The Anti-Fanboy Top Ten 2007

Well here we are, that magical time of year when critics, bloggers, and online movie fans ramble on and on about their favorite movies of the year in the hope of proving that their list is superior in every way to all other lists.

I am here to tell you that my list is the list of all lists

Period.

No, this whole practice of list making is kind of silly, it doesn't really serve a purpose other than for critics to justify their pathetic existence. I kid of course, it's just fun and of course it means nothing but if you want to get into that debate I might as well shut down this blog right now. I enjoy doing this and it allows me to think about the movies I love in a different way.

So without further ado...

Drum roll please.

1. ONCE
I consider this to be my favorite movie of the year. Maybe some movies were better shot and more professionally assembled, but no other movie this year lifted me up the way this one did. It may not have the polish of other movies, but it is still perfect. You fall in love with this movie and not because it offers phony uplift but because it quietly sneaks up on you and breaks your heart. It's about two people who need each other at the exact same moment but are wise enough to know they can not be together. It's funny, honest, and full of the kind of moments you rarely find in life let alone film. Oh yeah, and the music is fantastic.

2. ZODIAC
As soon as the credits came up on David Fincher's Zodiac I not only knew I had just seen not only one of the best movies of the year (and Fincher's personal best) but maybe one of the best movies of the past decade. Exhaustive, exhilarating, and enormously fascinating, this procedural leaves all others in the dust. It takes a certain kind of talent to assemble of the information of a thirty year investigation (that's still active) and convey it with the visual deftness of an artist. Fincher puts that into every single frame of the film and it's an astounding achievement. I bemoaned the quick box office death of this film, but the fact that a major studio even made it is a victory in and of itself.

3. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Chasing right at the heels of Zodiac (in a perfect world they would be tied) the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men has the same kind of scarily perfect execution of craft. And they both sacrifice empty violent redemption for a more meditative questioning of how violence can destroy the mind. No Country features the kind of borderline sadistic suspense sequences that make you forget you are comfortably sitting in a theatre. Not to mention three performances that complement each other so well, it's a marvel they just barely every appear on screen together. The Coen brothers have always been a unique and surprising team, but here they revel in their masterly expert storytelling abilities and the results will floor you.

4. SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
I saw Sweeney Todd on opening night and it instantly placed on my list. I saw it again and it shot up to number four. Tim Burton's unrelentingly bleak horror musical lays waste to all the stagnant, empty musical pageantry that has plagued our theatres these past couple of years. This one goes to those places that seem only reachable in nightmares but does so with jovial musical numbers. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham carter sing their asses off and it shows not only in the melodies but in the performances. It's a rare blend of raw emotion and nuance that would be difficult for any actor to pull off, let alone two untrained singers. All praise be to the Depp/Burton alliance, one of the most satisfying actor director team ups of all time.

5. THE DARJEELING LIMITED
Granted this movie probably earned a spot probably when I heard it was announced. That being said, Wes Anderson's fifth film is funny, touching, and genuinely moving. People like to accuse Anderson of relying too much on quirk and repeating the same story over and over again. That's idiotic, but I have noticed a theme running through all of his films. He loves stories about people reinventing their lives, usually going to any means to recreate a story in which they are essentially, happy. Darjeeling is no exception and the most heartbreaking thing about it is that happiness is not found. Anderson rewards the journey rather than the destination, I love this movie.

6. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Paul Thomas Anderson's horror/western Daniel Day Lewis freak out puts you in a grip that you can not shake free of until several days have passed. In tandem with Jonny Greenwood's powerful score, Anderson finds a way to take you down with protagonist Daniel Plainview's descent into hell. It's an astonishing experience and Daniel Day Lewis plums the very depths of the worst in humanity and comes up with something funny, scary, and all together fascinating. Points also to Paul Dano for matching him note for note, their scenes together burn with an intensity that you can not look away from. Anderson has taken a relatively simple story and packed it with the kind of allegorical heft usually saved for great fiction.

7. INTO THE WILD
Probably a biased call in this case because any movie packed to the gils with Eddie Vedder's music will probably find its way into my top ten list. That being said, Into the Wild is a tragic yet inspiring story consumed with lust for the imagery of its hero's heart. The film offers a surprisingly complex portrait of its lead but more than that, I found it to be a love letter to America. And not in the chest thumping flag waving way, but in about the areas of this country that are still unexplored my most. Where people work, live, an die with the kind of dignity and passion that few of us will ever understand. And in Hal Holbrook's tremendous performance, it is ultimately, a love letter to people.

8. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
The most beautiful film of the year and featuring a stand out, titanic performance by Casey Affleck. This slow burn of a movie methodically traces the last days of Jesse James and the beginning of the infamy of Robert Ford. In assessing modern celebrity culture and the intersection of myth and fact, Andrew Dominik's western has the quality of watching legend become history. That is not to suggest this is some kind of flat historical document, rather this is about how the country is shaped by people who take control of their own story and in the process create that world for themselves. The tragic element of it is how destructive it can be to the people, the land, and the myth.

9. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Diving bell manages to convey not only the physical claustrophobia of the main's locked in syndrome but also the psychological capacities in inspires. The results are scary, liberating, an all together incredible to see. The story inspired a kind of collusion of camera and sound that takes you to a place you didn't know movies could take you. It's flashy yet subdued, emotional but never cloying, and above all it's beautiful. With a story that is not so much about over coming illness than it is reassessing one's life and coming to terms with all the mistakes, guilt, and blown opportunities. Schnabel's film is wrenching for sure but ultimately a kind of life we all aspire to.

10. RATATOUILLE and PERSEPOLIS (tie, yeah that's right)
I know I said earlier how a tie would be out of the question. I changed my mind. But I feel like this is completely justified in that these two were revolutionary animated films that are technically brilliant while never losing their humanity. Instead of berating us with pop culture references and celebrity voices. Persepolis and Ratatouille are more interested in character and truth and they succeed brilliantly. Ratatouille may be the best directed film of the year animated or otherwise (I can not wait to see what Brad Bird does in live action) and Persepolis achieves a certain kind of grace in telling the story of a young girl growing up without a proper home. They are both funny, surprising, and wonderfully drawn. Maybe people will rediscover that no matter what D you are in, it's always about story.

ALL TIED FOR 11th PLACE (seriously I love these movies but for the sake of being succinct, I couldn't squeeze them all in)
The Savages, Margot at the Wedding, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, No End in Sight, Eastern Promises, Sunshine, I'm Not There, Control, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Rescue Dawn, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, The Host, Gone Baby Gone, Away From Her, Michael Clayton, Sicko, The Bourne Ultimatum, Lust, Caution, Deep Water

Special Achievement Award (for surpassing the hype and then some:
The Simpsons Movie (you didn't think I forgot about it did you?)

I'll be back later with my annual over-rated, under-rated titles as well my Worst of the year selection.

Until then, it's been real.