Things I Loved in 2007

Scary, Sexy, Smart

Vacancy Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson play a couple trapped in a seedy motel. 70 minutes of terror add up to my favourite film of the year. Also:

Zodiac David Fincher's ambitious and winding journey through decades and cities in pursuit of a killer.

Om Shanti Om There wont be a more superficial and heedlessly orgiastic exercise in filmmaking to top this until Farah Khan returns to the director's chair. A loving look at the movies and why we love them.

A Mighty Heart Angelina Jolie shows us why she isn't yesterday's news just yet in Michael Winterbottom's remarkable post 9/11 film that's as contemplative and devastating as United 93 was last year.

Ratatouille The pure heart of Pixar and its genius for storytelling scale magnificent heights in this gorgeous rodent tale.

Things I Liked

300, a feat in post-production that looks unlike anything I've seen before
Jab We Met, simply for making Kareena Kapoor tolerable (this must also be a feat in post-production)
Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's fuzzy, wild romp through the pregnancy comedy genre

Chak De India, with Shah Rukh Khan and an electric team on and offscreen
The Bourne Ultimatum, with that Moby song I simply love

Spiderman 3, for not sucking as much as everyone said it did
Taarein Zameen Par, by which means my tear ducts have been hung out to dry
Die Hard 4.0, in which unspeakable dialogue and unbelievable action are spoken and believed

Disturbia, which may not be Rear Window but sure is a lot of fun
Freedom Writers, since Hilary Swank can make any material a pleasure to watch
Music and Lyrics, because it took throwback seriously instead of turning it into camp, adding great music and Drew Barrymore to the mix

28 Weeks Later, which doesn't skip a beat rejuvenating the horrors of its predecessor

And Then There Was This Stuff

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Rob Zombie's Halloween, Premonition, Lucky You, Bhool Bhulaiya, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Ocean's 13.

MovieWatch: Lost in Space

Khoya Khoya Chand isn't a good movie, but you can tell there's a good movie somewhere inside it.

Soha Ali Khan is luminous in Khoya Khoya Chand, a languid tale of uncertain lovers. In its gloaming, nostalgic, 60s Cinema ambience, she's an unambiguous star the way Vidya Balan was in Parineeta. That movie as a general experience hangs around the perimeters of this one (the sun to its moon, if you will). The comparison, in other words, is unfavorable. Where Pradeep Sarkar made a melodramatic and effective, contemporary period film, Chand is an incoherent, meandering project in which tons of offscreen talent are squandered; poor editing and Shiney Ahuja combine ably to give us the impression we're watching skectches rather than finished product. Ali Khan is a blessing, but this haphazard effort will be forgotten in a fortnight.

Video Throwback: Past-Masters' Weekend

I finally got my grubby paws on a copy of Vertigo. In Hitchcock's tightest and most precise film (perhaps second only to Psycho) James Stewart is a prematurely retired cop pulled back out of exile by a comatose Kim Novak. There's much to be said of this this heady, hypnotic, and yes, vertiginous, thriller that failed spectacularly as an intellectual and commercial exercise back in 58, and prompted the leaner rhythms of the Bates Motel. Don't miss it. I already took too long.

On the same day, I watched Rob Zombie's Halloween, which is an undistinguished and affectionless massacre of John Carpenter's classic. I usually like anything. Give me a slasher film and I'll love it to death, but Zombie's boring and bloody retread, unredeemed by vision or conviction, is a braindead Dead Teenager Movie. I suggest you skip.

MovieWatch: Don't Dance So Close To Me

Madhuri Dixit returns in a tailor-made relaunch vehicle that kind of just hums along at its own mild pitch.

Let's observe that Aaja Nach Le is written by Jaideep Sahni. Like his previous outing Chak De, this is a formula film elevated by intelligence and talent. A keen eye for casting means there's fun to be had in the smaller parts, and Sahni shows continuing skill with handling ensembles. But where Chak De worked around Khan's easy and obvious star-power, Nach Le makes an idol of Dixit. It's still a joy to watch here and there, but comeback fever mires the crucial final act. What should have been the year's most predictable pleasure becomes a disproportionate and clumsy cult procession, and able supporters (Konkona Sen especially) are shuffled back into the second row.

We're glad she's bringing back back, and dancing the bejesus out of it, but maybe sometimes the trick is to let someone else dance with you.