2007's Top 20 Films- Dave

Nine Movies That Would Have Probably Made My Top Twenty If They Had Arrived In Milwaukee Sooner, Or If I Had Made An Effort To See Them:

Away from Her, Control, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, Gone Baby Gone, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Michael Clayton, The Orphanage, and Persepolis.

Only Away from Her, Gone Baby Gone, King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and Michael Clayton made it to the Milwaukee market and I never got around to seeing any of them. Hopefully, I will catch Michael Clayton as it is going into a re-release for an Oscar run. As for the remaining five, they have not hit the Milwaukee market yet, but – assuredly – I will see them when they do. I have a feeling that they are all spectacular films based on their trailers, the reviews, and the award nominations they are receiving.

20. 28 Weeks Later
19. Breach
18. Juno
17. The Namesake
16. Knocked Up
15. 3:10 to Yuma
14. Into the Wild
13. Rescue Dawn
12. Ratatouille
11. The Bourne Ultimatum

I think that Breach and The Namesake could have been contenders for Best Supporting Actor if they had a campaign and a later release date. I am also not entirely blown away by Juno, though it is a very good movie. 3:10 to Yuma, Rescue Dawn, and – yes – 28 Weeks Later are all solidly crafted movies that I was unsure at first and all pleasantly surprised by.

I find the Best Picture talk for Into the Wild to be kind of crazy talk. I think the performances and cinematography are all top notch, but as an overall product, it does work that well for me.

Ratatouille and The Bourne Ultimatum are both outstanding fares for various reasons. I miss the early 1990’s because these two films would have garnered Best Picture buzz. The world has changed from the days of Beauty and the Beast and The Fugitive getting Best Picture nominations.

10. The Mist

I was initially reluctant to see this film because I know that Stephen King adaptations tend to be horrible. However, I figured the pairing of Frank Darabont and King has yielded good results in the past and I had nothing to do on a weekday afternoon.

This film’s focus is so sharp on the paranoia and power structures that arise with ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Though some labeled this a “B Movie,” it is nowhere near that in its portrayal of small townspeople.

Plus, the ending is surprising and still shocks me months after I first saw the film.

9. No End in Sight

Hey, look! A documentary! I rented this one a few weeks ago – on the same night that I rented The Namesake – and was entranced by it. Charles Ferguson’s film is not nearly as explosive as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, but the intimate interviews of people that do not support the war or have become disillusioned by it is mesmerizing. If you want to watch only one documentary on the conflict in Iraq, make it this one.

8. Eastern Promises

When I heard Cronenberg and Mortensen were re-teaming for another film, I was excited. Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises may lack the down-to-earth feel of A History of Violence, but it is still packs a powerful punch.

Mortensen’s performance was probably the most unhinged of any actor this year. The raw emotion – and body parts – that he put on display here is admirable. Supported by an outstanding supporting cast, Eastern Promises was one of the most satisfying films of the year.

7. Once

It should get nominations for Best Song, but it probably will not. It should probably merit a Best Picture nomination, but the Academy has not nominated a film for solely Best Picture since Grand Hotel.

This is the little musical that could and like Spielberg says, “This movie gave me enough hope for the rest of year.”

6. Grindhouse

Robert Rodriguez made a documentary / lecture called Film is Dead. I would like to make an addendum to that saying the cinematic experience is dead.

There are a few exceptions where going to the movies becomes an experience. Whether it is because people dress up like the characters, religiously attend midnight showings of the movie, or know every single line of the film.

However, Grindhouse was the most fun at the movies all year. It was a unique experience that allowed people to stand up and cheer, openly cringe, and laugh hysterically at things that traditional Hollywood movies would not cue you to laugh at.

5. Atonement

I was completely fascinated with this movie after I saw the trailer. The movie lives up to the incredible hype that surrounds it constructing a beautifully tragic tale.

After I had seen the film, I told a friend about it and how excellent I thought it was. He said that he did not want to because “it seems like a British movie that is created solely for the purpose of making an Academy Awards run.” I could not disagree with him more, citing the stellar performances, outstanding editing, and the overall scope of the film.

4. There Will Be Blood

“Drainage! Drainage, Eli! Drained dry, you boy! If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw and my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!”

Daniel Day-Lewis sells this movie all by himself.

3. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Initially, people wondered if Tim Burton’s distinct visual style would hinder the film. I think the end product has silenced anyone who ever did question that.

