Well now. Hmmmm. For me, at least, it was an interesting year. Bad year for my blog, maybe. Maps and New York? Who can forget a post like that. Mr. T's career destiny? A benchmark.
But I kept myself in good season for most the year. I'm happy with 2007. I had my birthday party, got the comic online, tidied myself up a bit, went to a couple of Weddings, ate well, repaired old friendships, played super-extreme catchball, went to New York, was Judge Boob and John McLean and champion of the world, fell in love, wore a moustache.
However I felt it was a bit 'Meh' for film. Maybe because I missed out on a lot in the cinemas. I didn't see The Lookout, Pathfinder, Knocked Up, Hairspray, Stardust, Superbad, War, Shoot 'Em Up, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, Michael Clayton, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, 30 Days of Night, Beowulf...probably some more. I saw films I thought were dull - We Own the Night despite its opening five minutes or so and despite being about cops in New York was overblown and empty, and the few good sequences in it lost to the oppressive tedium of the rest of the movie. The Golden Compass was outright crap. The source material had it's teeth pulled out, and all the central characters were shallow and about as compelling as an Elephant.co.uk advert. Narnia had gone the other way and made things a bit scarier and the characters a bit richer, so point to CS Lewis and his big man in the sky.
Then there was a fair bit that hung around somewhere between good and decent. Spider-Man 3 fumbled the ball almost as bad as X-Men: The Last Stand did. There was yards more to give in Spider-Man 3, and so the moments of bungle were all the more frustrating compared to Brett Ratner's front-to-back bum spill. I'd been surprised by the last two Harry Potter's and was expecting the franchise to continue to impress, but Order of the Phoenix lacked suspense, and suffered from an uneven structure. It was serviceable. (Live Free or) Die Hard 4.0 was entertaining, but never felt like a Die Hard. Bruce Willis wasn't John McClane this time. He was a kind of like a SNL Bruce Willis, the way you think Bruce Willis is in films. Hudson Hawk maybe, but older and more pissed off. Transformers entertained. American Gangster was solid, but needed to be really great. The Kingdom felt like a 6th form story about a serious issue, albeit a story with an incredible 20 minute chase-shoot-out-stand-off at the climax. The Simpsons movie felt like recent Simpsons and not classic Simpsons. Shooter was all it was ever going to be. Fantastic Four 2...a strange beast - it sucked, but I liked it. Chris Evans is a great Human Torch and deserves a better franchise. Really only him and Chiklis make the movie entertaining. Silver Surfer looked good, Galactus was a wasted opportunity for giant purple space hats and skirts. I don't know who the other villain was. Some camp guy in a metal mask. 28 Weeks Later didn't thrill. I guess its Horror's place to comment on the harsher realities of the day from the Red Scare to AIDS, but I found the Guantanamo Bay, American interventionist allegories clumsy. And then the Zombie stuff itself not a patch on Days.
Looking back, I think 2007 was most lacking in Communist abortion dramas. I hope '08 looks to fix that.
So. The list.
10. Ne le dis a personne
Yeah. I figured if I write it like that then at a glance I could sit in with them what saw The Counterfeiters or The Lives of Others. Anyone who has seen it can testify Tell No One is a French version of the type of film Harrison does when he isn't Henry Jones jr. I think a lot about why I liked it comes down to where I was and how I felt when I saw it. But I make no apologies for being that subjective. I'm alienated by reviews that go for every merit of a film without touching upon how it made you feel to see it. Adapted from Harlan Coben's novel (it looks like all of them are about missing people) it was not quite wrong/running man, and not quite pushed-to-far either. It had effective sequences the stand-out a modest foot chase with a dreamy, anti-action score. There was a creepy hench(wo)man who specialised in pressure-point injuries and torture. And I liked the Bruno character. Sure, the exposition sequence could have been handled better than a man stands up and explains everything that's happened so far, and there's one bit where U2 plays that falls way, way short of the rest of the music choices, but the bulk of the film was right on. Plus I thought it was romantic. I watched it with someone special, and that amplified certain elements about love and loss.
9. Rocky Balboa.
While Tell No One was fixed at ten, the number nine spot has shifted around from Sunshine to Smokin' Aces to Rocky Balboa. Sunshine was beautiful, elegant and mesmerising - and where most people didn't like the mid-point switch to a stalk and slash, I dug that. The same way I dug Boyle's detour in 28 Days Later. Smokin' Aces was punchy, had an awesome amount of gunplay in it and Alicia Keyes. But something kept me coming back to Balboa . When I went into the movie I was fed the fuck up. I'd left the flat to do just that, gone over to Streatham and bought a ticket for this just to be out of sight for an evening. So I can't really fault a film for turning that mood around and leaving me feeling really, really fucking chuffed. Balboa had acres of charisma. It had the advantage of revisiting things long-loved. Sunshine and Smokin' had to start from scratch, and did marvelous jobs despite. Balboa was an old friend. Sunshine and Smokin' are really cool to hang out with, but I'm going to spend more on Balboa's Christmas present. A worthy sequel, it stayed true to what worked in Rocky, before the opponents became villains - it was about going the distance. And it had a training montage.
