Bug
I'm Not There
There Will Be Blood
Death Proof
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Atonement
Youth Without Youth
Margot at the Wedding

Edit (looking back in 2011):

2007 was the last year I made a real effort to see most of the popular and Oscar-nominated films, most of which fell short in my opinion. These eight, though, still stay with me in one way or another.

01. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
02. Zodiac (David Fincher)
03. Bug (William Friedkin)
04. The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman)
05. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (David Yates)

01. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
02. There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
03. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
04. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton)
05. Zodiac (David Fincher)
06. Control (Anton Corbijn)
07. Margot at the Wedding (Noah Baumbach)
08. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
09. Smiley Face (Gregg Araki)
10. No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros.)

Now that I've seen a lot more than ten great films this year, here's my pick:

You, the Living (Roy Andersson) – As bleak and beautiful as ever, but also regularly, convulsively hilarious. Andersson's one of the few filmmakers whose every composition looks like it should be hung on a gallery wall, and this is his best work yet in his mature style (it's hard to draw comparisons with his other, wildly different masterpiece A Swedish Love Story).

Forever (Heddy Honigmann) – Honigmann's a strong contender for the greatest modern documentarist, and this deceptively simple idea (talking to visitors to Pere Lachaise cemetery) turns into a profound meditation on her key themes: the personal disruption wrought by geopolitical events, cultural dislocation, and the importance of music in everyday lives. Honigmann deals with that last topic better than anybody, and she's also one of the most expert interviewers on the planet: the film is full of revelations.

Private Property (Joachim Lafosse) – Brilliant, gruelling family drama, very much in the Pialat tradition and featuring Isabelle Huppert at the top of her form and Jeremie Renier's best work yet.

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – As mysterious as ever, relaxed, beautiful and eerie.

Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke) – It would be a photo-finish with The World and Platform, but this could be his best film yet.

Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant) – Sublimely lyrical, this may be my favourite of Van Sant's recent run of “doomed youthâ€

1. The Tulse Luper Suitcases trilogy (Greenaway, 2003-4, UK/international) - at least the first two parts. An absurdly delayed one-day UK showing: a project which almost vindicates Greenaway's own hype, formally if not narratively.

2. At Sea (Hutton, 2007, US)

3. Drawing Restraint 9 (Barney, 2005, US)

4. You, the Living (Andersson, 2007, Sweden)

5. Mid-Afternoon Barks (Zhang Yuedong, 2007, China)

6. Useless (Jia, 2007, China)

7. Winners and Losers (Franke/Loeken, 2006, Germany)

8. Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006, US)

9. Milky Way (Fliegauf, 2007, Hungary)

10. 12:08 East of Bucharest (Porumboiu, 2006, Romania)


I'm certain that Still Life would be on there if some simian could be bothered to distribute it here.

1. Lives of Others
2. Zodiac
3. Inland Empire
4. Superbad
5.

1. Once
1. Juno
3. There Will Be Blood
3. No Country For Old Men
3. Ratatouille
6. Superbad
7. Knocked Up
8. 300

1) La Sconosciuta
2) Lust, Caution
3) Eastern Promises
4) Lady Chatterley
5) Black book
6 )No Country for Old Men
7) Zodiac
8) Witnesses (Techine)

so far, this year...

these will most likely change in the coming weeks

01. There Will Be Blood
02. Syndromes And A Century
03. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
04. I'm Not There
05. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
06. Climates
07. The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
08. Control
09. Margot at the Wedding
10. No Country For Old Men
11. This Is England
12. Eastern Promises
13. The Darjeeling Ltd.
14. INLAND EMPIRE
15. Lights in the Dusk
16. Zodiac (the directors cut)
17. Fay Grim
18. Private Fears in Public Places
19. The Host
20. Superbad
21. Invisible Waves
22. The Boss of it All
23. Juno
24. Rescue Dawn
25. Knocked Up
26. Exiled
27. Ten Canoes
28. The Savages
29. Lady Chatterley
30. The Fountain
31. Sunshine
32. Zoo

ones I am looking forward to (but, alas, will come out in 2008):
Colossal Youth
The Man From London
Paranoid Park

1. I'm Not There
2. Inland Empire
3. Killer of Sheep
4. Zodiac
5. No Country for Old Men
6. Eastern Promises
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. The Host
9. Away From Her
10. Once


+ the Suwa, Payne, and Assayas segments of Paris je'taime (liked many of the others, but these were my favorites)

+ Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples Temple (only caught the last 45 minutes, but that was some of the most frightening stuff I've ever heard)

Into Great Silence
No Country for Old Men
Eastern Promises
Ratatouille
I'm Not There
There Will Be Blood
Lust, Caution
Paprika
Zodiac
Michael Clayton
Away from Her
Knocked Up
Grindhouse

I also liked Our Daily Bread, Hot Fuzz, The Darjeeling Limited, Sicko, Transformers, Assassination of Jesse James, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

I didn't hate it: Lars and the Real Girl, Breach, Disturbia, I Am Legend, Ocean's Thirteen, Spiderman 3, Gone Baby Gone.

Disappointed in: 28 Weeks Later, Goya's Ghosts, Sweeney Todd

Weirded out by: Perfume, Inland Empire

Terrible: American Gangster, The Mist, Right at Your Door, Sunshine, Hitman, The Reaping, The Simpsons Movie

Soon to see: King of Kong

1)INTO THE WILD
2)KNOCKED UP
3)HOT FUZZ

I am envious of everyone who has seen Paranoid Park and I expect it to make my list once I see it.

