Best Movies of 2019

Unlike last year, I managed to see a few movies in theaters this year that weren't about Star Wars or superheroes. This is partly because I was willing to go to movies by myself for a change. You should try going to movies by yourself! The movies aren't any different and nobody else cares that you're alone.

Best of 2019

10. 1917


The thing about movies with obviously impressive technical filmmaking behind them is the filmmaking itself can become a distraction. You're thinking about how a shot was achieved as much as what the content of the shot actually does for the story. So when I learned 1917 was shot and edited to appear as a single unbroken take for the entire film, I was a little worried it would be a huge gimmick. While I did find myself sometimes looking for the transitions where cuts to new shots were hidden, overall I was still invested in the story of two British soldiers racing across no man's land in World War I to save a division of their countrymen from annihilation. The decision to make it one take has a purpose, allowing you to take in how incredibly exhausting their journey is, both physically and emotionally. It's a movie that doesn't glamorize war, but does try to honor the men who fight and die in it.

9. Marriage Story

Noah Baumbach generally does comedies about contemporary adult life, but he's been known to veer into drama at times, and Marriage Story is probably his most dramatic work. A lot of divorce stories show a marriage falling apart, but Marriage Story skips to the part where it's clearly over, and covers the messiness of the legal side of the separation. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play the central couple, both with their charms and still having feelings for each other, but unable to go on sharing a life. It's clear that their characters are at least loosely based on Baumbach and his ex-wife, and it's interesting to look at how they're balanced in the story. Johansson's character is the one who initiated the divorce, feeling like she had no control of her life, and doesn't have as many clear flaws as Driver's does. But the story still seems to tend towards Driver's perspective, especially once he feels blindsided by his wife moving to Los Angeles and bringing their son with her. It's heartbreaking watching the relationship get more contentious as the realities of two adults separating their lives, especially with a child involved, complicate what seemed like it could have been less painful. There are a few comedic moments that keep the movie from being a slog, and the performances of the whole cast deserve the accolades they're getting.

8. Avengers: Endgame


The Marvel Cinematic Universe is still going, but I wouldn't blame anyone who felt like hopping off the ride after Endgame. It's the culmination of 12 years and 22 movies worth of successful mass market storytelling. The fact that it not only isn't an incoherent mess but pays off in all the ways people hoped it would is a miracle. I'm not sure we'll ever see anything like the first "saga" of the MCU again. The opening section of the film is successful at selling the drama and horror of a world that has lost so much. The second act is both a fun tribute to the history of the series and a screwball time travel adventure, with some pathos thrown in. And the final battle is just a smorgasbord of dramatic conclusions to character arcs and entertaining fan service moments. It's not high cinema, but there's a reason it's the highest grossing movie ever made.

7. Us


Us is a lot messier than Jordan Peele's first movie as a director. It has a really big concept behind it, one that seems to make less sense the more you think about it. But I think I may have liked it more than Get Out anyway. It has a lot on its mind, big ideas about America and freedom and class, and it's also more successful as a horror film. Get Out had creepy moments, but Us comes closer to being truly terrifying at moments, and the imagery of it will stick in your mind long afterward. Really, the whole movie stuck with me, which is probably more important than making total logical sense. There's a lot going on in Us, and it certainly would reward watching it more than once. Not too many horror movies can say that.

6. Midsommar


The negative reactions I have seen to Midsommar are interesting. I've seen complaints that the characters are unlikable, it's not very scary, and it's not very unpredictable. None of those things are false, but none of them seemed like flaws to me, because it doesn't seem like it was trying to be scary or unpredictable or have likable characters. There's a sense of inevitability to the movie, as people start disappearing and the others just continue on as if in a daze. It's a movie about trauma and mental health and drugs and shitty friends, and the way the central character gets pulled into the world she's entered is more disturbing than any simple attempts to shock or frighten the viewer. Not that it totally avoids being a horror movie, there are a few moments of gore that should unsettle pretty much anybody. It's a horror movie that takes place almost entirely in daylight, and that idea of everything being right in front of you and it still working is not just an aesthetic choice but the whole point of the movie.

