A redefined Top Ten of 2007.

1. Zodiac

David Fincher's finest to date, even surpassing 'Seven' and 'Fight Club.' Here is a movie that is split almost two ways -- the first half about the killings, the second half about the obsession. Both halves are amazing and together form this perfect movie. Sadly, the movie came out too early in the year, and will most likely be looked over come Oscar time.

2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

There are very few movies that I would make everyone see if I possibly could. This would be one of them. The movie is inspired by Jean-Do Bauby's "locked-in syndrome," in which he blinks out an entire memoir with only his left eye. He is completely paralyzed and somehow manages to accomplish that. Jean-Do is a witty man (even moreso in the memoir itself), and that helps offset the deeply serious subject matter. Yet, at the same time, the scenes of his family coping with his immobility are overwhelming. It is perfect and innovative the way this story was filmed, and supreme credit goes to the director, cinematographer, and writer. I will write a more lengthy review at a later date.

3. No Country For Old Men

A movie that will not be overlooked come Oscar time is the Coen Brothers' latest. Seeing this twice in theaters, the movie is smart, clean, and altogether flawless. People bitch about the ending. The first viewing it caught me off-guard, but when I saw it a second time I liked it a lot better, and think it's the only way the film could've ended. I feel this movie will be studied for years to come.

4. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Where most movies would falter, 'Devil' rises up and becomes that much better. There are no questions of motivation, there are no flaws in pacing, and the acting is completely top-notch. Sidney Lumet is the mastermind behind this picture, but a fabulous script by Kelly Masterson and the always-great Philip Seymour Hoffman take this film out of the standard 'jewelry store robbery movie' genre and elevate it to greatness.

5. Juno

You would have to try really hard not to love Juno. The character, specifically -- but also the movie. I would try to describe scenes in this movie, but it would lose all effect. But ever since Juno accuses her ~4 year-old sister of puking blue slurpee into the vase, I couldn't help it. It's rare when I laugh at parts in a movie that are in the trailer, but I was that guy. It seems like Juno is the female version of any of the characters from 'Knocked Up' or 'Superbad.' But the real success here, where those movies have good one-liners, it's the stupid jokes that are endearing. Here, Juno herself is what the movie is about -- her quirky personality comes second to the movie as a whole.

6. Atonement

Atonement is a movie that on first glance seems all about love, but people forget to factor in ignorance, betrayal, lust, jealousy, and self-loathing. The twisting of this movie is delicate and perfectly executed. Visual art of the highest form, the whole movie is a pleasure to look at and just take in. Gotta love British period pieces.

7. La Vie en Rose

A one-woman show for Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, and how great it is. The music aside, this is pure storytelling in a creative way. Taking the life of a person and re-ordering it for increased affect is risky, but here works extremely well. Perhaps there is a reason Edith Piaf was the pride of France.

8. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton is very hit-or-miss for me. On the one hand is Batman and Big Fish, but then there's also Planet of the Apes and Sleepy Hollow. Here I think is his best work to date, with an eerie movie/musical that lifts well from the source material. Johnny Depp also shines, showing he has more range than most working actors today. A great movie, but not for everyone.

9. Ratatouille

I'll be honest -- I liked the Incredibles, but not so much as everyone else. Here Brad Bird steps up again for Pixar and produces the best animated film in years. A great blend of wit, passion, and cooking detail, the movie could've been twice as long and I still would've watched it three times.

10. The Bourne Ultimatum

The third installment in the series, and the best of the bunch (which we all know is rare). The plot is a bit flimsy, but still strong enough to justify the endless action sequences that put many imitators to shame. Believe the hype when they say, "You are glued to the screen."

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I will not do a 'honorable mentions' because that is a cop-out, though in a year like this it would be more than justified. 2007 was a phenomenal year for movies, with so many great flicks. I could've probably made a top 20 and feel strongly about all of them.

Interesting two French movies are on my list. Aren't I cool and indie?

And as with all top 10 lists, let me say that I know people will gripe. Really, I just do these so whoever may stumble across the list will feel a tiny bit more inclined to see a few of these, and I know that they will appreciate it. Any time I can get people to see these films instead of Epic Movie or The Bucket List I am pleased.

And lastly -- I stand by these rankings. Isn't No Country For Old Men a better movie than Zodiac? How can you rank perfect movies that are so different? It's like judging any kind of art: When you're stuck in the middle, go with the one that makes you feel something.

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I know I'm a little behind on the curve, but today was the first time I saw the 2000 movie 'The Beach' with Leo DiCaprio.

This movie seems to be a perfect, almost classic example, of a movie with a fantastic first half -- maybe even first two thirds -- and an ending so awful it has to be said twice. The ending was awful.