In alphabetical order for now:

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Mungiu)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
The Darjeeling Limited (Anderson)
Eastern Promises (Cronenberg)
Gone Baby Gone (Affleck)
I'm Not There (Haynes)
Margot at the Wedding (Baumbach)
My Winnipeg (Maddin)
No Country for Old Men (Coens)
Paranoid Park (Van Sant)
Ratatouille (Bird & Pinkava)
There Will Be Blood (Anderson)
Useless (Jia)
Zodiac (Fincher)

Special mention to Killer of Sheep.

Plus Superbad, The Simpsons Movie, and Knocked Up were great for laughs and The Bourne Ultimatum kicked ass. I also thought Manufacturing Dissent was an interesting doc, though its filmmaking isn't the most accomplished. I really enjoyed The Flight of the Red Balloon even if others thought it was a disappointment.

I'll also mention Smiley Face if only for Anna Faris's performance and that great reveal of "what she really said."

Still Life
Regular Lovers
At Sea
Paranoid Park
The Darjeeling Limited
Zodiac
Footnotes to a House of Love (short)
SiCKO
What the Water Said 4-6
I'm Not There

(In that order...still backlogged, it seems, so far from complete)

Two months to go, but here ya'are:

The Ten: Yume no naka e (Sono); Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul); Shin Sung-il is Lost (Shin - 2005); Aleksandra (Sokurov); Silent Light (Reygadas); Realism Inn and Linda Linda Linda (Yamashita - 2003, 2006); Paranoid Park (van Sant); Snow Angels (Green); Sad Vacation (Aoyama); Fay Grim (Hartley) and Zoo (Devor)

HM: Family Ties (Kim); Go Master (Tian); Amazing Lives of the Fastfood Grifters (Oshii)

Not necessarily "bad" but "disappointing" (expected much more): My Blueberry Nights (Wong); Mister Lonely (Korine); Flandres (Dumont); Hana yori mo nao (Kore-eda); Retribution (Kurosawa)

"Disappointing" and "bad" to boot: Volver (Almodovar); The Unseeable (Sasanatieng); The Old Garden (Im); Curse of the Golden Flower (Zhang); Exte (Sono); Le voyage du ballon rouge (Hou); I'm a Cyborg ... (Park); The Man from London (Tarr)

In chronological order of seeing them:

Tears of the Black Tiger
Fido
Planet Terror
Hot Fuzz
Animation Show: Year 3
Ratatouille
Blade Runner: Final Cut
No Country for Old Men
Bender's Big Score
There Will Be Blood

Holding out some hope that Paul Thomas Anderson and the Coen brother's will help to rescue a thoroughly disappointing year. To be fair, I did miss Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone...

EDIT: No Country for Old Men, faaaantastic.
EDIT 2: There Will Be Blood was good, but not great.

Here's my top ten which is in no particular order, which was hard, because I kept going back finding new things to like about each film.

Inland Empire
Fido
Alexander Revisited
10 Items or Less
28 Weeks Later
Black Book
Perfume
Paris Je T'aime
The Host
Black Sheep

In no order:
No Country For Old Men
Eastern Promises
12:08 East of Bucharest
Zodiac
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Hot Fuzz
Darjeeling Limited
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Wind That Shakes the Barley
Fay Grim


Still plenty I need to see though

I'm Not There
Ratatouille
Eastern Promises
Margot at the Wedding
The Darjeeling Ltd.
Knocked Up
No Country for Old Men
Superbad

I'm Not There
The Darjeeling Limited
The Brand Upon The Brain!
Waitress
Ratatouille
Killer of Sheep
Sunshine

Still to see: No Country For Old Men, Persepolis, The Orphanage.

Worst: The Hottest State.
Best thing I saw in 2007 that didn't come out in 2007: Between the Lines

Finally, someone put Waitress on their list.

Well, it's probably not as meaningful, but Keri Russell has always been in my top 3. As for Waitress, I couldn't shake the feeling that it often felt like Felicity in a Sundance film. That doesn't mean that it wasn't enjoyable, but it wrapped up a little too easily.

Based on Australian release dates.

1. INLAND EMPIRE
2. Into Great Silence
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. The Host
5. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
6. Rescue Dawn
7. Paprika
8. Old Joy
9. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
10. Linda Linda Linda and The Science of Sleep
Honourable Mentions: Zodiac, Ratatouille, This is England, Lady Chatterly, No Country for Old Men, Black Book, Superbad and Hot Fuzz, The Darjeeling Ltd. and Hotel Chevalier, I'm Not There, After the Wedding, 28 Weeks Later

Disappointing: Control, Sunshine
Avoid at all costs: Tales from Earthsea, La Vie en Rose (La Mome)

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Ratatouille
3. The Darjeeling Limited
4. Romance & Cigarettes
5. The Lives of Others
6. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
7. Death Proof
8.
9.
10.

Unlikely to change at this point. Alphabetical order.

Re-releases (requires commercial release):

Blade Runner (Scott)
Cobra Verde (Herzog)
Fitzcarraldo--English-language version (Herzog)
War and Peace (Bondarchuk)

New films (first screened in NYC in 2007):

Alexandra (Sokurov)
Caravaggio (Longoni)
Day Watch (or Dnevnoy dozor) (Bekmambetov)
The Last Mistress (or Une vieille maîtresse) (Breillat)
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Helm)
Romance & Cigarettes (Turturro)
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (Kijak)
Southland Tales (Kelly)
Sunshine (Boyle)
Tell No One (or Ne le dis à personne) (Canet)

Silliest:

Redacted (De Palma)