Even in a movie-rich year like this one, I find Top 10 lists a trial to put together. I'm constitutionally averse to hierarchical systems, grading, ranking, and rows of tiny stars. I'd rather just heap all the films that mattered to me into a great squirming pile, like puppies, and shower them with love.The very concept of "10 best" brings up that thorny, irresolvable question at the heart of the critical enterprise: When it comes to cultural products like books or movies, is there any meaningful distinction between "best" and "favorite"? We can get into that when next week's Movie Club kicks into gear; for our purposes, let's just say that these were the movies I staggered out of, those that have taken up permanent residence somewhere in my brain. In alphabetical order (it was hard enough to pick just 10, let alone rank them):
Away From Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Killer of Sheep re-release
Elbowing mightily for a spot were David Cronenberg's flawed but monumental Eastern Promises; Tony Gilroy's trenchant Michael Clayton; Sidney Lumet's steel-tempered melodrama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Todd Haynes' mercurial anti-biopic I'm Not There; Ang Lee's glittering spy romance Lust, Caution; and Into Great Silence, a meditative three-hour documentary about daily life in a French monastery. And in the "my own private cult classic" department, there's Mike Judge's Idiocracy, whose January release on DVD after a long and troubled distribution history arguably qualifies it for the 2007 list. See you next week in the Movie Club, where we'll rage about the year's disappointments (damn you, Spiderman 3!) and confess our secret passions (get out of my head already, Music & Lyrics!).
To see more info on each film, go to Slate.
No comments:
Post a Comment