The story starts with some witty voice-over with solid characterization for Leo; we get his philosophy on life and why he'll do anything, like take a shot of snake blood. Then he gets to the island, moving past some gun-wielding drug henchmen, and eventually makes it to the Beach, a society of about thirty people who live in this paradise where everyone does their small share of work a day, and the rest of the time is spent high on marijuana and playing sports and having sex.

I don't even gripe about the obscenely obvious plot point of Leo tracing the map for his 'friends' in the beginning, though I would've liked for it to surfaced earlier, and the principle conflict to be something else.

The problem with the movie is no central focus, with the movie making multiple stabs at problems and hoping four mediocre plots will amount to one great one. Here's a tip: it never does. All right, sometimes it does, but we need to A) LOVE the characters, B) LOVE the scenarios, and C) it has to be witty. An example that comes to mind is 'Love Actually,' though many movie based on vignettes and handfuls of characters pull this off. But 'The Beach' is not a vignette movie, therefore fails miserably.

Leo being stationed in isolation to watch for the newcomers is when the movie jumps the shark. The movie even stoops so low as to parody a video game, which is so terrible that I will not describe it, and also pray that you never have to see it. Talk about being thrown out a movie. It's even worse than if Tyler Durden was splicing penises into your film reels.

So we get thirty minutes of Leo playing Rambo, with the headband and everything. The movie promises, at first, a focus on this perfect society, then shifts to themes of imaging your life alone, to the morality of mercy killings, to an unfortunate ending where everyone lives happily ever after. A movie like this does not deserve a happy ending. Actually, allow me to rephrase.

The definition of a 'happy ending' is always redefined, in every movie, according to the circumstances the characters are in. In 'Fight Club,' the Narrator shoots himself in the face, yet he's rid of Tyler Durder and kind-of ends up with Marla. That's close to a happy ending. In 'Titanic' Rose loves Jack and does all the things she never would've done without meeting him. That's pretty happy.

The acceptable happy ending for 'The Beach' should have been Leo getting off the island with his original two friends, while the others are either left ambiguously on the island, or maybe everyone gets off, but that should not have happened without at least one important character dying. The ending that made the cut involves, basically, everyone saying "oh well," and returning home unharmed. No one believes strongly enough in the Beach, in themselves, in the paradise, in their drugs, or in their love to stand up and fight. And a story with characters who appear strong but are that passive doesn't deserve recognition.

So my advice, if you have not seen this film, is to watch the first hour and fifteen minutes, shut it off, and then think up your own ending. It will be better, I promise.

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2007 was a great year for movies. For 2006 I remember saying the only movies that I really enjoyed were 'The Departed,' 'The Devil Wears Prada,' and 'The Queen.' 2007 was not like that, with dozens of great movies coming out.

This list is still a bit premature. I need to see 'There Will Be Blood' and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,' both of which I'm pretty sure will be on a revised version of this list, but other than those I've seen everything noteworthy, and here is my top ten of 2007.

[Note: I will elaborate more later when I have time.]

1. Zodiac
2. No Country For Old Men
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
4. Juno
5. Atonement
6. La Vie en Rose
7. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
8. Ratatouille
9. The Bourne Ultimatum
10. Away From Her

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I am not much of a TV watcher. The only shows I keep up with are The Office (which is on hiatus from the writer strike) and Project Runway. Since Project Runway is now back on the air post-New Years, I'll discuss that.

This season is shaping up nicely, and it look like the clear favorite so far is Rami, winning two challenges, including the most recent one. Jack had much potential, and him going home was pretty disappointing. Kevin also has potential, placing High a number of times, though he still has to win. My personal favorite is Kit. This week's challenge was to make an outfit with items found in a Hershey's store (not just candy, but pillows, plastic wrappers, etc.). Here are some creative favorites.

Kit's



Rami's



These pictures aren't too great since you can't see the details, like candies used as studs on the belt, for example.

I like creative reality TV.

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So for Christmas I got Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Such a fun game. But now I realized why the Wii remotes have the strap on them for your wrist.

On first thought, it's so when you play something like bowling or baseball, the remote doesn't slide from your grip and break your TV screen. Nope. After many frustrating stars in Mario Galaxy, I've concluded that the wrist strap is primarily so when you get super pissed off from dying with 99 out of 100 coins you can't throw your fragile controller into the wall.

Actually, thinking about it, I'm sure Nintendo could've made more money since people would have to buy replacements. But no, Nintendo always looks out for the little guy. I love it.

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This is mostly a list for my personal reference, but I feel the general public will benefit as well.