8. Eastern Promises
Cronenberg's walking a funny path. This and History of Violence feel more at home with the slow, strange underworld mood of Mike Hodge's films - Get Carter, Croupier or I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - than the likes of Videodrome or Existenz. The story and setting felt like ITV, in a way, but Cronenberg squeezes something trippy and visceral out of the material. Viggo Mortensen makes driver/bagman Nikolai one of 2007's most engaging characters. The territory - Russian mafia - was rich with iconography, and represented in a way that made their world strange and dangerous, which I think is harder to do when organised crime has been so cartoony in cinema. There was much less violence than History, but the impact of what little we saw (and we saw a lot in that little) was perhaps more affecting. I saw some of this being filmed; the restaurant at the centre of the story was only round the corner from where I used to work and I ran into Vincent Cassell on a number of occasions (he's either method, or misanthropic, or just hated the sight of me), so again, there's a reason why I like it even if you don't. The film treated London more like the character I know, than a Richard Curtis film would.
7. Enchanted.
This wasn't even a date movie. I saw this on my own because I wanted to. I risked brats and their overly forgiving parents fucking the price of a cinema ticket into a cocked hat, because I really liked the look of this. And I was bowled over by what I saw. Rather than be the overly knowing, joyless dismantling of fairy tales that Shrek represents, Enchanted never strayed from its name and delivered something that was funny and affectionate without resorting to cheap pokes. The two big numbers in the film are parody not mockery, but also really, really want to deliver straight up musical joy. Amy Adams was a natural at playing a cartoon, if that makes sense. James Marsden seemed to enjoy himself. Ok, There was a small amount of mawkishness - largely the little girl's involvement - and the climax referred back to a confusing sight-gag at the start I had to have a think about before I got it, so I'm not sure if the prog knew quite what had happened. But I thought it was very funny, and when I wasn't laughing I was smiling. Maybe I was big on schmaltz that week.
6. Cabot Cheese
Here we are. Back in tough guy territory. Did anything else this year deliver tougher dialogue? This is 3:10 to Yuma taking no motherfucking prisoners whatsoever. Either Mamet did an uncredited Ronin-style polish here, or he's going to have to start watching his back. Bam.
6. Ocean's 13
The Ocean's films have become more and more like a sketch show with each installment. I loved 12. More than 11. I loved 12's irrelevancy. It was playful and nonsensical and incredibly self-aware. It didn't make hardly any sense, which might be what put viewers off, but it didn't have to, to be enjoyable. Also Europe is and always will be a richer palette than Vegas. 13 marries everything that was good about 12 (minus Lake Como) with everything that made 11 popular. So there is a plot and a heist this time, but it's still executed in a outlandish fashion. If the cast aren't enjoying themselves then Soderbergh truly is a master of illusion. I can't really hit on the specifics about why this format works so well for me, when the films feel so free-form. Glossy is good. There's that aspirational, lifestyle magazine chic going on. The humour isn't invasive. The characters are distinct enough from each other and given excellent captains that you aren't ever bored when one is given your full attention. Clooney, Damon, Pitt - they're all that breed of handsome, charismatic men who you don't begrudge their charm. And Elliot Gould is unspeakably awesome. Always. The whole thing is as lavish as an old MGM Musical, and it has Matt Damon in a funny nose.
It even sounds cool in that banana language.
5. The Bourne Ultimatum
Matt Damon does not have a funny nose in this film. Nor even a funny line. There's a moment at the climax of the film where he confronts Albert Finney about his 'enlistment' and for a second I found it jarring. Then it hit me. Bourne was having a conversation. Damon says very little is this movie, and yet he carries it. His presence, his intensity and the effective sequences showcasing his resourcefulness and physicality more than compensate for being so short on words. He's helped out by great supporting performances - David Strathairn and Joan Allen being the foundation, and solid turns from Julia Stiles and Scott Glenn. I didn't actually like Considine's performance. There's a bit where he's standing in the office at The Guardian and I think his delivery is way off. He says a line like 'He was scared' and...it looks like he's acting. Something I wouldn't think to say about the normally effortless Paddy. The action sequences were the year's best (sorry Kingdom) though Edgar Ramirez didn't have the same clout as his predecessor Karl Urban. The other operative - 'Desh' - makes more of an impact, somersaulting out of wristlocks and reaching for as many makeshift weapons as Jason. He just chose razor over towel. Shun the razor, Desh. Shun the razor. Ultimatum is effectively Supremacy 2, although it's pay-off owes everything to Identity and is the most satisfying conclusion to any film this year. I hope Greengrass finds some other action screenplay to his liking down the line, as he's way, way ahead of dedicated competition like Woo or Bay.
