In 2007,
Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the US House of Representatives;
Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone;
Nicholas Sarkozy was elected President of France and Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the UK;
Wikileaks published documents exposing the nature of US interrogations in Guantanamo Bay;
Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize;
The words “tweet,” “listicle,” and “hashtag” made their debuts in English language dictionaries;
The Simpsons aired their 400th episode;
High School Musical 2 became the most watched made for cable movie;
In one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the University of Michigan football team lost to Appalachian State;
Hulu debuted;
The Wizards of Waverly Place, The Sarah Silverman Program, Rules of Engagement, Ice Road Truckers, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Mad Men, Californication, Phineas and Ferb, Yo Gabba Gabba!, TMZ, Gossip Girl, The Big Bang Theory, Private Practice, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians debuted on American television;
While Reba, The O.C., Celebrity Deathmatch, 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, The King of Queens, Veronica Mars, Punk’d, The Sopranos, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Simple Life, The Crocodile Hunter, Kim Possible, Drake & Josh, and Queer Eye ended their runs;
Bryce James, Kai Trump, and Ryan Williams were born;
While Yvonne De Carlo, Carlo Ponti, Art Buchwald, Anna Nicole Smith, Bob Clark, Kurt Vonnegut, David Halberstam, Boris Yeltsin, Bobby Pickett, Jack Valenti, Wally Schirra, Yahweh ben Yahweh, Jerry Falwell, Ruth Graham, Kurt Waldheim, Chris Benoit, Liz Claiborne, Tammy Faye Messner, Tom Snyder, Ingmar Bergman, Bill Walsh, Merv Griffin, Phil Rizzuto, Max Roach, Leona Helmsley, Miyoshi Umeki, Madeleine L’Engle, Luciano Pavarotti, Jane Wyman, Brett Somers, Marcel Marceau, Dale Houston, Werner von Trapp, Deborah Kerr, Robert Goulet, The Fabulous Moolah, Norman Mailer, Donda West, Delbert Mann, Ira Levin, Henry Hyde, Evel Knievel, Benazir Bhutto died.
The following is a list of my ten favorite films released in 2007:
An all star-cast of comedians influenced by the acid trip stream-of-consciousness of the legendary Jonathan Winters star in this acerbic mockmentary about him.
It’s an in-joke designed to simultaneously deconstruct the idea of comedy legends and honor one of the best.
I love the relationship Winters and Robin Williams had.
Winters was hilarious and possessed one of the most expressive faces, but his genius made it difficult for him and even resulted in a period of institutionalization.
Sadly, Winters hasn’t had the post career resurgence some of his contemporaries have experienced and he seems more of a nostalgia factor, but I wish people would watch this and rediscover him.
The Coen Brothers career was a series of stepping stones to this. Some may have other personal favorites (mine is Barton Fink), but this is hands down their most accessible film.
Javier Bardem was perfection as Anton Chigurth in a career defining role.
Tommy Lee Jones feels like a tailor made avatar for this amalgam of Cormac McCarthy, Texas, new Westerns, and Coens; Josh Brolin is perfectly paired with him.
After this, the Coen brothers made a handful of films (most well received), but none as sublime as this and their fruitful collaboration seemed to run its course. Having reached the zenith of their profession, they deservedly wanted to seek new challenges and new creative outlets.
This is as evocative and imaginative of the American West as the best of John Ford. The western lives, new and different, but alive nonetheless.
8) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tim Burton does not seem like the natural choice to adapt Stephen Sondheim, but this works. Depp, not known for his musical chops, is perfectly cast as the titular barber and this was the last hurrah of the famed Burton / Depp collaboration and the high point of the collaboration between Burton and his paramour / muse Helena Bonham Carter.
Alan Rickman is wonderful, and Sacha Baron Cohen made a huge impression in a straight role, proving he’ s more than just a funny hook as Borat or Ali G.
It’s a darkly comic fantasy with a fantastic score. Bonham Carter acquits herself well in the role made most famous by the transcendent Angela Lansbury.
The extended sequence when her Mrs. Lovett and Depp’s Todd see a glimpse of what their life could be is delightful and perfectly marries Burton’s unique worldview with Sondheim’s.
Burton has quietly built one of the most impressive, unique resumes in Hollywood: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Frankenweenie, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, Edward Scissorhands. Only have a handful of directors are responsible for more of my favorite films. Even his misses (Mars Attacks!, Planet of the Apes, Dark Shadows) are fascinating.
Depp was, for a brief moment, the defining Hollywood star. Excess and ego knocked him off the pedestal, but he’s a powerful actor and his oeuvre will outlive any reputational damage.
