2007 Was Great for Film. But Does the Future of Listmaking Lie in Jeopardy?

Submitted by Eric on Wed, 01/09/2008 - 01:10

2007 was a great year for movies—one of the best in recent memory. It was a particularly strong year for American cinema. In addition to offering new important films from American auteurs (Paul Thomas Anderson, the Coen Bros, and Todd Haynes among others), 2007 provided exceptional works of mainstream commercial movies, including Hollywood summer releases like Ratatouille, Knocked Up, and The Bourne Ultimatum, all of which one could argue are also the work of auteurs. There were interesting, significant works of American cinema across nearly all budget levels and genres. Less foreign films made my top 10 list than in previous years, which probably has less to do with a lack of quality than with the fact that I had the opportunity to see less foreign films due to increasingly poor distribution for international titles. But even if we were to just look at the U.S.’s output of movies in 2007 in isolation from the rest of the world (probably not an advisable position in today’s geopolitical climate, I admit), we would still have an exceptional crop of pictures for discussion.

[Read More, Discussion & Lists]

2007 was a great year for movies. But what does that mean for us end of the year listmakers? In such a great year, it’s tempting to expand the top 10 into a top 20 or even a top 30. Or layer on the “honorable mentions” and equivocating remarks so thickly that the greatness of the year’s very best pictures becomes diluted. Many major film critics this year have done just this or gone even further—dispensing with the numeric ranking of their lists altogether or prefacing their lists with disclaimers about how arbitrary end of the years are in the first place.

Ladies and gentlemen, the venerable institution of listmaking is under attack. What is the point of making an end of the year list without ranking, without excluding some titles in favor of others, without having the conviction that what you are doing is on some level meaningful? Furthermore, it seems to me that in a year that offered many very good and worthwhile films, it is all the more important to sort through the lot and hold up the very best, most interesting, and exceptional movies.

I want our 2007 discussion here on Cosmodrome to draw a line in the sand. Let us assume that traditional top 10 listmaking is something righteous. Maybe the naysayers are right. Maybe our lists are completely arbitrary and meaningless. We shall see. But at least we’ll put up a good fight—going down like the gang at the end of The Wild Bunch with our guns blazing, as opposed to somberly taking a bullet in the back of the head while hanging a picture, like Jesse James.

I challenge all of you posting lists this year on Cosmodrome to submit your list of the top 10 films of 2007. Not top 20. Not top 50. Not top 10 with 17 honorable mentions. Just 10 titles. Maybe you will feel torn about which movies to include. Good. It’s my hope that our tighter, more focused lists will amplify the passion and strength of the subsequent online discussion. I would encourage everyone to write a little something about at least a couple of movies from your list that you feel particularly strongly about. This will help generate some debate—for what is at stake is not simply what the best films are but why they are the best films.

Maybe you hate this idea and approach. I open the floor to debate. But my ultimate goal is not simply to generate a discussion about listmaking. It’s my hope that creating tight lists will focus our thoughts and passions and lead toward a revealing discussion about what mattered most cinematically in 2007. I envision knock down fights between the enthusiasts and haters of I’m Not There; discussions about the different ways There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men reconceptualize the American West; debates about the comedy and politics of Knocked Up.

The Lists:

Eric Hoyt
Jon Lefkovitz
Jeff Deutchman
Alex P. Sherman

Coming Soon:

Oscar Boyson
Nate De Young
Peter Duchan
Andy Garland
Kyle Smith
Meredith Ward

Does 2008's Listmaking Lie in Jeopardy?

Submitted by Dan on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 16:15.

In an attempt to begin discussion beyond just the lists, though tangential to what Eric was hoping for, I'm curious to hear how you guys think 2008 will shape up.
The impact of the writer's strike is more immediately apparent in television, but months in and with no end in sight, there will have to be a visible effect. So far Harvey Weinstein is one of the few that penned a deal with the writers in a hope to corner the market and cram his fat maw with even more money. There were even rumors in Hollywood of studios weeks before the strike started green-lighting just about any pap they could get their hands on, regardless of quality, in order to have scripts they could stockpile for the long winter.

Sure there are a bunch of movies already in production or post that 2008 has to look forward to (Indiana Jones, Batman, and uhh... Rambo, duh.), but perhaps not nearly as many as there were this past year.

