Am I still catching up on as many 2007 flicks as I can squeeze in over the last few days of the year? You bet. But that doesn't mean I'm not pretty sure that my top 10 is solid. I rank films as I see them during the theatrical-release year, and there's always a lot of shuffling and reorganizing going on as I reconsider and revisit movies, but at this point, gauging by what other critics and serious moviegoers are saying about the few films I'm still in the process of watching, it seems unlikely that any of those movies will crack best-of. If it happens, I'll be sure to let you know.

I'd bet money, though, that a week from now, my top 10 movies of 2007 will look exactly like this:

1. Atonement: Not just an exquisite depiction of the uncertain foundations upon which a romance is built, it's an astonishing portrait of regret, and learning to live with it.

2. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Bold and brash and resolutely bitter, this is daring in its format -- the opera -- and its attitude: the misanthropy of humanity. [my review]

3. Sicko: Michael Moore takes his muckracking work a step further, no longer content to merely expose ugly truths but daring to explicitly call for outright revolution to counter it. [my review]

4. No Country for Old Men: The crime drama pared down to an essential core of the battle between malevolence and decency that both consider themselves random, and couldn't be more considered. [my review]

5. There Will Be Blood: It's the American story as industrial saga, the cold hard flow of cash and relentless ambition driving men to all manner of dooms both literal and metaphoric.

6. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: An enthralling and inspiring look at catastrophic injury and the strength it takes to find a new purpose in life when all hope seems shattered.

7. The Kite Runner: The personal is political in this tale of a childhood -- and a nation -- overshadowed by horrific events that shatter innocence and drain all human joy. [my review]

8. American Gangster: The hypocrisies and contradictions of men on both sides of the law come to breathtaking life as a criminal CEO and a boy-scout cop square off. [my review]

9. 300: This historical action drama sets the stage for a new kind of movie, one as impressionistic as fine art ... and one that will be recalled as groundbreaking in the way that sound and color were. [my review]

10. Michael Clayton: In this thriller of the conscience, one man learns how one man can make a difference in the big world and a change in his own small world. [my review]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson (email me)
reviews, reviews, reviews! at FlickFilosopher.com

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