The 10 Best, No, the 100 Best Films of 2007

by Kam Williams

Headline: Annual Accolades for the Cream of the Cinematic Crop

Because I see so many movies over the course of a year, it always feels unfair to limit my 10 Best List to just 10 films when that would mean many very worthy entries would end up acknowledged. Plus, I’ve always hated how historical costume dramas have, by convention, come to be deemed more deserving than romantic comedies, action thrillers, sci-fi flicks, documentaries, teensploits, horror fare and other types of pictures.

Afterall, they’re all movies, so there’s no reason why a silly slapstick adventure as funny as Superbad ought to have to take a back seat to relatively sober period pieces featuring portrayals of pretentious pomp and circumstance. Consequently, the expansive list below is the result of a formula which gives the assorted genres equal consideration.


10 Best List of 2007
1. The Darjeeling Limited
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
4. Superbad
5. Gone Baby Gone
6. Why Did I Get Married?
7. Music and Lyrics
8. Rush Hour 3
9. Live Free or Die Hard
10. Shoot ‘Em Up

Honorable Mention
11. Eastern Promises
12. The Bourne Ultimatum
13. DOA
14. Rescue Dawn
15. 3:10 to Yuma
16. Knocked Up
17. Balls of Fury
18. Juno
19. Michael Clayton
20. The Hoax
21. Into the Wild
22. Grindhouse
23. The Bucket List
24. The Namesake
25. The Assassination of Jesse James

Best Foreign Language Films
1. Black Book
2. The Valet
3. Close to Home
4. Drama Mex
5. Exterminating Angels
6. Lust, Caution
7. Paris Je T’aime
8. Verdict on Auschwitz
9. My Best Friend
10. The Page Turner

Foreign Language Film Honorable Mention
11. The Iceberg
12. I Have Never Forgotten You
13. The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai
14. Darfur Diaries
15. China Blue
16. Dreaming Lhasa
17. U-Carmen
18. Ghosts of Cite Soleil
19. The Orphanage
20. Private Fears in Public Places
21. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
22. Darfur Diaries
23. Ten Canoes
24. Unconscious
25. Tears of the Black Tiger

10 Best Independent Films
1. Interview
2. Great World of Sound
3. Diary of a Tired Black Man
4. The Lookout
5. Cashback
6. Radiant City
7. The Wind That Shakes the Barley
8. The Girl Next Door
9. What Would Jesus Buy?
10. Day Night Day Night

Independent Film Honorable Mention
11. Outsourced
12. Honeydripper
13. Waitress
14. The Ultimate Gift
15. Black Irish
16. Severance
17. Killer of Sheep
18. From Other Worlds
19. Zebraman
20. Outsourced
21. Naked Boys Singing
22. Descent
23. I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
24. Black Sheep
25. My Brother

10 Best Documentaries
1. The 11th Hour
2. Sicko
3. What Black Men Think
4. Into Great Silence
5. Crazy Love
6. Banished
7. No End in Sight
8. Manufactured Landscapes
9. Desert Bayou
10. Confessions of a Superhero

Documentary Honorable Mention
11. Maxed Out
12. The Hip-Hop Project
13. Fired
14. Musician
15. ‘Tis Autumn
16. Sacco & Vanzetti
17. Note by Note
18. Carmen & Geoffrey
19. Kamp Katrina
20. Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman
21. The Camden 28
22. Joe Strummer
23. An Unreasonable Man
24. Bushwick Homecomings
25. Your Mommy Kills Animals