So how do you think the strike will ultimately affect the movie selection in 2008--
Less choice?
Drastically diminished quality?
More imported foreign releases?
The chance for the rise of many new and clean-shaven non-union writers?
The decline of indie movies?
2008: The year of Shia LaBeouf?

discuss.

Strike!

Submitted by Eric on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 20:48.

Dan,

You raise an interesting question. Because so many movies were already in production or post by the time the strike hit, the full impact of the writer's strike will probably be felt more in 2009 than 2008. But there will certainly be repercussions in both years.

The most interesting question you pose is if the strike will result in "drastically diminished quality," mostly because it's hard to imagine how the average piece of studio fare could get drastically worse. Will the inability of writers to do overnight rewrites on a movie during its production hurt the quality of the movie? Will the studio's temporary stoppage of hiring seven different writers in a row for one week "punch ups" of a script make the resulting movie that much worse? If the answer turns out to be that having a locked script written by one writer is no worse (or possibly even better) than having endless rewrites from a myriad of writers, then those writers who make their livelihood from such rewrites may go back to work only to find they are out of work. At any rate, this question of "quality" is one we should keep in mind in '08 and '09.

Here are some other possible scenarios I could imagine happening as a result of the strike:

- Foreign Hollywood. There could be more foreign films acquired and released in the U.S., as Dan mentions. But expect to see even more of Hollywood studios making movies in foreign languages and releasing them directly in those territories. This is an appealing strategy to find a new area for growth while traditional revenue streams are down. Disney, Sony, and Universal are leading the charge in this trend of hiring local talent in foreign countries to make movies that can compete with that country's national cinema (or become indistinguishable from its national popular cinema). India, Brazil, France, Russia, and China are some of the nations Hollywood has in their crosshairs.

- Relaity movies. THE REAL CANCUN was a bomb, but JACKASS sure was a hit. Studios may be able to mine YouTube talent and others to create inexpensive features.

- Reissues. The MPAA's 2006 Market Statistics Report cites only 8 theatrical reissues of studio movies in 2006, compared to 51 reissues in 1996. And now that I think about it, I think 1996 was the year I saw CITIZEN KANE on the big screen at the Kansas AMC multiplex I went to growing up. Regrettably, 2006's suburban Kansas high schoolers did not have that same opportunity. The number of studio reissues has plummeted in recent years due to the increased marketing and distributing costs, the emphasis on opening weekend performance, and the opportunity cost to exhibitors and distributors of giving a slot to an old movie. The tragic result is a generation who can not access great movies in the format they were intended to be seen. But will the thinner studio slates in 2009 prompt studios to reissue more movies? It would be one good thing to come out of this mess of a strike. And what a good year 2009 would be: the 70th anniversary of 1939, the year that produced MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, GUNGA DIN, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, and GOODBYE MR. CHIPS among others, many of which are part of the Warner Bros. library. Rather than releasing another bulky DVD box set, Warners, why not give the American public the chance to see some of these masterpieces on the big screen?

2008

Submitted by Jeff on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 21:51.

To piggyback off Eric's comment, here's my current list of 2008 titles that I'm looking forward to. (The list also includes films I've seen and recommend; one star means try to see, two stars means go see, three stars means don't miss, four stars means see on opening night.)

Just like last year, this list is obviously subject to change. Cassandra's Dream, for example, was on my 2007 list until a week ago when the Weinsteins moved it into their 08 slate. Apparently, the Woodman is a pushover.

