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100 Favorite Comic Book Covers – Part IV

July 26, 2009 in art, artists, books, comics, lists | 37 comments

And on the final day of Comic-Con, here are the top 25 Comic Covers.

For Part I, Part II, or Part III click the links.

025.

X-Men #190. Chris Bachalo. There’s something about this cover that I just can’t get out of my mind…but I have trouble putting my finger on what exactly it is that speaks to me. I mean I love all the white (as mentioned previously) and I obviously adore the integration of the title into the illustration so we’ve got less crap covering it all up, and it’s a great concept, but I don’t know, there’s just something sweet about it. That kiss, which maybe is supposed to look passionate…to me looks…compassionate. It’s Bachalo’s best cover to date if you ask me. And I’m a fan.

024.

Fables #18. James Jean. This one never fails to move me. The vibrant luscious colors, the subtle but definite dark outline. The composition. The desire to get lost in whatever world that Jean creates. This was the first of Jean’s covers I ever saw, and I think the first of his work I ever saw, and it shocked me with its stunning beauty on the stand. If I recall correctly I said, “OH.” and dropped everything else I had to pick it up. And such began a fervent love affair with James Jean’s work.

023.

Astonishing X-Men #2. John Cassady. More monochromatic blues…YUM. The dichotomy of the simplicity and complexity blended together here is what really does it for me I think though. You’ve got the blank background, barely a different color than Emma, and with the title open and see through to that background. The intensity of Emma’s eyes, commanding the reader’s attention. The power of her over Cyclops optic beams, and the power of her over Scott himself. It’s all rather brilliant while beautiful and because of how this story arc of Whedon’s plays out, it’s a great tease to the readers of all the complexities that are to come.

022.

The Walking Dead #48, Charlie Adlard. All of Aldard’s work is pretty wonderful, but I picked this one, because to me (and Mr. Adlard and I have of course had no actual conversations about this – so maybe I’m way off the mark) but to me, he’s placed the horizon line so high on the page because our characters become more and more enveloped by the dead around them with every issue. As if they’re trapped in a room with a rising tide, and we just know that eventually, they will drown. Our main character Rick is seen here, already missing a hand, burying the dead, and almost pushed off the page because the dead fill it. It’s such a simple little thing, but is really an inspired and brilliant choice.

021.

Batman #1. Bob Kane. This iconic cover, portraying my favorite comic book hero Batman in his own comic’s first issue, is instantly recognizable. And though the color scheme has changed much over the years (yellow and red in today’s Gotham? Never!) the swinging into action position of Batman (and Robin) is dead on. This issue is also notable for being the first appearance of Catwoman/Selina Kyle then known as The Cat in 1940. Very cool stuff.

020.

Action Comics #2. Leo E. O’Mealia. It blows my mind how fantastic this cover is, and how overlooked is often is, simply because Action Comics #1 was the first appearance of Superman. But really look at this cover – the movement, the composition, the positive and negative space, the color scheme, and really just the quality of the illustration work – it’s all quite stunning – and it was done in 1938…Amazing.

Although, it is worth noting that I also found this scan (see below) of Action Comics #2, with a decidedly different feel in the color work – no bad or worse than the one above, but decidedly different and since I’ve never seen an original I can’t say which is more accurate to the original color – anyone else know? I personally prefer the first one, but both are nice and deserving of their place.

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100 Favorite Comic Book Covers – Part III

July 25, 2009 in art, artists, books, comics, lists | 17 comments

And on we go…

For Part I and Part II click the links!

050.

Catwoman #55. Adam Hughes. So I think we should all just take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this illustration. The detail of the signage painted on the glass, the neon light, the amazing colors, it’s all fantastic. But the real beauty of ths is in the iconic Catwoman figure in silhouette acrobating across Gotham. It’s a singular immediately identifiable figure and its powerful heroic (or anti-hero in this case) shape speaks volumes about superhero icons.

049.

Fables #14. James Jean. I wish I could explain to people (not you of course dear reader) but people that don’t understand misogyny in comics why this is NOT misogynistic, despite being a woman in basically underwear drawn from behind. Because this is not exploitative. But I’m not sure how to explain why not to people that don’t immediately see the difference.

I suppose the first thing you can say is that if you look at the body (no pun) of Jean’s work you’ll find very little to no unnecessary exploitation of the female figure…so he immediately gets the benefit of the doubt. Secondly, the figure is not coyly looking over her shoulder with a “sexy face” smile…she’s also not arching her back provocatively…or jutting out all her “sexy’ “naughty” parts. She’s just a figure drawn from behind. She’s stylized and slightly idealized, but not drawn as a parody of a woman in underwear…or a young man’s wet dream of what a woman might look like in her underwear. She’s also casually holding a badass weapon as if she absolutely knows how to use it. And lastly, none of the characters on the cover with her are objectifying her either.

For all these reasons, this is the way a cover with a woman in underwear could/should be drawn. Learn from this cover, artists…please. It’s not that you can’t draw women in their underwear, but it’s HOW you draw a woman in her underwear.

Thank you. *Steps off soapbox*

048.

X-Men #1. Jack Kirby. You knew this one was coming. And it deserves to be here. And if Jean Grey wasn’t standing around like a moron in the background while the “men folk” fight the Master of Magnetism then perhaps I would have bumped it up several notches. I’m willing to concede that her power is difficult to draw and Kirby may have just been at a loss here, but still, it pisses me off a little.

047.

Uncanny X-Men #168. Paul Smith. A totally iconic Uncanny X-Men cover. You know I was never a big Kitty Pryde fan (sometimes bordering on hate) though there were times I enjoyed her in Excalibur and Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men showed me a whole new side to her that I appreciated. But regardless of how I feel about Kitty this cover is great – the expression and positioning – up against a wall in a Danger Room – totally makes me want to read the story.

046.

New X-Men #116. Frank Quitely. Again we have Mr. Quitely, and again, people love it or hate it in my experience. As my brother said “It looks like she’s smelling something nasty”…and he’s right, but y’know, that SHOULD be Emma Frost’s expression. She’s pretty much a bitch, so I think that expression is just about dead on. I love this cover because it just owns everything. Emma’s skin is just alive on the page – it looks fleshy and real and spongy and not plastic and over processed and that is a rare rare thing in comics. Also, the hot pink background is totally inspired. I know Josh hates the crotch of her shorts, but honestly – that shit looks real too – if you put on some crazy costume like this, I guarantee you’d get some weird bunching…in strange places. I much prefer the reality of the folds and imperfections in a costume than the usual which is supposed to be spandex, but just looks like colored body paint. It just makes the cover all the more real for me.

