The Unsung Ten

January 03, 2008

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The year-end critics’ lists seem to all be filled with movies about men with dust on their shoes and evil on their mind--There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of What’s-His-Face in Yuma. I’ve been meaning to see all those films but haven’t gotten around to seeing a single one yet. In the meantime, here—in no particular order--are ten movies that I had a ball at this year that I’ve seen practically no one’s Best of ’07 list.

THE TV SET
David Duchovny plays a TV writer/producer going through the soul-crushing ritual of pilot season. Sigourney Weaver plays a shallow network exec and everything that comes out of her mouth makes me howl. She says things like, “Your show is very original, but frankly, original scares me.” I saw this in a theater with a number of TV writers who had lived the horror close-up. I think a few of them were openly weeping.

ZODIAC
Why didn’t this movie get more attention? It was so creepy, atmospheric and engrossing. It reminded me of those classic 70’s movies like All the President’s Men and The Conversation. It started out as kind of serial-killer-on-the-loose thriller then evolved into this fascinating character study. Plus, we got Jake Gyllenhaal and 70’s fashions. That’s a win-win in my book.

SHOWBUSINESS: THE ROAD TO BROADWAY
This is a all-access behind-the-scenes documentary following the journey of four Broadway shows from the 2004 season: Wicked, Avenue Q, Caroline or Change and Taboo. You get to see Kristen Chenoweth being nice in rehearsal (she’s sweet onstage and on!), a gaggle of asshole critics sitting around being asshole critics, Rosie O’Donnell and Boy George having drama, and the underdogs of Avenue Q triumphing over the seasoned vets of Wicked at the Tonys. I wish there was a movie like this made about every theater season.

THE LOOKOUT
Joseph Gordon Levitt has some kind of mental problem—I forget what, it’s been a while—and he gets involved in some kind of robbery scheme. There’s snow in it and small-town banks and that hot British actor from Match Point, Matthew Goode. Writer-director Scott Frank took the time to really develop his characters, so when the crazy stuff starts going done, we know who they are and how they’ll behave.

HOT ROD
Some friends and I saw this Andy Samberg comedy under the stars at the LA Film Festival this summer and we all laughed our asses off. It was a magical night and I left there thinking Samberg’s career as the new Will Farrell was off and running and then the movie came out. America wasn’t having it. What happened? Perhaps I got caught up in the film fest atmosphere and thought it was better than it was—that often happens to me all the time. But I still say it’s worth a rental because Samberg’s funny and sexy (a rarity) and there’s also this endless montage of him falling down a mountain that gets funnier and funnier the longer it goes on.

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