Alright, that does it.

I was going to wait to launch a best-of-the-year-so-far thread until the year was halfway over, as I did last year. I suspected other movie writers like Jeffrey Wells, who gave me the idea last year, would follow suit. But last week a few online writers I’d never heard of started listing their own “best so far” lists, and now Wells himself has posted his own “best so far” list, so I guess it’s now time to follow suit. I’m not sure why this is being done NOW; is it because the release of “Spiderman 3” marks the unofficial beginning of the summer-movie season?

Oh well. Call me a lemming.

My picks:

1. Zodiac
2. Reign Over Me
3. Breach
4. Opera Jawa
5. Away From Her
6. 28 Weeks Later

Worst:

1. Vacancy


Guilty Pleasures

1. Smokin’ Aces


Best Video Discoveries

1. The Devil and Daniel Johnston

--I really do need to work in more international films.

Adam's Apples (Apr 5, Theatre)
Into Great Silence (Jan 25, Theatre)
The Lives Of Others (Mar 27, Theatre)
After The Wedding (Apr 14, Theatre)
Added July 17;
Once (Jun 6, Theatre)
Black Snake Moan (Jul 16, DVD)

And then there are the films I've seen first in 2007 that were definitely 2006 films, or earlier...
Little Children (Jan 1, Theatre)
Pan's Labyrinth (Jan 17, Theatre)
The Girl In The Cafe (Feb 16, DVD)
(maybe Three Times)

Not much I'd be willing to put on a year end list. Only strong contenders at this point are After the Wedding and Lives of Others. If I had to name more, I might consider Venus, Breach, Beyond the Gate, Black Bookand Paris, je t'aime. But I'd really be surprised if more than one or two of those stay with me enough for a best of list.

Best things I've seen for the first time this year are The Sacrifice, The Wind Will Carry Us, The Lives of Others, Into Great Silence, Zodiac, God Grew Tired of Us, and Jindabyne, only four of those will qualify as 2007 releases for my year's-best list. So I guess I'm not ready to do this yet.

I predict that Rescue Dawn will be considered a major disappointment by many Herzog fans. I am not one of them.

I don't know if Alan is going to close this thread, but can you elaborate -- possibly in the dedicated movie thread for this title -- now that the film has opened?

I'm actually surprised and delighted that so many Herzog devotees stood by their man when the filmmaker took his first tentative step into the mainstream. Aside from a few catty rants here and there about the film's lapsing into conventionality (the ending, with Dengler being carried off by a cheering crowd, does seem a little too "Hollywood" for some tastes), the reviews are generally celebratory.

The most interesting piece I've read so far is Anthony Lane's light pan at the New Yorker, and even he has several positive things to say about it. In fact, his only real beef is the lack of hallucinatory power we've come to expect from such a disquietingly surreal director. (I guess he didn't think much of the "tennis shoe" scene, which for me is classic Herzog.)

I really liked this film and I hope the strong reviews will encourage people to see it.

It's been growing on me. As I've mentioned to a few friends, my review is more positive than my reaction during the screening, which was ambivalent. But once I sat down to try to write something, it ended up coming out quite positive. I tried to balance it by adding some words about how difficult it is to watch at times, but that's not a flaw of the film, per se.

"Lack of hallucinatory power" is a strange critique from some. I'm no Herzog expert, but based on what I've seen of his output, this film certainly works some of the same themes. Dieter himself descends into hallucinations, and viewers are made to see things from his point of view. I thought the film succeeded -- wildly -- in getting us to identify with, or feel, Dieter's deprivation.

Hey! I only close threads when posters get locked in a flame war and lack the maturity to stop it.

Sorry. No offense intended. But you also close duplicate threads -- that's what I was thinking of, in light of Darrel's thread launch here. Sorry for the confusion.

In-the-running with four months left to go:

POSSIBLE TOP-TENNERS:
Into Great Silence
Zodiac
Paprika
Away from Her
Ratatouille
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Climates
This is England
No End in Sight

LIKELY IN THE 10-30 RANGE:
Offside
Manufactured Landscapes
The Lookout
Dan in Real Life
La Vie en Rose
Once
The Simpsons Movie
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The Bourne Ultimatum
Waitress
The Host
Jindabyne
Breach
Amazing Grace
God Grew Tired of Us
Inland Empire
Hot Fuzz
Knocked Up

Zodiac, Hot Fuzz and The Simpsons Movie[i] are probably my three favorites of 2007 so far. I've like most of what I've seen in theaters, but very few really stand out as being great or even top ten worthy.

Some other possible contenders would be:

28 Weeks Later
Planet Terror
Knocked Up
The Lookout
Sunshine

The list of films that I'd be willing to include (and have decent chances of being included, although I'm sure year end will push some off this list) in viewing order:

The Lives of Others
After the Wedding
Waitress
Once
Ratatouille
Ben X (I dare any film to knock that out of the number 1 spot this year!)

I'm thinkin' Balls of Fury may be just the film to do it!

Okay, Darrel. This pretty much demands an explanation. Spill the beans, will ya?

Well, I've started a thread on it and mention a bit about it in my report from Le Festival des Films du Monde in Montreal. It is not only a good likelihood of my top film for this year, but probably goes on the all time faves list. An absolutely outstanding film. I'll probably be doing a review in a few days (post jet lag and catching up on other things)

Found the thread, watched the trailer. Looks intense (and intensely moving). Thanks for the reportage, Darrel.

Now that the year end approaches, I invite everyone to post their Faves of 2007 lists on the 2007 Top Ten Lists thread. Just toss up your faves-at-the-moment, and revise the list as you go: lists can stay "in progess" right through to Oscar time. But seeing people's lists is a great way to be reminded of films to see as the year builds to a finish.

Ron

Mine.

And a link to a great New Yorker article on top ten lists.

Nathaniel: Your link pulls up this page.

D'oh!

Fixed.

Do we have a dedicated thread? I can't find one.

I wish I had liked the film as much as you did. The lead actress is quite good, and I liked the visual style -- for about 45 minutes. The film dragged badly after that I thought.

http://artsandfaith.com/index.php?showtopic=15679

Thank you!

Funny thing, I did a search for Piaf with A&F's search function, and it couldn't find this thread.

perhaps you only looked in film and not the subfora. And until your last post, "piaf" didn't appear in this thread.