Kicking off another year of Film Fight in a particularly late fashion comes the January 2008 update.

Dan in Real Life hits an interesting balance between a character study of a man falling apart with feelings of jealousy and inadequacy, and lightweight family comedy. Steve Carrell plays the titular character who falls in love with a woman he can’t have. Under slightly cliched circumstances, they are forced to spend a substantial amount of time together and shenanigans ensue. While at times it falls short, with schmaltzy scenes and some resolutions that are a little too easy, it proves itself to be a surprisingly good film. It’s warming fun, without being unbearably cookie cutter. Worth seeing.

Almost in stark contrast, Charlie Wilson’s War is a lot more lightweight and throw-away than it should have been. The film follows a minor congressman through the period where he shadow funded Afghanistan against Russia, in order to bring about the end of the cold war. The subject matter could’ve been the stuff of heavyweight political drama and dark dealings, but we’re left with a fairly insubstantial fluff piece about a womanising politician trying to do something with his life. The one stand out performance is Philip Seymour Hoffman as an aggressive but ultimately brilliant CIA agent who masterminds the broad strokes of the plan; his performance making it a real shame that the thrust of the film wasn’t better conceived.

The Coen brothers return to form with a new modern masterpiece, No Country for Old Men. Excluding a slightly over-long and fruitless final scene, acting as a diminuendo, this film hits home perfectly. It has a quiet mood to it: dialogue is sparing (particularly in the early part of the film), scenes are framed in shadow, and plot revelations are left largely to what the central character knows. Josh Brolin plays that well-trodden Coen archetype: a man in the wrong place at the wrong time, presented with an opportunity, and he pulls it off superbly. His performance is only bettered by Javier Bourdem, a killer who is terrifying and ruthlessly homicidal, while being fair, principled and honest. Throughout he comes across like a force of nature: uncompromising, unchallengeable but not malicious. Brilliant from any angle, and well worth seeing.

Sweeney Todd is a complete change of pace. Based on the musical, it sees a typical Tim Burton cast sing their way through a dark comedy about revenge, treachery and mince pies. While the opening hour is painfully slow and the various accents laughable, it really starts picking itself up for a solid, if somewhat predictable, finale. Going a few steps off the beaten path have certainly made an odd concept work surprisingly well.

Finally, Walk Hard sees John C. Reilly step out of the shadow of his peers and into the limelight, somewhat mimicking the on-screen change of a Johnny Cash wannabe hitting the big time. For the most part the jokes are obvious and somewhat cheap, but that doesn’t stop Reilly hitting the mark. A particular highlight is the cameo-laden Beatles scene, full of bickering and in-fighting (as well as terrible Liverpudlian accents). It won’t win any awards, but is worth seeing once.

The first film fight winner of 2008 is: No Country for Old Men, another notch for the Coens.

A few things have bothered me about my film reviews over the last few years. While the format of Film Fight is broadly what I want, in that it allows me to sum up the year in films in fairly handy units, it does have more than a few flaws.

Because it’s at least a month between watching some films and writing that month’s Film Fight, some of the spark for the film is gone. I lose enthusiasm and I fear that my reaction, my writing, gets slowly watered down by further comparing films and analysing them. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, films should stand up to scrutiny over time, but

I also want to capture that initial reaction a little better.

Additionally I’m more than aware that my timeliness with updates can be pretty poor. That’s due, in part, to the fact that writing all the reviews at the end of the month can seem like a burden at times (though one that, ultimately, I enjoy taking on). I’d like to get some feedback out there more quickly.

To that end, I’m trialling mini-reviews on my Twitter feed. As with all Twitter updates, they’re limited to 140 characters so that should make for timely updates that capture my feelings toward a particular film. I’m also adding #FF08 to each update, as a hashtag which should come in useful at some point.

As in previous years, let’s sum up last year with some near meaningless awards that show little change:

• Best album of 2007 – There’s a fair bit of competition here, mostly niche rock stuff. Although there were solid showings from Fighting with Wire, Biffy Clyro and Reuben, I think the album I’ve listened to (and had stuck in my head) most is the lo-fi noise of “Curses” by Future of the Left. It’s not going to find a big following, but the people it finds will be infected with the sharp vocal hooks throughout. A classic.
• Bravest album of 2007 – While it falters in the opening track and the later track about middleweight boxing in the ’80’s, JetPlane Landing’s latest offering, “Backlash Cop”, proves to be a unique masterpiece. Leaving the tight rock of their second album behind, the boys from Derry have done what no-one expected of them: a rap-blues-funk concept album about jazz and blues legends. It absolutely should not work, but track after track deliver strong beats, lyrics and tight rhythm.
• Best new band – no-one. I didn’t really get into any new bands this year that I can think of. If you want some new stuff, I can recommend most people on Captains of Industry. My own fault for focussing on bands I already had.
• Best Use of William Fichtner – The man, the legend. His appearances are growing increasingly rare but he shone as Agent Alexander Mahone, the man sent after the escapees in Prison Break, season 2.
• Best Book I read this year – Although I don’t have too much to pick from, I think “Post Office” by Charles Buchowski is my favourite. A great read.

A lot of similarities with the 2006 awards then, but that’s no great surprise. 2007 seemed like a year for things coming together rather than upheaval. We shall see what 2008 holds.

