Best of 2007
I have increasingly mixed feelings about such lists as this one. I do think they help highlight films that might otherwise be missed and are of some service. On the other hand, I recognize that it is increasingly difficult for the cinephile to see the majority of films that are released in a given year—even those that are getting good buzz. The alternative to an imperfect list, though, is silence, or abdicating the landscape to full-time critics who often privilege commercial American films over all else. Consider this list, then, more of a “personal favorites” list rather than a claim of absolute judgment about relative worth.
In descending order:
10) Zodiac
I’ll be honest, I didn’t make it all the way through this one on first viewing. I have aesthetic and moral reservations about films that recreate true crimes; they make me feel as though I am a consumer of others’ suffering for my pleasure.I gave it another chance at the urging of some peers, and, although I still found it painful in places, I did see merit in it.
Zodiac is more a philosophical musing than a thriller. Its lack of climax and non-traditional narrative appear to have turned off more than a few viewers. For me, it was a film about the desperate, futile, postmodern need to know.
And the universe’s indifference to that need.
9) The Simpsons Movie
As long as I’m being honest, I’ll admit that this film came a few years too late, that The Simpsons is now “must get the DVD eventually” TV instead of “must see” TV. I’ll admit that the film relies a bit too much on slapstick and bit too little on biting, relevant satire. It had its moments though, such as when the president said, “I was elected to lead not to read.”When Homer’s pollution throws Lake Springfield past its ecological tipping point his motivation was not stupidity but laziness…and in that way there was a bit of an edge to it. As South Park gets more and more Juvenalian—picking out particular people to lambast, could The Simpsons be headed, finally, in a more Horatian direction...turning the satiric lens back on those who have embraced it?
8) Knocked Up
In a year in which Bella and Juno have been paraded before and championed by evangelicals as pro-life movies, I still found Knocked Up to be funnier and more honest.
Within five minutes of screen time Alison (Katherine Heigl) has two people advise her to “take care of it” while Ben’s grandfather advises him to “deal with it.” This rhetorical and moral distance between “take care of” and “deal with” may not seem like much, but it is, which is why so many abortion debates center on rhetoric. Many people (Alison and Ben are no exceptions) don’t even make consciously considered (or reasoned) moral decisions, they grapple for sound bites that will confirm the rightness of their decisions.
And yet…here is a film about two people who choose to “deal with it” rather than “take care of it,” and the “it” can mean “life” and not just “pregnancy.” Here is a film that has the audacity to suggest that—at the end of the day—the most important element of making a relationship work is showing up. What sort of relationship Ben and Alison have (and will have) is open to question. Cynics may doubt the optimism (hope?) of the ending, but films about people making baby steps towards maturity resonate more deeply with me than films about people who make great leaps into it through single decisions or sacrifices. Deciding to try is hard. Deciding to keep trying is harder still. Good for them.
Oh, and the film is pretty funny, too.
7) Breach
Anchored by three great performances (Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney, and Chris Cooper), Breach is about the compromises we all make and the ways that we rationalize and justify them. The title connotes a security breach, but it also references a breach of trust. The way in which Breach constantly juxtaposes those breaches of trust—the personal and corporate ones—creates a surprisingly thoughtful work that invites us to question some of our assumptions without being preachy. The film reminded me in some ways of E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India in the way it explored how friendships are forged in and tried by difficult social circumstances.
6) No End in Sight
For anyone who has ever complained about the media’s oversimplification of complex issues, its overuse of sound-bites, or its reliance on official statements from press secretaries, No End in Sight is a breath of fresh air. It not only critiques American foreign policy, it grimly lays bare the shockingly inept and unthinking way the Bush administration attempted to implement that policy. “There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it over,” my father used to say to me as a reminder that cutting corners and using shoddy decision-making practices would always come back to bite you in the end. Whatever words of wisdom this administration’s policy makers received from their fathers, they apparently didn’t include “look before you leap.”
5) A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman
Dorfman is probably best known for his play Death and the Maiden. This film uses his life as a lens in which to lay out the history of Chile under General Pinochet, but it doesn’t stop there. It also explores the psychological costs—personal and corporate—of living in terror. An excellent companion piece to Forgiving Dr. Mengele, the film doesn’t advocate a position so much as follow one man on a journey to explain how he arrived at his. It has been somewhat popular to say in American society that the world changed on 9/11. For Dorfman, that is true, but it was a different 9/11. If nothing else, the film reminds us that the sudden disruption of their lives through terror and violence is something many have had to deal with before.
4) Waitress
After some good initial buzz, there appears to have been a backlash against this film. It’s been fashionable to dismiss it as a chick-flick and to whisper that the good will it generated was more about sympathy for the horrific death of director Adrienne Shelley than about the film’s quality. Like Lars and the Real Girl, this film has a major character that is pathological. In this case, it is Jenna’s husband, Earl, marvelously played by Jeremy Sisto. Watching Waitress, I was reminded of an early episode of The Simpsons in which Homer and Marge go on a retreat for marital counseling. “Normally I’m not supposed to say this,” the reverend confides, “but it’s all his fault.”
Some may see the vilification of Earl as moral card stacking to make us excuse, even root for, Jenna’s affair with Dr. Pammater (Nathan Fillion). A lesser film might have used that formula, but Waitress doesn’t glorify the affair. It does, however, remain steadfastly and unapologetically sympathetic to Jenna. Look closely and perhaps you’ll see strains of guilt or shame in Keri Russell’s depiction of Jenna. Mostly you’ll see weariness.
When Jenna asks Cal if he is happy he says: “You ask a serious question, I'll give you a serious answer: Happy enough. I don't expect much. I don't get much, I don't give much. I generally enjoy whatever comes along. That's my answer for you, summed up for your feminine consideration. I'm happy enough.”
Happy enough for what we might ask? Perhaps it is happy enough to go on living. Jenna’s poverty of spirit is such that she envies that much happiness. It would be a hard viewer who would begrudge her the pursuit of it. Waitress doesn’t ask us to approve of Jenna or her choices; instead, it postulates that the choices women could and would make when they are not dependent upon men for survival might be very different than we would like to think.
Is the money a deux-ex-machina? Perhaps. But sometimes the poor in spirit are comforted.
3) Honeydripper
A link to my review at Looking Closer.
John Sayles’s best film since Lone Star.
2) My Kid Could Paint That
A link to my review at Looking Closer.
I’ll only add that I took this film in again at a local art theater, and I liked it even more the second time. One postscript: I attended with a professional artist. She was convinced not so much by any formal critique of the paintings but by the shots of Marla “playing” with the paint.I trust her instinct here more than my own since it is based on more relevant experience, both personal and professional.
1) Persepolis
A link to my review at Christian Spotlight on Entertainment.
A heart-wrenching and life-affirming film about the search for peace and identity in a hostile world. A masterpiece.