Burton’s delightful film cruises along with toe-tapping songs, Johnny Depp’s memorable performance, and an exquisite complimentary cast.

I wish this film would get all the Academy Award nominations it deserves. People would argue that musicals tend to get overlooked by the Academy, but they should stop and notice the excellence this film exudes.


2. Zodiac

If I had run of the Academy Awards, Zodiac would be the runaway leader in nominations. However, because the film was released in March and has had a minimal campaign, it will get entirely overlooked come Oscar time.

Remarkable performances from everyone made this the best ensemble piece in my eyes. From Gyllenhaal’s restraint to the always undervalued Anthony Edwards everybody had a genuine feel to them. Robert Downey Jr.’s performance was arguably one of the best of the year, but in a crowded field, he has almost entirely been forgotten.

The cinematography is an awesome spectacle as it is the first film to completely use the Vesper-Thomson film system. The editing, score, and attention to detail are heightened to a point that you feel like you are really in the Bay Area.

James Vanderbilt, having improved his writing skills since Basic, is at the top of his game and I hold out hope that he will be recognized for his work come January 22nd.

In the end, the person who deserves the most credit for Zodiac is David Fincher. His meticulous work and research on the film makes this film the highlight of his career. This movie – along with one other this year – left me completely breathless at the end, even though I knew what the outcome was going to be. Just like…

1. No Country for Old Men

This is movie perfection. There is no other way to describe it. I feel that no matter how many adjectives I throw out there they simply will not do this movie justice.

So much has already been said about the film that I feel I can only add one thing: Javier Bardem is not the “ultimate badass.” I would call him the ultimate car wreck. There has never been a character that is so horrific and methodical, yet I can not take my eyes off of him. I want to see what he will do next and I know that it is going to be something atrocious. That is how I know the Coen Brothers truly captured something menacing.

Most Overrated Film of the Year:

Charlie Wilson’s War – Yes, the two male leads are quite good. The script is very good for about 75 minutes. However, the more I think about this movie, the more I do not like it. I view Julia Roberts as a waste of space, Mike Nichols seems content to let his stars do what they want, and I wonder how the heck it managed a Best Picture Comedy or Musical nomination at the Golden Globes.

Best Guilty Pleasure Film of the Year:

300 – It made a gazillion dollars and has amazing visuals, but the dialogue is a tad ridiculous and – at times – it really quite cheesy. In ten years this movie may still be heralded as a visual achievement, but I do not think it will age well. Still, Snyder’s unique vision is entertaining for its slow-motion fight scenes and bombastic catchphrases.

The Mist Review

Stephen King adaptations are a tricky task for any filmmaker. King’s long, vivid descriptions and inner-psychologies often get lost in their translation to the screen. Few King film adaptations have every really captured the horrifying, or uplifting, nature that his works provide. However, Frank Darabont is a champion at it, having crafted The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile to great critical acclaim. When Darabont and Dimension Films delivered The Mist, I was curious about what it was going to offer.

Darabont’s film takes a different turn then his previous King Adaptations. While the previous two were interested in the studies of men, The Mist expands that study with frightening imagery and a dense claustrophobic atmosphere. While it is likely to draw comparisons to other films like Alien, Poltergeist, and The Haunting, The Mist creates its own formula – and outcome – to decidedly wonderful effect. The sparse camera-work, wonderful sound effects, campy (at times) special effects, plot-driven story are incredible in a horror film. All of this works to dazzle, frighten, and impact the viewer.

A small town in Maine experiences a massive storm which leaves people’s homes shattered, cars crushed, and – strangely – family pets missing. David Drayton (An underutilized Thomas Jane) takes his son into town with his annoying neighbor to pick up supplies at the supermarket. However, they quickly become trapped inside, with a bunch of other shoppers, when the titular mist sweeps down upon the town.

Initially, the terror is created by the unknown elements of the mist. Shadows swirl about, loud noises are heard, but it comes to a head when one brave soul ventures outside only to be torn apart by an otherworldly creature. At this moment, the film shifts from a creature feature to an intense human social drama. Allegiances are formed in the store with the most vocal being a religious zealot portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden. This role could have delved quickly into campy and cliché, but Harden’s performance makes it more terrifying than anything that could be out in the mist. Chaos breaks out in the store to match the chaos that is ensuing in the outside world.

There are creature attacks as the store’s internal pressure rises. While the effects may lack the “special” at times, they are used convincingly enough. However, the sound effects are the true selling point of the creatures. Similar to The Exorcist, Darabont likes to conceal his evils until the last possible moment, building tension through the noises instead.

