With the Oscars behind us now, I thought it would be time, finally, to reveal my picks for the top ten films of 2007, along with some other choices, even an honorable mention.

1. Into the Wild

Every year there are typically a select few films that I unabashedly love. Last year there were three, with United 93, Little Children, and Children of Men. This year, there was one. Into the Wild. Sean Penn’s glorious, emotionally wrenching tale takes us all around the country with 23-year-old Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch, in a star-making turn), who decides to abandon his family, his belongings, everything, so that he can live a life free of consumerism and redundancy. The film features a lot of great performances, particularly by Catherine Keener, William Hurt, and Marcia Gay Harden, but it’s Hal Halbrook who delivers my favorite performance of the year. As an aging patriarchal figure to the young Christopher, he becomes the heart and center of the film, especially in one brief, heart-wrenching scene, where he makes an offer that the young boy may or may not refuse . Into the Wild is an extraordinary piece of work that I will carry with me for a long time to come.

2. Hairspray

For pure entertainment, Hairspray was the movie to beat in 2007. I saw this film in late July, enjoyed it immensely, and moved on. But what I didn’t realize was how much I would deeply fall in love with everything about this movie and how much its optimism and joyful attitude would stay with me. The cute, bubbly story. The terrific ensemble cast. The beautiful production design. That sensational soundtrack. It’s not a deep film by any means, but, in a year filled with lavish but disappointing musicals, Hairspray stood far ahead of the pack as the go-to sing and dance movie extravaganza. Nikki Blonsky is a complete winner in her film debut, and all the numbers, especially Good Morning Baltimore and Welcome to the 60s, still permeate in my head to this day. Hairspray may be a controversial choice to go in front of so many great films this year, but I have to admit it. I loved it.

3. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Not a lot of people saw this film, and it was pretty much overlooked during Oscar season, but this was one of the greats, an absolutely mesmerizing thriller that marked a jubilant comeback for its 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, and Marisa Tomei all give stand-out performances playing people, most of whom are family members, who keep double-crossing each other to the point where potentially all is lost. I love movies that start with one character making one not-so-very-smart decision, which leads to another, then another, and we watch, almost afraid to look away, at the horrors that the one decision caused. Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan made great use of this plot element, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead makes it work even better. The scenes are electrifying, and the pace is fast and frenetic. A great, great movie this one is.

4. The Savages

A minor movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as brother and sister would’ve been entertaining, at the least, but a great movie that features both actors at the top of their game is a surprise and a delight. This is a wonderfully off-beat and hilarious dark comedy that features two siblings trying to take care of their father, who is slowly ailing away into nothing. It’s a difficult subject matter to deal with, but writer/director Tamera Jenkins gives the material the perfect amount of humor to make you laugh along with the painful and dramatic storyline. This was a tremendous year for Philip Seymour Hoffman, and his performance here, along with his work in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, proves he is one of the best actors working today. Laura Linney, who surprisingly snuck into the Oscar race with a Best Actress nomination for this film, is equally good, and maybe even better as the frustrated sister. I can’t wait to see The Savages again.

5. No Country for Old Men

I still have a little bit of a problem with that ending, but the rest of the movie has stuck with me like no other film this year this side of Into the Wild. The first two-thirds of the movie is absolutely electric, with Oscar-winner Javier Bardem creating one of the most frightening movie villains of all time. The Oscar winner for Best Picture at the Academy Awards has its fans, and I’ve become even more of one since my viewing of the movie last November. I was mad about the ending, but I was heated mostly because of my intense love for the majority of the film. My review of this movie on the site is probably still my longest ever, mostly due to my passion for the great things in this movie. While I don’t find it a perfect film, I admire it a hell of a lot, scenes in it will stay with me forever, and I know the movie will probably make more sense in further viewings. My favorite Coens Brothers movie, by far.

6. The Mist

The best horror film of the year, and the year’s most under-rated and flat-out under-seen movie, is an exhilarating thrill ride that never lets up, all the way to its horrifying and surprisingly downbeat finale. Thomas Jane leads a great group of actors, including a particularly awesome Marcia Gay Harden, playing one of the most heinous female roles this side of Annie Wilkes in another Steven King story Misery. There are some rough patches in the opening thirty minutes, with one scene’s special effects looking a little cheesy early on, but the movie, as opposed to most, actually gets better as it goes on, and it features a handful of spine-tingling, legitimately frightening set pieces. The talented writer/director Frank Darabont, who before has adapted Steven King with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, succeeds completely with his first all-out horror movie, and I daresay, it’s a masterpiece.

