Where does Evan Almighty rate higher than No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood?

 

In the Readers’ Choice Awards at Christianity Today Movies!

(Earlier, the CT Movies Critics Choice awards.)

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The Passion of the Screenwriter

A screenwriter sued Mel Gibson and his production company on Monday, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing “The Passion of the Christ,” and was refused extra money when the film became a blockbuster.

More at Peter Chattaway’s FilmChat.¬†

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Juno needs to know that it’s possible for two people to agree on her Oscar chances…¬†

Juno continues to win praise in this article by A.G. Harmon on the (newly redesigned!) site for Image journal.

…what Knocked Up begins, director Jason Reitman‚Äôs Juno perfects. The latter is a comedy in the way Flannery O‚ÄôConnor meant comedy: as the best vehicle for the most profound of things. For the dialogue alone, Juno would be a triumph.

But the reviewer at Louisiana State University is not so dazzled.

“Juno” is a harmless delight, but in retrospect, it is a scantily sketched picture. On closer inspection, it fails to say anything significant about the travails of a pregnant 16-year-old, the effect of the pregnancy on her family or the difficulties in securing an adoption. Its success lies in keeping audiences entertained for 90 minutes; after that time, its hold on the mind wanes.

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G.I. Joe to become a franchise for Dennis Quaid; Eccleston on board as the villain

At ArtsandFaith.com, Chattaway alerts us to the fact that Dennis Quaid‘s got himself a franchise at last. (Here’s an interview with Quaid.) And the great Christopher Eccleston will play the villain, which should help him put The Dark is Rising behind him.

Move over Wall·E!

Here comes CJ7… from the maker of Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer.

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In¬†a hole in the ground, there stalled a Hobbit…¬†

Whoa… hold on, there!

Apparently The Hobbit is not such a sure thing after all!

And Peter Chattaway’s post about New Line Cinema here suggests that things might¬†become even more difficult for the project… thanks¬†to The Golden Compass. Must Philip Pullman spoil everything for fans of the Inklings?¬†

Meanwhile, Howard Shore is talking about his Complete Recordings edition of The Lord of the Rings soundtracks. And apparently he’s “dreamed of” scoring The Hobbit. Which is a good thing.

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A kid on The Road…¬†

¬†John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road promises to be a thrill. with Viggo Mortensen in the lead as a haunted widower who must protect his son on a cross-country journey through a post-apocalypse wilderness fraught with cannibals. Now we know who will play the boy.

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¬†Another Top Ten List… but a good one!

At last… a 2007 Top 10 list from one of my favorite critics, who also happens to be¬†a friend… J. Robert Parks. And wow, look what he wrote about his #1 pick!

 

You saw the first list, the Most Redeeming Films of 2007.

Now, here’s the Critics’ Choice list. I just can’t wait to read the mail this week!

Wow.

Start marking up your calendars and saving your pennies. 2008 looks like an amazing year at the movies.

 

Okay, here’s the first of CTMovies’ two annual movie lists…

The Top 10 Most Redeeming Movies of 2007!

What do you think? What did the ten participating critics* miss? What did we get right?

*The ten voters are part of this diverse group of moviegoers.

If you’re reading this on Tuesday morning, you’ve probably already heard the news about the Oscar nominations being announced. So there’s no time left for Oscar-nomination guessing games. It’s time to start guessing the winners.

But there’s another list coming up soon: Christianity Today’s¬†annual list of films. Actually, there are two lists published at¬†Christianity Today:¬†the Critics’ Choice list, and the¬†Most Redeeming Films list.

You can peruse lists from previous years (2003 – 2006) here.

The Critics’ Choice list represents that top ten films that CT’s film critics appreciated, admired, and enjoyed. It’s about artistry and excellence. (Last year’s #1 film was Children of Men followed by L’Enfant and The New World.)

The Most Redeeming Films list is what those same critics recommend for those who are looking for inspiring, uplifting films, films that clearly offer hope and, well, other “redeeming” qualities. They may not all be towering masterpieces of cinematic art, but they’ll kindle hope, joy, peace… you get the idea. (Last year’s #1 pick was The Nativity Story., followed by The New World and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.)

So…

MAKE YOUR GUESSES.

What will Christianity Today’s film critics vote as the #1 film for the Critics Choice list of ’07?

What will they choose as the Most Redeeming Film of ’07?

Look at the previous winners.

Consider the personalities of the various critics on the team.

Peruse the reviews.

And post your guesses here! Guess right, and you win… bragging rights.

The Most Redeeming Films list will be published on January 29. The Critics Choice list will be posted February 5.

Adam Walter’s still in the mood for lists. So he’s picking his favorite films of the DECADE.

What are yours?

I’m going to wait until my next break in the editing project. And then I’ll come back to this post and share my own picks in answer to Adam’s. So check back…

[UPDATE]

Okay…

Here are my ten favorite films of this decade so far. These aren’t necessarily the greatest works of art, but they are the films I’m enjoyed and recommended the most since 2000.