5. Knives Out


Rian Johnson hops off the franchise train for a bit and returns to what he's known for - taking a genre that hasn't gotten much attention and doing it as well as any of the classics you can name. This time it's murder mysteries, with the patriarch of a wealth family seemingly killing himself and an oddball detective taking it upon himself to sniff out what he suspects was really foul play. Every member of the family has a reason they may have wanted the old man dead, but which one of them actually did it? The film quickly diverts from this story in unexpected ways, but it never stops being a thrilling and funny romp. It also does a great job of skewering upper class white people, who can be perfectly friendly and open minded until things stop going their way. Johnson has discussed doing sequels with Daniel Craig's absurdly accented detective character, and I'd love to see them.

4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood


It's indulgent as hell, but what do you expect from late-career Quentin Tarantino? Hollywood is his love letter to his youth and the movies and celebrities he adored growing up. It's also an opportunity to play around a bit with genre from scene to scene. When an actor played by Leonardo DiCaprio and his bodyguard/stunt double played by Brad Pitt are hanging out, it's a nice, loose buddy comedy. When DiCaprio is doing an acting job just to get a paycheck, he returns to the Western setting he's explored in his last couple movies. When Pitt visits the famous Spahn Ranch after learning about the weird group that's staying there, it feels like a tense horror or thriller flick. And of course it ends in a Tarantinian explosion of brutal yet somehow satisfying violence. You probably know if you like his style or not and this isn't likely to change your mind. It's maybe a bit aimless in comparison, but I still had a really good time.

3. The Irishman

Excepting a TV pilot, this is Martin Scorsese's first work in the gangster genre in over a decade. He's decidedly an old man at this point, and we find him reflecting on what a life of violence is really worth. A lot of talk has been about the movie's immense length and the de-aging computer effects, and those can be talked about, but they're not really what interests me. I don't think I've ever seen a violent mob movie that so thoroughly repudiates mob violence. The first couple hours are a solid exploration of the genre, but then after the masterfully tense and regretful climax, we have the long denouement, as the characters tally up their successes and losses and realize how little it was all worth in the end. It has one of the best final shots and final lines I've seen in a movie. It's another masterpiece in a career of them.

2. The Lighthouse


The Lighthouse isn't the easiest movie to categorize. Largely I'd say it's a psychological horror movie, but if so, it's an odd one. It focuses on the complicated relationship of the master of a lighthouse on a remote island and his new assistant. The master can be friendly when he wants, and seems casual about the official rules when it suits him, but he is also a pain to be around and vindictive when he perceives shortcomings in his employee. The assistant struggles to adapt to the situation in a graceful way, which is understandable, but it seems as though he was driven to the post through something in his past he'd rather not speak of, and it's hard to pin down just how sympathetic he should really be. He is haunted by strange visions, nightmares, and a desire to make a connection, and you start to feel the loss connection of reality that he is clearly experiencing himself. It's a weird, funny, frightening movie that pushes a lot of buttons that I like to see get pushed. And the two performances by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are great. I'll gladly watch anything Robert Eggers decides to make.

1. Parasite


A lot has been said about the message of Parasite, and rightly so. It's critical of the class divide in South Korea, but it's a divide that has proven resonant for people all over the planet. There's a justifiable rage against the ultra wealthy living well at the expense of the less fortunate everywhere, and the fact that so many of those ultra wealthy are claiming Parasite as a movie they loved just proves its point that they have no idea what world they are living in. But all of that kind of elides that the movie itself is just brilliantly crafted from start to finish. Bong Joon-ho is one of my favorites of current Korean directors, and Parasite could be his best work. Every single shot seems fully thought out and expertly designed to further the story he's telling. In addition, the whole cast is great, from Song Kang-ho, who he's been working with for over a decade, to newcomers like Park So-dam. It gets darker than you might expect at first, but Parasite is still the best time I had with a new movie in 2019.

Delayed Entry

This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2019 but I didn't see until then.

Mandy

Sometimes you just vibe with a movie, you know? I expected to like Mandy, but I didn't quite expect to fall in love with it so thoroughly. It felt like I was in an actual trance at times, which makes sense with how ethereal it feels and how the central characters are usually on some sort of drugs. Mandy is beautiful and ugly, funny and haunting, with a great soundtrack and a perfect performance from Nicolas Cage. It is sometimes both incredibly real and wonderfully unreal. I don't know, man. It's great.

Best Movies of 2015

Stop me if this sounds familiar: there were a lot of movies released last year that I wanted to see and didn't get a chance to yet, but I still think these ones I did see were pretty good!