7. The King of Kong

What do I call this one? The best documentary of the year? Sure. But I’d also like to call it the best Netflix surprise of the year. Every year I rent dozens and dozens of movies on Netflix that I missed in theatres, many of which please me, or disappoint me. But once in awhile I see a movie that keeps me absolutely glued to the screen from beginning to end, particularly when I’m nowhere near expecting it. Recently this has happened twice. The first was with my choice under the honorable mention at the end of this article. The second was The King of Kong, an endlessly entertaining look into the world of arcade game championships that left me grinning. It’s a history lesson, it’s an outrageous comedy, and it’s a suspense thriller, all rolled into one, with yet another tremendous villain, maybe a little more sullen than Bardem or Harden, but still pretty scary. And it has to have one of the most applause-worthy final minutes in a movie I’ve seen in a long time. This is a must-see.

8. Zodiac

This film, yet again overlooked during awards season, was by far the best mainstream movie that was released last Spring. David Fincher, who had been absent for a few years, returned with an over-long but fascinating police procedural that slowly dissolves into a story of obsession and madness (the best kind!). Jake Gyllenhaal, giving one of his most intelligent performances, becomes the heart and soul of the movie, and he is aided by superb work from Robert Downey Jr and Mark Ruffalo. The technical work by Fincher and Co, revealed itself in the bonus features on the new 2-disc special edition DVD, shows that these guys were capable of letting hundreds of effects slip by that couldn’t even be seen by the naked eye. Sometimes we thought we were seeing a real San Francisco background when it was actually on filmed on green-screen. The movie looks sensational, particularly in HD, and especially in the eerie scene by the lake when the Zodiac attempted to kill two people with a knife. There are scenes of great power in this, and the ambiguous ending, beautifully handled in editing, proves that this film is really more about the search than the answer. Zodiac is a powerful piece of work.

9. Knocked Up

Something strange happened in my second viewings of the two big pregnancy comedies of 2007 (three, I guess, if you count Waitress). While I still find Knocked Up about twenty minutes too long, I found the film help up extremely well the second time, maybe working even better than the first time. The year’s big indie breakthrough Juno, however, which I found great the first time, somehow took a nose dive in quality as I viewed it the second time in a quiet abandoned theatre on a weekday afternoon. So, to my astonishment, Juno has been demoted, and Knocked Up, never really intended for my top ten list, has found a spot. I just love the interaction between Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl, and their scenes sparkle with chemistry despite their differences. Judd Apatow’s The 40 Year Old Virgin is still my favorite comedy of the last three years or so, and Knocked Up is another gem from the talented writer/director.

10. There Will Be Blood

I didn’t love Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie but I admired the hell out of it and there are specific sections of the movie that will stay with me, just like sections of No Country For Old Men, for a long time to come, even though I find the whole of the film a little bit uneven, particularly in the last act. The material that works best is in the beginning, with the astonishing opening twenty minutes free of dialogue, and a lot of the middle, where Daniel Plainview (Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis) marks his territory on some new land and does everything in his power to make it his own. Lewis is incredible, the cinematography is sweeping, and the scope is just breath-taking. The film also features one of the best scores of the year, weirdly disqualified for Oscar consideration due to its inclusion of previously used themes. Blasphemy! There Will Be Blood may be disjointed, but it’s a disjointed near-masterpiece.

#11-20 (in alphabetical order)

• 2 Days in Paris
• 3:10 to Yuma
• American Gangster
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Dan in Real Life
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Juno
• Ratatouille
• Sicko
• Waitress

Honorable Mention: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

This absolutely stunning horror / thriller / drama / comedy / romantic period piece had a limited release on December 27, 2006, so it technically doesn’t qualify for my 2007 list, even though I didn’t see it until a few weeks ago on DVD. This is one of the best films I’ve seen all year, and it would’ve easily made my top five if it were considered a 2007 film. Still, I thought it deserved a mention here. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. The most expensive film that Germany has ever produced, Perfume is mesmerizing from beginning to end and is well-worth checking out for its performances (from actors that include Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman), its cinematography, its special effects, and its editing. I could give you a plot run-down here, but I don’t want to even bother. Just rent it and watch it. You will not be disappointed.