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JR'S MID-YEAR MOVIE WRAP UP-2007 |
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Since a majority of entries in the
end-of-the-year Top 10 are released in November and
December, presenting a mid-year list allows me to highlight
some very good movies that will be overlooked in six months'
time. Here's how I see things for the first half of
2007. |
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 1.
ONCE
Once is the sort of film that makes it worth going to the movies. Irish
writer/director John Carney’s film quietly and modestly inches its way into your
heart, and by the time it reaches its wrenching and beautiful closing scene, you
know you’ve experienced something special, and been touched by deep truths about
life, love, music and connections that change you forever. Once hits you hard,
even though you might not be able to say why. And it’s the sort of movie that
you want to drag everyone you really care about out to see. A deconstruction of
the movie musical that is the years best film. |
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 2.
SICKO
With “Sicko,” Moore is embarking on a topic that is vital to the might of
America, seeded with a message that everyone in the country should be, at the
very least, aware of. This is health care, and it is killing our nation. I
choose to view Moore as rotund, filthy rich superhero, trying his best to defend
the population and inform the greater good. Even if his intentions are blown off
course or his ego unrivaled, his goals are always admirable, and his motion
pictures are consistently hysterical, devastating, dynamic pieces of
entertainment. |
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 3.
RATATOUILLE
We're all tired of movies inundated with adorable, computer-generated critters.
The Wild? Barnyard? Over The Hedge? Madagascar? Talk about a menagerie of
mediocrity. Now comes Ratatouille from Disney-owned toon kingpin Pixar and
director Brad Bird, who helmed the accurately entitled The Incredibles and the
shamefully under seen The Iron Giant. Ratatouille is not merely the smartest,
funniest, most joyous, most lovingly crafted film of the summer thus far, but it
ranks among Pixar's finest, and it marks a resounding return to form for Pixar
after last year's visually impressive but underwhelming Cars. Assembled with
such loving care and ambition, This is easily the most entertaining film of a
somewhat disappointing summer as well as one of the best movies of the year. |
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 4.
WAITRESS
Written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelley, who was tragically killed
before the wide release of this film, Waitress is a light, frothy slice of life
that is as charming as it is touching.
This sweet saga's protagonist is played by Keri Russell, the former Mouseketeer
and Felicity star whose brief spots in movies (Mission: Impossible III, The
Upside of Anger) only hinted that she might be worthy of larger film roles. In
that respect, Waitress is to Russell what The Good Girl was to Jennifer Aniston:
a choice opportunity for a television beauty to flex her thespian muscles. And
like Aniston, Russell doesn't disappoint, delivering a nicely modulated
performance that keeps viewers in her character's corner every step of the way.
An altogether wonderful work. |
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 5.
ZODIAC
What director David Fincher succeeds in doing here is achieving a remarkably
creepy tone throughout. “Zodiac,” based on two books, follows no less than four
investigators over decades of excruciating disappointment and infatuation.
Rather than mining drama from sudden revelations and tense moments like a more
traditional thriller, Fincher’s newest is a slow burn. It is at once a police
procedural and an epic look at the ruined lives of the men who hunted the Zodiac
killer down until they reached a breaking point. The long running time and
constant jumping forward in time will throw off those expecting a tidy ending,
but the cumulative effect is devastating. |
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 6.
the
HOST
An old-fashioned Friday-night monster movie gets tangled up with a dysfunctional
family redemption saga, along with a healthy dollop of acid-black political
satire in Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host, the wildest and weirdest movie to hit screens
in quite some time. It is smashing entertainment that has a lot more on its mind
than one might reasonably expect from a film in which a giant lizard stomps
around Korea eating people. The Host the kind of funny-scary, subtext-freighted
treat that’s catnip for both genre buffs and intellectuals. |
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 7.
the
LOOKOUT
With the crime genre still struggling to work through its post-Tarantino
hangover, The Lookout is maybe more notable for what it isn't: namely, bloated,
flashy, or dependent on pop-culture riffs as a life-support system. The
directorial debut of ace Elmore Leonard adapter Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Get
Shorty), this is a lean, to-the-bone, expertly acted small-town noir that takes
unusual care to cast the moral compass of its characters in various shades of
gray. There's just no fat on it. The phrase "quiet and contemplative" is not
often used to describe bank-heist movies, but "The Lookout" is not an ordinary
bank-heist movie. In fact, its misleading advertisements to the contrary, it's
not really a bank-heist movie at all. It's a character study, and a rich,
rewarding one at that. And yeah, OK, there's a bank heist, too. But the movie is
not ABOUT the bank heist! If you go in looking for an "Ocean's Eleven"-style
crime caper, you will be bored and disappointed, and that is not the effect "The
Lookout" should have on you. |
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 8.
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
Trailers for the screen adaptation of Katherine Paterson's children's book
Bridge to Terabithia have advertised it as a CGI-laden fantasy, a far cry from
the rich coming-of-age tale beloved by several generations of readers.
Thankfully, the misleading trailers give way to a film that stays true to its
source, using talented kid and adult actors and a remarkable attention to detail
to perfectly capture the delicate, minute rites of passage that define growing
up. And if this film feels a little like Pan’s Labyrinth lite, that’s not
necessarily a bad thing. What's most remarkable about Bridge to Terabithia is
how, even though it is ostensibly set in the present, it feels like a period
piece. Kids are given free run of the woods to explore, and have no more
after-school commitments than a footrace. It's a kind of freedom many kids today
will never know, but one that, as the movie makes beautifully clear, is
completely necessary in order to survive childhood. For anyone who ever had a
treehouse or a fort made of pillows, or for anyone who wishes they did, Bridge
to Terabithia sparks the imagination as much as the land of Terabithia itself. |
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 9.
28
WEEKS LATER
And so as the world seemingly renews its dedication to taking itself straight to
hell, even our horror movies suddenly seem less like mere entertainments and
more like real-life fever dreams, reflecting back to us our own ugliness, our
own shock at how everything has reeled out of control, our own arrogance in
thinking that we can control the deep complexity of everyday chaos. For among
director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s startling, all-too-familiar imagery --
soldiers with gun in airports; the utter eeriness of major city deserted and
garbage-strewn -- is what may be the most unsettling moment of the film. It’s a
kiss, a simple kiss, one of the most ironically compelling screen kisses ever:
in this world of blood-and-saliva-borne infection, it becomes a thing of horror,
taking away the most simple, most necessary comfort we can take when the world
goes to hell. It’s the most dreadful, most unforgettable moment in a
dread-inspiring, haunting film. |
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JR'S 2006 MID-YEAR MOVIE RECAP:
The best films JR
picked one year ago!
JR'S 2006 TOP 10 MOVIES/YEAR IN REVIEW:
The films JR picked
as the best of 2006! |
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Review © 2007 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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OTHER REVIEWS... |
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RASSLIN' REVIEW |
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Pay Per
Views and House Shows, we layeth the Smaketh- Down on
both! |
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KIDS REVIEWS |
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Dozen's of kid
friendly titles arrive every week and we review the one that
stands out. |
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YOUR HEADS UP |
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100's of new
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