Into Great Silence is a 3-hour documentary about monks in the French Alps – simply following their daily lives over several months. This was a surprise boxoffice hit in Germany, drew an overflow crowd to its single festival screening in New York, on a Sunday at noon, and received a brief theatrical run at the nonprofit Film Forum. It's fascinating and moving, designed as "meditation rather than information," in the director's words. You’ll need to be in a patient and receptive frame of mind, but it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.
And finally, two movies that I was fortunate enough to catch at festivals would certainly be on my list, but their theatrical releases will come in 2008. And they will be brief and limited releases, so catch them on DVD if you miss them in theaters. They are the scathing documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, about detainees held by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo; and Gus Van Sant’s latest semi-abstract look at violence and anomie among suburban American youth, Paranoid Park. Both of these movies are as vital and as brilliant as any of 2007’s “official” releases.
Here are my lists. I’ve included links to my Blogcritics reviews where applicable:
10 Best Features:
Zodiac
Ratatouille
Across the Universe
I'm Not There
Sweeney Todd
The Bourne Ultimatum
Persepolis
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Italian
Runners-up:
Into the Wild
Gone Baby Gone
Hairspray
Rescue Dawn
Michael Clayton
The Darjeeling Limited
Grindhouse: Planet Terror
Juno
Best nonfiction films:
Lake of Fire
The War (Ken Burns, PBS)
Into Great Silence
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-65
No End in Sight
Sicko
Article comments
1 - Heloise
I did a great, according to Lisa, review on the movie "In The Great Silence," here on blogcritics. It was a few months back when it was here briefly in Fort Worth. I have not seen most of the movies you detail, but will check some of them out. Is "The Murder of Jesse James..." really worth it?
Heloise
2 - handyguy
Some find the Jesse James movie slowly paced and unsatisfying, but it is visually poetic and has a great cast, especially Casey Affleck as Robert Ford.
Indeed I read, and I believe commented, on your review of Into Great Silence. For some viewers it will no doubt rival watching paint dry as entertainment, but if you're in the right frame of mind, it is quietly spellbinding.