As with my common caveat last year, a knock-out tournament like the annual Film Fight can only determine the winner and not any of the other places, but that doesn’t hugely matter (the whole thing being an excuse for me to write about films anyway). Some notable films that did not take a monthly final place:

• Them!
• The Last King of Scotland
• Blood Diamond
• Sunshine
• Vacancy
• The Hoax
• Michael Clayton
• Death Proof
• Ratatouille
• American Gangster

More importantly, the twelve finalists:

• The Fountain
• Hot Fuzz
• The Good Shepherd
• The Lives of Others
• Zodiac
• Tell No One
• Edmond
• The Bourne Ultimatum
• Knocked Up
• The Counterfeiters
• Planet Terror
• The Golden Compass

It’s pretty telling, to me, that of all the great films this year, my favourite three (The Counterfeiters, The Lives of Others, and Tell No One) are foreign language films that go back to strong narratives, beautiful direction, and character acting, rather than big budget Hollywood efforts.

More than in previous years, it’s incredibly difficult to decide between those three great movies, but I think the performance of Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others edges it over the top. A triumph of traditional strong story-telling, the film is a must-see masterpiece.

The final film fight of the month, before the finale. A good selection of films included.

The Nines unexpectedly casts Ryan Reynolds, previously a bit of a goof ball, as the main dramatic lead, in this tale of inter-related lives. Reynolds does a surprisingly good job as all 3 characters that the stories here centre on, but is let down by the messy nonsense he is given to work with. If the film had stuck to it’s strong central premise (the relationships between actor, writer and character in creation of each other’s worlds), it could have been brilliant. It’s sadly let down by meandering scenes and fairly cack-handed plot tie-ups. Even if the interweaving story had been tied up with a neat device (it really wasn’t), showing the device would be preferable to one of the characters simply saying it. A real shame.

Based on the “His Dark Material’s” trilogy, The Golden Compass is set in an alternate universe where people’s souls live as animals outside their bodies, and a mysterious substance called Dust is leaking in and changing things. Having never read the book, I can’t say much about the criticisms that the film makers have faced from staunch fans about the downgrading of the religious overtones. What I can say is that although it’s clearly aimed at children (and is a little simple and easy because of it), it’s a decent, watchable movie. Worth it to see two giant bears fight it out.

Richard Kelly made strange indie hit turned mainstream success, Donnie Darko. At some point after that, someone must’ve told him to just go nuts. And he did: Southland Tales is the execrable result. Before I go on, I’ll say now that I very nearly made a Film Fight Special just for this movie, to show the myriad ways in which it is terrible. I decided it’s not worth the effort. What you get here is a massively self-indulgent film, which is all over the place in terms of tone, terrible B-movie acting, awkward balancing of the back story with the cinematic story (yes, I’ve read the comics), many characters that are near enough pointless (Justin Timberlake’s pilot being top of the list — why he was allowed to shove a music video in the middle is beyond me), atrocious editing, some of the worst dialogue you will ever hear, and an ending that I’ve best heard described as “if I told it to you plain and simple, you’d think I was making fun of it”. The third worst movie I have ever seen.

On a higher note (but still somewhat weak) is the Dreamwork’s animated film, Bee Movie. Rather than be content with jokes in its own self-contained little world, it goes down the “it’s all the same as the human world BUT WITH BEES!” route and suffers badly for it, a few too many puns and bad sight jokes pulling it down. Surprisingly for a film with a decent cast, the voice acting is all either atrociously flat or alarmingly over the top. Despite the criticisms, the movie is OK in so far as it’s cheery and harmless.

It’s been getting a lot of high praise, but The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is glacial and paints a mediocre picture of both the titled character, leaving little desire to see either get anywhere. It also suffers from the increasingly frequent issue of knowing where to end. Because the film can’t decide which character to focus on, it insists on showing a lengthy period after the titular event which drags on for a little too long. It does, however, manage to capture some moments beautifully, the cinematography proving to be startlingly crisp and dramatic; however desperately Oscar-baiting it comes across as at times.

Gus Van Sant’s latest effort, Paranoid Park, looks good in synopsis: a kid who accidentally causes the death of a security guard is increasingly racked with guilt, becoming more and more distraught as time goes by. The filmed version is remarkably dull, Van Sant failing to convey any of the drama that he intended to. What we get is a short film where, despite the aforementioned accident, not a lot happens. Shots are held too long, the acting is non-existent, and the story doesn’t got anywhere. Very close to the definition of mediocre, but little more than time wasting.

Finally, I Am Legend is the 3rd adaptation of the book by Richard Matheson, and the question on every fan’s minds is whether or not they’ll go anywhere near the excellent ending of the book. While I won’t spoil that (go read it), I will say that they hint at it a few times and then do an incredibly lame ending instead, horribly twisting the meaning of the title. While the opening hour or so is interesting, filled with some reasonable set pieces and a decent structure, it never really gets anywhere and is badly let down by the final third. If you want to see this, go watch The Omega Man instead. It does a better job at doing the same thing with the source.

The winner? With no strong contender this month, the Assassination of Jesse James almost snuck it on cinematography grounds, but The Golden Compass was more entertaining so wins pretty much by default.

With the year out of the way, the Film Fight Finale for 2007 will be along very soon.