Thoughts on the movies of 2007...

Because they weren't solicited, here are some thoughts on the movies of 2007:

It was the year of the flawed masterpiece. There were movies like Into the Wild, which were flawed throughout. (From the puke green Mac classic font at the beginning to the Brechtian moment where Emile Hirsch makes a face at the camera to the bad blue makeup at the end, Sean Penn made as many awful directorial choices as savvy ones.) There were at least three masterworks that could not sustain their masterfulness all the way to the final frame: Atonement, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.

There were plenty of other movies that gave good moment: Eastern Promises, The Darjeeling Limited, Zodiac.

But a few straightforward genre movies managed to play audiences like orchestras and give me some of the best theatrical experiences I've ever had: Grindhouse, The Orphanage, 300.

This year saw the rise (Superbad, Knocked Up) and fall (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) of Judd Apatow. The best of the bunch was Apatow's own baby, Knocked Up, which managed to be at once more real than 40-Year-Old Virgin and more fantastical (really, would those two have a happy ending?).

There were great movies that few people saw -- Charlie Wilson's War, A Mighty Heart, Rocket Science -- and average ones with above-average audiences -- Michael Clayton, Sweeney Todd, La Vie En Rose.

The real indie breakthrough was not Juno, which was full of known quantities and amply budgeted; it was Once, a creaky story of two musicians who probably love each other but can't be together. Shot on smeary DV, the performances of the two leads -- both musically and emotionally -- were sharp enough to engage an unbelievably huge audience.

And as many films as I saw, there is a long list of ones I didn't see, but wish I had:
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, WE OWN THE NIGHT, VITUS, SUNSHINE, SURF'S UP, THE SAVAGES, THE NINES, MY KID COULD PAINT THAT, THE MIST, MANDA BALA, LUST CAUTION, THE KITE RUNNER, GRACE IS GONE, THE GOLDEN COMPASS, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE, EAGLE VS SHARK, BEOWULF, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, THE BAND'S VISIT, THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, 1408