2007 year-end movie recommendations

I don’t get out to see every movie opening weekend like I used to – one of the compromises required when parenting a toddler without a net – but I’ve seen a few over the last couple weeks that merit recommending. (Disclaimer: I haven’t seen “Juno” yet, but can almost guarantee Ellen Page’s eponymous performance would have earned her a place on this short list had I seen it already. I may have to update this post after this weekend.)

I’ll start with the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time, “Charlie Wilson’s War.” For a Tom Hanks flick, directed by Mike Nichols (“The Graduate,” “Angels in America” and too many other top-notch films to list here), written by The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin and co-starring Julia Roberts and perennial critics’ favorite Philip Seymour Hoffman, this one still almost flew right under my radar. I haven’t seen it on many ‘years best’ lists and I don’t know why not. Seems the professional critics’ hard-ons for the Coen brothers and Daniel Day-Lewis drowned out almost every other remarkable performance this year.

“Charlie Wilson’s War” is based on actual events and chronicles the efforts of ’70s Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson (Hanks) to supply weaponry to the Afghanis back in the days when they were the front line of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, except their war with the USSR wasn’t cold, it was red hot.

Unlike the recent spate of bummer (however well-meaning) Iraq War flicks, this war film is great fun to watch. The writing, direction and acting are all zesty, bouncy and very movie-movie. It’s rated R so people speak the way people really speak, F-word and all; naked ladies in hot tubs have nipples, coke is snorted onscreen and moral ambiguities abound. I’m so fucking sick of middle-of-the-road, lowest-common-denominator PG13 movies I could puke. (You may observe that three of the four movies I’m recommending are R rated.)

The thing that lingers, though, is knowing that America’s eventual (and ultimately successful) efforts to assist the Afghanis in beating back the Russian hordes in the ’80s would lead directly to the rise of the Taliban regime that sponsored al Qaeda’s equally successful efforts to fly airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. Even while you cheer on the well-intentioned, humanistic, even patriotic work of Representative Wilson’s anti-Communist endeavors, the knowledge that they will come back to bite us on the ass – hard – is never far from your mind.

It’s a hell of a movie that strikes two such dissimilar chords simultaneously so well. They ought to teach this movie in schools (and Quantico). Until then, it deserves to be appreciated during its theatrical run. Go now.

Next up is “Walk Hard,” from the same comedy crew responsible for “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” this year, led by writer/producer Judd Apatow, formerly responsible for “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” among others including TV’s late, lamented “Freaks and Geeks.”

An R-rated deconstruction of every gauzy, misty-eyed, over-produced Hollywood biopic (but drawing mostly from “Walk The Line” for direct inspiration), this comedy succeeds on every level. Not as gut-bustingly hilarious as, say, “Superbad,” the soundtrack and John C. Reilly’s lead performance power it to the top of the year-end heap. It’s more about making merry jest of the Hollywood biopic formula than it is mocking any individual such effort.

Full of terrific star cameos (Jacks White as Elvis and Black as Paul McCartney to name but two) and hilarious songs — “(Mama) You Got to Love Your Negro Man,” the ode to midgets “Let Me Hold You (Little Man),” and “Cut My Brother In Half Blues” to name a few — this is one of those movies that is bound to not just hold up, but improve upon repeat viewings.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed “I Am Legend.” A loose remake of Charlton Heston’s “Omega Man,” (based on the same source material), I first heard about this project, like, 10 years ago, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to star. After having experienced Will Smith’s nuanced performance of possibly the last man on earth, I can’t imagine how much the Arnie version would have sucked. It for damned sure wouldn’t have included the Bob Marley music (and history lesson) that played such an important part in elevating this film above the average post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic.

I also appreciated its brisk running time. It could easily have dragged on to a 2.5-hour length like most movies of its genre, but at 90+ minutes it told its story without an ounce of fat on its bones, even considering that about half of its runtime is a one-man/one-dog performance consisting of Will Smith’s character and his German Shepherd roaming the empty streets of a wrecked, deserted Manhattan island.

Not a Great Film, but a surprisingly enjoyable, affecting one.

Finally, one where the critics and I agree, the Coen Brothers’ “No Country For Old Men.” This brutal, lyrical R-rater unspools at a leisurely pace that never drags. Its three stars, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and newcomer-to-me Javier Bardem never even meet, or if they do it happens so briefly that I missed it.

Brolin plays a blue-collar trailer-dweller in the great American Southwest who stumbles across the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, and the rest of the movie follows his efforts to hang onto the briefcase full of cash he discovers at the scene. Every performance is spot-on. Jones’ grizzled veteran cop, Brolin’s white trash stick-to-itiveness and Bardem’s spooky hit man from hell are all perfectly drawn and executed. The desert vistas are vast and empty and beautiful at the same time and although set approximately in the present day, the ambiance is classic John Ford western.

Not a movie where it’s a good idea to get too close to any character lest they die suddenly, it is a return to “Blood Simple” form for the Coens whose last few comedies had a hard time finding either audiences or critical respect. This is definitely one to see on the big screen. It tells an intimate story on a broad, bloody canvas.

And Javier Bardem’s hit man is a revelation. If there’s any justice at all, he should be a shoo-in for a best supporting actor nod come Oscar® time.

But if parenting, traveling, rehab and/or work responsibilities limit you to only one trip to the multiplex this holiday season, “Charlie Wilson’s War” is the one to invest your time in. It crams more comedy, dawning horror and sheer movie-making brio into its scant 97 minutes than most bloated, self-important political epics twice its length. It’s that rare cinematic bird; consistently entertaining and good for you (and “good for you” rarely ever passes for a compliment when I apply it to a movie review).