My Favorite Movies of 2007

I open this piece with the caveat that I didn't get to the theater as much as I would have liked this year and still have four films on my list to see before the new year, so this is probably an incomplete list and it may change. And I also include a couple of disappointments, not bad films, but films that should have been better.

Though it's very hard to pick an absolute favorite, I probably have to put my choices in this order:

10) - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - I go to these films because my children love them, but I continue to be very pleased with the stories and how they play out on film. Each gets a little darker than the other, perhaps a metaphor for the years before adulthood, but the Order of the Phoenix was no disappointment. The types of issues the characters take on in their development of a sense of identity and morality balances well against their continued belief in wonder, even in very, very bleak circumstances. Harry in particular fights the battle against his own heroicx tendencies and ego quite well in this installment in the series.

9) - Bee Movie - A very pleasant tale of how industry (as in hard work, not technology) is not such a bad thing and that individuality can be sustained even in an efficient community. Jerry Seinfeld's Barry Bee's affection for the human Renee Zellwegger and how it plays is sort of a reverse take on our views on animal rights and environmentalism. He didn't have to be a human to feel a human's pain, but he also came to respect the 'good of the hive'. In the end, compromise was possible and the bees could overlook the basic injustice of the order of nature to maintain their contribution to the ecosystem. And, of course the message isthat even the smallest contributors matter to the delicate overall balance. And all along the way you're just entertained, which is what a cartoon should do.

8) - Hot Fuzz - What "Shaun of the Dead" did to skewer America's love of vile, horror flicks, the grosser the better; this offbeat black satire certainly does to our love of rogue cops and violent villains in action flicks. High strung, by the book London cop (Simon Pegg as Nicholas Angel) gets sent to the slow pace of an idyllic village with lazy cops and a virtually insufferably incompetent and unfocused partner (Nick Frost as the aptly named Danny Butterman). Jim Broadbent is great as the chief constable - Danny's father, by the way, lulling us into the sense of village life being just fine as it is. But, everything has a sinister undertone that only Nick seems to sense, and when horrific "accidents" begin to happen Nick thinks he has it all figured out. The film shines a sardonic light on those head exploding, blood oozing scenes that earn most action films their "R" ratings, and Timothy Dalton has some priceless dialogue toward the end of the film in the miniature of the town after a climactic confrontation.

7) - Fay Grimm - Parker Posey is at her inscrutable best in this Hal Hartley satire built around the premise that her absent, estranged husband is not the lying, ne'er do well garbage man she always thought him to be, but may indeed be a master spy. Jeff Goldblum is spastic, bony, manic as a CIA agent trying to figure out how much Fay really knows and also trying to coerce her into finding her ex, Henry Fool, and a cadre of other spies posing a presumed threat. The frantic ensemble also includes Fay's romantically precocious teenage son, a lovesick editor, lovesick CIA agent, and Fay's poet brother - and of course, the spies. As Posey weaves her way through the lies and intrigue she begins to come into her own, slaying a lot of movie themes and political ideals along the way.

6) - Georgia Rule - A difficult film to watch at times, it deals honestly with family relations and quite charitably with the sometimes unpopular theme of organized religion, in this case LDS. Jane Fonda is marvelous as Georgia, the old school grandmother in the small town, who believes in God, keeps to herself , wears no make up and keeps much of her regret in life to herself. When her alcoholic daughter Lilly (Felicity Huffman, another excellent performance) drops off troubled granddaughter Rachel (Lindsay Lohan) for some quality time, the dark underbelly of the family begins to become exposed. Lohan may be a mess, but she is a gifted actress and she is believable and completely real as the manipulative, promiscuous and very troubled Rachel. The local veterinarian, Simon (Dylan McDermott), manages to fend off Rachel's inappropriate advances, but the innocent teen about to leave on his 'mission', Harlan, falls victim to her charms, but shows her how redemption is possible. Rachel's confession to Simon, revealed to her grandmother, forces Georgia out of her shell and into action. The back and forth between Georgia and Rachel, Rachel and Lilly, and finally between Lilly and Georgia is all about the healing power of love.

5) - Zodiac - Now, this is what a thriller is supposed to be like. Based on the terrifying murders attirbuted to the self-annointed "Zodiac" killer in the San Francisco bay area from the late 1960s into the 1970s, the movie scares you without resorting to graphic violence. The two initial murder scenes, on lover's lane in Vallejo at night (replete with authentic radio jingles of the era and Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" for atmosphere) and on a beautiful, sunny day along the shore of Lake Berryessa are chilling. The obsession of cartoonist Jake Gyllenhaal with the story being covered by his newspaper colleague Robert Downey, Jr. plays well against the frustration of lead cop Mark Ruffalo as the years roll on and they cannot decisively nab the killer. In the end you know who the killer is, you're pretty sure, and you wish police departments had communicated better with each other back in the day, and that people like handwriting analyzers had been checked for their alcoholism. This is not a movie to watch at home alone, but it stays with you long after you've left the theater, just the way the original crime stayed with the detectives, journalists and citizens who had to live with the reality no one ever went to prison for these murders.

4) - Broken English - This is a great little film in true Cassavetes family style (directed to Zoey Cassavetes). Parker Posey is endearing, vulnerable as 30something Nora, who fears love may have passed her by and who doesn't exactly relish the reality that her dead end job, nagging mother (Gena Rowlands) and best friend Audrey's (Drea De Matteo) perfect marriage and family are daily reminders of the relative emptiness of her own life. That is, until she meets Frenchman Julien (Melvin Poupaud). All of the supporting characters build the sort of village you don't really see in movies any more. No one is wasted, everyone has something of value to add, just like in real life. This may be Posey's finest film.

