If I were playing by the usual rules, the contenders for my best of 2007 list would be drawn from the titles only millionaires can afford to promote. In that case, I would say 2007 was the worst year for new movies I could remember. But I’d be fudging, because I didn’t come close to seeing all the contenders.
Yet when it comes to the list of movies making their Chicago premieres, 2007 may be the best year I can remember. This is my 21st “best of” list for the Reader and it may be my last: I’ve decided to retire as a staffer when I turn 65 in late February and won’t be reviewing many more of those dumb movies that have been weekly staples since 1987. So it’s nice to be able to sign off on an up note.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Out 1 (1971) / Out 1: Spectre (1972). Jacques Rivette’s 750-minute serial, the grandest of his experiments, is a comedy that ends tragically. His subsequent 255-minute reworking of the same improvised material is a tragedy that ends comically. Together they constitute the best films made anywhere about the 60s.
My Brother’s Wedding. A new and (for me) lesser cut of Charles Burnett’s morally nuanced 1983 feature quickly came and went at the Music Box. But you can see both cuts on a new, two-disc DVD package from Milestone that also includes Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and four of his shorts. One of them, When It Rains, is my favorite of all his films.