4. 300.
The aesthetic was established right from the start and stuck to until the bloody end. What a fascinating watch. A delight for the boy; great conflict, strange beasts, slow-motion dismemberment and savage bloodletting. A tribute to masculine ideals and shouty beardiness. I fear it might have opened up as many cans of crap (seen the Speed Racer trailer?) as it opens cans of hope (what other comic book artists could get treated with the same visual fidelity? King Kirby all dots and giant hands, glowing enegry and towering tech. That would blow your minds.) The sub-plots involving McNulty and Queen Gorgo were a bit 'meh'. But then they were flanked on all sides by epic, graphic, surreal destruction. The year's best trailer, I might add.
3. Zodiac.
Oh-ho. Not at number one. I'd better pack up and move house. Truth is, there's nothing wrong with this film. It's incredible, to be sure. Fincher has total conviction in the story, that it eschews practically any structure that makes it feel like a film. I wonder if this type of narrative is all HBO's fault. Last year we had Miami Vice which myself and my peers agreed felt like a condensed TV series. Zodiac is much the same. It's a police procedural set across, what…3 decades? Characters drift in and drift out. There's barely anything you could call three acts, or conflict and resolution. It just goes from beginning to end. And it's unbelievably good. The cast are all fantastic. Downey jr. Downey jr. Downey jr. Downey jr. The...there's no point listing it. Go onto IMDB and look at the full credit and then just put a tick next to everyone's name. Best Boy? THE best. The images we're gifted - a stop-motion building construction, glowing streets in fly-over, a taxi from a window - elegant and clever (given so much the Bay area we saw was just CGI). And set pieces, the couple by the lake, the hitchhiker, the basement - handled with ruthless suspense. It's better than All the King's Men and that's not an idle boast.
2. Rescue Dawn
This pips Zodiac only by a rabbit hair. My enjoyment of Zodiac was mostly cerebral. I appreciated everything about it in a calculated way. With Rescue Dawn I felt my enjoyment. It was tense, funny, uplifting, horrifying, beautiful, sad. It told a frankly amazing story (albeit just a story) and came off as a kind of Vietnam Touching the Void. Herzog is at home in the jungle, mad bastard that he is. It looks and lives as such an otherworldly canvas in his eye. Sharks in a grotto, dense, wall-like growths that suddenly give way to roaring currents, great alien mountains dripping with green. It's so mythical - this beautiful enemy. Bale is a machine. You get the impression he'd saw off his own legs if a role called for it. Steve Zahn, who did National Security with Martin Lawrence, let's not forget, shows he's got some heavyweight talent tucked away inside that 'Stoner Buddy' demeanor. I fucking loved this film.
1. Ratatouille.
Knocked me for six. Almost didn't go see it, but The Lookout was on too late. The most technically accomplished, visually arresting animation I have ever seen. Wet hair? A cinch. The movement and weight of a rat? Pffft. Steam rising off a bubbling soup? Come on challenge us. Brad Bird delivers visual feat, a genuinely mouth-watering bit of cinema. The chefs all had little cuts and burns and calluses on their hands and arms. How fucking dedicated is Pixar? I had glee in my eyes for all of it. I didn't see Cars, it looked to me like I might think less of Pixar if I did. I wasn't sure if this Ratatouille would work. Only A Bug's Life falls short of total awesomeness out of the rest and it still rules. I had started to really dislike the anti-piracy ad that ran in the run up to it's release. I didn't want to buy a new Ben and Jerry's only to find out it tasted like marker pens. However Ratatouille's story was funny and tender and had some really elegant moments (the first-bite flashback). The whole emphasis on love and dedication to cuisine, a complex and demanding career that can fail outright on the basis of one or two harsh words seems to be a translation of what Pixar do with cinema. The life in the kitchen and the characterisation with in was handled so perfectly, that when the obligatory and normally brilliant chase sequence occurred (see Toy Story 2, The Incredibles) I wanted it to be over so we could get back indoors with the food and the interaction again. The visuals wouldn't have impressed me as much if I wasn't as involved in the narrative and characters as I was, and vice-versa, which is testament to what superb film-making Bird and his colleagues can accomplish.