3) - The Namesake - I had great trepidation about seeing this film, adapted from one of my favorite novels, but it wraps itself around Ashima Ganguli (Tabu), the young girl who dives into an arranged marriage in India and then is fairly quickly thrust forward into the world when she follows her new husband Ashok (Irfan Khan) to freezing New England for his teaching job. The central focus is their son, Gogol (Kal Penn) and his troubling experience as first generation American, but it is Ashima and Ashok's journey that may be more compelling. The scene where Ashima takes Rice Crispies out of the cupboard and puzzles over what they are and how to serve them, adding chopped onions and nuts to the bowl, really illustrates the journey from east to west. Eventually the family moves to the suburbs, where Gogol and his younger sister grow up rejecting so much that is Indian to be American, even as their home is filled so often with 'aunties', 'uncles' and 'cousins' that form their ex-patriate Indian community. The familiy's journeys back to India, for two tragic occasions, are breathtaking and revelatory, as is the warm but old world relationship between Ashok and Ashima. This is just a marvelous film about the Indo-American experience, about family and about how anyone whose parents come from 'the old country' eventually come to terms with our roots and our identity.

2) - Dan in Real Life - This is the sort of movie I wish "The Family Stone" had been. Steve Carell is warm and endearing as parenting columnist Dan who in real life is a somewhat forlorn widower trying to raise and understand two teenage daughters, and his youngest. The annual fall sojourn to his parents' beach house is chaotic and crowded with family and family dynamics, but begins with a pleasant spark of promise when Dan meets Marie in the local bookstore and feels something he hasn't felt for a long time. He asks her out only to find out she is dating someone, but she admits it isn't serious yet and he knows she is also attracted to him. The movie is honest, funny and ultimately rewarding to watch. The grown siblings are very close and the parents are both loving and tolerant, and Dan, sweet and smitten but in a difficult situation when Marie gets inserted into the family equation in an awkward way for Dan, acts like a jerk at times but ultimately redeems himself. Much like the parents in the film, Dianne Weist and John Mahoney, you root for everyone to be happy, but you also ultimately accept them as they are.

1) Waitress - Keri Russell (as waitress Jenna) is marvelous in this film about southern life and the art of pie making. Andy Griffith is cantankerous, at times lewd, selfish and complicated as the owner and frequent customer at the diner (Old Joe) where Russell works with her two best friends, sassy Becky (Cheryl Hines) and mousy Dawn (Adrienne Shelley). Jenna, a pie artisan, finds herself pregnant by her terrible husband (Jeremy Sisto) just as she was stashing away enough money to leave him finally. Becky and Dawn do their best to help Jenna accept and learn to love the baby that is growing inside of her, but Jenna can only see the 'damn baby' as a shackle to Earl, the terrible husband. Life in the south is lived out loud, and everyone knows your business and they get into it whether you want them to or not. Becky is married to an ancient man, waiting for him to die, Dawn is trying to find the love of her life and fend off a stalking accountant, and Jenna is falling in love with her awkward, married gynecologist. This movie works on so many levels and it is just a marvelous, sincere testament to motherhood, sisterhood, and even brotherhood. I can't imagine a piece of pie that would be as satisfying, as this film is, but if there is one, Jenna knows how to make it.

I also saw two films this year that weren't bad, and that I would even watch again on video or if they came on TV, but that were really disappointing. Mind, I really enjoyed such light-hearted and obvious fare as "Music and Lyrics" and "Wild Hogs", but my expectations for those films were just light entertainment. I was really disappointed with:

"Because I Said So". Diane Keaton was fine and frantic and all of that. Mandy Moore was very good as the youngest daughter trying to make her way in life on her own terms. But the film lacked believability. When Keaton's three daughters got on conference call with her and talked about orgasms and blow jobs and such, well outside of the Hilton family there just aren't folks who talk that way to their mothers, let alone on conference calls. When Keaton loses her voice and Moore tends to her, Keaton writes notes on a notepad, one of which asks what an orgasm feels like. Right, my mom would do that. And Moore's simultaneous dalliances with her mother's want ad pick, (Tom Everett Scott) and the musician who thought her mother's idea was crazy (Gabriel Macht) also defies believing. Moore would have dumped Scott after the first or second date. This could have been a movie about learning to let go and let our children's lives happen as they will, and instead it was just another Hollywood dismissal of real life in favor of sensational or wacky moments.

Evening - This multiigenerational tale of mothers and daughters has a tremendous cast, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave playing a young and then dying bohemian, Meryl Streep and her daughter Mamie Gummer playing a soon to be wed socialite and her late in life self, and Glenn Close as Streep's mother, and Natasha Richardson and Toni Collette as Redgrave's grown daughters. It was supposed to be a tale of lost loves and opportunities, which in some ways it really was, and of acceptance. But, Danes character was hard to accept, as was Hugh Dancy as Streep's alcoholic, destructive but very entertaining brother. I also couldn't really figure out why both Gummer's Lila and Danes' Anne fell so hard for Harris Arden (Patrick WIlson). He lacked charisma completely. Also, Collettte's character seemed a little old to be struggling with basic issues with adulthood. Lila's character fared best, accepting that happiness is what we make of it, and there was one really nice moment where Danes gives up the chaos of a husband who won't help her with two cranky children and the dinner she's struggling to put together on the stove and she just sits down and sings to the girls. But that moment didn't make up for wondering why Anne did what she did throughout life.

At any rate, until I see those four other films that are on my list to see, this is how it breaks down for me this year. I highly recommend these films, especially the top three.