Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1There Will Be Blood (2007)There Will Be Blood (2007) 8.2/10 on IMDbReleased 26 Dec 2007Paul Thomas Anderson turns an oilman's drive for independence into an epic of isolation. Daniel Day-Lewis's physical presence and Jonny Greenwood's unnerving score keep ambition from becoming merely impressive. The confrontations land because the film first makes the work, landscape and appetite…0
  2. 2No Country for Old Men (2007)No Country for Old Men (2007) 8.2/10 on IMDbReleased 9 Nov 2007The Coen brothers make pursuit frightening through patient geography, small noises and the consequences of arriving a moment too late. Javier Bardem's killer is memorable, but Tommy Lee Jones's exhausted sheriff gives the film its deeper perspective. Its refusal of a conventional showdown is…0
  3. 3Zodiac (2007)Zodiac (2007) 7.7/10 on IMDbReleased 2 Mar 2007David Fincher turns a serial-killer investigation into a long study of attention becoming obsession. Documents, competing jurisdictions and incomplete memories are allowed to slow the story down. The uncertainty is the subject, making the film more disturbing than a thriller built around a final…0
  4. 44 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) 7.9/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Aug 2007Cristian Mungiu follows the arrangements for an illegal abortion in late-communist Romania through ordinary spaces made intensely hostile by risk. Anamaria Marinca's performance and the held shots make every negotiation count. Severe material, filmed with a precision that refuses both…0
  5. 5The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 20 Sept 2007Andrew Dominik gives the western a mournful visual texture and makes celebrity look corrosive from both sides. Casey Affleck's mixture of admiration and resentment is extraordinary. The deliberate pace lets the relationship become more disturbing than the famous act announced in the title.0
  6. 6Persepolis (2007)Persepolis (2007) 8.0/10 on IMDbReleased 27 Jun 2007Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud use bold black-and-white animation to connect political upheaval with the embarrassing, funny details of growing up. The personal perspective keeps history from becoming a lecture. Its shifts between defiance, exile and family affection give the film a…0
  7. 7Secret Sunshine (2007)Secret Sunshine (2007) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased 23 May 2007Jeon Do-yeon's performance makes Lee Chang-dong's drama about grief and faith almost painfully immediate. The film repeatedly changes what relief might mean for its protagonist. It is a demanding choice because it takes the need for consolation seriously while refusing to provide an easy version of…0
  8. 8Silent Light (2007)Silent Light (2007) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased 12 Oct 2007Carlos Reygadas watches a Mennonite community in northern Mexico with extraordinary attention to light, labour and duration. An affair unsettles a household whose religious commitments are lived rather than explained. The slow approach and final turn ask for openness to a different kind of realism.0
  9. 9The Orphanage (2007)The Orphanage (2007) 7.4/10 on IMDbReleased 20 May 2007J. A. Bayona makes a former orphanage a place where a mother's search and the conventions of a ghost story reinforce each other. Belén Rueda gives the scares an emotional anchor. The film earns its strongest moments by making absence as frightening as any apparition.0
  10. 10Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) 7.3/10 on IMDbReleased 26 Sept 2007Sidney Lumet makes a disastrously conceived family robbery unfold through overlapping perspectives and accumulating consequences. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke give the brothers distinct forms of desperation. Its bleakness is considerable, but the dramatic construction is fiercely…0