Most critics believe 2007 was the best movie year of the new millennium. Hard to disagree: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood both came out this year, among some other greats you’ll see, even though PTA isn’t my guy most of the time.
Christopher McCandless is a fascinating dude. Emile Hirsch is excellent infusing McCandless with wide eyed optimism and the joy of discovery and enlightenment. Plus, Alaska’s big country has never looked better…
A beautifully edited story about an inspirational man. You’d think a movie about a guy who can only control his one eye writing a book would be boring, but the creative team finds a way to turn locked in syndrome into a study of living life to the fullest.
The trailer makes you think this is gonna be a ho hum kids fantasy movie. Instead, this movie beautifully showcases the power of imagination, and how that power can help lighten the darkness, even during the darkest times.
Enchanted feels like Disney execs saw The Princess Bride and got pissed they didn’t come up with the idea first. Amy Adams is sensational as Gisele, a Disney princess trope trapped in the real world. Every song and joke has a little bite, but the movie still plants a smile on your face title to credits.
An unholy offspring of a 1970s thriller and a 90s John Grisham Thriller. George Clooney is excellent playing a corporate fixer, who simply, has become unsure of what to fix. This movie helped popularize the opening scene then instant flashback to sometime in the past, to get to the beginning, in addition to just being a wonderfully tense story of professionals action like janitors for the rich and their mistakes.
Ben Affleck rises from rock bottom with this movie he directed. Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck, and Amy Ryan among others are sensational in a twisty morally conflicted tale about a child who gets abducted.
Westerns aren’t exactly in vogue today, and Cormac McCarthy novels are famously hard to adapt. None of that matters to the Coens, who turn this fable into a quite, tense thriller bolstered by a performance of the decade by Javier Bardem.
Superbad’s opposite. This gut punch of a film plays like a thriller, which it can be for a woman in search of an abortion inside of a country opposed to them. Anamaria Marinca gives one of the performances of the year, especially during what should be a lively dinner that she simply has no desire to be at.
John Carney’s breakout film is simply beautiful. This is a story of boy meets girl. Literally. Those are the character’s names. This movie also elevates the movie musical into previously uncharted waters, changing what one could be.
Of the comedies released in the 2000s, this one has a claim of being the most timeless. An R rated comedy about trying to get laid and crunk, this movie launched a bunch of careers while being poignant and funny, starting from Vagtastic Voyage all the way to Tostino’s Pizza Parties in a friend’s basement..
