I’ve watched John Carney’s (Begin Again, Sing Street) Once in its entirety three times. I saw it in 2007 during its theatrical run. I saw it another time between that and my 2024 rewatch. I have felt myself connecting with it less with each subsequent viewing, yet appreciating it more. What is ironic is that when I first saw the film, it felt like an original masterpiece, and that is something I don’t feel anymore. Perhaps that was because I needed to see more movies following the fairly generic formula. Or maybe it was because I’ve seen too many films that have followed that blueprint, resulting in Once feeling less original than I initially found. As I write this review, I try to balance that original perception against how I react to the film 14 years later.
Category Archives: 2007
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Ready to call it a career, Frank James (Sam Shepard – Out of the Furnace, The Right Stuff) promises his brother Jesse (Brad Pitt – Legends of the Fall, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) one last train heist with the notorious James Gang. Then, Frank will drift off into the sunset and live out the rest of his life quietly. But what will happen to Jesse? Well, he will be assassinated by the coward Robert Ford. The film’s title gives the plot away unless somehow we are talking about the assassination metaphorically. We are not. So what keeps director Andrew Dominik’s (Blonde, Killing Them Softly) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford such an alluring watch for its nearly three-hour runtime?
Continue reading The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Zodiac (2007)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Stronger) makes every movie he is in better than it would otherwise be, regardless of it it’s a great movie, a terrible movie, or anything in between. Director David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network) doesn’t make bad films. With Gyllenhaal and Fincher together, along with an ensemble that includes Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 3, Natural Born Killers), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight), Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, NBC’s ER), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Young Guns), Brian Cox, (The Ring, HBO’s Succession), and John Carroll Lynch (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Jackie), Zodiac was bound for success. While the film connected on all fronts, it felt like it left something to be desired, though this would undoubtedly be true for anyone familiar with the story.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
The Western genre is a dying one. Gone are the days of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, et al., and the era of Westerns in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Once a staple in American cinema, those films are now few and far between. Years could pass before a good Western connects with critics and audiences alike. Unforgiven reset the standard in 1992, connecting with critics and audiences alike while earning nine Oscar nominations and taking home four, most notably for Best Picture. Others have followed. Appaloosa, Hostiles, True Grit, Tombstone, and Open Range were big-budget movies that hit the screen with reckless aggression. True Grit was the most successful with the critics (10 Oscar nominations, but no wins), but even the success of this film fails when compared to Unforgiven.
Children of Men (2007)
A decade before Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Roma) was winning Oscars for Best Director, he directed the critically acclaimed and now cult classic Children of Men, a post-apocalyptic thriller set in 2027 Britain. In this dystopian world, it has been 18 years since the most recent human has been born. Humans have become incapable of reproducing for reasons unknown, resulting in a global fear that the extinction of our species is imminent. England is now the one remaining civilized society on the entire planet, making it a place where everyone can immigrate. The borders are strong, but people still illegally enter. Those caught are promptly placed into refugee camps. While this scenario may seem completely foreign to many of us, it should be a fear in our minds that lawlessness is entirely possible, and situations like these are already happening (though not globally) in many of our smaller countries that cannot defend themselves.