Offside *
Jafar Panahi, 2007
Iran
@ home on DVD

Admirable, I guess, but the (neo)realism didn't do much for me. I enjoyed the ending in the van, but otherwise the whole scenario feels so slight that I'm not sure how I feel about it as a movie.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Feeders 2: Slay Bells
John & Mark Polonia, 1998
US
@ Brian's on DVD

It's kind of surprising that in comparison the original Feeders, looks like a pretty well-constructed movie. The acting is at roughly the same level, but the story there is a little more fleshed out. If more than five dollars had been spent on the sound design (or, conversely, if ZERO dollars had been spent, thus eliminating the alien sound effect) this could have pretty great.

See also: IMDb | Something Awful review

Black Book *
Paul Verhoeven, 2007
Netherlands
@ home on DVD

Well, I guess this was exciting and all, but I'm confused as to why the viewer is not just expected to give up, kind of like with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. If everyone else in the movie is just looking out for their own best interest, why we should assume the protagonist is any different?

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Atonement **
Joe Wright, 2007
UK
@ Sycamore Theaters

From the trailer I thought this was going to be a boring, stuffy melodrama, but it was much more formally interesting than I'd expected. I always enjoy the characters interacting in strange ways with the soundtrack, like when Keira Knightley's character plucks the piano string, finishing the (rather atonal) line in the score. And of course you have the constant, rhythmic use of the typewriter clacking. The wedding scene was another nice example of the soundtrack as playful counterpoint to the image onscreen.

At least in my reading of it I thought the portrayal of class was pretty good, particularly at moments like when James McAvoy's upwardly-mobile med student/prisoner/soldier/lover makes some nasty crack about being perceived as only as trustworthy as a servant, even though that's exactly what his parents are. I was prepared to get really excited, a few minutes after Robbie moans at the sight of the French lovers on the movie screen in back of the bar (Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan from Port of Shadows), when I thought we might cut away or pull back to reveal him watching his own life on the same screen, but sadly Joe Wright chose not to take things quite that far. The neverending handheld tracking shot along the beach at Dunkirk just lets the gruesome melancholoy build and build for what seems like forever.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

The Lookout **
Scott Frank, 2007
US
@ home on DVD

I don't remember exactly why I passed this up in the theater. Maybe it came out at the wrong time or something. It brought to mind another modest, psychological thriller, Michael Clayton, that every talked about and a lot of people seemed to love. I was much more interested in this, but apparently no one else saw it.

Hopefully some of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's upcoming projects put him to good use.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic | Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Death Proof *
Quentin Tarantino, 2007
US
@ home on DVD

It's kind of funny that critics fall all over themselves to praise Apichatpong's two-part films, but here we have much the same thing.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic