Here’s one for the Coen’s latest, Burn After Reading:
Amazing cast, right? Plus Pitt looks pretty hilarious.
This next one’s for the new Kevin Smith project. I normally wouldn’t be too excited, but he’s got Seth Rogen in the lead:
Let’s hope Smith redeems himself with this one.
So yeah, we did have our own awards, or a “master list,” but here are my personal top 10 favorites from 2007:
10) Grindhouse/Hot Fuzz/Knocked Up
–The trifecta. Complete nerdom. Just for clarification, when I list Grindhouse I’m listing the double feature with fake trailers, missing reels, and all. That’s the Grindhouse I know and love. Knocked Up is the movie that got me to jump on the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen bandwagon, and Hot Fuzz completely lived up to my post-Shaun of the Dead expectations. Some of the most fun I had at the movies this year was watching these three. They all lived up to the hype.
9) Eastern Promises
–The 2nd film from the Cronenberg/Viggo duo. Some of the year’s most memorable scenes and my favorite Viggo performance yet. Cronenberg’s films are always strangely unique to him. It’s a shame he tends to be overlooked.
8 ) Persepolis
–The story and characters fully transcend the “simple” animation style. Not to bash the animation though, it’s probably one of the most creatively animated films I’ve seen. Reminiscent of Fantastic Planet and The Tripletts of Belleville. It gave Ratatouille a run for its money in my book.
7) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
–Possibly the most overlooked film of 2007. No Oscar nominations, earned practically nothing at the box office, and completely disappeared in the midst of award season despite its great director and cast. I wouldn’t throw this one in the ranks of 12 Angry Men or Network, but director Sidney Lumet definitely proved he’s still got it, even at age 82.
6) Ratatouille
–It’s honestly my favorite pixar film yet. Also, according to rotten tomatoes, it was the best reviewed film of 2007.
5) Sweeney Todd
–The umpteenth collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is my favorite so far, which says quite a bit considering how much I love Ed Wood. The one and only thing that kept me from falling head over heels for Sweeney was the cut of my favorite song from the original play due to vocal restrictions. Otherwise, I’d say it’s just about perfect.
4) No Country for Old Men
–I’ve always been a huge fan of the Coen brothers and No Country might just be my favorite film of theirs behind The Big Lebowski, which will probably be my favorite Coen brothers film forever and ever.
3) Once
–Totally beautiful. One of my all-time favorite musicals. The songs are great, the story is touching, and it’s a musical that doesn’t go completely over-the-top with sets and costumes, for once. It’s so nice to see a low-budget musical blow away blockbusters like Dreamgirls and, in my opinion, the overrated Chicago.
2) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
–My favorite foreign film of ’07. If I was in charge of the Oscars, I would’ve given Julian Schnabel the award for Best Director. He truly deserved it.
1) There Will Be Blood
–Easily my pick for #1, it might be my favorite film of the past decade. It’s hard to think of any I like more. It’s worth mentioning that, like last year, my favorite film is hated by quite a lot of people, but I guess that’s what happens with something so unique. There is however, a consensus that Daniel Day-Lewis gives one of the greatest, most obsessive performances out there. “I drink your milkshake!” gets my vote for the best line of 2007.
Honorable Mentions (In no order):
La Vie En Rose, Zodiac, The Darjeeling Limited, Superbad, 3:10 to Yuma, Lust-Caution, Paris Je-Taime, Into the Wild, Atonement, & Stardust.
Flying high after the huge success of No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers, who have also written and directed films such as Fargo, Raising Arizona, and The Big Lebowski, have 4, yes FOUR, new films on the way.
First we’ll get Burn After Reading, which the duo has already completed. It’ll be released this September and stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and John Malkovich. In Burn After Reading, Malkovich will play an ousted CIA official whose memoirs accidentally fall into the hands of two unwise D.C. gym employees (Pitt & Clooney) who intend to exploit their find.
In 2009, the Coens will release A Serious Man, which is said to be a dark comedy about a Jewish college professor. A Serious Man will be set in 1960’s Minnesota.
In 2010, the literary adaptation The Yiddish Policeman’s Union will be released. This will be the 4th film adaptation of a Michael Chabon novel. The premise is as follows:
“Set in an alternate America where Jews have taken refuge in an Alaskan district after the collapse of Israel in 1948, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is a noir which follows detective Meyer Landsman as he attempts solving a murder, untangling a conspiracy, and generally reassembling his shambled life.”
THEN, after all that, we’ll get yet another Coen brothers film in 2011, assuming all goes to plan. This one’s untitled as of now, but the Coens have released this statement regarding the project:
“We’ve written a western with a lot of violence in it. There’s scalping and hanging … it’s good. Indians torturing people with ants, cutting their eyelids off. It’s a proper western, a real western, set in the 1870s. It’s got a scene that no one will ever forget because of one particular chicken.”
Some sources are reporting the project to be a “spaghetti western,” however this is of course false, as a true spaghetti western must be produced by an Italian studio.
In addition to the 4 films listed above, the Coen brothers also have two projects “on the backburner.” They are Hail Caesar, which is a comedy about a 1920’s theatrical troupe’s attempt to stage Julius Caesar, and an adaptation of James Dickey’s novel To the White Sea. No word on when, or if, these films will ever be completed, but here’s hoping for releases in 2012 and 2013, just after the Coen’s western.
The Coen brothers have always been prolific, but this is pretty extaordinary, especially considering the Coens write all their screenplays. Personally, I’m most excited for the upcoming western, but all 4 projects sound pretty wonderful.
And the winners are…
BEST MALE ACTOR (SUPPORTING)
Third Place: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s war)
Second Place: Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
BEST FEMALE ACTOR (SUPPORTING)
Third Place: Kelly MacDonald (No Country for Old Men)
Second Place: Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Marketa Irglova (Once)
BEST USE OF MUSIC
Third Place: Sweeney Todd (Stephen Sondheim)
Second Place: Once (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
BEST WRITER
Third Place: Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited)
Second Place: Joel & Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
BEST MALE ACTOR
Third Place: Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd)
Second Place: Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
BEST FEMALE ACTOR
Third Place: Zoe Bell (Death Proof)
Second Place: Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Helena Bonham-Carter (Sweeney Todd)
BEST ENSEMBLE
Third Place: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei)
Second Place: Superbad (Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baren Cohen, Ed Sanders)
BEST DIRECTOR
Third Place: Joel & Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Second Place: Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd)
And The Owl Pellet goes to: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
BEST FILM
Third Place: Sweeney Todd
Second Place: No Country for Old Men
And The Owl Pellet goes to: There Will Be Blood
Owl Pellets 