Paul Clark, 2007

Paul Clark

Paul Clark has been a thorn in the side of film criticism ever since he first emerged, Athena-style, from the skull of Bosley Crowther. Since then, he has educated himself in the classics of the medium, interrupting his education only for a three-month self-imposed exile among the yurt farmers of Mongolia as penance to the cinematic gods for his glowing review of Tony Scott’s Domino. More recently, Clark’s work has been tolerated by the readers of The Screengrab, where he has conned his way into a position as a featured blogger. In addition, he maintains the blog Silly Hats Only, aimed primarily at the half-dozen people on the Internet who actually get the title reference. Currently, Paul Clark lives in Columbus, Ohio with his three pet guinea pigs, and struggles to keep his class-warrior tendencies in check while working his job moving money around for rich people.

Best Feature-Length Film
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Zodiac
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Gone Baby Gone
5. Lake of Fire
6. The Host
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Joshua
9. Offside
10. Syndromes and a Century

Best Lead Performance, Male
1. Sam Rockwell, Joshua
2. Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
3. Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
4. Michael Shannon, Bug
5. Ulrich Mühe, The Lives of Others

Best Lead Performance, Female
1. Carice Van Houten, Black Book
2. Nicole Kidman, Margot at the Wedding
3. Ashley Judd, Bug
4. Ellen Page, Juno
5. Luisa Williams, Day Night Day Night

Best Supporting Performance, Male
1. Mark Ruffalo, Zodiac
2. Chris Cooper, Breach
3. Kurt Russell, Grindhouse
4. Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
5. Robert Downey Jr., Zodiac

Best Supporting Performance, Female
1. Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
2. Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
3. Kelli Garner, Lars and the Real Girl
4. Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
5. Margo Martindale, Paris, Je T’Aime ("14ème Arrondissement)"

Best Direction
1. Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
2. David Fincher, Zodiac
3. Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
4. Andrew Dominik, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
5. Tony Kaye, Lake of Fire

Best Screenplay (original or adapted)
1. No Country For Old Men
2. Zodiac
3. There Will Be Blood
4. The Hunting Party
5. Michael Clayton

Best Cinematography
1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Roger Deakins)
2. There Will Be Blood (Robert Elswit)
3. Regular Lovers (William Lubtchansky)
4. Zodiac (Harris Savides)
5. Private Fears in Public Places (Eric Gautier)

Best Music (original, adapted, or compiled)
1. There Will Be Blood, Jonny Greenwood
2. Ratatouille, Michael Giacchino
3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
4. Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
5. Brand Upon the Brain!, Jason Staczek

Best Cinematic Moment
1. We Own the Night, rainstorm chase/shootout
2. There Will Be Blood, bowling with Daniel
3. There Will Be Blood, "I've abandoned my child!"
4. Ratatouille, little Anton Ego
5. Superbad, Seth’s dirty veiny throbbing little secret
6. Zodiac, a killing by the lake
7. The Host, giant tadpole gone amok
8. No Country For Old Men, Lewellyn vs. Chigurh at Hotel Eagle
9. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Telephone repairmen
10. Grindhouse, Ship’s Mast and resulting chase (Death Proof)

Best Cinematic Breakthrough
1. Carice Van Houten, Black Book (actor)
2. Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone (director)
3. George Ratliff, Joshua (director)
4. Marcus Carl Franklin, I'm Not There
5. Luisa Williams, Day Night Day Night (actor)

Best Body of Work
1. Josh Brolin (American Gangster, Grindhouse ("Planet Terror"), No Country for Old Men)
2. Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah, No Country for Old Men)
3. Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Gone Baby Gone, Ocean's 13)
4. Roger Deakins (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men, and I guess In the Valley of Elah)
5. Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, Stephanie Daley)

Best Ensemble
1. Zodiac
2. Offside
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Hot Fuzz
5. Margot at the Wedding

Best DVD Release
1. Films by Alejandro Jodorowsky (Abkco/Anchor Bay)
2. Blade Runner: The Final Cut 4-Disc Collector's Edition (Warner)
3. Everything Will Be OK (Bitter Films)

10th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 1997
1. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (dir. Errol Morris)
2. Love and Death on Long Island (dir. Richard Kwietniowski)
3. Jackie Brown (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
4. In the Company of Men (dir. Neil LaBute)
5. The River (dir. Tsai Ming-liang)

25th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 1982
1. Blade Runner (dir. Ridley Scott)
2. Fanny and Alexander (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
3. The Thing (dir. John Carpenter)
4. Night of the Shooting Stars (dir. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani)
5. Pink Floyd: The Wall (dir. Alan Parker)

50th Anniversary Award, Best Feature Film 1957
1. Sweet Smell of Success (dir. Alexander Mackendrick)
2. 12 Angry Men (dir. Sidney Lumet)
3. Paths of Glory (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
4. A Face in the Crowd (dir. Elia Kazan)
5. Nights of Cabiria (dir. Federico Fellini)

There Will Be Blood

Top 5 films: