Critics' Top 10s 2007

[Eric]

Here you go... The high point of both the year-end season of top 10 lists and also the high point in anticipation for a certain much-anticipated film.

http://ballot2007.indiewire.com/ballots/scores

[anonymous1980]

Peter Travers' Top 10 list. It's too bad no one took over for Sonic for his annual contest. I would've guessed at least 80% of these films:


1. No Country for Old Men
2. Atonement
3. Into the Wild
4. Eastern Promises
5. Sweeney Todd
6. American Gangster
7. There Will Be Blood
8. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
9. I'm Not There
10. Knocked Up/ Juno

[Eric]

Richard T. Jameson:
1. "No Country for Old Men"
2. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley"
3. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
4. "The Bourne Ultimatum"
5. "Margot at the Wedding"
6. "Away from Her"
7. "Zodiac"
8. "Atonement"
9. "Juno"
10. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Although I still much prefer his and Kathleen Murphy's Moments Out Of Time.

[Akash]

Oh and he directed two wonderful Fiona Apple videos from her lovely album, When the Pawn...

He was fucking her back then. She was smart enough to get two good videos out of it.

Actually I really like Fiona. When the Pawn is brilliant -- not a single superfluous track on the record -- and the same goes for Extraordinary Machine (the original everyone downloaded, not the limp one the record company put out) which is one of the best albums I've ever listened to.



Edited By Akash on 1197581733

[anonymous1980]

Time Magazine critics' Top 10:

Richard Corliss:
1. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
2. THE LIVES OF OTHERS
3. KILLER OF SHEEP
4. ATONEMENT
5. SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
6. PERSEPOLIS
7. NO END IN SIGHT
8. IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
9. WAITRESS
10. BEOWULF

Richard Schickel:
1. MICHAEL CLAYTON
2. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
3. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD
4. AFTER THE WEDDING
5. BLACK BOOK
6. BREACH
7. THE SAVAGES
8. IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH
9. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
10. DAN IN REAL LIFE

[Steph2]

Weird. The negative review makes me want to see it even more than the positive review.

I was so frustrated with Magnolia. PTA demands sympathy for these characters and then it just goes nowhere, it's a cry of pain, but it's one no one seems to hear, and the characters themselves don't seem any better for the crying out. Maddening! And Punch Drunk Love was total crap. His best film was Boogie Nights and it's the reason I'm still intrigued enough to see There Will Be Blood. He's clearly talented enough that I can't dismiss him entirely.

Oh and he directed two wonderful Fiona Apple videos from her lovely album, When the Pawn...

[Eric]

Yeah, I expect to fall on Nick's side with Blood myself. By the way, here's ex-Slant writer Keith Uhlich's list, of a sort.

[Sabin]

Not likely to read a more compelling and eclectic pair of top ten list though.

Having watched 'There Will Be Blood', I find Nick and Ed's dueling reviews to be quite interesting. That being said, Nick's right.



Edited By Sabin on 1197499107

[Eric]

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/features/2007yearinfilm.asp

Rescue Dawn on both lists is the most glaring WTF.



Edited By Eric on 1197491126

[Sabin]

Sight + Sound
1 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Cristian Mungiu)
2 Inland Empire (David Lynch)
3 Zodiac (David Fincher)
= 4 I’m Not There (Todd Haynes)
The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
6 Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
= 7 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
No Country for Old Men (Ethan and Joel Coen)
Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)

[Sabin]

Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere. Not a critic, but not the worst not a critic.

1. Zodiac (dir. David Fincher)
2. No Country for Old Men (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
3. Control (dir. Anton Corbijn)
4. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Tim Burton)
5. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (dir. Sidney Lumet)
6. Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days (dir. Cristian Miungiu)
7. Things We Lost in the Fire (dir. Susanne Blier)
8. There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
9. I'm Not There (dir. Todd Haynes)
10. The Bourne Ultimatum (dir. Paul Greengrass)
HONORABLE MENTION
11. In the Valley of Elah (dir. Paul Haggis)
12. American Gangster (dir. Ridley Scott)
13. Once (dir. John Carney)
14. Atonement (dir. Joe Wright)
15. Into the Wild (dir. Sean Penn)
16. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (dir. Andrew Dominik)
17. Breach (dir. Billy Ray)

[flipp525]

I’d much more prefer to read a John Waters top ten list than one comprised of Stephen King’s top picks, although I do like his inclusion of Gone Baby Gone as #2.



Edited By flipp525 on 1197042640

[Eric]

Stephen King has at least as much relevance as a film critic as John Waters.

Not really. One thinks Fassbinder, Sirk and the Kuchar brothers are great film directors. The other thinks Frank Darabont is a great director.

EDIT: And ... although I wouldn't put it past John Waters these days, King included last year's single worst movie at #6.



Edited By Eric on 1197042659

[Big Magilla]

Doing a weekly column for Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King has at least as much relevance as a film critic as John Waters. Here's his list, which cuts off at the end of November.

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Gone Baby Gone
3. The Lives of Others
4. Breach
5. Children of Men
6. Little Children
7. 3:10 to Yuma
8. The Lookout
9. 28 Weeks Later
10. In the Valley of Elah

[Zahveed]

I have to say that Grindhouse was definitely a unique experience, from the double-feature, to the fake trailers in between. I laughed my friggin' butt off on several occassions. Honestly, and I know somebody's going to disagree with me on this, I found Taratino's Death Proof unentertaining. (How ironic that a film about the fastest stuntcar in the world has such a slow pace)

I think I enjoyed Death Proof more than most people would admit to. It was a good breather from the outrageous clusterfuck that was Planet Terror. On the other hand, the fake trailer for Roth's Thanksgiving beats them both simply for the pilgrim sodomizing a turkey.