Best of 2015

9. Ant-Man


You can make a case that the smaller of Marvel Studios' two movies this year was the better one, focusing on a single story and letting the characters breathe and get to know each other naturally. Ant-Man is one of the funniest super hero movies ever made, with a lot of the talent involved having a strong comedy background. It also has some very clever action scenes built around the title character's ability to shrink and return to his original size at will. I'm very confident in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, knowing that they can take pretty much any property and turn it into a solid movie that makes good money pretty much at will.

8. Star Wars: The Force Awakens


For me, The Force Awakens stuck a little too closely to the original films with its visuals and plot, and it kind of rushed from place to place without letting anything new develop. Still, it looks really nice, the cast is amazing, I like all the new characters, and they put together a strong foundation for the series going forward. I just wish it felt less like a stepping stone for Disney and more like a great movie on its own terms. I love Star Wars, and I can't blame the creators for wanting to win back my trust after the prequels.

7. Love & Mercy


Love & Mercy tells two different stories about Brian Wilson at very different times in his life, starring two different actors. It's an interesting experiment that works well. I preferred the scenes in the 60s that told the tale of Wilson's efforts to create what many consider the best album ever made, but the parts in the 80s, that show a more difficult time in his life when he was struggling against a controlling therapist, are also interesting. The movie uses sound very creatively to depict the odd way Wilson's mind works, and it's a well constructed film about a great artist without being a hagiography.

6. Avengers: Age of Ultron


I think a lot of people were disappointed in Age of Ultron because they didn't feel giddy leaving the theater like they did after the first Avengers movie. Age of Ultron is more complicated, trying to explore the downsides to a bunch of super heroes running around doing what they want and the problems that occur when only they can deal with the messes they create themselves. It's almost too big a story to handle in a single movie, and you can see the cracks where they shoved things in too tightly to fit. But I really liked the themes of responsibility and self-doubt it went into, and I also liked watching a bunch of strong guys and girls beating up robots.

5. Kingsman: The Secret Service


Kingsman is like if you took a typical James Bond movie and stripped away all the bullshit and euphemisms it uses to hide how ugly those stories can really be. White colonialism disguised as progress for impoverished nations? Let's have a plot about rich people literally trying to kill every poor person on Earth. Sex as a final reward for saving the day in the end? Let's depict that way past the point where it's still comfortable. Matthew Vaughn's films are often smarter than they get credit for, and that trend continues here. It also has some exceptionally well filmed action scenes and a great cast all putting in good work.

4. Ex Machina


Ex Machina holds its cards close to its chest for a long time, which makes it all the more memorable and satisfying when it finally pulls the trigger on where its plot is going. A sense of menace pervades the whole film, but it's coming from one direction until near the end, and when the switch finally happens, it creates an odd mix of emotions that you're not sure how to deal with. It's a great story about artificial intelligence, a concept which has generally gotten a bit stale, and just a darn good science fiction film in general. The small cast is quite good, with two The Force Awakens actors appearing in very different roles.

3. Tangerine

"Shot on an iPhone" is a phrase that might not inspire a ton of confidence, but honestly, if I didn't know that going in, I would have had no idea. It's just a nice looking movie that captures a side of Los Angeles you don't usually see. Tangerine is about two transgender prostitutes (played by actual transgender actresses!) spending a Christmas Eve together as one looks for her cheating boyfriend and the other tries to keep her from getting out of control. The movie is funny, sweet, and touching, not trying to be about Big Issues but just showing that humanity is everywhere, even with the kinds of people you might not spend much time with.

2. The Hateful Eight


In an interview earlier this year, Quentin Tarantino said he wants to make one more western so that he can be considered a "western director". I'm not sure why that interested me so much. I guess it's just unusual that he would want to be known for working in a genre that has all but disappeared since he's been alive. In any case, he knows that world of cinema inside and out, and as much as I'd like to see another contemporary movie from him, I won't mind if he keeps it up with the period pieces for as long as he wants. The Hateful Eight is not the crowd pleaser his last couple movies have been. Despite the much-talked about 70 mm presentation, it takes place mostly in a single room. And he didn't pick "hateful" to describe its central characters just because it rhymes with "eight". This is a mean-ass movie about mean-ass people doing mean-ass things. And it doesn't end well for them. Before the end though, it has everything Tarantino is known for. Great acting, delicious dialogue, sudden and extreme violence, and jumping around in time. It's probably too ponderous for some, but I loved this movie.