The best element of Darabont’s film though is the ending. Darabont wrote an ending that does not coincide with King’s novella, but King excitedly approved. In recent years, this is the most spectacular and surprising ending that I have seen. It will leave you shaken for days and raise interesting internal questions.

Overall, journeying into The Mist is worth your time, if you’re up for the adventure.

When To See It: Before It Leaves Theatres

Top Ten Revised Endings

Dave and I were discussing his upcoming review of Stephen King's The Mist the other day, which essentially adds an M. Night Shyamalan type twist to the original story, and we started to compile a list of the best films that depart from the end of their source material.

This includes films that added new endings, completely different endings, or just took it that extra step further to give it that extra oomph it needed.

Needless to say, this list contains MAJOR SPOILERS for all the movies involved, so tread carefully.

Additions

Out of Sight

The first of many successful Soderbergh/Clooney, team-ups, and the only Jennifer Lopez movie I like enough to own. Elmore Leonard's novel ends when Karen Sisco (Lopez), does the right thing and shoots bank robber Jack Foley (Clooney) in the leg and arrests him, despite their romantic involvement.

The 1998 film has the same scene, but adds one more: Karen arranges for Jack to be transported back to prison with Hejira Henry, an uncredited Samuel L. Jackson playing a nine-time prison escapee. "Maybe she thought we'd have a lot to talk about," smirks Clooney, and then the film fades out to "It's Your Thing" by the Isley Brothers.

The Mist

I haven't actually seen or read this, so I'll paraphrase briefly here without giving much away: Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's novella is pretty faithful in depicting a group of terrified people in a supermarket during an unnatural mist, filled with terrifying creatures. The novella ends, after tensions escalate to killing inside the supermarket, with a group of the remaining sane survivors heading off in a car into the mist-covered land, uncertain of the future.

So The Mist just goes a couple of steps further, examining the survivors' dilemma when the car runs out of gas, and then breaking out a devastating revelation. The bonus ending even got King's total seal of approval- he says "The ending is such a jolt—wham! It's frightening. But people who go to see a horror movie don't necessarily want to be sent out with a Pollyanna ending."

The Departed

The Hong Kong film last year's Best Picture was based on, which had the unfortunate US title of Infernal Affairs, is pretty much step by step the same as Scorsese's adaptation, although Marty and screenwriter William Monaghan added a few new subplots to flesh their story out.

The point of all those subplots becomes clear at the conclusion. In the original, the undercover good guy (Tony Leung), and the mole in the police department bad guy (Andy Lau), eventually come to a rooftop confrontation, and another police department mole shows up and kills Leung, and is then killed by Lau to hide everything.

And that's where Infernal Affairs pretty much ends, with the hero dead and the corrupt cop alive, but determined to change his ways. The Departed follows the same steps, and pretty much the same climax- good guy (DiCaprio) gets killed, corrupt cop (Damon) kills everyone else to cover things up. But it has two different threads going for it- one, Damon is way more unlikeable than Andy Lau, pretty much sealing his fate when he accidentally stabs a bystander in an alleyway chase that is not in the Hong Kong version. Two, Oscar-nominated Mark Wahlberg is an original character, and after a leave of absence, shows up as the hand of justice at the end of The Departed and shoots Damon in the head.

So this way, everyone's dead, but it feels more satisfying. Infernal Affairs eventually spawned a few sequels or prequels (or something), but The Departed made sure it ended as a singular acheivement.

Being There

Jerzy Kosinski adapted his own 1970 novel for the 1979 film version, but added a perplexing and mysterious scene to the end to capture the surreal nature of the book's prose. Peter Sellers plays Chance, the simple minded gardener catapulted to national fame by a series of misunderstandings: his simple gardening tips are taken for brilliant metaphors for politics and economics by the Washington elite, and soon he's being discussed as a potential Presidential candidate, instead of the sitting president.

The novel ends with Chance wandering away from an important political advsior's funeral, and peacefully observing nature about him. In the film, Sellers wanders outside to enigmatic quotes read at the funerals eulogy, and then right as one of the quotes is read- "Life is a state of mind"- he walks across a lake. And to make it clear that it isn't stepping stones, or a shallow bank, he playfully pokes his umbrella downward into the water, and the continues.

It adds a very metaphysical tone to the events that have come before- is Chance a ghost? A Christ figure? Or is he just so blissfully unaware that he doesn't sink? It's a great addition to a film with great performances, and arguable Sellers' best film entirely.



