01. No Country for Old Men (d. Joel and Ethan Coen) ****
02. There Will Be Blood (d. Paul Thomas Anderson) ****
03. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (d. Andrew Dominik) ****
04. Ratatouille (d. Brad Bird) ****
05. Into the Wild (d. Sean Penn) *** 1/2
06. Eastern Promises (d. David Cronenberg) *** 1/2
07. Gone Baby Gone (d. Ben Affleck) *** 1/2
08. Zodiac (d. David Fincher) *** 1/2
09. Michael Clayton (d. Tony Gilroy) *** 1/2
10. Away from Her (d. Sarah Polley) *** 1/2
11. Juno (d. Jason Reitman) *** 1/2
12. Knocked Up (d. Judd Apatow) *** 1/2
13. The Darjeeling Limited (d. Wes Anderson) *** 1/2
14. I Am Legend (d. Francis Lawrence) *** 1/2
15. The Simpsons Movie (d. David Silverman) *** 1/2
16. Once (d. John Carney) *** 1/2
17. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (d. Tim Burton) ***
18. The Golden Compass (d. Chris Weitz) ***
19. Atonement (d. Joe Wright) ***
20. Hairspray (d. Adam Shankman) ***
21. 3:10 to Yuma (d. James Mangold) ***
22. The Bourne Ultimatum (d. Paul Greengrass) ***
23. Superbad (d. Greg Mottola) ***
24. Hot Fuzz (d. Edgar Wright) ***
25. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (d. Shekhar Kapur) ***
26. American Gangster (d. Ridley Scott) ***
27. Live Free or Die Hard (d. Len Wiseman) ***
28. Breach (d. Billy Ray) ***
29. In the Valley of Elah (d. Paul Haggis) ** 1/2
30. Blades of Glory (d. Josh Gordon, Will Speck) ** 1/2
31. Grindhouse (d. Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez) ** 1/2
32. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (d. Gore Verbinski) ** 1/2
33. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (d. David Yates) ** 1/2
34. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (d. Tim Story) ** 1/2
35. 300 (d. Zack Snyder) ** 1/2
36. Transformers (d. Michael Bay) ** 1/2
37. Meet the Robinsons (d. Stephen J. Anderson) ** 1/2
38. Fired! (d. Chris Bradley, Kyle LaBrache) ** 1/2
39. Spider-Man 3 (d. Sam Raimi) **
40. Beowulf (d. Robert Zemeckis) **
41. Sicko (d. Michael Moore) **
42. Alvin and the Chipmunks (d. Tim Hill) **
43. Wild Hogs (d. Walt Becker) * 1/2
44. Shrek the Third (d. Chris Miller, Roman Hui) *
45. Evan Almighty (d. Tom Shadyac) BOMB
Edited By MovieWes on 1203799590
"Young men make wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution." -- Alec Guinness (Lawrence of Arabia)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Atonement (Joe Wright)
Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
Away from Her (Sarah Polley)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Sunshine
3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
6. No Country for Old Men
7. Juno
8. Ratatouille
9. Into the Wild
10. 3:10 to Yuma
"It's the least most of us can do, but less of us will do more."
****
01. There Will Be Blood
02. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
03. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
04. I'm Not There
*** 1/2
05. Atonement
06. Sunshine
07. My Kid Could Paint That
08. Away From Her
09. We Own the Night
10. Control
11. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
12. Red Road
13. Hot Fuzz
14. No Country for Old Men
15. Private Property
16. Bug
***
17. Starter for Ten
18. Comedy of Power
19. Black Book
20. Juno
21. Margot at the Wedding
22. Ratatouille
23. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation
24. Eastern Promises
** 1/2
25. Once
26. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
27. Elizabeth: The Golden Age
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Atonement (Joe Wright)
Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
Away from Her (Sarah Polley)
Across the Universe (Julie Taymor)
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Zodiac (David Fincher)
***½
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett)
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)
***
trailers from Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez/Rob Zombie/Edgar Wright/Eli Roth)
The Life of Reilly (Frank L. Anderson and Barry Poltermann)
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
**½
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck)
Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright)
The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman)
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)
**
Black Snake Moan (Craig Brewer)
main features from Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino)
Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach)
Knocked Up (Judd Apatow)
Into the Wild (Sean Penn)
The Host (Joon-ho Bong)
La Vie en Rose (Olivier Dahan)
*½
The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz)
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Seth Gordon)
Atonement (Joe Wright)
Redacted (Brian De Palma)
The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Juno (Jason Reitman)
Once (John Carney)
Hotel Chevalier (Wes Anderson)
Starting Out in the Evening (Andrew Wagner)
First Snow (Mark Fergus)
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (Mary Jordan)
Padre Nuestro (Christopher Zalla)
Congorama (Philippe Falardeau)
Talk To Me (Kasi Lemmons)
*
The Savages (Tamara Jenkins)
Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog)
The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet)
The Man Of My Life (Zabou Breitman)
½
The Brave One (Neil Jordan)
300 (Zach Snyder)
Rome Rather Than You (Tariq Teguia)
•
Creepshow III (Ana Clavell & James Glenn Dudelson)
The Bucket List (Rob Reiner)
-------
Leading Performance
Casey Affleck, Gone Baby Gone
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Olivier Gourmet, Congorama
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Margot at the Wedding
Charles Nelson Reilly, The Life of Reilly
Supporting Performance
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Margo Martindale, "14e arrondissement" (Paris, je t'aime)
Paola Mendoza, Padre Nuestro
Billy Mitchell, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Kristen Wiig, Knocked Up
I'm objectively mixed on Redacted (i.e. Keith Uhlich's position on Matt Zoller Seitz's blog), but my gut isn't too far removed from Armond and Ed and the rest of the De Palma nuts who feel downright betrayed by this movie ... not so much politically, though I can see why it's scorched earth policy would have some appeal to those who are all too prepared for media coverage of Iraq, et al, to enter into the arena of eye-for-an-eye. (Though I agree with him on a lot, I have to admit Armond misses the point and then some when he suggests De Palma and Redacted's fans are incapable of recognizing that American troops aren't capable to doing good in Iraq.)
I'm basically more concerned that it does to the legacy of Casualties of War what ... well, what Sean Penn and his gang do to that Vietnamese village girl in Casualties of War.
--Eric wrote:I always love your idiosyncratic lists, Damien. A Ben Affleck movie above Killer of Sheep ... Redacted higher than No End in Sight ... Can't wait to see where the new PTA ends up.
Have you seen Redacted, Eric? I'm interested in your reaction. I can understand how people could not "get" Black Dahlia and Mission To Mars, but for the life of me I don't understand why the new film is so reviled. A lefty filmmaker friend of mine came back from the New York Film Festival saying it was the worst movie she had ever seen.
A friend of mine who has hated PTA's movie almost as much as I actually liked Blood a great deal. I'll go in hoping for the best.
Edited By Big Magilla on 1284439471
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Delighted to see this atop your list, Damien. I've been slightly disappointed to see that no critics seem to be mentioning it in their year-end wrap-ups, as if it didn't really have its US theatrical premiere in 2007.
--Akash wrote:Damien's obsession with Ethan Hawke is not unlike your obsession with Gael Garcia Bernal.
You mean the most beautiful boy in the world by whose mere presence a film is elevated and he can do no wrong, and anyone who says otherwise is just a curmudgeon who can't accept the awesomeness than is Gael?
Damien feels exactly the same way about Ethan Hawke.