1. Mad Max: Fury Road


Mad Max: Fury Road is a miracle. Of the many sequels in 2015 that came many years after the last entry in the series, Fury Road is the only one directed by a guy who worked on the originals. George Miller is 70 years old, and hasn't made an action movie since the last Mad Max, 30 years earlier. I also never particularly connected with the original movies, thinking they were fine but not much more. So it's kind of amazing that this 70 year old man, who hadn't done this kind of thing for much longer than he had been doing it in the first place, came back and kicked everyone else's asses. Fury Road is pure action filmmaking, telling a story and thrilling the audience with little more than tightly crafted, well-edited visuals, the occasional word of memorable dialogue, and a pure expression of excitement and wonder. It's been described as one long action scene, but there are enough breaks that allow the characters moments of reflection and variations in the different segments of the chase that it never gets monotonous or uninteresting. The action expertly combines practical stunts and vehicles with computer generated effects to create some absolutely stunning images, scenes that I will remember for years after I've forgotten all the bland, unmotivated explosions that pepper so many other films.

Delayed Entry

This is the best movie that wasn't released in 2015 but I didn't see until then.

Her

Her is not only the best old movie I saw last year, but one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's one of the best science fiction movies, and one of the best love stories. It also combines those two elements brilliantly, with both feeding into each other and being necessary for the other to work. Joaquin Phoenix has become one of my favorite actors lately, and he makes his character, a man who falls in love with his computer, believable and likable. Scarlett Johansson also does amazing work with just her voice, bringing life to the AI and making you believe a guy could come to love her. The movie explores love and loneliness honestly, and just grabbed me harder than most movies ever manage.

Four Rooms

So Four Rooms is a bit odd. It's an anthology film, featuring segments by two filmmakers I like, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, and two that I've never heard of, whose names I've forgotten. It takes place in a hotel during New Year's Eve, and tells small stories in four different rooms all featuring Tim Roth as a strange bellhop who's new to the job. The two unknowns go first, and the segments tend to improve as the film goes on. You'd like a bit more consistency in this format, but at least getting better with time is superior to getting worse. Apparently Richard Linklater was supposed to do a fifth segment early on, but he pulled out before production started. That would have been interesting, but the movie really didn't need to be longer than it was.

The first segment features a coven of witches performing a ritual in their room, and the supernatural elements don't exactly jive with the rest of the film. All of the pieces are sort of different stylistically though, so it isn't a huge deal. It's sort of funny, although in the first two segments Roth's performance is just a bit too weird and inhuman, while Rodriguez makes him more angrily maniacal and Tarantino chills him out quite a bit. The second part has Roth caught up in an unusual roleplay with a husband and wife, which like the first is a bit hit or miss.

The third segment has Antonio Banderas, fresh off my favorite film of his (Desperado), as cool as ever taking his wife to a party and leaving Roth in charge of looking after their two kids in the hotel room. I liked this one a lot, as early on it captures the feeling of being a bored kid in an unfamiliar place as well as anything I've ever seen, and it starts getting really insane as it goes on, culminating in a highly unlikely and entertaining situation that wouldn't seem out of place in an R rated Warner Bros. cartoon, complete with appropriately half-witty, half-corny punchline.

I'm not sure if I preferred Rodriguez' segment or Tarantino's, which is very much in his traditional style, with a lot of long takes, extreme profanity, and unexpected violence played for laughs. Tarantino casts himself as an eccentric and successful film director, Marisa Tomei has a highly entertaining single scene on the phone with Roth, and Bruce Willis shows up in an uncredited role for fun. It has a strong mix of humor, rising tension, and humor again, topping the film off in a way I've come to expect from one of my favorite filmmakers. Four Rooms really isn't a great movie, but it's an interesting experiment with plenty of fun moments.

Best Movies of 2009

Every year it seems like I intend to get out and see more movies, and every year I fail once again. I only visited the theater nine times, and only managed to at least catch one new movie at home before writing this. Quite shameful. It didn't exactly strike me as the best year, with only one film I'd call outstanding in addition to a handful of solid genre stuff. I should have at least seen the new Coen movie, though.

