Movie Years Awards Redux

Some belated Movie Years Awards for last year. Matt has finally awoken from his film coma and supplied me with his finalised year end award lists. Very interesting reading they are too, especially his left-field choice for Best Actor! Check them out here.

I've also rejigged my side of the page as well. Having bought on DVD and rewatched my original #1 and #2 choices for last year (The Lookout and Michael Clayton), I've decided Michael Clayton should get the numero uno spot. The Lookout actually drops down a couple of notches. It doesn't quite play as well second time around. It's still a terrific film, but it has a couple of flaws that hold it back from being the best of the year. I still absolutely adore the A+, 10/10 score by James Newton Howard though. Joseph Gordon-Levitt also falls off my Best Actor list, allowing room for Casey Affleck, who I was actually going to put in for Tony Leung anyway. Now they're both there.

Juno (2007)

Okay, so I know that it has become trendy and cool to say that you like and 'get' this film. I don't know if I 'get' it, I think and hope I do, but I certainly like it. In fact, I more than like it. I love it.

I am actually surprised to be sitting here saying that. The film never really took my fancy and even when I did agree to go, I expected nothing greater than a jolly, quirky, light piece of afternoon fare. Not so.

Well, it is all these things. In places, it's a film with a soul lighter and more full of grace than air and it's certainly quirky, with a masterful performance by Ellen Page delivering that aspect to such great effect. It's also so much more than all this, though, and the film is simply littered with great, genuine, characters, who are as ordinary as any I've ever seen on screen, with the possible exception of the late Roy Scheider in Jaws.

That last sentence should point to what a complement this is. Nothing is more difficult to portray than ordinary. Most characters are just that, characters. Some, of course, are deeper than others, many hued, and full of emotion, but so few surpass that to portray the humanity we see before our eyes everyday, a humanity it is so difficult, if not impossible, to bottle. It is to Juno's vast credit that it is a film flooded with performances that take its protagonists to such a level. This is particularly the case with J.K. Simmons' masterful (and I do not use that term lightly) turn as Juno's Dad and Alison Janney's similar effort as her stepmum. They simply do not get enough screentime, though, in fairness, that is more forgivable in a film of this nature than it often is. Olivia Thirlby is also great as Juno's friend Leah. The one slightly less satisfactory effort is Michael Cera as the superbly named Paulie Bleeker. Cera has much work to do to leave the large shadow of George Michael Bluth behind and this performance sailed very close indeed to that wind. I haven't yet mentioned Jennifer Garner and Jason Batemen who are both perfectly cast in roles that end up lending that vital extra dimension to the film that, ultimately, makes it so damn good...

...Their relationship also ends up providing the film's best scene, truly one of those rare and beautiful moments which stay with you long after you've left the stale popcorn smell and stained carpets of the Leicester Odeon. Perfectly pitched and delivered. I have no shame at all in admitting that I cried like I haven't cried for a while.

I know this is a review of Juno but I can't help ending by echoing my colleague's comments about 2007 as a whole as this will be the last film I'll see at the cinema from 2007. It has been a great year, and I've still got many - potential - treats (American Gangster, Into the Wild and others) waiting for me on DVD. Fantastic. So that's an...

A+

For Juno.

Has any film year ever produced three A+ films for a single person before? Well, dear readers, you'll just have to re-read our lists to find out. Unbelievable. And 2008 has delivered another one already.

I'm in dreamland.

2007 completed list to follow soon. Where will Juno - and its protagonists - find themselves?