Also, I suppose I should address the “is this exploitative” issue. To me, no. Largely because THIS is Emma Frost. She’s like this. She would TOTALLY wear this, and she would have that expression while you stared her down in this outfit trying to find your voice. So for me, the character justifies the artwork here.

045.

Fantastic Four #1. Jack Kirby. This absolutely belongs on the list as one of the iconic superhero covers of our time. It’s great – I just love that monster with the giant gaping mouth. Though Kirby’s work is really beautiful I tend not to love Fantastic Four covers because they’re always covered with text balloons and I’m not a fan of that so much, but this is a benchmark cover and it deserves a spot in the top 100. I suppose, much like with the X-Men #1 cover, I would give it a little more credit if Sue Storm didn’t seem so much like a worthless damsel in distress and more like the superhero that she is.

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100 Favorite Comic Book Covers – Part II

July 24, 2009 in art, artists, books, comics, lists | 28 comments

And here we continue our list…!

Click here for Part I

075.

Fables #25. James Jean. Oh James Jean, how I love you. Look at the use of color, the use of text as a design element. The title and issue number all beautifully incorporated into the image flawlessly, rather than just being splashed across artwork without concern for what’s being destroyed. He even manages to work in the creator names so it not only looks like part of the original illustration, but IS a part of it. Fantastic. If you don’t like James Jean you’re gonna hate this list – because his work appears many more times before we get to #1.

074.

Vampirella #4. Jeff Jones/Vaughn Bode. How can you not love this? I mean, okay, she’s naked and straddling some kind of land monster, but she’s carrying a spear and looks like she would just as soon pierce you through the heart with that spear as look at you.

073.

Buffy Season Eight #18. Jo Chen. Another beautiful cover for Buffy by Chen. Dawn as a horse? Illustrated beautifully? Well, you had me at hello.

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100 Favorite Comic Book Covers – Part I

July 24, 2009 in art, artists, books, comics, lists | 34 comments

So in honor of the San Diego Comic Con which I am not attending (boo!) I took a little trip down memory lane, searching out all my favorite comic book covers over the years. And since I’ve got this blog and it needs content I thought I’d regale you all with my “100 Favorite Comic Book Covers Of All Time!”

A few things you should know:

1. I limited this list to US saddle stitched issues – so you won’t find any graphic novel, anthology, or non-US covers here.

2. A few of these covers are more about the sweet sweet memories of a more innocent (and awesome) time in my life when a great comic book could make my whole week. When thinking about a comic that was coming out made me so excited I’d get chills. When hunting down a back issue to catch up on something new I was discovering was literally the most important thing going on with me (sad, but true). And so a few of these covers are more about what they mean to me and less about how beautiful they look to the world at large.

3. As X-Men were my introduction to comics there is definitely a disproportionately high number of X-Men covers.

4. There’s also a high number of badass chick covers, as I, am a badass chick.

Annnnnd, we’re off…

100.

Supreme Power #1. Gary Frank. This is a good looking cover, but it’s at the bottom of the list because to truly appreciate what’s going on, you have to know that Supreme Power is basically about Superman, if he had been found by the government instead of Ma & Pa Kent. And then the government makes up a fake Ma & Pa Kent and raises him in a false environment designed to make him feel devoted to “American values” but it’s all a sham so that they can better hope to control him as a weapon. Yeah, before Supreme Power jumped the rails and became lame, it was AWESOME. Supreme Power was like Superman meets The Truman Show meets The X-Files and it was badass. Too bad they couldn’t maintain it.

099.

Ultimate X-Men #69. Ben Oliver. Surely many people would argue with me for putting this cover in a best of list, because frankly, there are far better covers out there. However, it’s the subtext that I love here. I’ve never been a big fan of Jean Grey, but she’s got a look on her face here that makes me finally ‘get’ her a little bit. She’s so nonplussed by these two superhero jackasses fighting over her, their hands literally on her and claiming her, meanwhile on a good day (or bad depending on how you look at it) she could sear the flesh off their bones without a thought. It made me think about that love triangle a little differently than I ever had before (which is saying something considering how long the shit has been going on). What each of the players want, and also what is really wrong with them inside on some level to want it. It’s an impressive cover that can do all that with a character’s expression. Also of note is that Jean, though drawn beautifully, is not looking weak and waif-y, but strong shoulder and wide-hipped, and just, well, powerful. Like a superhero should.

098.

The Amazing Spider-Man #29. John Romita Jr. I think this cover is beautiful. The way the ‘spotlight effect’ falls on the wood and the floor is all really fantastic, and the almost entirely monochromatic look is great as well. Also, while I’ve never been a big fan of Mary Jane myself, this cover speaks volumes about what it might feel like to be the girlfriend (or boyfriend) of a superhero. Cowering and bathed in the oppressive light of their stardom, of the very largeness of their life…it’s interesting.

097.

Buffy Season Eight #5. Jo Chen. Jo Chen does amazing cover work, and the beauty of this cover here is both Chen’s ability to make an illustration look so like Sarah Michelle Gellar and to also retain its own voice. This cover is made extra creepy by the aspect of Buffy tearing off her face, which I believe pertained to some ongoing aspect of this arc, but even if it didn’t, the concept would fit well into the Buffyverse. Buffy is always wearing masks and as such the cover really resonates.

096.

X-Men #24. Andy Kubert. Alright, you caught me. There is really nothing great about this cover. Nothing great except for how it tugs at my 16 year-old heart strings! Sixteen year old Kelly liked nothing better than some Rogue and Gambit action (there’s no accounting for taste I suppose). There are many visual problems with this cover, not the least of which is the absolute eyesore of a giant white artist signature box. However, despite this cover’s obvious flaws, the characters are still well drawn and the moment Kubert captured had fans everywhere on the edge of their romantic seats. Honestly, my 16 year old self is still happy whenever it sees this cover…so long as I can block out everything that writers (and artists) since have done to the characters. I was excited about Chris Claremont’s new run on X-Men Forever, hoping he could rekindle my love for this botched comic book romance, but so far Forever is a big dud. <Sigh>.

095.

Kick-Ass #2. John Romita Jr. I’m a huge NON-fan of John Romita Jr. Whenever he draws those three lines on a woman’s cheek, I guess to define her cheekbones (?) I just want to gag. Who taught him that trick? I hate it! However, this cover (perhaps because there are no cheekbones present?) is pretty awesome. The colors are great and the drawing is nice. It’s a bit off the beaten path for a superhero cover, and since it’s Kick-Ass that’s no real surprise, but it’s nice to get something simple and unique. It looks straightforward and honest, like the book itself.

094.

