Is it just me or 2007 was a really weak year for cinema? Mind you, here in Portugal we haven't had yet the chance to watch the good stuff released in the last couple of months in the US (There Will Be Blood, Juno, No Country for Old Men), so I think it means it'll be a good 2008. As for o-seven, I got to watch 57 movies in the theatre. My favourites?



John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus. This film attained some kind of cinematic Holy Grail — to have a lot of explicit sex while being entirely justified and not self-conscious — if there's anything uneccessary in this movie, it's those irritating sugary animation sequences. The movie is all about the humour, and it's a great feel-good movie. One of the best in fact.



Judd Apatow's production (who's Greg Motola?) Superbad. Teen comedy doesn't necessarily equate with crap. It can be funny stupid and stupid in an inteligent way. Wha? Don't believe me? Just watch it.



Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson. This neo-neorrealist film about a drug-abusing elementary school teacher had the best acting of the year.

More highlights. Todd Field's Little Children had the most interesting directing — a wildlife documentary about suburbia? The Lives of Others proved to deserve all the acclaim. At the Fantasporto film festival, a film from Norway called The Bothersome Man was a near-perfect black comedy. Inland Empire was a movie by David Lynch I actually liked. Danny Boyle's Sunshine was sci-fi heaven — at least until the slasher nonsense started. David Fincher's Zodiac was masterful, but not enough, and so was Ridley Scott's American Gangster. Julie Delpy's Deux Jours en Paris felt real out of the Richard Linklater School of Sour Romance. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof was one fun rollercoaster — once past the intolerable start. And Anton Corbijn's Control may disappoint as I think it lacks some soul, but did look incredibly cool.

As for most other movies, not an interesting year at all. I haven't seen as many non-American movies as I should, as theatrical distribution in Portugal (and in Porto in particular) has worsened in the last couple of years. If you exclude all multiplexes in Porto you have a couple of bad rooms with bad schedules (at least for a late-night session junkie like me). DVD just doesn't cut it for me.···