Excisions

A Clockwork Orange

Kubrick, according to legend, got the American copy of Anthony Burgess's novel, which did not contain chapter 21, in which the uber-violent and sociopathic young Alex grows up and changes his ways, completely reversing the rest of his character's development.

He did become aware of the last chapter before finishing the screenplay, but decided it was too optimistic and unrealistic to be plausible. And thank goodness he did- most of the controversy around A Clockwork Orange is about whether we're supposed to be condemning Alex's (Malcom McDowell) activities whole-heartedly, or voyeurisitcally following them. But nobody would buy the abrupt reversal at the end, especially not after McDowell's frighteningly intense portrayal.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

I'll start by saying that I read the trilogy once a year, and I don't think I could have handled the Sophie's Choice of what to leave out of the film adaptations myself. But for the most part, Peter Jackson and company did a phenomenal job of parsing down Tolkien's world for the screen, the most wise of which was leaving out the last bit of the final installment, the "Scouring of the Shire" chapter, in which the Hobbits have to fight a decrepit but still dangerous Saruman, who's taken over their home.

A brilliant move for us fanatics was to include many deleted scenes and extended ones on the Special Edition DVD's, but the Scouring of the Shire was never filmed. As much I could envision watching an entire day's worth of LoTR (next Thanksgiving I'm so going to Austin, TX for this), but you don't want the public massaging their asses as they walk out.

Revamps

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk's debut novel was brilliantly adapted into a film by David Fincher, but the finale departs from the book slightly, making a more unique, and purely cinematic finale. As the narrator (Edward Norton in the film) finally does away with his psychotic alter-ego Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), in the novel, the bombs Durden has set in the building fail to go off, and the narrator is rescued by Marla and a group of people from the support groups he attended early in the novel. The final lines of the book find him in a mental institution of some kind.

The film Fight Club has Durden place bombs not in the building he's inside, but in all the surrounding ones. And even though the narrator takes Durden out, he reaches a weird acceptance, and watches the buildings fall with Marla as The Pixies' "Where is My Mind" wails, and the film slows down for one frame of porn.



The Natural

One of the most famous sports movie endings of all time is actually a complete fabrication. Malamud's novel about Roy Hobbs, the phenomenal baseball player with the magical bat, approaches its climactic scenes in the same exact way: The Knights have a chance to win the pennant, and Hobbs is up with a chance to win the game, and he decides to give it his all, despite pressure and money from the Judge to throw the game.

In Barry Levinson's film, Robert Redford hits a home run that wins the game, explodes the spotlights, and catapults the film into a euphoric ending. In the book, Hobbs strikes out on three pitches, is exposed as a cheater, and retires from baseball a failure. There's even a little boy who approaches him and pleads "say it ain't so!" much like the legendary scene with Shoeless Joe Jackson.

So why are they both good? Sometimes life is bitter, but we go to the movies for exploding lights, triumph, and Randy Newman scores. Sorry, literary bitterness.



The Prestige

Christopher Priest's 1995 novel involves a modern-day framing device that Christopher Nolan's film ditches, but the stories are relatively faithful, to a certain point. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman both play turn of the century stage magicians that perform a trick where they transport instantly across the stage. Bale is revealed to actually be twins, while Jackman uses a machine that Nikola Tesla built for him on commission.

Both tale's involve a key scene where Bale's character sneaks backstage to discover the secret of the Tesla machine, and the way it works in the novel leads to a finale involving ghost-like apparitions, and cold shells of human beings- ideas easier to imagine than portray cinematically. In the film, the machine works in a more straightforward way, but it forces Jackman's character to make horrible choices to perform his trick.

It's a rare case of both versions working equally well, and I honestly enjoy both the book's end and the film's end equally.

Metaphysical self-parodies

Adaptation

I couldn't resist including this one. The great Charlie Kaufman was hired to adapt a screenplay from Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief," got frustrated (or inspired), and wrote a movie about himself adapting it instead. Nicholas Cage plays a balding and neurotic Kaufman, and his fictional twin brother, who eventually take Orleans' simple account of her interviews with an eccentric flower collector (played to an Oscar by Chris Cooper), and add a romance, a car chase, and a man-eating alligator to it.

It's both the least faithful, but best film adaptation ever.

I'm not sure how this simple list grew to over 1600 words, but thanks for reading if you made it all the way. Any other obvious ones I missed?