Bonham Carter is a versatile actress, who’s fixated in the public consciousness as a wild haired, mad woman, thanks to her performances in Burton’s films as well as her iconic turn as Bellatrix Lestrange. She’s capable of more (and has been Oscar nominated for more restrained, realistic performances).
Alan Rickman never gave a bad performance, and Timothy Spall is fantastic as his henchman. With Carter, Rickman, and Spall this almost feels like a Harry Potter adjacent film and one imagines they flew from one set straight to another.
While he’s not adept at musical theatre, Burton is certainly adept at atmosphere and Victorian London (filtered through German Expressionist classics like Dr. Mabuse and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) seems like a second home to him.
7)
The Simpsons is a hallmark of my childhood, one of the foundational pieces of art which informed my sensibilities. I was beyond excited when this movie was announced and overjoyed it did not disappoint. Everyone in the ensemble cast got a chance to shine and Tom Hanks and Green Day had very funny cameos. This was the best thing the show had done in several years and you could tell they brought in the best writers of the show’s first twenty years to pull it together. It hits all the hallmarks of classic Simpsons and I loved every minute of it.
6) Juno
High schooler Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is pregnant with her friend Paulie’s (Michael Cera) baby. She decides to have the baby and put it up for adoption, finding a nice couple in Vanessa and Mark (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) to raise her child.
Things get complicated as she develops genuine feelings for Paulie and Vanessa and Mark’s relationship deteriorates. Mark’s attitude toward Juno is sketchy considering the 20+ year age gap and he’s clearly intended to be the bad guy, but it feels like he’s acting out because he’s tired of being dominated by Vanessa who relegated his stuff (ie his passion) to a single room in their house. Pardon the Bateman pun, but his arrested development may not have been entirely his fault, and I don’t blame him for mistaking someone who genuinely shares interests with him as a potential romantic partner. That having been said, the age gap should have been a line he knew not to cross. He was wrong, but he’s not the villain the movie wants him to be, and he was right to leave Vanessa before they became parents together.
Page was phenomenal and it’s jarring to know where her personal journey would take her after this film.
Michael Cera has made a career out of playing Paulie. I’m not sure what his actual range is, but he’s mastered this grace note (a 21st century Woody Allen) and I’m not complaining.
Having JK Simmons and Allison Janney play Juno’s supportive parents is an abundance of riches. Jennifer Garner is a perpetually underused actress, who excels as wholesome every woman character, but seems to have more to offer.
Writer Diablo Cody peaked with her phenomenal debut film, and Jason Reitman made it obvious he was more than a nepo baby, but a capable director in his own right.
This movie’s affirmation of the choices available to girls who find themselves in less than desirable conditions is admirable. A lot of movies would have automatically gone the abortion route and Juno rightfully considers it (it would be naive to think a girl in her position wouldn’t.) Some pro-choice groups have criticized the film for not fully embracing the pro-choice (pro-abortion) option, but I am grateful the film didn’t take the obvious route, instead showing the myriad of choices available and the ways these choices might play out.
Ishaan is a misunderstood young boy whose undiagnosed struggles with dyslexia have led to ostracization at school and home. When sent to a boarding school by his less than supportive father, he meets Ram (Aarmir Khan) a sympathetic teacher who recognizes his problems and works hard to help him overcome these limitations.
It’s saccharine, but the film’s simple earnestness is a large part of its appeal. Aamir Khan is a superstar in India and Bollywood, and he was one of the few Bollywood actors to make a name for himself in the US before streaming leveled the cultural divide and obliterated the language gap. It’s rare for stars of his magnitude stars to invest so much personal capital in making something so kindhearted and straightforward. Most stars are obsessed with the idea of the artist as revolutionary or social justice crusader, and want to be taken seriously, seen as daring, trailblazing artists. There’s only a little bit of that here, Khan pushing back against Indian culture stereotypes about dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
4) Ratatouille
Alfredo Linguini works as a garbage boy at Gusteau’s (a famous French restaurant) unaware he is actually Gusteau’s son and heir to his empire. Through a contrived set up, he befriends Remy (a rat with an inexplicable gift for cooking), and with Remy’s help, Alfredo revitalizes the restaurant, embodying Gusteau’s motto: Anyone can cook.
Slightly overlooked in the Pixar canon, this is a delightful film.