Movies not yet released which I need to see:

Sweeney Todd
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Juno
There Will Be Blood
The Savages
The Kite Runner
Cassandra's Dream (not very good buzz so far, though)
Youth Without Youth (same as above)

Movies already released that I need to catch up on:

Into the Wild
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I'm Not There

And, movies I have seen from 2007 that, if you haven't seen, you should see ASAP (and a quick, off-the-wall rating):

No Country for Old Men (10/10)
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (9.5/10)
American Gangster (8.5/10)
Eastern Promises (8.5/10)
Zodiac (10/10)
Ratatouille (10/10)
3:10 to Yuma (8/10)
Hairspray (8/10)
La Vie en Rose (9/10)
Away From Her (9/10)

What does all this mean? Oh, you know. The end of the year crunch for studios to put out movies for Oscar season. Unless something comes way out of left field (which is possible, there's usually one) a majority of the nominations will come from the movies above. The only other movie I can think of is Michael Clayton, which I did not like at all. It's just nice to finally be able to sort through the enormous post from earlier this year, which had lots of potential. Now we know what to see and what to skip. That's me -- saving kids money $7.50 at a time.

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I feel I should be updating more. I will work on that.

As a writer, it often comes up that I'm required to shrink my stories -- that is, to summarize a story I've written in a paragraph, a page, two pages, rarely more. But see, therein lies the problem. If I could put all the important stuff from my story down into one page, why wouldn't I just make the story itself one page?

Or maybe I'm just bad and I will always need someone else to do it for me.

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La Vie en Rose

Backstage, an old Edith Piaf stands, preparing for one of her final performances. Her torso is wrapped, and her doctor tells her that she is risking her life if she goes on with her performance. “So?” she responds. “You have to risk something.”

One would not think much of Marion Cotillard’s looks if they only saw her in the roles she takes. Outside of the movies she is gorgeous, but here, in ‘La Vie en Rose,’ she shaved her eyebrows and reduced her hairline to become Edith Piaf -- and that is only the beginning of the transformation.

The movie takes place around three stages in Edith’s life. The first is of her as a child, and this is one of the few movies, biopic or not, that has successfully managed to evoke sympathy for a character within the first twenty minutes. Practically orphaned, Edith suffers to the point where she may become blind. She goes to pray, blindfolded, to Saint Theresa and Jesus, so that she may have sight and be able to read like the rest of the children.

But this is a few of the only words Edith says during her childhood, until her father steals her from the brothel she was being raised in so he can use her in his circus act. Which is a better home, a whorehouse or a circus cart? One could have a tough time making that decision. Her father has her on the sidewalk holding out a hat, begging for change as he does cheap acrobatics, until the crowd wants Edith herself to do something. What does she do? Oh, she sings.

Time passes, and Marion Cotillard comes out as a teenager who sings on the streets for change, to which she has to give her father a cut as he wastes his life away in a pub. Edith’s luck comes and goes in a rollercoaster of successes and failures. One day she is drinking champagne at a New Years’ party, the next she is a step from having to whore herself out for food money. There is no doubt, in this stage of her life, that she lives for the moment -- whether good or bad.

A third chunk of the movie’s time line is the elder Edith Piaf, one who cannot pick up a glass without her hand shaking furiously. But her determination is possibly the strongest of any character in a movie I’ve seen in a long time. She is the lady who holds her friends close, but everything is second to her love of music. She became a national treasure for France, and she worked hard to uphold that image.

These three time lines are intertwined throughout the movie’s 140 minute run-time. The director, Olivier Dahan, manages to piece these events together in a way that nothing is spoiled and each chunk makes the next that much more important, regardless of how it happened chronologically. This is not a movie of stages of life, but of the events that shape a person.

The real achievement in this movie is Marion Cotillard herself. She plays Edith Paif with such vigor, yet in her face you can always see that behind her eyes she has worries and desperation, but that tiny smile she gives with her bright red lips is just enough so you also know she is full of love, whether she is singing, drinking, or praying. If this isn’t an Oscar-worthy performance, I don’t know what is.

And how can one ignore the music in a biopic about a singing legend? I think my reaction to this movie says enough: Starting the movie, I was familiar with La Vie en Rose as a song. As the movie played, and ended, the next thing I did was look for a soundtrack. It is a rare thing when the singing in a movie, even of a country’s national anthem, can take over one so completely. This is the movie that does it.

I’ve seen a number of biopics, a number of which have been about musical legends. ‘La Vie en Rose’ tops any I can think of at the moment, in acting, composition, art direction, and just plain, good old-fashioned storytelling.

Rating: 7/7

La Vie en Rose is now out on DVD.

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Yesterday I was fortunate enough to see two movies that are still both in limited release. Fortunately, both movies were great.

No Country for Old Men

The new movie from the Coen brothers (Fargo, Blood Simple) is taken out West this time -- West being Texas. Their source material is the novel of the same title by Cormac McCarthy. The film follows three primary stories revolving around about $2 million in cash.

