Frank

The year's almost over and it's been a great one for independent films and blockbusters alike. This summer, cineplexes featured giant robots, the triumphant return of Jason Bourne and an Emo Peter Parker. Likewise, arthouse audiences got their fair share of competitive Donkey Kong, unwed teenage pregnancy and real girls.

But the most unexpected trend of film in 2007 was the complete lack of a darling independent or small-budget film. Every year moviegoers pick a film to latch onto — My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Fargo and The Royal Tennenbaums all filled this void in the past — but this year lacked that. This is especially weird because this year featured new offerings from the Coen brothers, Wes Anderson and David Cronenberg.

In other words, 2007 is the Year of Cult Indecision (And 2008 is more-than-likely going to be the Year of Films With a Second Life on DVD). The following is a list of the best films of the year that nobody saw. All box office information comes from boxofficemojo.com.

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Budget: $30 Million
Domestic Gross: $3,806,000
Widest Release: 301 theatres

No two ways about it, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford was the best film of the year. The film featured some of the most beautiful cinematography since Conrad Hall and because of this the environments and nature in general became a character in and of itself. Nick Cave's haunting score matches the visual tone and desperation of the film perfectly.

For a film that deals so prominently with myths and the real men behind them, Brad Pitt is a perfect fit as Jesse James both for his media-centric public life and for the vulnerability and world-weariness he brings to the role.

But it is Casey Affleck who should be remembered for his role as Robert Ford, a man so obsessed with fame that he kills his idol to achieve it. A lesser actor would have just occupied space, allowing the events leading up to and following James' death to dictate a reactionary course. Affleck makes every choice a conscious one and by the film's conclusion he achieves the most unlikely emotion for a character so despicable — sympathy.

Control
Budget: €4.5 Million≈$9 Million
Domestic Gross: $746,219
Widest Release: 29 theatres

It's a good thing I managed to see this film when I was in England over the summer because Control barely saw the light of day stateside.
The film, which chronicles the meteoric rise and suicide of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, is shot in stark black and white by director Anton Corbijn, a man who made his name photographing the band during their heyday.

Corbijn's hands are all over, but his greatest feat as a director was capturing the hopelessness and desperation of late 70s London. There's an extra layer of grime all over the city's and condemned buildings, abandoned cars and the weight of the economic recession looms over the Curtis and his wife Deborah, making their love seem impossible, or at the very least unlikely.

Critics almost unanimously hailed Sam Riley's performance as the troubled Ian Curtis, and rightfully so. Simply put, Riley is amazing. His portrayal is thoughtful, intense and almost too earnest, especially during the film's ultra-mopey final fifteen minutes. But he, Corbijn and the film, are never better than during the film's musical performances.

Eastern Promises
Budget: $25 Million
Domestic Gross: $17,266,000
Widest Release: 1,408 theatres

Eastern Promises can be summed up in three words: Intense, intense, intense.

Between this and A History of Violence, his last film, purists worry that director David Cronenberg may be inching ever-closer to a big-budget sellout film. They needn't worry because as long as his films continue to expertly handle age-old dichotomies such as good versus evil, the budget is irrelevant.

Cronenberg's films all have a certain number of themes present. Namely, human fragility, vulnerability and duality in all its nasty forms, but what makes him so special (and Eastern Promises so outstanding) is his ability to implement these themes in different ways with each of his films. In A History of Violence fragility was displayed in its literal form; bullets shattered faces and broken-noses-driven-into-brains caused seizures. And rather than cut away from these shots the film held on them, not to glorify the actions, but give them eerie weight and real-world repercussions.

Eastern Promises features this same commitment to deglorifying violence, but it's fragility takes the form of Naomi Watts, a nurse who aids in the delivery of a premature baby and discovers secrets in the dead mother's journal that place her in the sights of the Russian mafia.

Cronenberg's new posterboy, Viggo Mortensen solidifies his place as one of film's premier badasses, if not by his quiet, morally conflicted turn as a Russian "driver," than for a fight scene that embodies vulnerability. In critic-speak words such as "brave," are usually shorthand for "The actor/actress was naked a lot." In Mortensen's case both definitions of the word apply.

Into The Wild
Budget: $20 million
Domestic Gross: $15,837,476
Widest Release: 660 Theatres

It's beautifully shot. It's expertly acted. It's written and directed by Sean Penn?

Okay, now that the mandatory Sean Penn-sucks reference is out of the way, let's move on to the rest of this outstanding film. Into The Wild is the second book adaptation on this list (Jesse James was the first) and like that film it has the following elements going for it: An excellent lead performance (this time by Emile Hirsch), pastoral, lush cinematography that gives the landscape its own personality and a soundtrack that is memorable long after the film is over.

Where the film differs from Jesse James is its focus entirely on Chris McCandless, Hirsch's character. This is quite an accomplishment for Hirsch as an actor. It would be easy to blow off McCandless as a misguided or inexperienced hippie kid that got what he deserved (That's what many readers thought of him when his story first appeared in Outside magazine). Instead, he's presented here as a complicated kid, both angry at the world he lives in and himself for being a part of it for so long.

All of that said, Hirsch couldn't have done it alone. Someone had to write it and someone had to direct him. Penn did such a good job on the other side of the camera, maybe he should think about staying there.

Rescue Dawn
Budget: $10 million
Domestic Gross: $5,484,375
Widest Release: 505 theatres

The one constant in director Werner Herzog's controversial 45-year career has been obsession. Sometimes obsession manifests itself in Herzog (His own Hubris is documented in the excellent Burden of Dreams), but obsession often manifests itself in the film's protagonist. Rescue Dawn is no different.

Shot down on his first solo flight, Dieter Dengler (played by Christian Bale) finds himself stranded in the Laotian jungle and is eventually captured and placed in a North Vietnamese Prison. And that's all in the first 30 minutes.

What follows is violent, dirty film, in which the characters all descend into a world of torture, starvation and entrapment. Except for Dengler, whose smile never fades and optimism never wanes. Dengler's obsession is hope and it nearly kills him.

Rescue Dawn skillfully dodges the politics of the Vietnam War and any potential allegory within it by focusing solely on Dengler and his unbreakable spirit. Herzog is notorious for putting his actors through hell and during the filming of Rescue Dawn Bale was nearly drown, drug behind a water buffalo, and ate a live snake (Something I would think PETA would frown upon).

But beneath all the blood, the grime, the human suffering and the actors' ridiculous commitment to their roles is a beautiful film with a simple message: No matter what life throws at you, you're not defeated until you give up.