And now it's two-thousand-eight. I've already seen this year's best film; I caught Special Previews of No Country for Old Men a couple of weekend's ago (it's probably out on DVD by the time I print this). Still got Cloverfield, Jumper, Be Kind Rewind, The Mist, Redbelt, Indiana Jones, Hellboy 2, Punisher 2, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Dark Knight and Quantum of Solace to go.
I read a lot this year, but owing to how I read (finish one book and pick up another with no pause) I can't really pin down what I read within the confines of this year. I only read one actual 2007 book, Joseph Waumbaugh's Hollywood Station, as I only buy second hand (unless for something really special, Devil May Care this year, I think). Hollywood station has a lot in common with his excellent Chiorboys; it's mostly anecdotal snap-shots of how cops get things done and what they endure. I really enjoyed it. It's somehwere between Ellroy and David Simon. There's a case holding things together, but most of the memorable stuff comes from the routine pick-ups and snafus in between.
World War Hulk.
Ok. Music. I don't think I stuck to my resolution of buying a new CD a month. My 20gig won't take any more and I'm not sure what can be culled from my pocket library. Diminishing funds meant Ire Works and Down's new LP won't get shelf-space until months from now. And I'm just not really in the loop for new sounds. I listened to Tool nearly all year.
Saw them and Clutch and Nine Inch Nails this year and they all did world class shows. Prince at the O2 pips them to best gig I saw in 2007r. Boundless energy and showmanship, it really was something to behold. And his dancers....man, his dancers.
Have another list.
5. The Sounds - Dying to say this to you.
I don't have a frame of musical reference like some people I know. I liked 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster without ever knowing they sounded like Tenpole Tudor. So The Sounds might be riffing on anyone from Transvision Vamp to Ace of Bass for all I know. It's a killer record. Upbeat glam Scandi's lead by the leggy Maja (who you might have seen in the end credits to Snakes on A Plane guesting on Cobra Starship's supergroup single. The record sounds like this.
I both like and hate the last video. Young, good looking hedonism vs. DePalma single-take trickery. And boobs. Suits the song, though.
4. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Coming hot on the heels of With Teeth, this is more of the same from Trent and Company. A concept album about the end of the world, it's rich with crushing beats and electric flourishes. It doesn't really go anywhere new - it's NiN revitalised, referencing the intensity and energy found on Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral, and ending on more or less the same sombre notes as With Teeth. Except it's the end of the world, this time. I think Reznor has a talent for the heartbreaking as much as he does the angry, and I wish there was more of the former on this record. Survivalism, the lead single of this album isn't that different from Hand That Feeds (lead single off With Teeth) in both sound and statement.
Still, the soundcraft evident on this album is awesome. Layers of static and distortion and intricate percussion. I can eat this like I eat cheeses.
3. Battles - Mirrored
I like my dissonance, my maths-rock, my shifting time signatures. I like playful and difficult which is why I have time for Tool, Mr. Bungle, Ennio Morricone, Dillinger Escape Plan, Mars Volta and now Battles.
Twitchy, schizo dance music. Makes me want to have a nursery fit.
Awesome video.
2. Fall Out Boy - Infinity on High
Took a while. I can be so prejudiced about a band and their following. I bet if I had a better idea of who liked The Sounds they wouldn’t be on this list. For Fall Out Boy they’re handicapped by the Emo tag (weren’t Built to Spill and Slint Emo? I have no idea how this works). Emos disappoint me. I'd written F.O.B off as part of Sum 41 and Blink 182's crowd; making pop punk for children who think they're metal. I guess Fall Out Boy still do that. But it's really fucking tight pop music. Catchy as hell and built to entertain. So the stupid brats love it, but they're not stupid for loving it (though My Chemical Romance can get fucked). Go on. Give a listen. Please. Forgive the product placement.
This Aint a Scene was the breakout for me. 'Dance Dance' was infectious, but I resisted, hoping it was a fluke and the band sucked and I was right not to like them. They had to smash my face in with something richer and more inventive. The guy at the front as a great voice, I have to say.
Still don't like that Pete Wentz fella though. Omg. lol. etc.
1. El-P - I'll Sleep when You're Dead.
Now this is the thing. Angry, really fucking fed up rhymes over dark industrial beats.
Company Flow mouthpiece El-P worked with Trent Reznor and put together a funny, unhappy, heavy hip hop record rich with imagery and killer lyrics. "I might have been born yesterday, sir, but I stayed up all night."
The Overly Dramatic Truth is my favourite album track off anything this year. Means a lot to me.
Am I supposed to say anything else? Umbrella? Well sure. Gold paint and back rolls. Sugababes in pencil skirts? That too.
Heath Ledger. You boob.
