CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 01/18/08

The Best Films of 2007

edited By david michael wharton

In the midst of a strike that has everyone talking about the contributions of the writer, the CS Weekly staff makes their picks for the screenwriting that had us cheering in 2007.

Peter Clines (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
Fido
Written by Robert Chomiak & Dennis Heaton & Andrew Currie (also directed)
Billy Connolly played the titular undead character who goes from appliance to family pet to father figure in this dark comedy gem that was lumped in with zombie films like Resident Evil: Apocalypse and overlooked. The script took ideas like family, homeland security, and quality of life, then did what good sci-fi and horror is supposed to do—show you the faults and foibles of your own world with a few subtle twists.

In the Valley of Elah
Screenplay by Paul Haggis (also directed)
Story by Mark Boal, based on his article "Death and Dishonor"
In a year of films about how unjustified and awful the Iraq war is, this quiet story by Oscar-winner Haggis focused not on the administration or the soldiers, but on a father (Tommy Lee Jones) who just wants to know what happened to his son on the other side of the world that led to the young man's murder once he returned home. A David and Goliath tale on several levels, there are no easy answers of right or wrong here, even after the killer is found.

There Will Be Blood
Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson
Based on the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis) is the most fascinating character I think I've ever seen on the big screen—conflicted, contradictory, and almost gleefully amoral at times. The screenplay by Anderson knows when silence can carry a scene over a monologue, and trusts its actors to be able to say one thing and mean another. It's really the secret love child of Thomas Hardy, Cormac McCarthy, and John Ford, with more raw power than the most action- and effects-filled movie you've ever dreamed of.

Jason Davis (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
Michael Clayton
Tony Gilroy (also directed)
After the pleasure of interviewing screenwriter Tony Gilroy at Screenwriting Expo 5, I was bowled over by his directorial debut, Michael Clayton. The fixer for a powerful New York law firm, Clayton (George Clooney) is brought in to clean up the nervous breakdown of his colleague, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), on a case that sets a new bar for the cinematic thriller and features one of the best murder scenes ever filmed. Gilroy's script has all the ire of Paddy Chayefsky's Network, charged with the intensity of screenwriter George Axelrod's Manchurian Candidate, and anchored with a protagonist as charismatic and flawed as Casablanca's Richard Blaine.

3:10 to Yuma
Screenplay by Halsted Welles and Michael Brandt & Derek Haas
Based on the short story by Elmore Leonard
The 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma proves there's life yet in the neglected Western drama. Borrowing the best from Halsted Welles' 1957 screenplay, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas concoct a journey for one-legged rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) that takes him from a desperate man eager to obtain a reward for the capture of outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to a pillar of principle bent on winning his son's (Logan Lerman) respect. Standing side by side with Hannibal Lecter as an extraordinary accomplishment of characterization, Wade is a compelling catalyst for a story that ostensibly brands him a villain, but technically deploys him as a mentor.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples
Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Though second comings are de rigueur in both religions and movie releases, thirds are something of a rare bird. Ridley Scott's Final Cut of Blade Runner sees the quintessential question of what sets apart man and machine asked once more as police assassin Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) hunts down and "retires" androids designed to be "more human than human." Hampton Fancher and David Peoples craft Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? into a sort of visual poetry orchestrated by Scott that fuses the ideas inherent in the text with the emotion attainable only in the most carefully crafted of movies.

Danny Munso (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
No Country for Old Men
Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy
This haunting, thought-provoking film shows that not only are the Coen Brothers back, but they are actually better than ever.

Once
Written and directed by John Carney
Writer-director John Carney crafts a beautiful musical that revels in working on the smallest scale possible. Love never sounded so good.

Superbad
Written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg
The funniest film of the year may be a profanity-laced teenage raunch-fest, but it also ends up being more heartfelt and poignant than most dramas could ever hope to be.

Nick Randall (Writer, CS Weekly)
Once
Sure, the music is a huge reason why the film works. But John Carney's minimalist script is also a thing of beauty, never saying too much but always saying enough. No other film strikes an emotional chord like this one.

There Will Be Blood
As a child, Daniel Plainview would have made a horrible play date; he hates sharing and competes in everything. As an adult seeking an oil fortune, his genuine dislike for people is both frightening and heartbreaking, and that makes him the most compelling character of the year.

No Country for Old Men
The coolest gun in recent film history and the coolest villain in recent film history. Oh, and the story is funny, violent, moving, and it makes you think. What's not to like?

Jenelle Riley (Writer, CS Weekly)
Gone Baby Gone
Written by Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane
I'm not a waffler. Any script that contains a speech that makes one side of an argument so strongly that I'm in total agreement…then turns around and presents the opposite point of view and makes me change my position in a heartbeat, that's worth a mention. Aside from that pivotal moment, Gone Baby Gone features great, authentic writing throughout. It nails all the colloquialisms of a low-rent Boston suburb dead on.

