd like to point out that I personally preferred this to Annie Hall, though it falls just off attaining a full five.)
120) Hellboy: Director's Cut (2004, Guillermo del Toro, DVD) 4/5
A surprise hit on release, this live action adaptation of the cult comic book is an exciting and entertaining, though flawed, mix of pulp fantasy, gothic style and action. Surprisingly, it spends more time focused on the characters than the plot; while this is nice, and those scenes are expertly played, they do seem to throw the pacing off kilter somewhat. And, in an amusing reversal of the usual action movie cliche, while the character bits are great the action scenes are a tad underwritten! The score is also pretty lacklustre: it sounds like a typical, appropriate SF/F action score, but one where the cues have all been incorrectly placed. But these flaws are easily overlooked when the characters are such fun, the dramatic moments suitably poignant, and the action passable enough. Hopefully the forthcoming sequel can see to the faults and be even better. (I haven't seen the theatrical cut of Hellboy, hence why this is numbered.)
121) The King of Comedy (1983, Martin Scorsese, TV) 5/5
Underrated black comedy from the prolific partnership of director Scorsese and star De Niro. De Niro gives an excellent performance as an obsessive wannabe comedian, stalking the host of a popular talk show in his desperation for a guest spot. The depth of his delusion is both hilariously funny and deeply unsettling; subtly woven between the laughs is the impression that this sort of behaviour must be all-too-real among those over-obsessed with celebrity culture. Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard are also worthy of note in their supporting roles. Rarely mentioned when it comes to discussions of Scorsese's work, I think its the best film I've seen from him. (This closing comment is subject to the fact that I've only seen The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York and Bringing Out the Dead, a list clearly missing most of his highly-praised work! Expect a more informed opinion to appear when I see them (later this entry!))
122) Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 4/5
Much praised, discussed and quoted, Taxi Driver needs little introduction. The weight of expectation also makes it hard to judge when first viewed. Personally, I didn't buy Travis' slide into psychosis, which is unfortunate as it's the core of the film and why it's meant to be so great. In fact, I found Robert Pupkin's broadly similar, self delusion-based, character arc in The King of Comedy more believable. The ending was also dubious, although one theory does make it work better, so it perhaps depends on what you choose to believe. Further viewings may help the film work better for me -- as my rating shows, I still liked the film as a whole, but I wasn't as impressed as I'd been led to believe I would be.
123) Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 5/5
These days perhaps even more praised than Taxi Driver, Goodfellas tells the true story of Henry Hill's 25-year career as a gangster. It's certainly a notable achievement on virtually every level, which are too numerous to list here. The use of popular music struck me especially though, creating a sense of time (and never too obviously) while also complimenting the visuals in its own right. In the lead role, Liotta seems to have been underrated, lost behind the top billing of De Niro and the award-winning craziness of Pesci; he carries the film, with a performance that isn't showy but is perfectly pitched. I didn't fall in love with the film as so many seem to have, but I also don't think there's really any denying its worthiness for full marks.
124) Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
Woody Allen mixes a bit of the thriller into his usual relationship-based comedy/drama style, with effective results. The combination produces an engaging thriller with the usual character-focused drama woven around it, and a decent dash of comedy too. The first half hour or so is a tad slow, but the pace picks up as the story rattles into the second half. Murder Mystery has been criticised as lightweight -- the comedy stops the thriller being too serious, the thriller stops the drama being the focus, and they both prevent the comedy from overpowering -- but Allen has dealt with these elements in isolation elsewhere, so it's refreshing to see him do more than merely repeat himself. This is an underrated gem in Allen's relatively vast body of work.
125) Bullets Over Broadway (1994, Woody Allen, DVD) 4/5
The final Allen film of this little 'season' is that rare thing: one that doesn't star him! This is its biggest flaw, as Cusack spends the entire film doing a blatant and middling impression of the writer/director. But he nonetheless does OK, and when the rest of the cast are note-perfect, the script pacy and funny, the photography gorgeous and the long takes never more appropriate, it's hard not to be impressed. Special mention to the final scene, a four-way shouted conversation between two high windows and the street -- it's beautifully written and executed. Another underrated Allen film, and probably the most down-right entertaining of his I've seen so far.
126) Mean Streets (1973, Martin Scorsese, DVD) 4/5
Semi-autobiographical New York gangster movie, guaranteed a place in history as the first collaboration between Scorsese and De Niro -- what a place to end my little season! As with Goodfellas, it's someone else who's the main character; and, as with Goodfellas, De Niro's supporting character is a disturbing presence even when off screen. The similarities don't end there, but I'm not going to go into them in detail. Suffice to say, Mean Streets feels a bit like a less epic, oddly less focused, grittier, and perhaps more realistic, prototype for Goodfellas. But even then it's only that in some ways -- the two are notably different enough to make each worthwhile.
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