Ten Best Movies of 2007

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I had originally planned to forgo a "best of" list and just talk about all of the movies I enjoyed in this very deep and rich year. After some consideration, though, I decided I should stick my neck out a little bit and go with the best of the best. I'm sure I went with a few outliers and even ignored some consensus picks, but that's why you do these things, right? The hardest films to leave off were Juno, Sicko, Into the Wild and The Devil Came on Horseback--see them all if you haven't already. With that said, here's my ten best.

1. Once

I don't think there's any empirical way to determine what the best movie is in any given year. The tendency is to reward the ambitious and the epic because of the scope of their achievement. Had I gone that route I would have almost certainly picked the film that's currently #2 on my list. It is, by every measure, a masterpiece. This year, though, I did something a little different. Simply put, I selected the movie that I was most excited to share with other people and, hands down, that movie was the heartwarming, heartbreaking Irish musical Once.

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2. Zodiac

Roger Ebert once said something along the lines of, "A good movie is never too long and a bad movie is never short enough." I could have kept watching Zodiac for hours. Though Jake Gyllenhaal is nominally the star, the movie really belongs to Robert Downey, Jr. Many will say that Fight Club is David Fincher's best film, but my vote would go to Zodiac.

3. There Will Be Blood

If Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood isn't the best of the year, it is definitely the most intense and irresistible. His Daniel Plainview is a monster that you can't stop watching. Unlike Paul Thomas Anderson's earlier films, There Will Be Blood doesn't tell a complicated story. It doesn't need to.

4. No Country for Old Men

Rare is the movie featuring three thrilling performances: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are all amazing in dramatically different roles. The Coens have been down for a few years, but with No Country for Old Men they return to their rightful place at the very top of the film world.

5. Rescue Dawn

Overlooked because it came out in the summer and didn't make much money, Rescue Dawn is a film that everyone should catch now that it's out on DVD. Christian Bale is reliably great, but it's the haunted face of Steve Zahn that steals the movie.

6. Hot Fuzz

Though maybe not up to the truly inspired level of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz is still a hilarious send-up of action pictures. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg are my favorite comedic duo of the moment.

7. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

A grimy crime story thick with paranoia, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is Sidney Lumet's best movie in decades. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are perfectly matched as scheming brothers.

8. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Having not played Donkey Kong in years, I wasn't sure what to expect from this documentary. What I got was a classic tale of good vs. evil and the dangers inherent in having too much ambition. King of Kong features the best villain of the year...and he's real!

9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Cold and austere, The Assassination of Jesse James... is Brad Pitt's best film in years. As good as Pitt is as Jesse James, though, it's Casey Affleck as Ford who dominates the film. Another marvelous job by cinematographer Roger Deakins who's a virtual shoo-in for an Oscar this year.

10. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd is Tim Burton's best film since Ed Wood. His latest colloboration with Johnny Depp is a wonderfully wicked adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's gory musical.

Photos courtesy of Fox Searchlight and Paramount Pictures