The Year in Film: 2007

Come on. You didn’t really think I would put a picture of Javier Bardem with that haircut here, did you?

My Top 20:

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Atonement
3. Across the Universe
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Ratatouille
6. Eastern Promises
7. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
8. Michael Clayton
9. Juno
10. Away from Her
11. Sweeney Todd
12. 3:10 to Yuma
13. Persepolis
14. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
15. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
16. Lust, Caution
17. I’m Not There
18. Gone Baby Gone
19. The Darjeeling Limited
20. A Mighty Heart

note:  This list stops short.  **** films that are just off the list: Charlie Wilson’s War, Once, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.  ***.5 films that follow: Zodiac, In the Valley of Elah, Black Book and Hot Fuzz.

 

The Best of the Nighthawk Awards: The 1990′s

Beauty and the Beast during their best song in the film ("Something There"). The best Animated Film of the 90's.

1990  -  1999

Total Films I’ve Seen:  1217

Films That Make the Top 5 in Any Category:  53

Best Film Not to Make the Top 5 in Any Category:  The Shawshank Redemption

Film of the Decade:  GoodFellas

Worst Film of the Decade:  Showgirls

Worst Best Picture Nominee of the Decade:  Braveheart

Worst Film of the Decade Made by a Top 100 Director:  North

 

The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1999

The two best performances of the year, in the best film of the year.

The 72nd annual Academy Awards, for the film year 1999.  The nominations were announced on February 15, 2000 and the awards were held on March 26, 2000.

Best Picture:  American Beauty

• The Sixth Sense
• The Insider
• The Cider House Rules
• The Green Mile

Best Eligible Film Not Nominated:  Magnolia

Most Surprising Omission:  Being John Malkovich

Rank (out of 83) Among Best Picture Years:  #39

 

Concluding AFI: The 100 Best Dramas

The #1 Romantic Drama (#3 overall).

Here it is: the final AFI list. It is also the sparsest, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I’ve been busy trying to get my Academy Award posts ready for later this month, because it takes forever to do the links for a list this long, and because I’ve been working at Borders a lot to make up for the fact that my job for AAS no longer exists. So, with no links or quotes or descriptions, I simply give you the 100 best dramas.

 

Pummeling Zombies to the Rhythms of Queen

or
25 Reasons Why Rock and Film Are Beautiful Together
(I originally wrote this for CinCity2000 almost two years ago)

When the opening notes of “Misery” start playing and Clerks II fades to black and white, it’s a sign. Kevin Smith might not have developed a visual style yet, but he’s definitely learned something from Martin Scorsese; the synthesis of rock and roll to film can take what would otherwise be a sloppy moment of film and turn it into a classic. It’s Soul Asylum, it’s Dante and Randall, it’s obviously designed to make us remember the end of the first Clerks. It evokes a very specific memory of a film we loved and we leave the theater smiling. Barely two months later, The Departed reminded us once again that Scorsese is a master of this directorial trick and those first few moments of the film, with the menace that is always lurking beneath the surface in both Jack Nicholson and the Stones, remind us that we love this connection. We want this connection. We want to think more about this connection. If that’s really what you were thinking, this is the list for you.

We must have rules. We must all have rules forthwith.