The Best And Worst Films Of 2007

Matthew De Abaitua - Editor Film4.com

Ten of the best
1. Rescue Dawn
Werner Herzog's pitiless vision of nature as indifferent, monstrous, remorseless and murderous runs through Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre Wrath Of God and Grizzly Man. Here nature gets a worthy opponent in Christian Bale's Dieter, a can-do, practically-minded German pilot who escapes a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp to conquer the terrifying prison of the jungle beyond.

2. This Is England
Ali Catterall's review says everything about this film that needs to be said.

3. Eastern Promises
Cronenberg's thriller about Russian mobsters in London felt utterly contemporary and fresh. There was a lot of carping round these parts about unconvincing accents and a conveniently upbeat ending, but the sharp edges and fathomless inscrutability of Viggo Mortensen's performance struck me as iconic.

4. INLAND EMPIRE
I watched David Lynch's lo-fi masterpiece in a screening room with two other journalists, one of whom nodded off. I left thrilled with the import of what I had seen yet unable to articulate it, in the same way that a dream leaves you a sensation of intense meaning that turns to smoke as soon as you try to relate it. In 'Gravity's Rainbow', Thomas Pynchon spun a paranoid narrative that kept the reader teetering on the edge of apprehending a larger masterplan while pushing aside points of closure from which answers could be discerned. An unenlightening 15 minutes spent fruitlessly trying to extract answers from David Lynch in a suite in Claridges left me convinced that the director is committed to a similarly gnomic and evocative method.

5. Knocked Up
Long overdue take on the comedy of childbirth. Maybe it's only men who see the funny side of it.

6. Infamous
Destined to be overlooked after the Oscar triumph of Capote, Toby Jones' performance as the diminutive writer captured the loneliness of the wit.

7. Sunshine
A great big loud bright piece of pure cinema. Who knew the sun roared and keened?

8.Hallam Foe
Best soundtrack of the year from Domino records.

9. Apocalypto
Mel Gibson's Mayan chase movie takes us deep into the madness of human sacrifice and established his reputation as a Hollywood maverick who could end up there with Peckinpah as an auteur of violence.

10. The Bourne Ultimatum
The only summer blockbuster I enjoyed. Does that make me sound like a curmudgeon? On its own terms, an average spy thriller with some great set pieces - compared to Pirates Of The Caribbean At World's End and Spider-Man 3, it was Citizen Kane.

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