Powers #10. Michael Avon Oeming. I am always intrigued when I see this cover. The fact that Oeming has conveyed so much in a few black and white lines always blows me away. I find the positive and negative space here to be gorgeous, and most importantly I want to know what Deena is seeing…I want to know what the story is…which at the end of the day is what comic covers are all about.

093.

Wolverine #17. John Byrne. Oh, Wolverine, how medium I feel about you. Listen, I used to love you, just like everyone else, I mean you’re a complete badass. And a great complicated character to boot. However, you’re EVERYWHERE. And I defy others not to admit that they too are a little sick of you. You’re the guest star in every issue of everything, you were an Avenger for a while (and that is SO not a fit), you’re the star in the X-Men films (and cartoon) and then you get your own movie (and cartoon). I mean ENOUGH. You have over-saturated the market to the point where I almost hate you! Stop it! I want to love you again…stop making it so hard!

Ahem. Anyway, this is John Byrne, drawing what has become one of the quintessential ‘Wolverine poses’.

092.

Spider-Man: Blue #3. Tim Sale. It’s a credit to this cover that though I never actually read Loeb’s Spider-Man: Blue, I never forgot this cover…and always wished I owned it. I like the graphic elements that come together here – the nice cartoon-y shape of the Mary Jane figure in the background – the all white positive/negative of her body, combined with the definition and expression in her face – and that awesome hair – very cool. It skirts the line, with the posing and juxtaposition of figures as seeming a little sexual, but it doesn’t quite go over the line (at least not intentionally).

091.

The Spirit #22. Will Eisner. Ah, the birth of the femme fatale. I guess I don’t know who REALLY invented femme fatales, but it’s safe to say that no one did them better in comics than Will Eisner. That man loves him some femme fatales. That said, I’m not a big fan. In general, it’s a pigeon-hole that female characters get trapped in. The trap that says you are insignificant unless you are beautiful and sexy. But, this is our history, and as such, to move beyond it, I guess we’ve got to embrace where we started. Though the stereotypes are in full effect here (blonde bombshell? check. clingy red dress? check. thigh high stockings? check. knife in those stockings? check!) I can still appreciate the beauty of the drawing, and the powerful simplicity of just a beautiful woman on the cover of a comic book…she owns that comic book cover if nothing else.

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The New Economy: The Upside and The Downside…

March 17, 2009 in lists | 6 comments

The Upside: I’ve been laid off but I got a fair (ish) severance package and sometimes all I can hear in my head is “FREEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!YESSSSSS!!!!!” I don’t think I’ve made the mistake of saying it out loud yet.

The Downside: When I open my wallet moths fly out of it like in a cartoon.

The Upside: My new co-worker is me singing to myself while I work (to itunes playlists of my choice), which was never really acceptable or attempted at work (the singing, not the playlists).

The Downside: I actually miss my co-workers (well, some of them, they know who they are)

The Upside: I’m finally learning the hard way what an idiot I am about money…and am being forced to actually change rather than just making an off the cuff remark.

The Downside: Money Money Money. I’m stressing extra about money because I’ve been living beyond my means for years like everyone else. The longer I stay free (and happy) the smaller my savings account gets…and I was saving for some serious stuff.

The Upside: Plenty of time to work out

The Downside: Plenty of time to work out

The Upside: Writing galore, drawing galore, reading galore, and blogging galore, for me and all my fans (all six of you) plus unlimited episodes of The West Wing…!

The Downside: No more direct deposit and “affordable” health insurance

The Upside: Staying up to all hours and sleeping in late.

The Downside: Did I mention the money thing yet? Yeah, yeah, I guess I did.

The Upside: No more blackberry

The Downside: No more blackberry

100,000 Hit-o-versary

March 1, 2009 in anna paquin, anniversaries, cartoons, comics, dancing adam, lists, mila kunis, rabid lamb, whores, winona ryder | 8 comments

In honor of hitting 100,000 hits over here on 1979 Semi-Finalist I’m going to steal an idea from my friend Holly over at Beyond The Air. Holly did a great “Best Of Post” a little while ago that inspired me to revisit the comics I have really loved over Rabid Lamb’s brief year long-ish history, in honor of my 100,000 Hit-0-versary. As usual with lists I do it half in the hope it will re-inspire me to draw more comics and half just because I love me some lists. So here goes…the Top 15 Rabid Lamb Comics…as picked by yours truly. Below the jump, I also list the Top 5 Rabid Lamb Comics, based solely on hit numbers…it’s an interesting difference. And at the very bottom…1979 Semi-Finalist’s first ever POLL!

15. Rabid Lamb Comic #063. I hate the drawing in this one, but LOVE the gag. You see, it’s funny because it’s true.

Rabid Lamb Comic #063

14. Rabid Lamb Comic #155. This is the first comic in a short series about Adam with a deer head. Adam is largely responsible for this bit and it’s great.

Rabid Lamb Comic #155

13. Rabid Lamb Comic #156. The conclusion to #155 – great stuff!

Rabid Lamb Comic #156

12. Rabid Lamb Comics #157. A little riff on the previous “deer head” strip.

Rabid Lamb Comic #157

11. Rabid Lamb Comic #158. The end of that little “deer strip” – which was some of the most fun I had with Rabid Lamb – and which I don’t despise the drawing on…except panel two of this strip (just terrible!).

Rabid Lamb Comic #158

10. Rabid Lamb Comic #085. There’s something about the simplicity of this one that always loved…that and the fact that it’s an actual conversation…pretty much word for word. Those tend to be some of my favorites.

Rabid Lamb Comic #085

9. Rabid Lamb Comic # – Guest Artist Adam Greene. This probably deserves to be higher than #9 on the list…Adam’s cartooning is so far above mine it’s ridiculous. I will say that he took forever to draw this and at the time I was doing five strips a week…we can’t all be michaelfreakingangelo when posting five strips a week and working full time…can we Adam? But I LOVE everything about this.

Rabid Lamb Comic - Guest Artist Adam Greene

8. Rabid Lamb Comic #124. The only strip to make my list and the “Top 5 Readers List”. I loved drawing the Adam and Kelly stick figures, if only because it helped the creativity and allowed the strip to become something more than a journal comic….which when you live the boring life I do gets very old very fast. Panel #4 is one of my favorite panels of all time – the expression and dialogue are just dead on.

Rabid Lamb Comic #124

Click more to see the rest of the list…and to see the Top 5 Comics according to you the reader…there’s also a poll at the end…whee!…

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Best Films of 2008

January 6, 2009 in lists, movie reviews, movies, The Dark Knight, the other boleyn girl | 9 comments

So I didn’t do an epic best of list for 2008…whether it’s because I was too busy, or because I was wiped out from being sick for a month, or just because in general I was less impressed with what I saw, read, and listened to I’m not sure. But in looking at the films from this year, I thought there were enough good ones (a lot of solid 4 stars – very few 5 stars) that I should at least make my lazy self do a best films of 2008.

Please keep in mind that this list is missing some pretty significant films as I was not great about getting to the theater this year. Likely contenders for best films that are notably missing because of I’ve yet to see them are Synechdoche New York, The Reader, Elegy, W, Taxi To The Dark Side, Religulous, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Tell No One, Che, Wendy & Lucy, American Teen, Blindness (which I was dying to see but still managed to miss) and The Wrestler. Any of these films had the potential to drastically change the list below, had I been more on the ball with my filmgoing…

10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 4 stars

milk-still

9. Milk 4 stars

revolutionaryroad1

8. Revolutionary Road 4 stars

frozen-river-poster

7. Frozen River 4 stars

snow-angels-poster

6. Snow Angels 4 stars

vickycristinabarcelona1

5. Vicky Cristina Barcelona 4 stars

forgettingsarahmarshall1

4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall 4.5 stars

ballast

3. Ballast 4.5 stars

darkknight

2. The Dark Knight 4.5 stars

reprise-poster1

1. Reprise 5 stars

Runner’s Up: Wall-E and Iron Man

I have to say, reviewing this list, it was a very depressing year overall. Of the ten films on my list I would say at least seven or eight are significantly depressing. Maybe I just had a depressing year and so everything seems more depressing to me? Could be.

The Nice Surprises of 2008? Let The Right One In, Rachel Getting Married, and Redbelt (though I’ve got some serious problems with it, the end largely redeemed it).

Biggest Disappointment of 2008? The Changeling. I enjoy Jolie and thought it was going to be great…it was decidedly not great, though I don’t blame Jolie for it. Runners up for biggest disappointments go to: My Blueberry Nights, Burn After Reading, Married Life, The Last Mistress, and Brideshead Revisted all of which I had high hopes for…hopes that were dashed horribly against sharp rocks.

The Middling Mediocre Middle Ground of 2008? Hancock (eh), Semi-Pro (barely eh), Step Brothers (eh when it should have been hilarious), Cloverfield (eh), Wanted (eh, Jolie saved it from being an utterly unwatchable special effects commercial), and Hellboy 2 (eh, too many effects, not enough of everything else).

Worst Film of 2008? The worst film I saw in 2008 was The Other Boleyn Girl, if only because the book (not even the kind of book I generally read) is freaking fantastic, and how you can screw that up so badly is beyond me. The worst mainstream film made in 2008 had to be a three way tie between Gran Torino and Nights in Rodanthe. I didn’t see either film, but seeing the previews alone was enough to make me want to slit my wrists and gouge out my eyes. In the case of this tie I’d have to award the final prize to Gran Torino…how can Clint Eastwood sometimes be so right on and awesome and sometimes be so off the mark and hideously awful? It defies explanation…

Worst Film of 2008 that I refused to see in the theater and hid out watching in my apartment and am embarrased to say I paid for: Another tie folks…Sex and the City and 27 Dresses. Where Katherine Heigl gets off talking shit about Knocked Up for being “anti-female” or whatever and then doing this dreck and thinking it’s somehow “female positive” I have no idea. As for Sex and the City, it was better than I expected it to be in that the preview looked like one giant commercial, however, I cannot respect this film as I don’t understand how a film can actually have a character while ‘down on her luck’ talking about Cinderella to a child and trying to explain how things don’t always work out that way – happy ending-ish and all – trying to explain that it’s fiction…just a story, and then have that character do a 180 in the next 40 minutes and LITERALLY have a Cinderella style moment in which she is proposed to and a slipper is placed on her foot…SERIOUSLY!?! WTF?!?! If they were doing it tongue in cheek…or as a joke…or something I could maybe forgive it, but I just don’t believe they were. The rest of the film wasn’t smart enough for that part to be a joke. So, bad on you SATC. bad.

Six Creepiest Comic Characters of All Time

May 8, 2008 in comics, entertainment, lists, writing | 2 comments

Cracked.com has a great little piece on the “Six Creepiest Comics Characters of All Time”. I’m familiar with some of them and some of them were fun and horrible new discoveries.

All their picks are solid, but I have to SUPER agree with them on #5 Ultimate Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch)*, who are twins that are apparently now ‘in love’ with each other. I haven’t been reading X-Men for years, and when I did they were always exceedingly close, almost slightly uncomfortably close, but now they’ve just gone and admitted that they’re in love with each other (of course they “killed” her in order to deal with the problematic and controversial storyline they got themselves into) but it was really creepy. More creepy than that though, was The Wasp’s explanation to Captain America about it. She explains their incestuous love as if it’s something common and even enouraged in the Twenty First Century…as if Captain America is an old fuddy duddy because he’s shocked by it. I wonder where the writing team’s head was at when they wrote this particular page. Check out the excerpt below…

Yikes.

*It should be noted that this version of Pietro & Wanda exists in the “Ultimate Universe”, which if you’re not familiar with the insanity (and joke) that is comics continuity, is too difficult to explain here. Suffice to say, multiple versions of multiple characters exist in different books and worlds etc. It’s one of the original reasons I stopped reading comics and have never really truly gone back. Although the Ultimate Universe is generally pretty awesome, with well thought out stories and great writers and artists, taking the characters places they probably should have gone originally, I would say this storyline for Pietro & Wanda are an exception to that “awesomeness”…

Best of 2007, Part Four of Four ~ Music

March 2, 2008 in lists, music, the bad plus | 7 comments

Ten Best Albums of 2007

Read parts one through three – my top ten of 2007’s books here, films here, and television here.

