Man on Film: Killing Them Softly

Killing Them Softly seemed to have all the ingredients for a great film. Starting with the writer/director of Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and adding a stellar cast featuring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Richard B. Jenkins, Ray Liotta, and the criminally underrated Ben Mendelsohn should have meant Killing Them Softly would be damn near spectacular.

Instead, it was wrought with a heavy-handed approach and included a theme whose connectivity was strained at best, presumably losing a chunk of its pertinence in the hour that was reportedly cut from the first cut of the film. If you want an example of its hamfisted direction, look no further than Dominik's choice to have a heroin-shooting scene take place with the instrumental intro to The Velvet Underground's "Heroin" playing. Killing Them Softly also decided to employ audio from speeches occurring right around the 2008 election (when the film is set) regarding the mortgage crisis and ensuing market crash to drive home a point about how the robbery that set off everything collapsed the local criminal underworld financially, but the execution of this point is both crude and ineffective. Dominik gets points for trying, but these efforts come up short, much like most of the film does.

It is all really a shame because it feels like there was a great movie somewhere in there, but Dominik got lost along the way.

Best Films of 2007

Warning: This will not be a ranked list. Before the backlash from all zero readers of this blog begins, let me preface this list by saying, I've not seen every film released in the past year. I've not gotten to see There Will Be Blood yet. I've not gotten around to seeing Once, Control, or Breach, all of which have been recommended by reliable sources. I've not seen Charlie Wilson's War either. What follows is obviously incomplete.

Standout films
The Assassination of Jesse James
3:10 to Yuma
No Country for Old Men
The Lookout
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
Rescue Dawn
Knocked Up
Superbad
Gone Baby Gone
Hot Fuzz
The Bourne Ultimatum
Sunshine
Shooter

Films I Failed to Understand People Actually Walking Out of the Theater Liking
Atonement
Michael Clayton
Juno
American Gangster
300
Grindhouse
I'm Not There

Good, Not Great
Eastern Promises
Zodiac
The Darjeeling Limited
Lars and the Real Girl
Black Book
28 Weeks Later

I Don't Care What You Say, These Were Fun
Next
National Treasure Book of Secrets
Live Free or Die Hard
Smokin' Aces
Shoot 'Em Up

Fucking Awful, as in So Bad I Couldn't Stomach Finishing It
Transformers

If I had to pick one as being the best, I'd probably give that honor to:

No Country for Old Men