Best of 2009

7. The Men Who Stare at Goats


I'm not sure what's holding me back from really embracing this movie, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Any time a comedy takes a few steps away from the traditional beats of the genre, it's usually worth at least a try, and this film makes for a nice mix of relevance and sci-fi absurdity. Plus it's hard to go wrong with that cast.

6. The Hangover

There really isn't that much that separates this movie from the pack of mainstream comedy, but the likability of the whole cast and especially Zach Galifianakis' breakout role just make it work. It was a bit of a risk letting him do his own thing in what is otherwise fairly standard stuff, but thankfully it seems to have been a good idea. Definitely hits the ceiling for this sort of movie.

5. Avatar


Flawed yes, but ultimately I find Avatar much easier to like than hate. It's already the second highest grossing movie worldwide ever, after of course Cameron's last movie, but I actually enjoyed this one for the most part, and it didn't do the disservice of putting me off one of the best actors currently in his 30s for about a decade.

4. Zombieland


Just a straight-up fun movie and one of the best surprises of the year. I don't know how much the writers being handed Deadpool affects the possibility of sequels going forward, but I'm not sure they're necessary. Just showing a snippet of life in the zombie apocalypse was all they had to do, and it worked out pretty well in pretty much any way you could hope. Good times.

3. District 9


I didn't love it like it seemed most of the online community did, but it was still a well done, passionate film that had something to say. It's striking how similar it is to Avatar in some ways, but District 9 isn't weighed down by a budget in the hundreds of millions and a need to make that all back, allowing it to take chances and present a more interesting, darker vision. And I won't get tired of watching people explode into splashes of red goo for a long time.

2. Star Trek


I've seen 79 episodes and seven films in this series, and I enjoyed this the most pretty easily. We'll see how much longer its success can carry my interest in exploring the decades-old franchise, but in case I'll always enjoy it for being a relatively intelligent space travel movie with a very likable cast and wonderfully paced adventure. You know, I didn't even realize Eric Bana was the villain while I was watching it? That was odd. I need to see it again now that I know Bones is awesome.

1. Inglourious Basterds


Basterds wasn't really what anyone who didn't read the script expected. And for some people that was a very bad thing. They wanted a couple hours of Brad Pitt and some Jews kicking Nazi ass, and instead they got a lot of long scenes mostly depicting extended conversations between some Europeans. And they were disappointed. For those people, I am very sorry that they didn't get it. I could have enjoyed what the trailers seemed to promise, but what I actually got was so much smarter, and better, and well, more Quentin Tarantino. He had the audacity to end the movie by having Brad Pitt look at the audience and essentially call the film his masterpiece, and you know what, I think it was. Fantastic movie.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino's last couple films, the Kill Bill series and Death Proof, were a bit different than his first few. They feel similar in a lot of ways, but they're ultimately genre films whereas his others were not, although they did pay homage to certain periods and styles. Based on advertisements, I thought Basterds might follow suit, as a sort of road/war movie featuring a band of hardened killers. And parts of the movie are exactly that. But only parts - the basterds are but one aspect of the two and a half hour film, one that I enjoyed immensely and just might have taken Pulp Fiction's place as my favorite by the eccentric director.

Tarantino has previously called Basterds a spaghetti western in WWII, and "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France" was once a considered title for the movie, and ended up as the name for the first chapter. Yeah, he's back to the chapters thing, and the film is a story in five parts. The first two are twenty minute vignettes that could work as shorts on their own, and basically establish the major players. There's Hans Landa, AKA "The Jew Hunter", the primary antagonist and quite possibly Tarantino's best character ever. Christoph Waltz turns in a completely stunning performance that got him an award at Cannes and should earn him some nominations next Spring. Shosanna Dreyfus is a French Jew who escaped death and runs a cinema. Lt. Aldo Raine is played to great humorous effect by Brad Pitt and leads the basterds, a unit of American Jews, to disrupt the Nazi war effort inside France. After these introductions, the next three chapters introduce, develop, and resolve the main plot - a new propaganda film (directed in real life by Eli Roth, creator of the Hostel series and starring as the enjoyably menacing and slightly crazy basterd known as "The Bear Jew" by the Germans) is being premiered in Paris, and a plan is concocted to burn it to the ground while a bunch of important Nazis are still inside. As you might guess with a Tarantino movie, there are multiple forces at work and things don't go quite as planned at any point.

