Best of 2007

#5. Charlie Wilson's War (d. Mike Nicholls, w. Aaron Sorkin)
I think maybe people didn't understand this movie. The protagonist is the film's convoluted events themselves - a story so bizarre, so ridiculous, so unbelievable in shape and scope - that of course it must be true. Plus Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good you wish he was your friend. It is a film that entertains as it educates.

#4. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (d/w. Andrew Dominik)
It's not the details that survive but the events. If we're to go down in history, are we going down as cowards or heroes? Lugubrious and sepulchral, this is more a three-hour meditation than it is a film. More a mood than an experience.

#3. Juno (d. Jason Reitman, w. Diablo Cody)
It was the year of Judd Apatow. Anybody can tell you that. Knocked Up scored big, as did Superbad and Walk Hard. Tight, funny comedies that feel like really good Saturday Night Live sketches. Everybody wins. But. Then along comes a comedy with dialogue so sharp, so elegant, so effortless, it makes Judd Apatow look like a ham-fisted Joe Eszterhas. Ellen Page's performance makes every other comedy performance this year seem hollow by comparison. Expertly directed. A modern cult classic that is so jive it hurts.

#2. There Will Be Blood (d/w. Paul Thomas Anderson)
Devised to be debated. Purposefully frustrating. Dense like Leo Tolstoy. Citizen Kane as a psychopath. What does it mean, what does it mean?

#1. No Country For Old Men (d/w. Joel and Ethan Coen)
Why do we do the things we do? Is it fate, or do we have a say? When was the last time a film had you asking big questions even as you're perched on the edge of your seat, heart racing? This, ladies and gentlemen, this is a movie. Pure entertainment. An existential fog. A Western and a Slasher. A movie for movie-lovers.


*ADDENDUM - I saw Michael Clayton and it deserves the #4 slot, putting Jesse James at #5 and bumping Charlie Wilson forever into also-ran obscurity.