Pink's Picks for movies 2007, a quick blurt.
I finally saw Atonement the other day which was the only film of 2007 I hadn't seen. Basically.
Here are my picks:
Best Score:
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood. Thank god no orchestral "feel this now" non-sense. A truly 21st century score. THANK YOU!
Best Animated Film:
Ratatouille - This film is probably the greatest compliment that the US has given the French. It's a gift of respect that rivals the Statue of Liberty. Brad Bird is a master story teller and has always delivered a work of integrity and quality. I can't find any flaws. It does everything a movie should and reaches an audience young and old and hearts as cynical as mine.
Persepolis is an excellent movie and should be seen by everyone.
Best Foreign Film:
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - That other pregnancy film that is uncompromising and unlike the other dark films that came out this year it actually has indentifiable female characters in it and how they are affected by hard times. (Easter Promises does have characters like this but they are secondary characters. Naomi Watts character doesn't really count in how I am looking at it.) Tour de force is maybe the best way to describe this film, it's not easy to get through and afterward you may need a shot, a bong hit or a big group hug. It plays with our expectations and has amazing performances. Verite still has some truth in it! La Vie En Rose was also excellent but I went for social commentary over just straight drama.
Best Screenplay:
The Darjeeling Lmt. : Except for Rushmore, I have a hard time with Mr. Anderson and his penchant for suffering, crazy rich people. I guess I am a rich people myself but I loose interest in his characters normally. This film captured my heart with it's opening shot of Bill Murray and hooked me to the end. I saw it twice! In a year of doom and gloom (bring it on!) this was one film by a major american film maker that actually ended with possibility and characters over coming obstacles. Despair for the white man gets defeated in the old fashion way in this film - through another culture - and the film is unapologetic about it. Good movie.
Best Supporting Actor:
Tough category. I'm gonna call it a tie between Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego in Ratatouille and Peter Fonda in 3:10 To Yuma. O'Toole as Anton brings the subtlety of a discerning individual who has lost respect for the world around him. In the end he finds a new joy in life through collaboration. I can't imagine anyone else in that role. Fonda plays the most bitter, ugly libertarian I've ever seen. For the first time I felt that he was actually acting and not just passing through, but don't get me wrong, I've liked him just passing through. But as the angry bounty hunter he brings a sense of history and past to a story that it wouldn't of had without him. I thought the movie was just OK, but Fonda rocked. Honorable mention to Ben Foster as the crazy sidekick bad guy Charlie Prince. He was great too.
Best Supporting Actress:
This goes to another film that I thought was just OK too - Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton (on DVD!) WOW. Pathos for a selfish, cold hearted capitalist. Stunning protrayal. I don't have much else to say about it other than amazing. I would love to see her in a movie with Daniel Day Lewis. Huge PROPS to Kelly Macdonald in No Country for Old Men. She's AMAZING in that movie and gives the movie what little heart it has.
Best Actor:
Viggo Mortensen Eastern Promises. The movie revolves around him and his character. It's a visual physical role as well as a performance role and his gut wrenching fight scene at the end is awesome.
Best Actress:
Marion Cotillard La Mome (La vie en rose). From the scene where she marches into the New York recording studio and pounds out a song to sitting in a wheelchair in the garden with her wispy red hair. Stunning, complete and never falters. It ain't easy to make lip synch have passion and yet this film does and it mostly has to be credited to Cotillard's performance. Props to Julie Christie too.
Best Director/Picture:
I don't see these categories as really being distinct, at least not this year. I have to give it up for the film that really inspired me and had me leaving the theater with a cathartic experience and an overall enthusiasm for life. In a time of such dark movies, one after the other, only one I feel really has a universal quality to it- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
"There's a hole in the world
Like a great black pit
And it's full of peopl
Who are full of shit
And the vermin of the world
Inhabit it..."
Pretty much sums up the themes of most of the oscar contenders this year. Burton, who I am always happy to dump negative criticism on, really comes through with this film. He took an over wordy and over cheesy musical and chopped all the fat off of it and rendered all the cheese away. Then he gave it a subtlety and vision that the stage just couldn't create. What was left was a sleek, simple story of revenge (my LEAST favorite genre) that ends the way all revenge stories has too. The performances by all were excellent.
I don't think Burton will ever surpass this film. It's his best and unfortunately a fickle moving going audience ("I don't like musicals!") probably killed this at the box office and thus he might consider this a failure. It's the only opera that I've ever liked and I like it for it's operatic qualities of simple story, distinct emotions of characters and musicality. The musical production alone brings out the beauty in Sodheim's work that previous productions never have. Lot's of props all around.
Coda:
I liked all of the oscar contenders this year. No Country for Old Men is a great film, but it is marred by a couple of things: why does Llewelyn go back and the mother-in-laws performance is AWFUL. These two things are really sloppy and take the tightness out of a tight script. Don't get me wrong, I saw it twice but it isn't as tight or as perfect as Fargo and therefore got knocked out of contention.
There WIll Be Blood - What's not to like? But I don't completely understand this film and it might take a year or two before I actually do. I am also not entirely convinced that I buy Paul Dano's performance.
This was a GREAT year for movies. The only movies that I really didn't like was Knocked-Up (piece of crap) and Once (over-hyped non-sense) but those movies are geared for teenagers and TV watchers so no wonder. But I must say that this crop of American films makes me proud to be an American.