As is his trademark, the movie features lots of long, leisurely conversations. The entire first chapter is a single scene where we learn to absolutely fear Landa, and all he does is drink some milk, smoke from an absurd pipe, and talk to a French farmer. There's a moment where they switch from French to English in a slightly clunky way, and you might think it's just the film excusing having foreign characters speak what the audience can understand. But it's just a clever subversion, as there's a specific reason the switch is made and the rest of the movie sees the majority of its dialogue be spoken by French people speaking French, German people speaking German, or whatever is appropriate. There's some humor in the subtitles too, as occasionally an obvious word will remain in its original language, such as "merci" appearing instead of "thank you". I was a bit surprised at the amount of foreign dialogue, but I appreciated it. The movie sure as hell ain't historically accurate, but it does feel fairly authentic, and the use of language goes a long way. Whereas Tarantino used dialogue in other films to mostly entertain the viewer and establish character, here it's all about building tension. A quite lengthy sequence in a German bar might have been interminable in less able hands, but I loved every minute as it slowly goes from funny, to uncomfortable, to downright dangerous. You can tell where it's going, but every step there can be excruciating.

I've seen a couple people praise the acting but dismiss Tarantino's direction, which seems foolish to me. You're not going to get a lot of good performances out of actors if you don't know how to direct them, unless they're seasoned thespians or something. When it's this universally good throughout the movie, maybe the guy behind it all deserves some credit. I mean, look at Diane Kruger. She's been in her share of movies, both in Hollywood and Germany, and she's never impressed anyone to my knowledge with anything but her looks. And here she is in Basterds, perfectly capturing the 40's movie star persona in one scene and completely desperate and disheveled in the next. She was seriously great, and she's just one of many, many actors you can say that about. The movie is shot pretty beautifully and traditionally by Tarantino, although it also has several touches of flair like the brief cutaway sequences narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and anachronistic music because while it doesn't make sense, damn it, this is his movie and he'll do what he wants. The soundtrack is mostly (entirely?) made up of songs taken from other movies, primarily those westerns, and it works pretty damn beautifully with the mood he creates. One scene in particular with Melanie Laurent, who's alternately charmingly sympathetic and frighteningly vengeful as Shosanna, as she prepares for something while a David Bowie song plays in the background is a great encapsulation of this. The brief gun fights are fairly normal if enjoyably chaotic and rapid, but it does tend to linger on some other violent moments, usually to brutal, darkly humorous effect. The climax is wonderfully explosive and hellish. The final scene, with Pitt in the same form he's been in the whole time and BJ Novak (most recognizable from The Office) as his calm companion, is a perfect ending to a film I seriously loved and can't wait to see again.

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown is a bit of an oddity. It's Quentin Tarantino's third and probably least remembered film. One of the only stories he's done that wasn't his own, he took the plot from an Elmore Leonard novel (Who wrote many things that were adapted to screen, like 3:10 to Yuma) and reworked it into a tribute to 70's blaxploitation films, even starring a veteran of the genre, Pam Grier. Another big character is played by Robert Forster, who was also a long-time actor without a ton of success, and whom I only recognize from recent episodes of the increasingly-shitty Heroes. I guess Tarantino likes reviving people's careers. Some really big names (at least for the time) like Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton play smaller parts, but the movie focuses on Grier, Forster, and the always cool Samuel L. Jackson, who by the way turns 60 next month, can you believe that?

Anyway, Jackie Brown is a pretty solid crime movie, if not up to the standards of Tarantino's other work. It does a lot of things well that you expect from him, like clever dialogue that's just fun to listen to and some interesting decisions made with the filming. For some reason, I always seem to like the way he handles important scenes, especially violent ones. You can just sort of tell when something bad will happen, but it's still surprising to see how it actually comes about. Jackson is about as entertaining here as he was in Pulp Fiction, and the cast in general does a good job with the script.

