Jay’s Top Ten Films of the Year
Posted by Jay C on December 27th, 2007
Filed under: News
As some of you may know, The Documentary Blog is sort of the sister site of another blog i’m a part of called Film Junk. Every year we do a collective top ten list culled from our individual lists and present it to our loyal readers. This year, we decided to put together a video podcast and run down our selection of films. So I thought I’d post my personl top ten (made up of fiction and non-fiction films) and the final video podcast which I shot, directed and edited. I hope you guys enjoy, and happy holidays!
Jay’s Top Ten Films of 2007:
1.No Country For Old Men
2.Zodiac
3.Rescue Dawn
4.Billy the Kid
5.Death Proof
6.Crazy Love
7.Zoo
8.Michael Clayton
9.The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters
10.Eastern Promises
The Film Junk Year End Video Podcast
Film Junk Year End Video Podcast from Jay Cheel on Vimeo.
Jay C on 
December 28th, 2007 04:22
I watched the video and read the post on Film Junk, but felt that to really gush about how much I liked the video I should probably come here. You did some seriously great work putting that thing together, Jay. I’ve shot and co-edited a few short films and such myself in the past, so I know how much of a hassle it can be, and you’ve really managed to make a professional-looking piece of film out of the simple subject matter of a few guys talking about movies. Not to mention, the intro, which was hilarious. I loved the outtakes of Tom’s verbal introduction and how you worked them into the opening titles like that. In addition to the visual aspects, the music cues were great as well, and I found that, like the music in something non-fiction should ideally work, I only took notice of the music when I recognized a song (like the themes from The Thing and 28 Days Later), and the rest of the time it blended into what was going on and helped set the scene without interfering. As it were, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the video because I know that for such little payoff and fanfare, you put a lot of work into stuff like this and I figured you’d want to know that it’s appreciated, which it very much is.
December 28th, 2007 13:35
Hey Rian,
I really appreciate the comment! It was a ton of work, but fun to put together. If we ever had the chance to do Film Junk for a living, it’d be great to do videos like this on a regular basis. It’s my goal to try and provide some of the best exclusive in-house video content available on any movie blog.
Anyways, i’m glad you enjoyed and stay tuned for the upcoming Fishing With Tom episode!
January 1st, 2008 17:08
I want echo Rian in saying that the video podcast was excellently done. And I want to say that I really enjoy your blog. (I appreciate your resolution to keep it up!) I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now via RSS and I love it. As an ex-film studies academic, I’ve been finding it difficult to keep up with the latest in documentary film, but your blog is a lifeline to me. Especially the film and DVD reviews—so keep them coming.
January 1st, 2008 19:49
Thanks Alyssa!
I’m going to try my best to keep things updated on a somewhat regular basis around here. We’ll see how it goes.
Happy New Year!
January 3rd, 2008 08:15
Zoo seemed kind of reminiscent of Herzog to me, in the bad way. Billy the Kid sounds great, I can’t wait to track it down.
Did you see Assassination of Jesse James or Gone Baby Gone? I also like Factory Girl a lot but I’m the only one.
January 3rd, 2008 11:26
BAH! I meant to pick up Factory Girl used the other night, but I got so caught up in a flurry of other releases that I simply forgot about it. I’ll have to go back and check it out.
Zoo is somewhat Herzogian, but perhaps borrows more from Errol Morris, outside of the talking heads. As I’ve said before, the music and visuals actually reminded me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets E.T., oddly enough.
I haven’t had the chance to catch either The Assassination of Jesse James or Gone Baby Gone. The latter I have no excuse for not seeing, but sadly, Jesse James never showed around here.