Oscar Watch 2007: National Board of Review

The Oscar race is officially underway, given that Film-of-the-Year awards are already coming out. It seems fitting to start this year with the National Board of Review, which released its Best Of list yesterday.

Before considering what weight to give this year's list, let's reflect on past choices to see what credibility the National Board has. Last year, the Board chose "Letters from Iwo Jima" as the best film, and the list was rounded out with, among others, "Babel," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Flags of our Fathers," and "Notes on a Scandal." The first thing to note is that the Board did not include the best films of the year, "United 93" and "Children of Men," and not even "Borat" or "The Death of Mr. Lazerescu" or "The Proposition." But omissions can be forgiven if the actual list is decent, but it's not. "Letters" -- and its counterpart "Flags" -- are undeniably bad films. Slow, boring, pointless. In "Letters," the Japanese found out Americans were coming, and then they all killed themselves. It's two hours of suicide. That's not an interesting movie. Except for "The Bridge." That was okay. And then, "Babel" and "Prada"? Are you kidding me?

So starting out, the Board does not deserve much respect. And they deserve even less after this list. "No Country for Old Men" was chosen as the film of the year. And yet, here's their list of the top ten of the year, from their own website: "The Assassination of Jesse James . . .," "Atonement," "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Bucket List," "Into the Wild," "Juno," "The Kite Runner," "Lars and the Real Girl," "Michael Clayton," and "Sweeney Todd." Two things stand out. One, "No Country" did not even make the top 10! Two, half these films haven't even come out yet. That second point is worth reflecting on later, showing both that critics seem to be holding out hope that this last month can redeem the last 11 of the drivel that's come out, and that Hollywood seems more and more to save everything -- the best and not-so-best -- for last. But more later.

Not having seen some films that might be good, here's the best I've seen this year, in no particular order: "Planet Terror" (and certainly not "Death Proof"), "Sicko," "The Bourne Ultimatum," and "Vacancy." "The Devil Came on Horseback" was also pretty good. "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" are notable because they're funny, but if they end up making my top 10, that's a sad comment on the state of film. And so far, that's it. Four films. Maybe five. I still need half a list. And it doesn't look like much is on the horizon that might round out my top 10. We'll see.