On the other hand, the movie has some of the problems he's known for, too. If there's one thing he needs to learn as a filmmaker, it's how to let a scene go. Maybe he just needs a more assertive editor. Jackie Brown is indisputably too long. This isn't an epic crime drama, it just wants to be. It has all the makings of a tightly woven, thrilling movie, it just has an extra half-hour stapled on. Too many scenes don't really serve the plot, just add character where it isn't needed or go on for too long. Showing the same important moment from three different perspectives is a somewhat interesting creative choice, but there's no reason it couldn't have worked with all three cut together and a lot of time saved. It just sort of feels like an unnecessary flourish. And I know he likes to follow characters around with really long tracking shots, but I'm not sure anyone else does. Tarantino took a long break from directing after this movie, and I've never really heard why, and Kill Bill's running length suggests it wasn't to rethink his style. Whatever the reason, it wasn't because he made a decent if unexceptional genre film.

Best Movies of 2007

It was a decent year for movies, with plenty of good ones, if maybe none that truly astounded me. In particular, it was a good year for Judd Apatow. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Hot Fuzz were both very humorous pokes at certain genres of film. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters and Futurama: Bender's Big Score were both enjoyable extensions of good cartoon series. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the second out of the five Potter films I actually considered good. Instead of mixing in normal images I'll add DVD covers as they come out.

Best of 2007

8. Grindhouse


Grindhouse turned out to be a flop, which is a shame, as it was a very entertaining diversion from the normal theater experience. Its two parts were different yet the same, capitalizing on the ridiculousness and sleaziness of a certain kind of movie that you don't see as much anymore. I liked Planet Terror a bit more, but had fun throughout.

7. 300

This is mostly a special achievement award for its awesome visual style, but 300 was a good time. As an actual film, it wasn't as great as most people seem to think, but it was still very entertaining, with tremendous action scenes (even if that was mostly just interesting use of slow motion) and a simple story that's still pretty effective. Best use of burly, bearded men in 2007.

6. I Am Legend

The way the ending was changed to better fit the Hollywood mold is a bit lame, but I still thought it was an underrated, unique sort of blockbuster, with a tremendous performance by Will Smith and and atmosphere that stuck with me longer than most movies of the sort. Still annoyed by the rampant CG and some plot holes, but I can't help liking it a lot.

4. Knocked Up/Superbad (tie)


In the end, I couldn't choose between Judd Apatow's two comedy giants. They're really two sides of the same coin, both vulgar and hilarious, both about different aspects of growing up. Gun to my head, I probably pick Knocked Up since it was a little more consistent, but there's too much good stuff in Superbad to go against it when I don't have to. It's my stupid blog that no one reads, I can do what I want.

3. The Bourne Ultimatum


Best action movie I've seen in a while. The fact they were able to keep the tension so absurdly high without resorting to the typical tropes of the genre is impressive, as Damon continues to solidify as one of the best actors of his generation. The climax of the movie wraps up the trilogy in a neat bow, but there's still an opportunity to keep it going, and I hope they do.

2. No Country for Old Men


Funny, exciting, but ultimately bleak and depressing, I appreciate it more than I actually like it. I love the Coen brothers, and this is perhaps their best made film, but I can't quite say I want to see it again anytime soon. It might just be a subconscious mental backlash, because I know I enjoyed it while I was watching it. It takes some strange turns at the end, which could have also had an effect. In any case, if you haven't seen it, you should, even if it's just because Javier Bardem is one of the best villains ever.

1. Juno


I'm glad I saw Juno, because as good as No Country was, I didn't really want to call it my movie of the year. Juno is about as funny as anything else this year, and has a huge heart as well. Sometimes, you can't quite describe why you thought a movie was great, you just get a nice feeling in your chest that doesn't go away until long after you've left the theater. Juno was like that. The music still annoys me, but everything else was pitch perfect.

Movie Update 2: 2007 In Theaters

Here's what I went to see so far this year, in chronological order.

Ghost Rider


This was a stupid movie, but the people making it knew that, and they benefited because of it. It never takes itself too seriously. It's not exactly campy, it just has the right tone to it. I like Nicolas Cage a lot, I just think he's had a really weird career. He always plays odd characters, and he's rarely spectacular, but usually plays his part well and enjoyably. He makes a lot of bad movies, but it's hard to care because he makes just enough good movies to keep you on his side.