I hope you’ve all been waiting with bated breath for this, the last Best of 2007 List from The 1979 Semi-Finalist (yes, I know it’s March 2008 already – apologies). I especially hope you’ve all been waiting so anxiously because this is what I am by far least qualified to judge…it’s great to wait for someone’s totally unqualified opinion right? Anyway, this list is obviously compiled from the stuff I actually listened to (a relatively small selection – of what must have been hundreds of albums released this year – maybe 30 or 35 albums in total?) and is largely instinctual, I like what I like and that’s about all I can really say, without some brilliant musical background. So, BS prologue over, here we go…

10. The Mary Onettes ~ The Mary Onettes

I kind of missed the whole awesome 80’s music wave, since I was only 14 when it ended and I lived in Salt Lake City (and the middle of nowhere Colorado) from the age of six until seventeen, both of which were WELL behind the “awesome” music curve. I really didn’t even find all that great music until much later in life, and much of it was brought to me by Adam (thanks Adam). I love most everything I hear from that “new wave” sound, but compared to super fans like my friends Brooke & Evan I’ll always pretty much be a tourist. I didn’t experience it as I should have, but only in retrospect, which colors everything, and I also never got involved enough (do I get “involved enough” in any kind of music? probably not) to appreciate all the amazing details, however The Mary Onettes ARE an awesome band and I love this album. It’s such perfect 80’s “new wave alternative rock” without being old and stale, without copying everything before it, instead it’s just really honest and earnest music that has its own sound, but a sound that belongs soundly in the 1980’s. The great thing for me, is that since they are a “new” band I can experience some of what I missed out on in the 80’s and for that I’ll be forever grateful to The Mary Onettes – thanks Mary Onettes! I can’t wait to experience the next album in real time…Best Track(s): Track #4 – The Laughter

09. Proof Of Youth ~ The Go! Team

Woo-hoo! I picked this up because of the first track, and the whole album pretty much rocks just as hard as that first one, even the mellower tunes somehow rock. I love this shit. In my imagination this whole band is the product of sweet assed female ninjas that bred with the dudes from Jurassic 5…producing the coolest most badass ninja jurassic jammin kids that just happened to start a band one day in the garage. I was playing it loud as fuck at work one day after everyone had already left and I swear I could have worked all night on the energy I was getting from the album. Best Track(s): Track #1 – Grip Like A Vice; Track #3 – My World

08. Cross ~ Justice.

On first listen, I was all, “this is great, but not top ten material”. Second listen, “Hmmm, perhaps I should reconsider”. By the third listen I was in. The mixes are just awesome and the beats are impossible to ignore. The only flaw, for me, is that occasionally, unless of course my cd IS f’ed up, they mix it so hard that the song sounds f’d up (Track #4). I don’t know what this technique is called, but it’s not a technique I’m a fan of. At all. But the rest of the cd is good enough that I’m willing to look past that…and put it right up there in the top ten for 2007. A special thanks goes to ihatewheat of adhoc who introduced me to this band. Thanks! Love it. Best Track(s): Track #1 – Genesis; Track #6 – Phantom Pt. II

07. Neon Bible ~ The Arcade Fire

I was never on The Arcade Fire train, I don’t know why, I just seemed to miss it and was never able to get back on…until now. This is a great album. I love it. I’m going to have to start digging into The Funeral, because if the reviews can be believed, then that album is equal to or better than Neon Bible. One of the things I’ve decided I most like about The Arcade Fire is that they kind of transcend categorization. Not that I’m an expert, but their music doesn’t fit easily under any one label. And you get the feeling when listening that they’re not doing it on purpose so that they can be “awesome and label-less” but rather it’s just actually who they are and how they sound. I kind of just love the hell out of the idea that they’re just doing what they love, what they know how to do, and it comes out just completely beautiful and badass. Best Track(s): Track #1 – Black Mirror; Track #4 – Intervention

06. Back To Black ~ Amy Winehouse

I SO don’t want this on my list, but what can I say…the girl can sing like no freaking tomorrow. So here she is, on the top ten of the year and she deserves it, especially because I don’t even listen to music “like this” very often, but when something is good like this album is it seems to transcend genre lines and pop factor and all that other crap and it just gets to be recognized as the kickass album that it is. Best Track(s): Track #1 – Rehab; Track #5 – Back to Black (although I lean towards Rehab these days considering her current dramas…shades of precognition much?)

05. The Bird & The Bee ~ The Bird & The Bee

I picked this up randomly…I think because I liked the title. Thank the gods I am such a silly ridiculous person. It’s an excellent album. Somehow poppy and accessible, without being annoying and poppy and accessible. Make sense? No? Too bad, that’s the best I can explain it. I defy anyone to listen to track #3 – F*cking Boyfriend and not be singing it the rest of the day…but in a good way. I can’t wait to hear more of this stuff. It’s a soft-ish album overall, but in all the good ways. Best Track(s): Track #3 – F*cking Boyfriend; Track #4 – I’m A Broken Heart.

04. Prog ~ The Bad Plus

Ah, The Bad Plus…how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Prog is a great album, not their best, not my favorite (that would be 2004’s Give – with the infamous 1979 Semi-Finalist track) but this is still wonderful and belongs in anyone’s top ten. For the uninitiated, The Bad Plus is a jazz trio consisting of Piano, Bass, and Drums (Dave King on drums is like watching – and hearing – magic). The Bad Plus is largely known for their creative and super lush covers of infamous tunes like Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears (on this album) and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, but the real brilliance for me is in their original work. It is really some beautiful groundbreaking jazz, which you don’t hear much of these days, at least not in mainstream music. They are BRILLIANT to see live. When I leave a Bad Plus show I feel like I can absolutely conquer the world. I want to write, draw, create, live…all of it. I wish they could bottle the experience – I’d stock up – instead I’ve bought tickets to see them again this year – March 22nd at The Blue Note – yay! Best Track(s): Track #2 – Physical Cities

03. Wincing The Night Away ~ The Shins

I’ll admit it, I was one of those people that just kind of fell in love with Natalie Portman in Garden State (if I wasn’t already in love with her) when she’s all “Hey, Zach Braf – this music (The Shins) will change your life” and it kind of does. There’s something wonderful about The Shins. It’s all happy and layered and beautiful and deep all at the same time, and Wincing is particularly this way. I listened to the album many many times in narrowing down my list and it never ceased to be thoroughly enjoyable and moving. I kinda just love the fuck out of it. Thanks Natalie Portman. Best Track(s): Hard call, I’m going with Track #1 – Sleeping Lessons, if only because it’s just a great intro into the whole beautiful package.Track #4 – Phantom Limb and Track #6 – Red Rabbits as close seconds.

