George's Top Ten movies of 2007
George's Top Ten movies of 2007

This list is all over the place, but the best films of 2007 came from all corners. In many years, the greatest cinematic experiences tend to be prestige projects from the independent world, but the majority of films on this list found wide release and a few are certifiable blockbusters. Like any other year, 2007 was caked with multiplex garbage, but these and quite a few others that bubbled underneath them made it all worthwhile.

1. “No Country for Old Men” — Over two decades into their filmmaking career, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen made what could be their masterpiece. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel, “No Country for Old Men” is a brutal mediation on fate and death centered on $2.4 million in drug money; the doomed man who found it (played by Josh Brolin in the best year of his acting life); the relentless, Grim Reaper-like assassin who wants it back (Javier Bardem); and the West Texas sheriff at the end of his career (Tommy Lee Jones) who, in his heart of hearts, knows he is powerless to save anyone in this mess.

There are scenes in “No Country” that will stay with viewers for months, and others will simply have audiences baffled, asking, “How in the known world did they do that?” To paraphrase Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, if this isn’t the best film the Coens have done, it will do until it gets here.

2. “Zodiac” — A sprawling story about journalists, detectives and the one that got away, David Fincher’s “Zodiac” covers the notorious Bay Area serial murders of the ‘60s and ‘70s with the detail of fine reporting. Foregoing the visual flash of “Fight Club” and “Se7en,” Fincher filmed “Zodiac” in the stark, just-the-facts style of Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet, and the film sucks viewers into this time and place thanks to realistic depictions of the incidents and great performances by Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal.

3. “Juno” — Director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody took a scenario that launched a thousand Lifetime television movies — a teenager gets pregnant and tries to find suitable adoptive parents — and turned “Juno” into a warm and thoroughly original comedy filled with more insight about the way smart people think and react than most documentaries. Cody’s ear for dialogue already makes her one of Hollywood’s most in-demand new scribes, and the gifted young actress Ellen Page deserves every bit of Oscar buzz currently hovering around her.

4. “Michael Clayton” — Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton” delves deep into paranoia, bad corporate behavior and legal “fixing,” but it also has some beautifully nuanced characters on both sides of the good/evil divide. George Clooney delivers a great, slow-burning performance that flares up at the end — he makes two speeches here that will undoubtedly be played when he’s 80 and being honored by the Kennedy Center. And just try to take your eyes of Tilda Swinton as a would-be company automaton who, in private moments, seems fragile enough to shatter.

5. “Grindhouse” — All the love that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have for schlocky ‘70s drive-in reels is piled into this double feature. “Grindhouse” bombed at the box office and was sold for scrap on DVD, but this zombie/gearhead feast needs to be experienced in its original form, complete with killer “coming attractions” and gut-busting Mexican food.

6. “Atonement” — A real heartbreaker. Joe Wright’s follow-up to “Pride and Prejudice” illustrates how a petty little lie destroys three lives against the backdrop of World War II. Wright’s seamless tracking shot of the liberation of Dunkirk is the film’s breathtaking centerpiece, and Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are note-perfect as doomed lovers Cecilia and Robbie. But it is the formidable trio of Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave, playing the prevaricating Briony Tallis at various ages, that give “Atonement” its devastating emotional pull.

7. “Gone Baby Gone” — Other than the Coens, the most valuable brother team of 2007 was the Afflecks. Ben Affleck’s directorial debut captures the hopelessness of Dennis Lehane’s novel and the dissolute nature of the people who come to life in it. He seems benign at first, but Casey Affleck is coiled up throughout “Gone Baby Gone” as a private detective trying to find a missing toddler, and when he lets loose, it’s something to behold. But Amy Ryan nearly steals it as the little girl’s derelict mother, and her performance give “Gone Baby Gone” its horrible, haunting heart.

8. “American Gangster” — Like Fincher, director Ridley Scott stripped away his penchant for rococo filmmaking for the saga of 1970s drug kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). Russell Crowe is the real acting winner here as Richie Roberts, the principled cop who took Lucas down, but Scott provides “American Gangster” its power: at over two and a half hours, it still feels simple, direct and to the point.

9. “Knocked Up” — Judd Apatow tells his story about two mismatched parents-to-be with equal parts grace and amped-up toilet humor, and along the way, Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen voice some real truths about relationships and responsibility. Parents will relate — especially immature men who feel genuinely outclassed by the mothers of their children.

10. “The Bourne Ultimatum” — Thank Paul Greengrass for making summer action movies that are brilliantly executed and make audiences think. It is rare when the third film in a series is the best one, and Matt Damon, an unlikely action star in the beginning, carries nearly every moment.

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