The cast is incredible: Patton Oswalt (Remy), Ian Holm as Skinner (Gusteau’s malevolent head chef who believes the restaurant should be his), Brian Dennehey as Django (Remy’s dad), Brad Garret as Gusteau, Janeane Garofalo as Colette Tatou (love interest for Alfredo), and Peter O’Toole as Anton Ego (a tough, cynical restaurant critic).
The sequence when the hardened critic is dumbstruck by the simple pleasures of the ratatouille prepared by Remy and transported back to memories of his mother, reminding him why he fell in love with food, is, in my opinion, one of the best moments in the Pixar cannon.
The power of food (and by extension art) to connect (and reconnect) us with our friends and family is one of the pleasures of the human condition: the deep connection we find by sharing the things we love and the way simple pleasures form lifelong associations.
I love an underdog story; I love a fish out of water, overcoming the doubts of others; and I absolutely love Peter O’Toole. While not as beloved as Brad Bird’s previous Pixar entry The Incredibles, this is a strong entry in the company’s oeuvre.
3) Atonement
Adapted from the acclaimed Ian McEwan novel, this is pitch perfect filmmaking.
A young girl, Briony (Saoirse Ronan) witnesses a rape and mistakenly believes Robbie, the lover / boyfriend of her elder sister Cecilia, is the culprit. Her mistake is clouded by her own burgeoning feelings for Robbie (James McAvoy) and jealousy of Cecilia (Keira Knightley). This mistake reverberates over decades and we see the ramifications it has on the three of them throughout the years.
Knightley and McAvoy are very good, but Ronan was a revelation. Barely a teenager, she announced herself as a major star.
Vanessa Redgrave as the older, wiser Briony is wonderful casting and a juicy late career role for the veteran actress.
Predating his worldwide fame, Benedict Cumberbatch excels in an unexpected role. Juno Temple, Harriet Walter and Brenda Blethyn round out the wonderful cast.
This is a poignant film about memory, about seeing what we want to see, and how mistakes cascade and ripple with unintended consequences. Joe Wright is a wonderful director for this type of material: brooding, moody, sweeping romances.
The film is elevated significantly by the jaw-dropping work of Ronan, who rightly earned her first Oscar nomination. She’s not as tabloid friendly or as beloved as other actresses of her generation (like Emma Stone or Jennifer Lawrence), but she matches them toe to toe in the quality of her work, bursting onto the scene here like she was shot out of a cannon.
2) Hot Fuzz
Policeman Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) is punitively assigned to a rural town outside Gloucestershire. Frustrated by the Neighborhood Watch Alliance and bored with the low crime rate, he befriends Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) the son of the city’s chief inspector Frank (Jim Broadbent). Together, they uncover a deadly conspiracy hiding in plain sight.
The cast is a murderer’s row. Pegg, Frost, Broadbent (in one of the funniest roles of his career), Olivia Colman, Bill Nighy, Timothy Dalton, David Bradley, Rafe Spall, Joe Cornish.
Edgar Wright in the latter 2000s was a one man impresario. His Cornetto trilogy is first rate filmmaking.
This is a sharp parody of 80s action movies. There’s a real sense of dread which builds throughout and the set pieces all land.
I wish the Cornetto crew would have made a dozen more movies, but the few they made are perfect, so there’s that.
Smelling a profit, private investigators Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) reach out to Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) to help find her abducted daughter. It appears Amanda was abducted because Helen and her boyfriend, “Skinny Ray,” stole money from a drug lord, but uncovering the truth of her abduction reveals a complicated web of deception.
Casey Affleck is mesmerizing, beginning as a cynical private detective, but ending with a resolute idea of right and wrong. Sadly, Casey’s career has been overshadowed by his brother’s, but his work here and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) prove he’s a more than capable actor.
Amy Ryan’s an incredibly versatile performer: believable as Holly Flax, Michael Scott’s nerdy love interest, and as the competent, world-weary Beadie Russell, but her performance as Helene McCready is a career highlight. She’s a feral animal, trapped by her limited education, her family, her child, and her drug addiction. She sees the attention from her daughter’s kidnapping as a way out of her miserable life. We recognize Helene has no business being a mother, but because of Ryan’s amazing work we still empathize with her. Affleck is the moral center of film, but Ryan is its emotional core.
Morgan Freeman deftly uses his public image and credibility as misdirection in his performance as Captain Jack Doyle. We believe Doyle more than we should because we believe Freeman.
Ben Affleck’s directorial debut is a triumphant achievement. His directorial style is similar to another actor turned director: Clint Eastwood. Both are technically proficient directors who stay out of the way of the story and use their experience as actors to get the most from their cast.
This great movie, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, asks if a bad thing can save a girl’s future, how wrong can it be?