02. Sound Of Silver ~ LCD Soundsystem

Good stuff. Certain tracks stand out exceptionally for me on this album, and others are just “great”. The beats are incredible and the lyrics surprisingly, have an actual point – which can often get lost on beat heavy albums. There’s chatter on the web about how this and that song are complete rip-offs of other earlier songs – and this could be absolutely true – I don’t have that kind of musical vault-like knowledge – but the end result is some beautiful beautiful sounds that I’m completely sold on – so I guess I don’t feel too badly about it – true or not. Somewhere in the epic space of the internet someone said this album is the music they want to hear on the radio on a night coming home at 3am…and I couldn’t agree more. I can almost see myself cruising through the city, euphoric but epic-ly sad, with this blowing over me and out the windows and onto the streets. Now if only I had a car. Best Track(s): Track #1 – Get Innocuous. Boy do I love first tracks huh? I think I’m a sucker for first tracks the same way I’m a sucker for first lines in books…

01. In Rainbows – Radiohead

I wasn’t so sure about this album upon first listen…but it’s Radiohead, and a lot of my all time favorite albums have taken more than one listen for me to fall in love with them, in fact, I think I prefer it that way, it alludes to a complexity and depth that isn’t just accessible in casual listening. Suffice to say In Rainbows is one of these complex albums. But by listen number two I was pretty in love and I kind of can’t get enough of it lately. I’ve also noticed a lot of other people that are Radiohead fans (boyfriend, boss, co-workers) seem to feel the same way about this album…and I notice we all play it A LOT. It’s in the bloodstream. For the record, Adam and I did download it, or rather he downloaded it and paid a bit extra (10 pounds I think) because he knew he was going to give it to me, which he did. I applauded the way they released this album, and while it certainly hasn’t been certified as a success by all, it takes a while to change an ancient system – they get credit for getting the ball rolling. I’m a superfan. And they easily slide into the number one spot for me for 2008. Best Track: Track #4 – Weird Fishes/Arpeggio

Honorable Mentions:

We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank ~ Modest Mouse. Honestly? This should be on the list – it’s a great album, but I know Modest Mouse like I know few other bands, and while this is great they can do better (and have, like the exceptional This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About). I’m going to wait for better.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga ~ Spoon. This is a solid album (sans the terrible title) but it just wasn’t quite exceptional or unique enough to crack this top ten group.

Icky Thump ~ The White Stripes. This is good, but I find White Blood Cells to be superior. Also, I have this problem with the Stripes where I like everything, but after a whole album it just starts to all sound the same. And I get sick of the drums and screeching.

I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On ~ The Broken West. Good stuff (and a great album title) but it just didn’t stand out enough in the pack to push its way to the forefront. A band to watch though.

Spells ~ The Comas. Why is this band not super famous? They are poppy enough to be on the radio…yet I’ve never heard them there (although I listen to very little radio these days – so maybe I’m wrong). They’ve got a great sound. They don’t make the list solely on lyrics. I don’t love the lyrics. At all. They seem a little silly…red microphone? really? A bit silly. But they’ve got super potential to take over the world even if they don’t up their lyrics to a new level. Pop radio isn’t exactly picky.

Would’ve thought they’d make the list, but I just couldn’t get into them:

Some Loud Thunder ~ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I like their self titled album, but this ended up just sounding like a lot of noise to me, I wanted to get there but just couldn’t. I kinda hated it actually.

Cease To Begin ~ Band Of Horses. I LOVED their first album, Everything All At Once and listen to it constantly, this is just not nearly as good. Maybe they only had one great album in them?, maybe the dynamic (and talent?) has changed too dramatically now that Mat Brooke has left?, I don’t know but man am I disappointed in Cease To Begin, it has none of the magic of Everything.

My Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go ~ Aereogramme. I freaking LOVE the first track on this album (Conscious Life For Coma Boy) and there are many other good tracks, but it’s just too soft. I kept waiting for it to amp up and it just never happened. In the end it made me sad.

Best of 2007, Part Two of Four ~ Film

February 6, 2008 in cillian murphy, lists, movie reviews, movies, the darjeeling limited, the savages | 18 comments

Best Films of 2007

One of the reasons that I decided to do Best of 2007 lists in the first place this year, is because I saw some idiot bloggers talking about what a weak year 2007 had been for films. Are you freaking kidding me?! I had more five star films this year then maybe ever before. 2007 was a FANTASTIC year for film, and here’s why…

Spoiler Alerts, read with caution.

10. Sunshine

Some people really disliked this movie, and of the people I know who liked it, they didn’t love it. I apparently stand a bit alone on this, because I loved it. It was a film that really stayed with me (you can read a more detailed review here). The more I thought about this film afterwards, the more I found redeeming in it. It was not a perfect film, and there were some definite problems, most especially the fact that it devolves into a bit of a horror/monster movie towards the end and I did not feel that was the best choice considering what had been set up throughout, but Danny Boyle and Alex Garland like to go in unusual directions (28 Days Later anyone?) and far be it from me to second guess them. There was enough here sans the ending to keep me happy and interested. This is a brilliant script and wonderful layered performances, despite a fairly large cast.

Best of all, my favorite elements were all lined up, man v. man, man v. nature, man v. himself, and for it to also be so stunningly shot and with all the beautiful and horrible juxtapositions of the closeness of a space ship v. the vastness of space, and the intolerable heat of the sun v. the intolerable coldness of space…just brilliant.

09. King Of Kong: Fistful Of Quarters

I should watch more documentaries. I always love them, and yet I have only one on my top 10 list, why is that you ask? Why, dear readers it’s because I only saw two 2007 documentaries! Shame on me. I’m going to make a serious effort to see more. If even half of them are as entertaining, engaging, and wonderful as King Of Kong then I will have done myself a huge favor. This was just a great underdog story, Steve Weibe is incredibly likable, so much so that even his opponent’s “disciples” end up having only good things to say about him.

You would think a movie about watching supernerds (yes, I said it) playing video games would be incredibly dull, but Seth Gordon crafted an incredibly engaging and often intense film out of such technically dull material. Kong would have ranked even higher I think if I hadn’t read about some controversy about the film and some chatter about the accuracy. With a documentary you always hope you are getting as much truth and as little filter and “tricky editing” as possible, and it sounds like maybe that is a bit debatable here, but I suspect it’s still mostly accurate. Steve Weibe is a real life good guy, and you all know how much I love good guys.

08. Away From Her

I cried like a baby in this movie. IN THE THEATER. I think the last time I cried at a movie in the theater was roughly ten years ago. Now, that may say more about me and things I have been going through then anything specific about the movie, but it shook me to my core. Sarah Polley pulled off an amazing feat in her directorial debut, and not only directing, but she also wrote the beautiful script that is adapted from the short story The Bear Came Over The Mountain by Alice Munroe (a genius in her own right). This is heartbreaking subject material, I mean dealing with Alzheimers is kind of like dealing with concentration camps, it’s just not too hard to make it pull at your heart strings. However, there is pulling at your heart strings in a hallmark hall of fame-lifetime movie of the week way, in which all the cliches are accounted for and you roll your eyes as the over the top drama unfolds in ridiculous ways, and then there is Away From Her, which is beautiful and slow and so very real and honest and hurtful all at the same time that you cannot help but be moved, for me, to tears.

