When we ran our 2007 year-end lists two weeks ago, Jenn had just been admitted to the hospital for a rather unpleasant 7-day tour… so she missed out on the round up. Fortunately, that has given her an additional two weeks to refine her own selections, just enough material to justify an entire column unto itself. By way of explanation, Jenn attended just over 40 screenings last year—all before a long-in-coming diagnosis of a rare sleep disorder was established. Thus we have… the “Somnolent Awards.”

Out of the 611 films released theatrically in 2007, I am reasonably familiar with 294—less than half of the films shown in theaters during the year. And I’m reasonably well informed, by critical standards. This is why I’m reluctant to offer an opinion about which were the “best” films of the year. All I can really talk about with much assurance is which films were the best (by various standards of measure) of the films I actually saw. Bottom line: take it all with a grain of salt… But without further ado, here are our picks for 2007.

As Jenn and I would agree after the screening, Vantage Point represents an increasingly rare breed of film—one that actually demands that you pay attention. If you so much as blink (or glance down to jot notes for your review), you’re likely to miss some salient clue or detail. Now, it would be very hard to argue, empirically, that films have actually dumbed-down or assume that audiences no longer have attention spans longer than gnats; but a lot of industry insiders have strong impressions along those lines. Jenn started noticing the trend herself after interviewing Billy Bob Thornton almost exactly a year ago.

Series scribe Steve Kloves has his own voice and favorite character—Hermione, in this case—and will take license with the material in a way that makes the most sense to him. The brilliance of giving Hermione some of the best lines in the books and making her a focal point of the actor’s ensemble is that she is a leader and Harry and Ron are not. (In a book, there is time to develop this characteristic. In a movie, time is an enemy that must be manipulated.) By making Hermione the flame to which the rest of the cast is drawn, Harry and Ron are strengthened into implementers—doers, if you will—who accomplish the movement of the plot and successfully achieve hero status for Harry who is, after all, the main character. Newcomer Michael Goldenberg should have done his homework much better and studied the first four movies.

What happens when the first of a serial killer’s victims is found—before anyone knows that more murders will likely follow? Callousness is pretty universal in Jindabyne. Everyone feels that they have been violated yet forgets that others have feelings and traditions to work through. Insensitivity prevents anyone from healing, or discovering who or what may actually be the killer. Along the way, the nonchalant reaction of four guys on a fishing trip over the body of the killer’s victim becomes almost understandable. The logic of their argument is, “She was already dead, we couldn’t help her. This fishing trip is important to us.” You can almost sympathize with them—almost.

The Hip Hop Project reminds us that “the criminal mind is a creative mind. It all depends where you put your energies.” As much as this movie is about music, and the power of art in broken communities, it is also about reconciliation as former street kid Kazi Rolle travels back to the Bahamas to meet up with his foster mom, and finally with his biological mom who abandoned him at birth. This is one of those movies to think about and dialogue with—let its ethos penetrate an often lugubrious existence. And by the way—100% of the net profits from this film are being donated to organizations working with youth.

It seems rare lately that I have been able to find any true spiritual content in the films I have reviewed. In the Land of Women breaks that trend, but not in an overt manner. In fact, neither faith nor religion are ever mentioned or even hinted at in the movie; but as a Christian, I can draw an honest correlation because of the primary subject—relationships. I believe that people were created to be relational. It is how we survive. It is how we live. Whether with God, people, pets, ourselves, or all of these, relationships are what we spend the most time seeking. When our relationships are not whole, we are not all we are meant to be.

It wasn’t until after this rather weird movie was over, and I could talk it over with my husband, that I came to the conclusion that the plotline of Year of the Dog itself may not have been the point of the story. In more general terms, the story is of a young woman who, after an identity-shattering loss, goes a bit off the deep end before returning to some semblance of sanity, while staying true to her new convictions. But, after thinking about it, I think that writer/director Mike White is really making a larger statement, in a way that is non-threatening and accessible to a wide audience.

One home run is pretty much like another; but put that home run in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded, two outs, and the home team down by three, and you’ve got something else entirely. Put that home run in a game that clinches a playoff birth, and it’s even more meaningful. And if it’s the seventh game of the World Series, well…
And yet we seem to ask that each film be the artistic and moral equivalent of that World Series-winning homer. It’s unrealistic. Is the sacrifice fly back in the second inning of Game 2 of the ALCS any less significant? How about a throw to first from the knees back in June?

Earlier this summer, the MPAA slapped the independently-produced, Christian-themed film Facing the Giants with a PG rating. Spokeswoman Joan Graves initially told producers that the film’s overtly evangelistic tone—which the film’s pastor-oriented publicity materials openly trumpets—was partly to blame. The resulting furor, fanned by a Focus on the Family CitizenLink alert, even got congress involved. “This incident raises the disquieting possibility that [the] MPAA considers exposure to Christian themes more dangerous for children than exposure to gratuitous sex and mindless violence,” commented Missouri’s Republican congressman Roy Blunt. So broadcasters, studios, and exhibitors all seem to agree: religious content, Christianity included, has the potential to offend people.