1. The New World
2. Code Unknown
3. Yi-Yi (A One and a Two)
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5. Gosford Park
6. Punch-drunk Love
7. Into Great Silence
8. The Son
9. Finding Nemo
10. Stevie

And here are thirty more in alphabetical order…

(more…)

There is no film critic whose writing I enjoy more than Steven D. Greydanus, even though we sometimes have very different opinions of particular films. (There Will Be Blood, for instance, which didn’t mean much to him, but my head is still spinning with all that I enjoyed about the film).

When Greydanus gets passionate about a movie, that itself is an experience worth beholding. And when he shines the ultraviolet light on a beloved blockbuster to reveal its flaws and fractures, he leaves me speechless with his analysis.

So I always look forward to his year-end list. And here it is.

Steven called me many months ago, as he has on a few other occasions, breathless with joy over something he had just seen. I had only recently declared The New World my favorite film of 2006. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was shaken up. He declared, “I have just seen what is almost sure to be my #1 movie of 2007.” And then he told me about it.

Turns out he was right, not just for himself, but for me too. Into Great Silence topped both of our lists, and Nate Bell’s as well.¬†

And in spite of a croweded schedule, I carved out time for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly because he went out of his way to impress its importance on me. (Sorry Barbara, but I was swept away by the beauty of that movie, story and all.)

Reading through the rest of his choices, we have a lot of mutual favorites. Greydanus may be the only other critic who I’ve seen include The Devil Came On Horseback in his Top Ten. Go rent it. Today.

And it looks like I have a couple more titles to bump up to higher priorities on my must-see list.

I especially like this line from his assessment of a favorite that shows up on both of our lists…¬†Once: “Like a favorite song, it‚Äôs a film you would rather play for someone than try to describe.”

My Netflix queue just went into cardiac arrest as I read about all kinds of new movies on the 2007-Best lists from Doug Cummings and Robert Koehler. What would I do without tour guides like them?

Nate Bell separates wheat from chaff.

Brandon Fibbs is impressed with many, but only one “gobsmacked” him.

David Hudson still has the greatest film-lover’s blog on the web, and his own list is as interesting as any I’ve read. (I can’t wait to get into a theater to see his #1 choice.)

Jonathan Rosenbaum is his usual hard-to-please self., meandering between moments of inspiring enthusiasm and annoying condescension.

And Josh Hurst‘s favorite music of 2007 is now packaged for your consumption.

On list-making

Once upon a time, I was naive enough, and arrogant enough, to post lists of “the year’s best films.”

But now, I’m reluctant to even offer a list of recommendations. It would probably be better if I posted my Favorite Movies of 2007 in 2009 or 2015.

And speaking of lists, here are a few reasons why:

• The more I read about what is seen by each year film critics who have the time and resources to attend international film festivals, the more I feel like my list will just be a show of how many world-renowned movies I *haven’t* seen.
• The more I understand about art, the more I realize that it takes many years of looking, looking closer, and looking again before I really begin to understand the significance of a particular work. Take The Station Agent, for instance. I saw it in 2003 and rated it at about #20 on my year-end favorites list. Now it’s among the movies that I recommend to people most often, and would probably be in the top 3 or 4 for that 2003.
• Art affects people differently based on their experiences. There is a difference between assessing a film’s artistic excellence and assessing how it affects you personally. There are many excellent films that I admire, for this reason or that, but that have not inspired any particular passion within me. Similarly, there are many not-so-brilliant movies that have, nevertheless, given me a glimpse of something life-changing. My experience, my faith, my questions, my age… all of these things affect how I see a film.

Thus, over the last few years, I’ve given up making lists as any kind of declaration of what is “greatest.”

Instead, I write lists as a way of sharing and recording what is meaningful and memorable at a particular time, and then I revise that list as I grow and understand more. It’s far too early for me to have a strong sense of a film’s true greatness. No critic in their right mind can come to such conclusions within a few weeks of seeing a movie, or having only seen it once.

You’ve got to take movies out of the showroom and test drive them in various conditions. You have to see how they perform over time to learn what they’re really made of.

So, having said that…

These 25 movies are on the list because they:

• challenged me with mysteries and questions and provocative metaphors,
• taught me to consider how the world looks to my neighbors,
• expanded my understanding of the power of art,
• caused me to reflect on my own life and how much I have to learn,
• brought me joy,
• awakened my conscience, and
• sometimes broke my heart.

A brief word about 2007′s list

2007 was an exciting year at the movies, one of the best years I can remember. My #1-#4 picks… those were easy. No contest. Beyond that, it was tough to choose from the long list of memorable, inspiring films.

This list was updated in July of 2008 to include several more titles that I saw too late to include in the initial draft. The list that is likely to change again as I discover other ’07 releases. Feel free to try and persuade me that certain films should be rated higher or lower!

I haven’t found the time to write up notes on every film, alas. If you have questions about any of them, don’t hesitate to ask.

You’ll also find a list of films I still need to see and consider adding to this list.

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