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Thursday, Aug 28, 2008
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The Real Spin |
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| Best DVDs of 2007 | ||
| by Ron Anders -
SGN A&E Writer When faced with picking the best DVDs of 2007, I honestly wondered if I could come up with ten films that I could wholeheartedly recommend. I needn't have worried. Though 2007 was not exactly a bang-up year for DVDs (just as 2006 was not a great year for theatrical releases), the films/series listed below do the media proud. Here are my ten best, followed by deserving runners-up and a list of best performances. This comes with a big thank-you to my faithful readers - with my wishes for a great holiday season! 1. Days of Heaven Finally! The most visually stunning of all films gets the deluxe treatment by Criterion, with a beautiful transfer and superb extras, including a commentary track and interviews with the film's creators (conspicuously but unsurprisingly absent is reclusive genius Terrence Malick). Originally released in 1978, this haunting story of a love triangle in the early days of the 20th century is exquisitely directed by Malick and has a majestically elegiac score by Ennio Morricone. A peerless masterpiece. 2. Shortbus John Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit, poignantly comic valentine to sex. New York City's befuddled sexual pilgrims come to Shortbus, a salon for the gifted and challenged (where voyeurism is participation), crossing paths with others who seek enlightenment about how to connect their hearts and their genitals. Superb musical interludes and real fucking: what's not to like? Extras include a primer on how to film sex. A fearless, heartfelt - even revolutionary - film! 3. The Queen This compulsively watchable fantasia on the behind-closed-doors events in the House of Windsor in the weeks after Princess Diana's death is grounded by Helen Mirren's already-legendary performance. What could have been a tepid, made-for-TV-like drama is steered towards greatness by director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Peter Morgan, who avoid tabloid excesses and create an ambience where emotion threatens to soften the stiff upper lip of the royal family. 4. The Sopranos (Season Six, Part Two) My eyes were glued to the screen for the final episodes of this iconic series where violence, betrayal and family values co-exist in an uneasy portrait of the American Dream - considered by many to be the best drama ever to grace the small screen. Superb performances and tight direction set the bar very high for HBO, still the leader in groundbreaking television programming. Episode commentary included, but will we ever get more extras? 5. The History Boys Charged with an undercurrent of homoerotic electricity, the dialogue all but explodes from the screen in this film version of Alan Bennett's London and Broadway stage hit - which follows the exploits of eight highly intelligent and fiendishly rowdy boys in a British prep school. Smart, smart, smart and terrifically entertaining. You'll want to watch this one twice to catch all the verbal pyrotechnics. 6. The Gang's All Here The concept of camp could have been invented for this 1943 wartime musical - previously unavailable on VHS or DVD. The surreal sight of Carmen Miranda dancing with giant bananas (among other fruits) in eye-popping color, under the frantic direction of Busby Berkeley made me dizzy with pleasure. As with other Berkeley confections, don't look for a plot - just surrender your senses to the mind-boggling musical numbers. 7. Ugly Betty (Season One) This deliciously cartoonish series puts Betty - our sweet, gawky Latina heroine - into the comically cutthroat world of a top fashion magazine. Betty's action-packed episodes have something for everyone: high fashion, double-crossing divas, hot guys, gorgeous gals and Transgender transformations. Inspired by a popular Colombian telenovela. 8. Whole New Thing Deservedly a multiple award-winner on the Gay film festival circuit, this gem of a film is a funny and touching ode to nonconformity and a sharp commentary on the growing pains of coming out. Aaron Weber, as precocious teenager Emerson, demonstrates an uncanny ability to flesh out the excitement and comic ineptness of a boy's coming to grips with his identity. Don't let this sleeper get away. 9. Dexter (Season One) Michael C. Hall (fresh from his stint as the uptight Gay undertaker in Six Feet Under) makes a charming serial killer in Showtime's Dexter. When he's not dispatching criminals that have almost gotten away with murder, he is a blood-spatter specialist for the Miami police force. Creepy, spine-tingling and oddly touching. 10. Zodiac This hypnotic, chilling film would have been higher on my list if not for the complete absence of extras. (A deluxe edition - with a director's cut - is to be released next month.) I had to include it on this list because the film is just so damn good. Zodiac is surprisingly restrained in the violence department, instead concentrating on the nerve-jangling pursuit of the Zodiac killer, who terrorized the bay area in the '60s and '70s. David Fincher's tight, obsessive direction kept me on the edge of my seat. The best thriller since The Silence of the Lambs - and that's no faint praise. Runners Up: Sicko, Michael Moore's incendiary indictment of the American health care system; resplendent visuals and bountiful beefcake in 300; coming out comically, Irish Catholic-style in Outing Riley; Criterion's superb restoration of Mala Noche, Gus Van Sant's portrait of Portland street life; Clint Eastwood's ambivalent meditation on the American hero in Flags of Our Fathers; Quinceanera, a soulful portrait of a Latino family in rapidly-gentrifying Los Angeles; Away from Her, a devastating drama about Alzheimer's and its toll on a long-married couple; The Departed, Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winning gangster thriller; Warner Home Video's Cult Camp Classics, Vols. 1-4 will keep you knee-deep in Hollywood kitsch. Outstanding Performances: Lindsay Beamish (Shortbus); Justin Bond (Shortbus); Julie Christie (Away From Her); Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose); Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac); Jesse Garcia (Quinceanera); Daniel MacIvor (Whole New Thing); Helen Mirren (The Queen); Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters From Iwo Jima); Emily Rios (Quinceanera); Molly Shannon (Year of the Dog); Aaron Webber (Whole New Thing). |
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