Here are my picks:
Best Score:
Jonny Greenwood There Will Be Blood. Thank god no orchestral "feel this now" non-sense. A truly 21st century score. THANK YOU!
Best Animated Film:
Ratatouille - This film is probably the greatest compliment that the US has given the French. It's a gift of respect that rivals the Statue of Liberty. Brad Bird is a master story teller and has always delivered a work of integrity and quality. I can't find any flaws. It does everything a movie should and reaches an audience young and old and hearts as cynical as mine.
Persepolis is an excellent movie and should be seen by everyone.
Best Foreign Film:
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - That other pregnancy film that is uncompromising and unlike the other dark films that came out this year it actually has indentifiable female characters in it and how they are affected by hard times. (Easter Promises does have characters like this but they are secondary characters. Naomi Watts character doesn't really count in how I am looking at it.) Tour de force is maybe the best way to describe this film, it's not easy to get through and afterward you may need a shot, a bong hit or a big group hug. It plays with our expectations and has amazing performances. Verite still has some truth in it! La Vie En Rose was also excellent but I went for social commentary over just straight drama.
Best Screenplay:
The Darjeeling Lmt. : Except for Rushmore, I have a hard time with Mr. Anderson and his penchant for suffering, crazy rich people. I guess I am a rich people myself but I loose interest in his characters normally. This film captured my heart with it's opening shot of Bill Murray and hooked me to the end. I saw it twice! In a year of doom and gloom (bring it on!) this was one film by a major american film maker that actually ended with possibility and characters over coming obstacles. Despair for the white man gets defeated in the old fashion way in this film - through another culture - and the film is unapologetic about it. Good movie.
Best Supporting Actor:
Tough category. I'm gonna call it a tie between Peter O'Toole as Anton Ego in Ratatouille and Peter Fonda in 3:10 To Yuma. O'Toole as Anton brings the subtlety of a discerning individual who has lost respect for the world around him. In the end he finds a new joy in life through collaboration. I can't imagine anyone else in that role. Fonda plays the most bitter, ugly libertarian I've ever seen. For the first time I felt that he was actually acting and not just passing through, but don't get me wrong, I've liked him just passing through. But as the angry bounty hunter he brings a sense of history and past to a story that it wouldn't of had without him. I thought the movie was just OK, but Fonda rocked. Honorable mention to Ben Foster as the crazy sidekick bad guy Charlie Prince. He was great too.
Best Supporting Actress:
This goes to another film that I thought was just OK too - Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton (on DVD!) WOW. Pathos for a selfish, cold hearted capitalist. Stunning protrayal. I don't have much else to say about it other than amazing. I would love to see her in a movie with Daniel Day Lewis. Huge PROPS to Kelly Macdonald in No Country for Old Men. She's AMAZING in that movie and gives the movie what little heart it has.
Best Actor:
Viggo Mortensen Eastern Promises. The movie revolves around him and his character. It's a visual physical role as well as a performance role and his gut wrenching fight scene at the end is awesome.
Best Actress:
Marion Cotillard La Mome (La vie en rose). From the scene where she marches into the New York recording studio and pounds out a song to sitting in a wheelchair in the garden with her wispy red hair. Stunning, complete and never falters. It ain't easy to make lip synch have passion and yet this film does and it mostly has to be credited to Cotillard's performance. Props to Julie Christie too.
Best Director/Picture:
I don't see these categories as really being distinct, at least not this year. I have to give it up for the film that really inspired me and had me leaving the theater with a cathartic experience and an overall enthusiasm for life. In a time of such dark movies, one after the other, only one I feel really has a universal quality to it- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
"There's a hole in the world
Like a great black pit
And it's full of peopl
Who are full of shit
And the vermin of the world
Inhabit it..."
Pretty much sums up the themes of most of the oscar contenders this year. Burton, who I am always happy to dump negative criticism on, really comes through with this film. He took an over wordy and over cheesy musical and chopped all the fat off of it and rendered all the cheese away. Then he gave it a subtlety and vision that the stage just couldn't create. What was left was a sleek, simple story of revenge (my LEAST favorite genre) that ends the way all revenge stories has too. The performances by all were excellent.
I don't think Burton will ever surpass this film. It's his best and unfortunately a fickle moving going audience ("I don't like musicals!") probably killed this at the box office and thus he might consider this a failure. It's the only opera that I've ever liked and I like it for it's operatic qualities of simple story, distinct emotions of characters and musicality. The musical production alone brings out the beauty in Sodheim's work that previous productions never have. Lot's of props all around.
Coda:
I liked all of the oscar contenders this year. No Country for Old Men is a great film, but it is marred by a couple of things: why does Llewelyn go back and the mother-in-laws performance is AWFUL. These two things are really sloppy and take the tightness out of a tight script. Don't get me wrong, I saw it twice but it isn't as tight or as perfect as Fargo and therefore got knocked out of contention.
There WIll Be Blood - What's not to like? But I don't completely understand this film and it might take a year or two before I actually do. I am also not entirely convinced that I buy Paul Dano's performance.
This was a GREAT year for movies. The only movies that I really didn't like was Knocked-Up (piece of crap) and Once (over-hyped non-sense) but those movies are geared for teenagers and TV watchers so no wonder. But I must say that this crop of American films makes me proud to be an American.