2007: Best and Worst

Best
1. There Will Be Blood. The movie of the decade shows the America of now. Capitalism and Christian dogma run amok, compassion and God laid asunder. Vital, merciless film-making, it left a tattoo on my soul.
2. The Lives of Others. A white-knuckle thriller about communism in East Germany, and one spy's destruction of free souls. Heartbreaking.
3. No Country for Old Men. The Coens' perfect adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's perfect Western novel. Javier Bardem terrifies.
4. Zodiac. David Fincher's fact-based tale of the serial killer that got away, a perfect police/journalism drama for the ages.
5. Persepolis. Life inside Iran in an animated tale that punches as hard as any documentary. In black and white, and blood red.
6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. A detail perfect Western,so beautifully shot and acted, it smells of a time capsule, and gun powder.
7. (Tie) I'm Not There and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Two biopics of two different men (Dylan!) that upend the biopic genre.
8. Once, The perfect romantic musical for our age, with grungy harsh music, and an uncertain end.
9. No End in Sight. The film of the Iraq War. If Fox News hates it, it must be good and true. So watch it. Learn from it.
10. 300. Frank Miller's blood-tastic graphic novel hits the silver screen. Pro-war? Pfft. The adrenaline rush of the year, ripped from the page.

Worst
5. (Tie) Live Free and Die Hard, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. John McClane (once cool) joins these other superhero flicks, drunk on CGI bullshit; short on soul.
4. Wild Hogs. A family film about daddy bikers for families that hate gays. I bet this shit got the GOP/Fox News approval.
3. Next. Indeed.
2. I Know Who Killed Me. Lindsey Lohan tries stripper by way of David Lynch mystery flick. Worse than it sounds.
1. Hannibal Rising The best screen villain of the past 25 years, reduced to Batman heroics. Thomas Harris fucked this from the page. Awful.