Lars and the Real Girl
Written by Nancy Oliver
I know Juno is getting all the chick-lit wonder buzz, but I thought this film was a beautiful fairy tale. It takes what could have been a one-joke premise and avoids being forcibly quirky. Instead, it's more of a throwback to a time when Frank Capra was making movies—in other words, totally irony-free.

The Lives of Others
Written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Deceptively simple, the dialogue is as straightforward and stark as the lighting and grey clothing worn by the lead interrogator. Unfolds beautifully and gut-punches you in the end. Perfect.

Dennis Sampson (Writer, CS Weekly)
No Country for Old Men
The Coen Brothers' return to form is a showcase of filmmaking at the top of its form. Say what you want about the ending, everything leading up to it is pure craftsmanship.

The Lookout
Written and directed by Scott Frank
Scott Frank's directorial debut was as deep a character piece as a white-knuckle thriller. Not to mention the year's most underrated.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Screenplay by John Logan
Based on the musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler
Originally staged by Harold Prince
From an adaptation by Christopher Bond
The adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical is one of the finer stage-to-screen endeavors of recent years. Screenwriter John Logan pulls an hour out of the play and turns the piece into a lean, cunningly realized gothic film.

Sean Siska (Writer, CS Weekly)
Zodiac
Screenplay by James Vanderbilt
Based on the book by Robert Graysmith
Never have the simple facts of a murder investigation been made so fascinating. Kudos to screenwriter James Vanderbilt.

Hot Fuzz
Written by Edgar Wright & Simon Pegg (former also directed)
That Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg could craft a knowing, satirical homage to brainless action movies was a given, but that they could also graft onto it a murder mystery worthy of Agatha Christie was an unexpected treat.

Diggers
Written by Ken Marino
Ken Marino (who members of my generation first came to know and love as a member of sketch comedy troupe The State) was able to meld the acid with the heartfelt in this underseen gem about Long Island fishermen of the 1970s.

David Michael Wharton (Managing Editor, CS Weekly)
The Lookout
The film's protagonist struggles with memory problems, something that may have also infected the nation's film critics given that most of them seem unable to remember anything prior to September when it comes to compiling their Best of 2007 lists. Never about the gimmick, Scott Frank's small-town thriller rests solely on the shoulders of character, and proves Frank is just as adept behind the camera as he is the keyboard.

Hot Fuzz
Adroitly satirizing bombastic action movies while exemplifying the best of that genre, Hot Fuzz manages to be, at various points, a buddy-cop comedy, a thriller, a slasher film, and a love letter to '80s-style action, and it somehow does service to all of them. Juggling this many contrasting tones, Hot Fuzz could give lessons to Chris Bliss.

Knocked Up
After tackling one of life's great milestones (however belated) in 40-Year-Old Virgin, Judd Apatow moves on to the natural extension with Knocked Up. Apatow delivers that same precarious mixture of the mundane and the profane, balancing the raunch with a great big, squishy heart. And hey, making a leading man out of Seth Rogen is almost as impressive as…well, making a leading man out of Steve Carell.


…And the Ugly
Not every movie can be a winner. Here are some comments from the CSW braintrust on those films that made us—some of us, anyway—want our eight bucks back.

The Hitcher
Screenplay by Eric Red and Jake Wall and Eric Bernt
Based on the original screenplay written by Eric Red
This remake of a 1986 B-movie thriller manages to miss every single beat that made the original a classic without managing to develop a single half-decent one of its own. The killer has no discernable motive, the main characters have less reasoning ability than my girlfriend's cat, and the story is literary road kill —a ragged collection of inane, gory scenes held together by stringy reasoning and absurd coincidences. Honestly, this movie is so bad I have to assume the filmmakers were trying to make the worst film humanly possible, because I just can't believe something like this could happen by accident.

License to Wed
Screenplay by Kim Barker and Tim Rasmussen & Vince Di Meglio
Story by Kim Barker & Wayne Lloyd
Of all the crap to come out in 2007, the most painful experience was watching Robin Williams torture a young couple for kicks, err, I mean, in the name of love.

Transformers
Screenplay by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Story by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman and John Rogers
Based on the Hasbro characters and toys
One of the most aggressively stupid mainstream movies ever made. Individual scenes seem to be cobbled together from snippets of other movies. Anyone who goes on record praising this dreck should not be allowed to have an opinion.

War
Written by Lee Anthony Smith & Gregory J. Bradley
What is it good for? As it happens, it's an excellent illustration of what Joss Whedon calls "cool moves." These are the sort of clever twists and turns that look riveting on the page, but ring hollow when they're rendered onscreen without being intimately tied to an emotional beat in the life of a character we care for.

There Will Be Blood courtesy Paramount Vantage
The Lookout courtesy Miramax Home Entertainment
No Country for Old Men courtesy Miramax

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