First we have Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a retired 'nam Vet who, while out hunting one day, comes upon the remnants of a drug deal gone bad. Among the corpses he manages to come across the money, which he takes home to his wife in their trailer park. He's a smart character and knows whoever's money it is will come looking for it. He goes on the run while he tells his wife to hide elsewhere.

His pursuer is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who may or may not be the primary character of this story. He is unsympathetic to human life and does what he wants, freely and without worry. To figure out his motives is not an easy task. There is no method to Chirugh's actions, other than it involves lots of killing and the pursuit of the money.

To complete the triangle is an old sheriff, Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). He starts the movie with a voice-over that establishes a number of things, the most important may be his matter-of-fact way of dealing with the law. He also talks about how old-time sheriffs never used to carry guns. Tom Bell is on the trail of Chigurh's killings, not because he wants justice, but because he wants to save lives. He knows he'll never understand a person like Chigurh, but he does know he can save Llewlyn Moss if he catches up to them.

With those introductions going, let me say this -- the movie is hardly what you may expect, especially from a movie in this genre (crime/western). You may, and probably will be, frustrated. Some scenes are graphic enough to make you churn in your seat. At the very beginning, the first murder Chigurh commits on screen, you'll realize that this is not a movie of good against bad, right against wrong, but instead a movie about the actions of an incomprehensible killer in the face of his victims. Chigurh enjoys having small chats with the casualties before he murders them.

If there's one thing the Coen brothers have done well in their movies, it is a simultaneous pull where you do not want a scene to end, but at the same time can't wait to see what happens next. And each scene is like this in a different way. Moss and Chigurh encountering each other in hotels across the state is enough tension, but scenes where Tom Bell sits in a diner reading the paper strike equally, if not more-so. Through the movie Tom Bell has a younger sheriff, Wendell, tagging along. Wendell asks Tom Bell if he thinks Moss knows what he's into, and Tom Bell responds, "I don't know, he ought to. He's seen the same things I've seen, and it's certainly made an impression on me."

It is this sense of intelligence among the main characters that makes this movie a success. Moss knows how to saw off shotguns, Chigurh can pull shotgun shrapnel out of his own knee and completely sanitize it, and Tom Bell can tell how long it's been since pretty much anyone has been pretty much anywhere.

I know these paragraphs are vague, but more than anything I do not want to ruin the hints and surprises of the movie. It is a story of nuances and subtleties, but also the blood sometimes hits you right in the face. Be sure to see this movie.

Rating: 7/7


Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Director Sidney Lumet is back behind the camera, and what a great movie this is. I would say it's on par with 'Dog Day Afternoon,' but that may even be an understatement. This could be among his masterpieces, such as 'Network' and '12 Angry Men.'

With that said, I will give a small overview for those who have not seen the preview. I say this only because to reveal more than the preview shows would be disastrous to the experience. Two brothers, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), both have their money problems. Hank has to pay $900 a month for child support to his ex-wife, and he's already three months behind. Andy has to scramble for cash to keep his wife Gina (a gorgeous Marisa Tomei) happy. Her self-esteem is so low around Andy all she can do to keep going is to tell herself they will go back to Brazil, where they took a vacation and everything was perfect.

With money in mind, Andy and Hank arrange a jewelry store robbery. The catch is that it's their mom (Rosemarry Harris) and dad's (Albert Finney) store. But that's good, because they know the schedule, they know where the alarms are, and the parents are covered in the insurance. But oh, how everything goes completely wrong.

There is much credit due to screenwriter Kelly Masterson, whose first movie this is. The non-linear storytelling of how each character's life goes a few days before, and a few days after the robbery is enough to make Quentin Tarantino jealous. And Lumet takes control of these scenes and gives them so much life that we almost feel like we're part of the Hanson family ourselves.

The family dynamic is played perfectly. In a scene where Andy asks Hank if he's "in" on the plan, he makes Hank raise his hands into plain view so there's no fingers-crossed, like when they were kids. Small things like these show us that even though Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman may not look alike at all, there is never any doubt of their kinship.

The great performance in this movie, though, is Albert Finney. There is a funny thing about this movie. The "law" seems to prove completely incapable of doing anything. Charles Hanson (Finney, the dad) finds this out and begins investigating the robbery himself. Andy and Hank do not know this, and their extreme paranoia drives them to a climax that is so epic it almost redefines the word.

The film also relies heavily on the music by Carter Burwell, who with his low chords and slow melodies sets a mood in every scene that feels like the movie would fail without it. A success regardless, the score just propels it the movie to greatness.

And there is the tip of the iceberg. Here Lumet proves that even in his old age he can still make movies much better than most, and because of that, this one should not be passed up.

Rating: 7/7

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