To my mind Polley has perfectly captured what it must be like to have lived a life with someone you love, not a perfect life, because no life is perfect, but to have survived that life together, to have made it to the finish line, arm in arm, only to be forced to watch it crumble at your feet. It’s just too horrible, to be either Fiona (Julie Christie) or Grant (Gordon Pinsent), but you end up wishing to be Fiona because although what she is going through is terrible, at some point she no longer really knows what she has lost. There are moments when you can see that she maybe knows and it is almost as if she chooses to keep forgetting, because remembering would just be too much pain. But to be Grant , to watch everything you had fall away from you, and to remember it all, but to be left with only memories as she moves away from you, onto her fresh clean slate of life, with you left with only the shadow…oh it’s just horribly painful. A brilliant film.

I have my eye on Polley. How someone so young knew how to do this I’ll never know. I hope she’s got more in there. In some ways it is unfortunate that Away From Her was released this year, as it should have been up for more awards in a more normal, less mind blowingly fantastic year.

07. The Savages

Let’s start with – Best Movie Poster Of All Time!!!! Go Chris Ware. Cartoonists are slowly taking over the world and it is AWESOME. I loved this film. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman are easily two of the best actors working in Hollywood today, and when handed a brilliant subtle script that perfectly fleshes out brother Joe Savage and sister Wendy Savage so beautifully in so few words, it’s just wonderful. This was certainly not an uplifting movie (interestingly enough few on my list this year are) and it turned out to be more about the sad strained relationship between Wendy and Joe and less about their estranged relationship with their father Lenny (Philip Bosco), but really all the characters (and actors) are given equal opportunity to reveal themselves, like peeling a piece of fruit, bit by bit you came to understand what they were, and how they became that way. In the simple action of father Lenny turning down his hearing aid so he doesn’t have to hear his children bickering about his future; Wendy Savage blithely lying to Joe about a winning a coveted grant; and Joe’s inability to commit to his long time girlfriend in order for her to stay in the country once her visa’s expired, all these little motions in The Savage family speak volumes about what has gone wrong (and right) with them. It’s wonderful and sad.

The Savages is only Tamara Jenkins second full length feature film (she has a few shorts out there which I have not seen). I was not a big fan of The Slums of Beverly Hills, her 1998 film, though I remember liking the concept and thinking there were some good ideas there. It is clear to me in watching The Savages that she has honed her skills and her focus. This movie is far superior and signals a potentially amazing career ahead of her as a writer and director. The Savages feels to me like it could have been Noah Baumbach’s follow up to The Squid And The Whale, one of my favorite films of all time. Margot At The Wedding, Baumbach’s actual follow up this year was good, and it was close, but The Savages feels more real, more like what I was looking for from him…interesting.

06. Michael Clayton

Ah George Clooney, how you captivate me. I saw this movie pretty much based on George Clooney power alone. I wasn’t really sure what the film was about with those clever but unclear posters, and while I’d heard good things, nothing was too specific. A great supporting cast (Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack) doesn’t hurt, but I won’t kid you, I was there for Clooney. I’m a fan. He really nailed this one too, although I shouldn’t be surprised, with the exception of the Ocean’s 11 stuff – which is not bad – just not great – his last couple performances have been nothing short of amazing – Syriana? Good Night & Good Luck? – awesome.

Tony Gilroy’s excellent, sparse, tight script, and realistic subtle direction really worked for me. So many times when we’re dealing with subject matter this intense and unreal (people being killed quietly in the night, cars blown up, millions of dollars changing hands) the script, direction, etc. all goes over the top as well until the whole thing is so unbelievable that I’m bored. Not so here, Gilroy keeps us quite fixed in the very real world that we all live in, where unbelievable and horrible things can and do happen, and are even more horrible for being so out of context with going to the store to get milk, or answering the front door. Keeping Clooney’s Michael so very grounded was a great way to keep us as the viewer grounded as well, as everything surged and changed around him. There are some truly beautiful scenes – the scene with Michael and the horses in the early morning mist – before his car blows up – stands out as a particularly haunting and powerful moment, but mostly the cinematography is willing to take a backseat to the complicated and riveting drama that unfolds on the screen.

05. Zodiac

Man did I LOVE this film. The attention to detail in crafting a period piece from the 1970’s was just out of control, it’s so subtle so that it doesn’t draw your focus, but the accuracy is just dead on. David Fincher is such a master when it comes to the details, second only for me maybe to Wes Anderson. Here he has crafted such an engaging drama, and considering the fact that the ending to this movie is horribly unsatisfying for the masses, e.g. it’s based on a true crime story, and the crime has never been solved, thus the film cannot solve it for movie goers, but he still manages to make it imminently satisfying, if only because of the richness of the characters and performances and spot on script. Fincher doesn’t always hit for me, I found Panic Room lacking (although still superior to a lot of thrillers), but when he hits, like with Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, and even The Game he hits it out of the park.

I feel this film really got lost in a year of amazing films, maybe just because of it’s early release date in 2007, which is unfortunate because it really is among the top films of the year, complete with some of my favorite performances by Jake Gyllenhall, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., as the standouts among an incredible supporting cast including Chloe Sevigny, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Donal Logue, Dermot Mulroney, Clea Duvall, James LeGros, and Elias Koteas. Gyllenhall’s Robert Graysmith has become one of my all time favorite good guys, I just love the innocent boyscout nature that Gyllenhall brings to the role.

04. The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Another crying movie for me (fortunately not in the theater this time). You’d have to be made of stone I think to not be moved by this tale of Ireland in the early twentieth century. Cillian Murphy steals the film as Damian, the quiet intelligent brother of guerilla ringleader Teddy (Padriac Delaney). Damian does not want to get involved with the war between Ireland and Britain, and is literally on his way to London to continue his medical career when he is dragged back into the war with the unjust brutalities of the Black & Tan’s – a hired British army – that behaves as I suspect many hired armies do – as bullies given guns and power – and no supervision. Damian returns to his family and to the guerilla fighting beside his brother Teddy, united in their efforts to free Ireland from Britain’s evil grasp. Ken Loach moves this film so fluidly from the first scene of boys at play to boys at war, that you are absolutely swept up into the same tide they find themselves in.

For Damian and Teddy fighting for the guerilla resistance is particularly gruesome, because when Ireland and Britain finally sign a treaty, it divides Ireland even further, between those who wanted peace and think the treaty is a good start and those that feel it is giving up on all that they have been fighting and dying for, and that any treaty that requires them to swear allegiance to an out of country king is no good. Loach presents an honest and faithful look at both sides, and as a viewer you are as torn as these brothers are. As a viewer, I found myself siding more with Damian and his brother in arms Dan, more than Teddy, as Damian and Dan were both powerful logical rational speakers, who really believed in what they were saying and were unwilling to accept the conditions of the treaty, while Teddy comes off as slightly less intelligent and more wild, and more corrupted – however slightly. But perhaps since Cillian is the star and Damian the main character it was designed that I should feel that way regardless of their characters, but my siding for Damian in no way made the showdown between sides, and more importantly between brothers any easier to bear. The ending is nothing if not absolutely heartbreaking, as any war between brothers is bound to be.

