Best/Worst of Movies | Best of Year 2007

The Best in Movies

The Worst in Movies

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Easily this year’s best crime picture, Sidney Lumet's no-frills, late-career film noir is as dark, fatalistic and hard-bitten as the real deal. Fate puts the hurt on two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and a surprisingly good Ethan Hawke) who come up with a supposedly foolproof plan to knock over their parent’s small-time jewelry store. Everything goes horribly awry, and Hoffman’s fair-weather wife (Marisa Tomei) only makes matters worse.

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Black Book

Courage, treachery, opportunism, cowardice and selflessness exist side by side in this rousing World War II drama by Paul Verhoeven — yes, that Paul Verhoeven. Thrilling, suspenseful, unsentimental and just plain ballsy — three's no other word for a film that makes you root for the nice Jewish girl (Carice van Houten) to live happily ever after with a Gestapo officer.

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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Artist-turned-director Julian Schnabel — who showed a knack for adapting other people’s memoirs with Before Night Falls — and screenwriter Ronald Harwood pull off the nearly impossible: making an engaging, emotionally rich film out of Jean-Dominique Bauby's miraculous 1997 account of life as a completely paralyzed stroke survivor. French actor Mathieu Amalric is extraordinary in the lead role: He manages to create an entire character using only his left eyelid.

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Eastern Promises

Viggo Mortensen is electrifying as a Russian-mob flunky in David Cronenberg's brutal thriller, which turns out to be an icily seductive parable about family, power, unconventional justice and the perils of answered prayers. Bonus for voyeurs (you know who you are!): Mortensen naked. Very naked.

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Great World of Sound

Writer-director Craig Zobel made the most impressive debut this year with this poignant and very funny tale of two unwitting scam artists who travel through the Deep South, passing themselves off as "independent record producers" and auditioning unsuspecting, wannabe stars. They promise them a recording career, then bilk them of their cash. What makes the film so special is that most of the auditions we see throughout the film are real, making this wonderful comedy a brilliant hybrid of conventional narrative and American Idol tryouts.

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Michael Clayton

George Clooney stars as a lawyer whose conscience finally gets the best of him in this smart, slippery thriller that simmers with righteous anger. Clooney pulls out the stops as a suave, self-made man who risks everything to do the right thing, and he's matched by Tom Wilkinson as a legal eagle who's flipped his lid and Tilda Swinton as a corporate shark out of her depth.

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Paprika

Satoshi Kon's surreal animated rubber-reality tale, a tense psychological thriller exploding with mind-bending images and clever plot twists, is an animated film for people who don't like animated films: smart, thought-provoking and emphatically not for small fry.

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The ties that bind two brothers (Cillian Murphy, Padraic Delaney) are sundered by the Irish War of Independence. Great performances, powerful personal drama and English filmmaker Ken Loach's bracingly clear-eyed view of his volatile subject matter make this a must-see.

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Zodiac

The creepiest movie of the year, hands down. David Fincher's meticulously detailed account of the string of bizarre murders that rocked and shocked the Bay Area in the late '60s and '70s isn’t so much a portrait of a killer — we’re still not sure who the Zodiac killer was, though the film does hazard a guess — but an unsettling examination of how obsession ruins lives. Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal are all excellent as three men who lose themselves while searching for a taunting serial killer.

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The Dec. 17 issue of TV Guide offers more end-of-year revelry, including a revealing interview with Kate Walsh and a recap of the juiciest Watercooler moments.

On TV Guide Network: Watercooler recaps January’s big premieres (airs Jan. 7), Reality Chat previews the new reality shows (Jan. 8) and Reality Chat: Idol Wrap looks at American Idol's new season (Jan. 11).

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke courtesy THINKFilm, Carice van Houten courtesy Sony Pictures Classics,Marie-Josée Croze courtesy Miramax Film,Naomi Watts courtesy Focus Features, Kene Holliday courtesy Magnolia Pictures, Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Tang Wei courtesy Focus Features, George Clooney courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures, Paprika courtesy Sony Pictures Classics, Cillian Murphy courtesy IFC Films, Robert Downey Jr. courtesy Paramount Pictures

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