My favorite part of the year-end (or year-beginning) "Best Of" lists is how these lists serve as a kind of aggregator for the movies that I should give my time to in the coming year. Let's face it, if you live in the USA and you don't live in New York or L.A. (I don't), and/or you didn't make it to the Toronto Film Festival or Cannes last year (nope), and/or you're not a member of the press with access to advance screenings (ditto), you might have had the chance to see only three of, say, J. Hoberman's picks for the ten best. That's what region-free DVD players and video projectors are for. So, without further ado, here are my five favorite Top 10 (or more) lists of 2007.
indieWire Critics Poll Village Voice/LA Weekly Film Poll Two polls that are virtually identical in their results... because they poll virtually the same group of people. Don't ask me why there are two polls.
IndieWire 2007 Critics Poll: Best Undistributed Film Village Voice/LA Weekly Film Poll: Best Undistributed Film Same as above.
Michael Atkinson's Straight Outta Digi: The Best Non-Theatrical Debuts of '07
DVD Beaver's Best DVD Releases of the Year
Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top Movies of the Year
Oh, and the best film I saw last for the first time last year? The restoration of The Whole Shootin' Match at SXSW. Over twenty-five years since it was produced, it's still not available on DVD.