My Tops of 2007-Movies
RATATOUILLE
"Ratatouille" is, quite simply, the perfect family film ... and so much more. It tells the charming story of a rat who wants to be a chef but can't because, well, he's a health-code violation. And they say originality is dead in Hollywood. No, this computer-generated masterpiece from Pixar Animation Studios is the best so far and more specifically, writer/director/oh, or the living genius Brad Bird. When Disney said no one could make a family movie about creatures as disgusting as rats (let alone one involving cooking), with a difficult to pronounce French title no less, he did it anyway. Bless him. Bird also directed the criminally unsuccessful The Iron Giant as well as Pixar's The Incredibles and with Ratatouille, we can start calling him the new king of animation.
The film connects on many levels. For kids, it teaches an important lesson of acceptance through cute and appealing characters. For adults, it wrestles with far deeper concerns: Is the act of creating a privilege held only by a few? What is the role of food in forming our personal histories? Are mice simply misunderstood? The movie's title comes from a stewed vegetable dish, one of many deliciously well-rendered meals animated with stunning clarity and energy by the Pixar team. You leave hungry, wishing you had a taste of the on-screen delights. And when killjoy food critic Anton Ego, has his first taste of the title dish, it's perhaps the most fulfilling moment from any movie this year.
ZODIAC
Based on his fiendishly artistic, misanthropic and influential dark-fetish classic Se7en we already knew director David Fincher could craft the perfect serial-killer movie. And yet Fincher, being a rebellious director takes on new territory with the stunningly ambitious Zodiac, a movie that goes above and beyond the perceived limitations of the serial-killer genre by becoming not only an intricate study of obsession but also a moody explication of one of our darkest era's, the 1970s. Based on the case of the Zodiac Killer, a mysterious, black-hooded assassin who terrified the San Francisco Bay Area just as the '60s were coming to a close -- the picture boasts horrifying, unnervingly tense sequences of random yet bizarrely ritualistic acts of violence. But the picture's not simply content with its startling death throttles, and instead narrows its focus on three men, so consumed by capturing the elusive killer, that their fervency leading to almost madness, a madness they (and consequently the viewer) cannot shake. Part police practice, part journalistic drama, Zodiac skillfully and densely splits narrative, making for a multifaceted and unexpectedly mordant examination of the era's pessimism and unease, particularly because the crime may never be solved. Like you've seen a true '70s movie, you leave the picture haunted, riddled with unanswered questions and an enveloping sense of dread that clings to you with disturbing firmness.
And in my opinion the best film for 2007 is the one I have seen just few hours ago called
INTO THE WILD
This is an amazing film. I felt moved in a way that happens very rarely and I couldn't help but crying in some of the scenes. It was an inspiration.The feelings it evoked were all based on the power of the acting and the writing. The words were real and human. The relationships seemed real and human. This may not seem like a great achievement but I consider it a true rarity. It didn't feel artificial, like so many movies It was very organic, natural and (I can't say it enough) just beautiful.
Into the wild is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless who after graduating college, and being part of a well off family, he donated his life savings to charity, left all his possessions, and without telling anyone set off with dreams of roughing it in the wilds of Alaska. He takes a journey of recklessness that maybe only a privileged kid could have imagined. Yet there's bravery to its indulgence. He's going nowhere, just living, maybe dying and embracing the adventure.
After two years of hitch hiking through America and running into a host of interesting characters, he finally managed to hitch-hike to Alaska. It's a simple, but very compelling tale.
Into the Wild delivers his journey to your senses. It's an intensely physical movie, yet it's never just physical. Every image (rivers, highways, icy mountains) tells its own story of a terrain that must be met, and then conquered. The people Christopher meets, and touches, along the way are as much a part of the trip as his crash course in wilderness survival. The two hippie wanderers, Mr. Franz an old man wrapped in his loneliness. These are quietly distressed people that you rarely see in movies. Into the Wild is a little too long, yet Christopher's liberation, in a rusty abandoned ''magic bus'' in Alaska, has a dark purity that will haunt anyone willing to take the journey. In my opinion Into the Wild is a very moving and thought-provoking film, and may be destined to become some kind of classic, an Easy Rider, comes to mind, for our times. It's about society and nature, about family, about idealism and aloneness; most of all it's about the dangerous, heartbreakingly brief and beautiful romanticism of youth. In those two years, Chris McCandless lived a whole, remarkable, life. And Sean Penn captured those two years for us, as we would have lived them
If you want a movie from the heart this is it, if you want a movie of love this is it, if you want a movie with real life emotions well this is all of them. Its long but you'll probably want more when you don't want to leave your seat and just live in the moment of the story. So from my heart to yours this movie will speak to you no matter what.
"Ratatouille" is, quite simply, the perfect family film ... and so much more. It tells the charming story of a rat who wants to be a chef but can't because, well, he's a health-code violation. And they say originality is dead in Hollywood. No, this computer-generated masterpiece from Pixar Animation Studios is the best so far and more specifically, writer/director/oh, or the living genius Brad Bird. When Disney said no one could make a family movie about creatures as disgusting as rats (let alone one involving cooking), with a difficult to pronounce French title no less, he did it anyway. Bless him. Bird also directed the criminally unsuccessful The Iron Giant as well as Pixar's The Incredibles and with Ratatouille, we can start calling him the new king of animation.
The film connects on many levels. For kids, it teaches an important lesson of acceptance through cute and appealing characters. For adults, it wrestles with far deeper concerns: Is the act of creating a privilege held only by a few? What is the role of food in forming our personal histories? Are mice simply misunderstood? The movie's title comes from a stewed vegetable dish, one of many deliciously well-rendered meals animated with stunning clarity and energy by the Pixar team. You leave hungry, wishing you had a taste of the on-screen delights. And when killjoy food critic Anton Ego, has his first taste of the title dish, it's perhaps the most fulfilling moment from any movie this year.
ZODIAC
Based on his fiendishly artistic, misanthropic and influential dark-fetish classic Se7en we already knew director David Fincher could craft the perfect serial-killer movie. And yet Fincher, being a rebellious director takes on new territory with the stunningly ambitious Zodiac, a movie that goes above and beyond the perceived limitations of the serial-killer genre by becoming not only an intricate study of obsession but also a moody explication of one of our darkest era's, the 1970s. Based on the case of the Zodiac Killer, a mysterious, black-hooded assassin who terrified the San Francisco Bay Area just as the '60s were coming to a close -- the picture boasts horrifying, unnervingly tense sequences of random yet bizarrely ritualistic acts of violence. But the picture's not simply content with its startling death throttles, and instead narrows its focus on three men, so consumed by capturing the elusive killer, that their fervency leading to almost madness, a madness they (and consequently the viewer) cannot shake. Part police practice, part journalistic drama, Zodiac skillfully and densely splits narrative, making for a multifaceted and unexpectedly mordant examination of the era's pessimism and unease, particularly because the crime may never be solved. Like you've seen a true '70s movie, you leave the picture haunted, riddled with unanswered questions and an enveloping sense of dread that clings to you with disturbing firmness.
And in my opinion the best film for 2007 is the one I have seen just few hours ago called
INTO THE WILD
This is an amazing film. I felt moved in a way that happens very rarely and I couldn't help but crying in some of the scenes. It was an inspiration.The feelings it evoked were all based on the power of the acting and the writing. The words were real and human. The relationships seemed real and human. This may not seem like a great achievement but I consider it a true rarity. It didn't feel artificial, like so many movies It was very organic, natural and (I can't say it enough) just beautiful.
Into the wild is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless who after graduating college, and being part of a well off family, he donated his life savings to charity, left all his possessions, and without telling anyone set off with dreams of roughing it in the wilds of Alaska. He takes a journey of recklessness that maybe only a privileged kid could have imagined. Yet there's bravery to its indulgence. He's going nowhere, just living, maybe dying and embracing the adventure.
After two years of hitch hiking through America and running into a host of interesting characters, he finally managed to hitch-hike to Alaska. It's a simple, but very compelling tale.
Into the Wild delivers his journey to your senses. It's an intensely physical movie, yet it's never just physical. Every image (rivers, highways, icy mountains) tells its own story of a terrain that must be met, and then conquered. The people Christopher meets, and touches, along the way are as much a part of the trip as his crash course in wilderness survival. The two hippie wanderers, Mr. Franz an old man wrapped in his loneliness. These are quietly distressed people that you rarely see in movies. Into the Wild is a little too long, yet Christopher's liberation, in a rusty abandoned ''magic bus'' in Alaska, has a dark purity that will haunt anyone willing to take the journey. In my opinion Into the Wild is a very moving and thought-provoking film, and may be destined to become some kind of classic, an Easy Rider, comes to mind, for our times. It's about society and nature, about family, about idealism and aloneness; most of all it's about the dangerous, heartbreakingly brief and beautiful romanticism of youth. In those two years, Chris McCandless lived a whole, remarkable, life. And Sean Penn captured those two years for us, as we would have lived them
If you want a movie from the heart this is it, if you want a movie of love this is it, if you want a movie with real life emotions well this is all of them. Its long but you'll probably want more when you don't want to leave your seat and just live in the moment of the story. So from my heart to yours this movie will speak to you no matter what.
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