Certain years stand out for the amount of outstanding movies that get released. These are the top films that stand the test of time and define what audiences expect from a good movie and what filmmakers strive to accomplish. 1939 is considered the greatest year in history for releases including (my personal favorite) The Roaring Twenties, Stagecoach, Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Wizard of Oz, and countless more. Now it's time to think back on more recent pivotal years. 2007 is that year and enough time has passed for us to truly know how great the great movies were.
NOTE: There are more films I can praise than the ones listed below and there are more popular films that I didn't enjoy. That is a testament to how great of a year it was for movies.
There Will Be Blood
The movie that many cited as the greatest film of the new century. Seventeen years later and many still agree.
No Country for Old Men
The movie that saw There Will Be Blood and said, "hold my beer." It's what audiences got to experience with The Godfather Part II and Chinatown coming out in the same year.
Superbad
It's hard for adults to speak the way we did when we were young. It's a shame because did we ever laugh harder than in our youth? This movie lets you be young, dumb, and full of... again.
Zodiac
Everyone thought they knew what to expect when Zodiac came out, another awesome David Fincher serial killer movie. Instead we got something totally different and much greater.
We Own the Night
Some movies show you the 99th floor of a big city and some show you the pavement. This movie shows you the pavement and if there's any universal, it's that James Gray knows noir.
Knocked Up
In 2007, we didn't get A comedy. Comedy was a genre and you expected your hits. We got them and you can still turn them on and laugh.
Sunshine
The perfect marriage of a believable story, great acting, and slick sets. That's sci fi done right. The movie is so fascinating that even an atrocious third act doesn't ruin the impact the first 2/3rds of the movie has on you.
Hot Fuzz
After Shaun of the Dead, expectations were high for Edgar Wright and he showed everyone that he was no one-hit-wonder or one-trick-pony.
Gone Baby Gone
So Ben Affleck is going to kick off a run that might place him upon the upper pantheon of directors? Ok.
3:10 to Yuma
Hollywood is about big genres and big stars. While all scale of movies define the industry, it's movies like this that give the industry its magic.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Sidney Lumet may be one of the most prolific directors ever and his final film shows he could still use the screen to make us see a world we don't want to and yet can't look away, our own.
1408
Horror might hold a record for having the most sub-genres, but whatever 1408 is, its absolutely fun.
Lars and the Real Girl
It's weird, it's interesting, it's sentimental, and it never pretends to be otherwise. It's Ryan Gosling showing us he wants to be an actor as much as a star and he takes that baton from Johnny Depp with class.
Michael Clayton
There aren't many movies that you know while watching them that it might have the greatest screenplay ever written. This is one of them and the A-list actors that signed on show up for every scene like they knew it.
Charlie Wilson's War
The Office makes us laugh because it shows us what's broken about the workplace, but why it's important. It seems (fortunately) that's how Mike Nichols saw the government.
Paranormal Activity
Barbie wasn't a marketing success. It had a $145M budget plus marketing costs. Paranormal Activity was a marketing success and a throwback to the standards of what a hit is that were held in the 70s.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Is it Shakespeare? No. It knew how dumb it was, it made you laugh and for years everyone was quoting it. Fun fact: that's how Shakespeare comedies were thought of in their time...
I'm Not There
Even great movies lose their magic when they all tell their story in a similar way. That's why we need pictures like I'm Not There, something refreshing to show us what can be done with the format.
Shoot 'Em Up
A movie that makes you say "WTF" with a huge, dumb smile across your face. That is all and sometimes that's all we need.
Control
This movie is what happens when a biopic is about storytelling, not public relations. It's beautiful, it's sad, and it's inspiring.
Cassandra's Dream
Woody Allen may or may not be many things, but he is without a doubt a master storyteller. The script for Cassandra's Dream could have been made in the 1940s or forty years from now and it would and will still be as interesting.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
It truly is a classic western, except instead of the wild west it's a bunch of aging arcade enthusiasts in a documentary.
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