VH1.com’s Best Movies of 2007
We polled, cajoled and otherwise extracted a list of 2007’s top movies from our intrepid staff. Here it is.
Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn found his initial flicker of fame by shooting post-punk bands like Joy Division, so it follows that his first feature film, Control, focuses on the same subject. If there’s any justice in the world, he’ll find just as much success as a director as he has as a photographer. Control is breathtaking, figuratively (because it’s unfailingly gorgeous) and literally (because it follows Joy Division frontman’s life up until his suicide at 23). It’s Sam Riley’s show for the taking, and he’s more than fit for the job: his portrayal of Curtis is nothing but nuance. He’s quietly cocky, generous, selfish, insecure, difficult, arrogant, tortured, humorous and so much more. It’s potentially conception-smashing: Getting to know a well-rounded facsimile makes Curtis’ death that much more of a tragedy. Corbijn’s work experience allows him to frame the band flawlessly. Control is shot in glorious black and white and it’s composed so that just about each individual shot would make a devastating still photograph. The depth of soul and painstaking craftsmanship that went into making Control are apparent. To portray a band as intense as Joy Division, it really couldn’t have been any other way. (Rich Juzwiak)
28 Weeks Later
Straight up: Danny Boyle’s 2002 film 28 Days Later is the most influential horror movie of the century. Not only did it give birth to Zombie 2.0 (the frenetic, rage-filled sort), but the flicks that its success is responsible for are actually . . . good. The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and this year’s I Am Legend are both worthy successors, but it’s Days‘ official sequel, 28 Weeks Later, that truly (and amazingly) proves that a film so seminal can actually be an easy act to follow. Where Days started off chaotic only to devolve into a snail-paced BBC movie, Weeks moves as fast as the zombies it features. Tension never stops mounting as we see Rage-torn London built back up over the course of seven months, only to be destroyed again within hours. Strong performances run throughout, but director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s brain is the real star: via extreme close-ups, shaky camerawork, pulsing flashlights, night vision, shadows, fog, surveillance cameras and gun scopes, he obscures what’s going on during the march of the frantic zombies. He’s a genius when it comes to exploiting the fear of the unknown. Oh, and there’s also an eye-gouging that’s completely ripped from Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond. Clearly, this guy knows what it takes to make a zombie movie. (Rich Juzwiak)
Juno
Here it is: that indie-dorable heart-warmer which comes around but once a year (remember Little Miss Sunshine?), complete with a plain but pretty star, Pitchfork-approved soundtrack and bitingly funny dialogue. But what really makes Juno unique is its fearless take on teenage America, offering us a world that doesn’t involve designer bags, excessive birthday parties, BMWs or singing and dancing. Hilariously touching story aside, it’s refreshing just to see kids living in non-McMansion split-level homes, driving cars that aren’t equipped with GPS and DVD players, with parents who are actually grounded and, at times, wise. Writer Diablo Cody creates an intriguing world where decisions are difficult and don’t always make way for a sunshine-y, carefree outcome. You know, kind of like your own life — minus the hamburger phone. (Kate Spencer)
No Country for Old Men
Take Cormac McCarthy’s impeccably written novel, place it in the hands of Joel and Ethan Coen — the greatest contemporary film-making duo America has to offer — and add one of the creepiest villains in recent cinematic memory, and you’ll begin to understand how your tired heist-turned-hunter/prey scenario became the most compelling film of the year. Tommy Lee Jones plays the role he’s been perfecting all his life (grizzled West Texas sheriff smart enough to know he doesn’t know anything), trying to piece together what happened at a drug deal gone wrong. Josh Brolin, possibly best-known for his role in Goonies, surprisingly holds his own as protagonist Llewellyn Moss. He stumbles upon said deal, and in the process picks up $2 million and the attention of a bone-chilling predator, played by Javier Bardem, the wonderfully origin-less Anton Chigurh. As well as guaranteeing you’ll never think of Prince Valiant haircuts the same way again, Bardem also kills off Woody Harrelson within 10 minutes of the film introducing him, making the film pretty much flawless. (Lauren Harris)
The Darjeeling Limited
The most frequent complaint about Wes Anderson’s films is that his obsession with style, his mania for designing his characters right down to the matchbooks they’ve forgotten about in their suit pants, gets in the way of his films actually, you know, meaning anything. While Rushmore was indisputably successful in marrying both the look and the depth, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou seemed a trifling meditation on fatherhood — Anderson’s big theme. He gets down to dad issues in The Darjeeling Limited, too, but here, he’s treated them with a sensitivity that his previous film lacked. The humor’s still here; Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson are unlikely but perfect as a trio of brothers traveling across India by train, taking drugs and on their way to reconcile with their mother. (Owen Wilson’s character in the movie was swaddled in bandages because of a botched suicide attempt, and it’s weird how, in this case, life imitated art.) More than his other films, The Darjeeling Limited is a spiritual journey, an odyssey that moves from the characters being dependent to discovering a sense of freedom. In that, Anderson is more successful than ever before. (Jonathan Durbin)
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