Woman on the Beach (dir. Hong Sang-soo) - 1/9 ***
Cloverfield (dir. Matt Reeves) - 1/18
Cassandra's Dream (dir. Woody Allen) - 1/18
Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein) - 1/18 *
4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days (dir. Cristian Mungiu) - 1/25 ****
Be Kind Rewind (dir. Michel Gondry) - 1/25
The Witnesses (dir. Andre Techine) - 2/1
In Bruges (dir. Martin McDonagh) - 2/8
My Blueberry Nights (dir. Wong Kar Wai) - 2/13
The Duchess of Langeais (dir. Jacques Rivette) - 2/22 *
The Counterfeiters (dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky) - 2/22
City of Men (dir. Paulo Morelli) - 2/29
It's a Free World... (dir. Ken Loach) - 2/29 **
Jar City (dir. Balthazar Kormakur) - 2/29 **
Puffball (dir. Nicolas Roeg) - 2/29 *
Paranoid Park (dir. Gus Van Sant) - 3/7 ****
Snow Angels (dir. David Gordon Green) - 3/7
Married Life (dir. Ira Sachs) - 3/7
Funny Games (dir. Michael Haneke) - 3/14
Stop-Loss (dir. Kimberly Pierce) - 3/28
Flight of the Red Balloon (dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien) - 4/2 ***
Leatherheads (dir. George Clooney) - 4/4
Shine a Light (dir. Martin Scorsese) - 4/4
The Visitor (dir. Thomas McCarthy) - 4/11 **
Stuff & Dough (dir. Cristi Puiu) - 4/23
Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo (dir. Hayden Schlossberg & Jon Hurwitz) - 4/25
Roman de gare (dir. Claude Lelouche) - 4/25
Mister Lonely (dir. Harmony Korine) - 4/30 *
The Edge of Heaven (dir. Fatih Akin) - 5/21 *
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of Crystal Skull (dir. Steven Spielberg) - 5/22
Religulous (dir. Larry Charles) - 6/20
WALL-E (dir. Andrew Stanton) - 6/27
The Dark Knight (dir. Chris Nolan) - 7/18
Pineapple Express (dir. David Gordon Green) - 8/8
Blindness (dir. Fernando Mereilles) - 8/8
The International (dir. Tom Tykwer) - 8/15
Valkyrie (dir. Bryan Singer) - 10/3
Untitled Ridley Scott - 10/10
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (dir. David Fincher) - 11/26
Alexandra (dir. Aleksandr Sokurov) - Unset **
Captain Mike Across America (dir. Michael Moore) - Unset
A Girl Cut in Two (dir. Claude Chabrol) - Unset *
Guerilla (dir. Steven Soderbergh) - Unset
In Search of a Midnight Kiss (dir. Alex Holdridge) - Unset **
Lakeview Terrace (dir. Neil Labute) - Unset
The Last Mistress (dir. Catherine Breillat) - Unset **
Love Songs (dir. Christophe Honore) - Unset ***
Mad Detective (dir. Johnnie To) - Unset
My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin) - Unset ****
Operation Filmmaker (dir. Nina Davenport) - Unset ***
Taxi to the Dark Side (dir. Alex Gibney) - Unset **
Timecrimes (dir. Nacho Vigalando) - Unset ***
Towelhead (dir. Alan Ball) - Unset
Retribution (dir. Kyoshi Kurosawa) - Unset
Silent Light (dir. Carlos Reygadas) - Unset ****
Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (dir. Morgan Spurlock) - Unset
Margaret (dir. Kenneth Lonergan) - ???

the reissue issue

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 23:30.

in a combination of 2 of eric's points, plus a recent rant by josherman on TCRM, i hope they reissue the first jackass in the theater because i missed it the first time, and as josherman explains, jackass 2.5 is going to be shit if experienced on a computer monitor, as its "radical" distribution model intends.

david gordon greene

Submitted by DanteBronte on Thu, 01/10/2008 - 23:32.

who gave this guy the right to release not one but two movies in one year?

a:

Submitted by Jeff on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 01:23.

Warner Independent

That's "Green"

Submitted by Jon Lefkovitz on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 13:39.

And don't you forget it.

then warner independent's got some issues.

Submitted by DanteBronte on Fri, 01/11/2008 - 16:14.

we could run an indie film company better than that...

DGGx2

Submitted by Jeff on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 13:35.

Snow Angels is a smaller indie film that DGG brought to festivals in 2007 and no company picked up, although I've heard some good things about it. Warner Independent ended up buying it for the relationship because they either had already hired him or wanted to hire him to direct Pineapple Express, which is produced by Apatow.

In any case, they will be two very different kinds of movies and I think filmmakers should generally be more prolific.

Wait a second...

Submitted by Jon Lefkovitz on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 12:18.

Warner Independent has nothing to do with PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. The film is being produced and released by Sony/Columbia, which was also responsible for producing and distributing SUPERBAD and the underrated WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY.

You're Right

Submitted by Jeff on Sun, 01/13/2008 - 22:07.

I don't think I completely fabricated that story though. Maybe it was regarding another project. Either way, I think it was a sympathy buy.

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Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating or indoctrinating citizens.

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