03. There Will Be Blood

Je-Zus. This movie was freaking incredible. Let’s first start out with what a rip-off it is that Johnny Greenwood’s score is being denied Oscar contention due to yet more of Oscar’s piddling little rules and regulations. I cannot EVER remember being more moved by a score than I was by the score in There Will Be Blood. The score was absolutely one of the characters of the film – one of the best characters in fact, and it deserves the recognition. The cinematography in Blood is absolutely stunning, it captures these vast epic landscapes perfectly. The script by Paul Thomas Anderson, loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, is wonderfully understated, allowing all the characters – from actors, to scenery, to brilliant scores, to claim their place on the screen – coming together as a beautiful symphony. Paul Thomas Anderson is the maestro of maestros here, allowing the elements that he has assembled to blend together perfectly into an absolutely brilliant film. The best thing about this film (closely followed by the score, and cinematography, and direction, okay and everything) is the singular performance of Daniel Day Lewis. Lewis absolutely chews up all the scenery and everything around him and spits it out only when he is good and ready. This is one of the most iconic, layered characters ever put on film, and Lewis is pitch perfect in exposing us to his Daniel Plainview – it is maybe the most perfect and riveting performance I have ever seen. So with all this raving, why is this film not #1…or even #2? Two reasons.

#1. Because Lewis is SO wonderful, some of the other performances, though excellent, take a backseat. Nobody can hold the screen with Lewis, and though I think highly of Paul Dano’s Eli Sunday, I think he was a bit of a miscast. He’s good, but he cannot hold the screen with Lewis (maybe nobody could have?) and as such a certain element is lost. I never believe there is a chance Daniel will lose to Eli, because Dano cannot create a strong enough opponent.

#2. The Poster. It’s a great poster, but I didn’t read it until after I saw the film, and I don’t feel it reflects what I saw in the film. The poster (one of them – there are two) says, “When Ambition Meets Faith” and while that is an element in the film, it was not the supreme element in the film to me, not by miles. And if it was supposed to be, then Faith loses by miles, as Daniel Plainview chewed it up and spit it out with all the rest, so I feel conflicted about the poster in relation to the film, and viewed after the fact it really threw me about the film and about Anderson’s intentions.
02. No Country For Old Men

I ask you, how did Josh Brolin get screwed out of an Oscar nomination this year? I have been waiting since his lovely crush inducing performance in a little film called Goonies (you may have heard of it – circa 1985?) for the rest of the world to recognize Josh Brolin as the super talent he is. Now here we are, in a brilliant film like No Country For Old Men, with an equally brilliant performance and he’s still getting screwed! He’s had a few good performances over the years (Flirting With Disaster, Nightwatch, and Melinda & Melinda) but has been mostly stuck in stuff not worthy of him (Hollow Man, Into The Blue – ick!), but here he is in all his brilliance, and still he is denied! Don’t get me wrong, Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigur is a worthy nominee, but just because he got to play the “crazy villain” with the “crazy hair” and the “crazy killing method” doesn’t make Brolin any less worthy. Brolin carried this brilliant movie in my opinion. I suppose Tommy Lee Jones, also wonderful here as Ed Tom Bell, was supposed to be the rock in Country, but for my money it was Brolin’s Llewelyn that carried us through. He got the best line of the year (yes, even over Blood’s milkshake line in my opinion) “What’s this guy supposed to be the ultimate badass?” and the best mustache (ever), and he was the smartest quietest best dumb schmuck that got lucky in years. He was a wonder to watch.

This is also the Coen’s best work in years, maybe their best work ever, I’m going to have to let Country sit for a year or two to see if it can actually beat The Big Lebowski, but it’s definitely in the running. It is certainly their most beautiful and important work in the last nine years and I can’t wait to see what they’re going to do next. This film barely edges out There Will Be Blood, it’s practically a photo finish here, but in the end I gave the edge to Country, maybe because it seemed just a little smarter, like I’d find a million new things each time I watched it, instead of just finding new things in the landscape and Lewis’ performance in Blood.

01. 4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile… (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days…)

I think this film beats out There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men for me simply because I’m a woman. There are precious few women in either Blood or Country, actually are there any significant women in Blood…not really, and while Kelly MacDonald’s Carla Jean Moss is wonderful in Country, she’s only a minor supporting character, and she and her mother are the WOMEN who are stupid enough to get my beloved Llewelyn ‘caught’, so those two films, brilliant as they are, don’t really speak volumes to me as a woman, but I can’t think of a recent film that spoke more honestly to me as a woman than 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days…I cannot think of one single flaw in this film.

The script, cinematography, direction, and performances are all absolutely brutally honest. Set in 1987 Romania, the story follows Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) as she attempts to help her friend Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) obtain an illegal abortion with the “help” of Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov). The title is derived from the idea that after a certain point in a pregnancy an abortion becomes a murder charge, and Gabita’s pregancy length is very much in question. I thought about this film for days after seeing it, and I realized when I was thinking about it that I was thinking about so many things. I was thinking about the questions it raised for me and the emotions that engulfed me, I was thinking about how expertly handled the scenes were, so that I was just in it with Otilia, we were stuck there together in 1987 Romania and it was truly horrifying. A scene in which Otilia is walking around in the dark, avoiding the police, and looking for a place to hide the remains, was so intense that I had to contain myself not to cry out in the theater. Cristian Mungiu is the director and I am not familiar with any of his other work, but I will definitely be seeking it out, as a film like this cannot be just a fluke of talent. There’s gold there.

This film (like my beloved Josh Brolin) was obscenely ignored for the Oscars, for apparently no good reason (no obscure rules or regulations), and until I (or Adam of course) am nominated for an Oscar I think I’m just not going to pay attention to them anymore. It appears to be one big popularity contest, just like everything else in the world. *SIGH* Okay, bitterness aside, I recommend this film to anyone that likes to be challenged, to anyone that likes to see beautiful intense moving films, to anyone that wants to be forever changed, and to any woman that thinks she can handle it.

Honorable Mentions: Margot At The Wedding, Knocked Up, The Darjeeling Limited, and Killer Of Sheep

Should’a seen, could’a been a contenders: Eastern Promises and I’m Not There.

Worst Film of 2007: I do a pretty good job these days of not seeing bad films in theaters, since I’m not paid to see (or write) about them. But I’m going to go, based on other reviews, and my hatred of Lindsay Lohan, with I Know Who Killed Me, although technically, Bratz has got to be even worse, right?

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