2007 Film Poll: If It Bleeds, It Leads

That said, I’m pleased to report that, garnering five votes, Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales tied The Bucket List as the year’s Worst Film. But, as the year’s Best Supporting Actress, Cate Blanchett, might have put it: You know something’s happening when Southland Tales also headed three critics’ lists as the year’s Best Film. Time constraints have made it impossible to calculate the 2007 poll’s PassiondexT — my formula to measure the degree of ardor with which critics voted for particular movies — but my heart tells me that Southland Tales is the obvious winner. Here is a movie that some people love and others love to hate. That’s double passion! And that’s good. As Sarah Michelle Gellar’s socially aware porn queen warbles just before the world ends, “Teen horniness is not a crime — open your heart and your mind.”

For complete poll results, go to www.laweekly.com/filmpoll.

There Will Be Blood — lots of it. (Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon)

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• Brian De Palma
• David Fincher
• Jonathan Rosenbaum
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Best Films of 2007

1.There Will Be Blood (402 points, 56 mentions)

2. No Country for Old Men (328 points, 52 mentions)

3.Zodiac (314 points, 47 mentions)

4.4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (276 points, 43 mentions)

5.I’m Not There (251 points, 38 mentions)

6.Syndromes and a Century (208 points, 31 mentions)

7.The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (185 points, 27 mentions)

8.Killer of Sheep (161 points, 22 mentions)

9.Ratatouille (135 points, 25 mentions)

10.Colossal Youth (132 points, 19 mentions)

Best Actor

1. Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood (143 points, 55 mentions)

2. Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises (51 points, 26 mentions)

3. Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening (37 points, 18 mentions)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men (70 points, 27 mentions)

2. Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (45 points, 21 mentions)

3. Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild (40 points, 20 mentions)

Best Actress

1. Anamaria Marinca, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (77 points, 38 mentions)

2. Julie Christie, Away From Her (71 points, 32 mentions)

3. Carice van Houten, Black Book (62 points, 28 mentions)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There (91 points, 39 mentions)

2. Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone (83 points, 39 mentions)

3. Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton (56 points, 25 mentions)

Best First Film

Away From Her (21 points/mentions)

Best Documentary

No End in Sight (19 points/mentions)

Worst Film of 2007

The Bucket List and Southland Tales (tie) (5 points/mentions)

Best Undistributed Films

1.Secret Sunshine (28 points/mentions)

2.Useless (11 points/mentions)

3.In the City of Sylvia and The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (tie) (10 points/mentions)

5.Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind, The Man From London and You, the Living (tie) (7 points/mentions)

8.Battle for Haditha and La France (tie) (6 points/mentions)

10.Frownland, Import/Export and These Encounters of Theirs (tie)(5 points/mentions)

The Ground Rules: We asked each critic to cite 10 films, three male lead performances, three female lead performances, three male supporting performances, three female supporting performances, 10 films without distributors, and one choice each for documentary, first feature, and worst. Ranked ballots were weighted as follows: For film: 1 (10 points), 2 (9), 3 (8), 4 (7), 5 (6), 6 (5), 7 (4), 8 (3), 9 (2), 10 (1). For performance: 1 (3), 2 (2), 3 (1). Unranked films were awarded 5.5 points each, unranked performances 2 points. Ties were verboten. Outside of the undistributed category, we asked voters to focus on films that opened for U.S. theatrical engagements in 2007.

Participants

L.A. Weekly/Village Voice Media contributors: Robert Abele, David Ehrenstein, F.X. Feeney, Scott Foundas, Tim Grierson, Aaron Hillis, J. Hoberman, Nathan Lee, Brian Miller, Adam Nayman, Michelle Orange, Nick Pinkerton, Jim Ridley, Ella Taylor, James C. Taylor, Luke Y. Thompson, Chuck Wilson

Others: Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), Jason Anderson (Eye Weekly), John Anderson (Newsday), Melissa Anderson (Time Out New York), David Ansen (Newsweek), Saul Austerlitz (freelance), Sean Axmaker (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Sheila Benson (freelance), David Blaylock (freelance), Donna Bowman (A.V. Club, Nashville Scene), Richard Brody (The New Yorker), Peter Brunette (Screen International), Ty Burr (The Boston Globe), Jeannette Catsoulis (The New York Times), Justin Chang (Variety), Tom Charity (CNN.com), Godfrey Cheshire (The Independent Weekly), Daryl Chin (Documents on Art & Cinema), Mike D’Angelo (Esquire), David D’Arcy (GreenCine), Peter Debruge (Variety), Thomas Doherty (Cineaste), Bilge Ebiri (New York), David Edelstein (New York), Jim Emerson (RogerEbert.com), Steve Erickson (Gay City News/Baltimore City Paper), David Fear (Time Out New York), Cythia Fuchs (PopMatters), Stephen Garrett (Time Out New York), Lance Goldenberg (Creative Loafing Tampa), Ed Gonzalez (Slant), Akiva Gottlieb (freelance), Larry Gross (Film Comment/Movie City News), Liz Helfgott (Criterion Collection), Logan Hill (New York), Christoph Huber (Die Presse, Vienna), Harlan Jacobson (Talk Cinema), Mark Jenkins (Washington City Paper), J.R. Jones (Chicago Reader), Kent Jones (Film Comment), Christopher Kelly (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), Ben Kenigsberg (Time Out Chicago), Glen Kenny (Premiere.com), Peter Keough (The Boston Phoenix), Laura Kern (Film Comment), Leonard Klady (Movie City News), Andy Klein (Los Angeles City Beat), Robert Koehler (Variety), Dan Kois (NYmag.com), Michael Koresky (Reverse Shot), Bill Krohn (Cahiers du Cinéma), Diego Lerer (Clarin, Buenos Aires), Lou Lumenick (New York Post), Todd McCarthy (Variety), Patrick Z. McGavin (Screen International), Wesley Morris (The Boston Globe), Mark Olsen (Film Comment), Gerald Peary (The Boston Phoenix), Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune), David Poland (Movie City News), Richard Porton (Cineaste), John Powers (Vogue), Ray Pride (Movie City Indie), James Quandt (Cinematheque Ontario), Jared Rapfogel (Cineaste), Berenice Reynaud (freelance), Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader), Joshua Rothkopf (Time Out New York), Nick Schager (Slant), Matt Zoller Seitz (The House Next Door), Michael Sicinski (Reverse Shot), Brent Simon (FilmStew.com), Matt Singer (IFC News), Chuck Stephens (freelance), Amy Taubin (Film Comment), Charles Taylor (Newark Star-Ledger), N.P. Thompson (Movies Into Film), Scot Tobias (A.V. Club), Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times), Keith Uhlich (The Reeler/The House Next Door), James Verniere (The Boston Herald), Matthew Wilder (Collider.com), Michael Wilmington (freelance), Stephanie Zacharek (Salon.com)