The visual effects are decent, but yet again, we have a super hero/comic book movie that has nice looking action scenes that don't have enough action. The transformation from actor into flaming skull head is well done thanks to the computer effects and Nick's acting, but once he's changed he just drives around quickly on his motorcycle and gets in very short battles with half-baked demonic enemies. They aren't that interesting as foes, and they don't get a chance to make a case for themselves because they get dispatched within moments of confronting the hero. The final bad guy makes more of a stand, but the way he's defeated is still a cop-out. The X-Men and Spider-Man movies are still the only series in this decade's wave of super-hero movies to have decent fights in them. Ghost Rider is enjoyable, but definitely a few rungs below the better stuff Marvel has done in film.

300


I think I should read some Frank Miller comics if they're really as interesting as the movies based on them. I thought Sin City was awesome, and 300 is just as visually interesting. I have to wonder how much of it is Frank's source material and how much is Zack Snyder's direction. Regardless of how good a comic is, putting something to film is different. I don't think Snyder's a bad director, but his remake of Dawn of the Dead, while decent, wasn't nearly this good looking. Considering that all of the sets are digitally constructed and a lot of the beauty comes from slow motion, it's possible neither are chiefly responsible for the look of the movie.

It starts off slow, but once it gets to the battle scenes, 300 really takes off. It gets made fun of, but it uses quick transitions between slow and quick motion to great effect. It adds a lot of style to the fights, and they're a ton of fun to watch. The movie is really bloody too, filled with detailed decapitations and cartoony blood spray. The movie itself is a little contrived plot-wise, but it's a satisfying backdrop for the violence.

Grindhouse


What's interesting is how different the two main features of Grindhouse are while still maintaining the tone and atmosphere they were going for. Planet Terror is a ridiculous, over the top zombie movie filled with guns, gore, disgusting bodily functions, and horror cliches. Robert Rodriguez doesn't make brilliant movies, but he is noteworthy for how cheaply, quickly, and well he puts together his productions. His part is funny and action-packed, and his trailer segment, Machete, with Danny Trejo, is comic gold.

Death Proof is much slower paced and scaled back, but still very entertaining. The first half seems kind of pointless, as it spends a lot of time developing characters that just get killed. It's fairly enjoyable as it's happening, since Quentin Tarantino still knows how to write good dialog, but you kind of wonder afterwards why it was there. The second half starts similarly, with a bunch of girls talking about nothing, but gets better when Kurt Russel tries to do his vehicular manslaughter thing again. It's easy when you do it like he did the first time, but a little harder when two of the three girls in the car are professional stunt people. It leads into a long car chase, that's still a little quiet compared to Planet Terror, but quite good in its own right. It comes to an end a little abruptly, but it's still funny how it happens. Combining the two features with the scratchy film, hilarious fake trailers, and missing real jokes, and Grindhouse is a very fun, long experience at the movies.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters


I was curious how the makers of a show that lives off of random absurdity would stretch that into a full length movie, and it turns out, they just made a long episode. Aqua Teen was always weird, but it was funny because the characters were well acted and had a lot of good lines, so it really isn't that hard to translate. All of the most popular recurring characters return, and none of them feel wasted. There are also some funny new additions, particularly a pair of government agents who seem convinced their enemies are invisible. The movie does a good job of finally explaining the origin of the characters which is hinted at in the show's background and end credits, and while it gets convoluted, it's for comedic effect.

The best part of the movie is the beginning, where movie theater food items sing a song about how you should act at the theater. It doesn't sound great, but believe me, it's hilarious. The makers finally had free reign to have the characters say and do anything they want, and there's plenty of great stuff there without going overboard. The movie works, it's funny, and you should see it if you like the characters. It has a pretty good soundtrack too. If you do see it, make sure to stay after the end credits.

Best of 2006 Redux: V For Vendetta

I somehow forgot about this movie when making my list of the best movies from last year, and it definitely would have made the cut. I guess that's what happens when you make a list over a year since that year began.

Anyway, V is yet another movie based on a comic book. The writer came out publicly against the film, and I'm not sure why. It may not be quite as good, but it maintains the spirit of the book while updating it for the modern age. Hugo Weaving proves he can be more than a good villain, as he expertly speaks the poetic lines and manages to make a character interesting without the use of his face. The movie's evil fascist regime obviously has some parallels to Bush's administration, and the fact that some of them noticed it shows they did what they wanted. It's a smart action movie that has a good story and doesn't rely on violence, which makes the superb final fight a complete bonus. It's one of the best stylized pieces of choreographed combat I've seen in a while. A well done movie with a strong message.