2007: Films of the Year

Yeah, it's another one of those lists that pop up and parthenogenetically propogate through various publications at the beginning of every year. What were the best films of last year, or more accurately, here's what moved me at the cinema in 2007. While such exercises may get tedious to some, a best of list affords a time for reflection on the medium of film and gives cause to hope that in the midst of the drool-cup mass consumption pablum there are great examples of pure cinema out there and still getting made and distributed.

My 2007 list contains some films that were distributed in late 2006 in limited release but didn't make it to cinema screens here until 2007, but such is the sad state of film distribution -- if you don't live in one of the handful of key big cities for movie releases, then you're likely screwed.

Thank goodness for DVDs. And now Blu-Ray discs (I'm a recent convert).

Anyway, here's the cinematic highlights of 2007 for me.

Pan's Labyrinth -- Fantastic film auteur Guillermo Del Toro's utterly captivating, profoundly moving, richly symbolic, and immersively imaginative dark fantasy has quickly become one of my very favourite movies. It's one of the crowning achievements of fantasy cinema, a work of such heartbreaking and layered artistry that it can stand with the great works in any artistic medium. Someone let this guy loose on his adaptation of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness NOW.

Children of Men -- A truly great work of science fiction, based on P.D. James' novel, that creates a chilling and utterly believable future world where women have stopped giving birth and the human race is slowly dying, populates it with interesting characters, and pulls us along in a propulsive and thrilling storyline. Director Alfonso Cuaron brings several vivid sequences to life, including an astonishing one-take action scene that is one of the best recent examples of pure cinema.

Zodiac -- David Fincher's absorbing and beautifully filmed police procedural about the obsessive hunt for the Zodiac killer in '60s/'70s era San Francisco is an instant classic and can easily stand with the enduring examples of its genre from 1970s American cinema. Though the film sadly tanked at the box office, I'm tempted to say that, Pan's Labyrinth aside, Zodiac was the best film I saw at the theatre in 2007.

Eastern Promises -- Singular filmmaker David Cronenberg brings his stark, disturbing but humanistic vision to a crime story set among the Russian mafia in London. Actor Viggo Mortensen reunites with Cronenberg after the superb A History of Violence and the result is an interesting departure for the cerebral director. It doesn't quite escape it's rather ordinary narrative origins, but is elevated by Cronenberg's direction and some vivacious performances, and contains one of the great hand-to-hand fight sequences.

American Gangster -- Master stylist Ridley Scott is in such control of recreating time and place that you can almost reach out and touch the cinematic textures. In such surroundings Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington shine in another retro-'70s crime thriller that thankfully leaves aside thundering action for story and character. Crowe is a rare combination of star and actor.

The Mist -- Stephen King's spine-tingling novella about an ominous mist that descends from Lovecraftian dimensions dragging vicious beasties with it and traps a group of townsfolk in a supermarket is finally brought to the screen by master King adapter Frank Darabont. Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden head up an effective cast and the story is as much about the disintegration of civilized discourse and the seduction of religious fanaticism as it is about horrific monsters. And the sucker-punch of an ending, with its Twilight Zoneish dark irony, is unforgettable.

Sunshine -- Perhaps not a great film, but certainly an outstanding one whose vivid imagery has stayed with me. It is rare for modern SF cinema to consist of anything other than action films, but Sunshine has the tenacity to be about ideas and visual poetry and dramatic tension.

Unfortunately No Country for Old Men vanished from theatres here so quickly that I missed my chance to see it, and P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood has yet to open. I predict that these two films will appear on my best of 2008 list.

2008 brings some potentially great films: Bond 22, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pixar's Wall-E, and Iron Man. Let's hope that some of these at least live up to expectation.