Review 2007: the Films

If we learnt anything in 2007, it was to avoid films where the title is set in Red Hot Futura Extrabold or Gill Sans Display — see [here], [here], [here] and [here]. The more distorted or ‘3D effect’ the type, the more arduous the film. Mainstream Hollywood films continued to rely more on their marketing spend and less on quality or originality. When you see a mainstream Hollywood film these days you can almost see the guys in cheap suits peering through the two-way glass into yet another focus group, mentally stripping the film down to the bare necessities it needs to appeal to commonherd America. In some weirdly subtle response, a lot of the mainstream cinema chains (well in the UK, at least) became increasingly lack-lustre in their presentation. That certain ’specialness’ that makes seeing a film at the cinema preferable to seeing one from the comfort of your sofa [sofacinema.co.uk] has been tarnished somehow. Vue in Leicester Square [cinematreasures.org] has seen fit to do away with the human-in-a-ticket-box in favour of a credit card machine. Yerg! Still, as always, there were a few nuggets of goodness to chew on this year as long as you knew where to look…

Inland Empire [imdb.com]
You have to make time for David Lynch’s [davidlynch.com] Inland Empire. If you’re a ‘quick fix’ kinda cinema goer (which I can be sometimes too) then this film would have had you pulling your hair out in the cinema. I wrote a brief review when it came out and then bought the DVD and am still watching it every now and then. Mr Lynch’s technique of letting a film build itself scene by scene means you can dip in and out of it if you like or just hone in on the scenes you find intense, funny or whatever. This is film making for film lovers and a must see if you’ve ever enjoyed sitting in the dark for a couple of hours and having your head fed.
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Disturbia [imdb.com]
The easiest way to describe Disturbia is like a modern take on Hitchcock’s Rear Window for today’s not-especially troubled teens, where our protagonist has a angle tag instead of a wheelchair and a hot babe in the swimming pool next door instead of Grace Kelly and her overnight kit. It wasn’t necessarily clever but it was thrilling without dipping it’s toe in the torture porn tub and fun in a way ‘gross-out’ comedies haven’t been for a long time.
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F for Fake [imdb.com]
F for Fake was released on DVD this year as part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series [eurekavideo.co.uk]. This is Orson Wells at his most mischievous and inventive. Apparently made in answer to well-known critic Pauline Kael’s insinuation that Welles stole the script for Citizen Kane, the film partially documents a couple of famous 70s fraudsters living it up in Ibiza, a painter of fake masterpieces and the man who penned the fake biography of Howard Hughes and ends as a lesson on cinema and the suspension of disbelief. It’s fast, mind-boggling fun.
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Electroma [imdb.com]
This was the year we got to see French dance act Daft Punk’s first foray into feature film making minus their own original, custom built soundtrack. It’s an audacious and possibly overly simplistic film. The fact that their is no dialogue should tell you it’s a bit of a test but the visuals are often reward enough. You enjoyment totally depends on your state of mind at the time. My suggestion: watch it when you’re feeling relaxed and not up for much of a challenge, you’ll like it a whole lot more.
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Southland Tales [imdb.com]
Southland Tales is as odd as it’s route to the screen… possibly more so. For a start, the cast is so weird. It includes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Mandy Moore, the funny little psychic woman from Poltergeist, The Rock… I mean Dwayne Johnson, Christopher Lambert, Seann William Scott… the weirdness just goes on. Eli Roth even turns up to get shot in one of the shortest scenes you’ll ever see him in. The plot will blow your mind and visits places similar to those last seen in Wild Palms and Mulholland Drive via some pretty catastrophic world events, the words ‘This is the way the world ends’ gets uttered more than a few times. All this from the hot young director who gave us Donnie Darko. Originally around three hours long, this is the two hour version of the film, released after a lot of cut and paste plus a layer of heavy duty CGI and some deliberately dubious (through still pretty hideous) ‘on screen’ graphics had been applied. See it but expect a big mess and very little answers by the end.
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Sunshine [imdb.com]
There seemed to be a real lack of any stand-out or break through films this year. Not to say it was a particularly bad year… it was just sort of ‘middling’. As was Danny Boyle’s first voyage into Science Fiction. Actually, ‘middling’ was unfair. Sunshine is an above average Sci Fi adventure with lush visuals made for the big screen and nice use of some hoary old Sci Fi cliques. The DVD has some pretty cool short films produced by crew members and hand picked by Danny Boyle himself.

There are a few films I never got to see that I’m sure are worth a mention. Control springs to mind and, I’m sure will be on many people’s lists. If you want to add your own review, leave a comment at the end of this post and roll on 2008.