The 25 Most Quotable Quotes of 2007

Here they are, after careful consideration (and probably more work than I intended), I have assembled the 25 Best Quotes of 2007:

25. "I can't tell dreams from truth." -Marketa Irglova, speaking what we all feel, in Once

24. “Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig. / Does whatever a Spider-Pig does. / Can he swing / from a web? / No he *can't*, / He's a pig. / Look out! / He is the Spider-Pig!” -Homer Simpson with America's newest icon in The Simpsons Movie

23. "“Yep. I'm very passionate about Italian food. In fact, um, I'm in love with Italian food.” -Jim Halpert, making a metaphor of his love for Pam, on The Office

22. "“Over the last week, I have listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.” -Hillary Rodham Clinton, getting her groove back in The Granite State

21. "“I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people.” -Daniel Day-Lewis, losing his humanity in There Will Be Blood

20. "“My point is...a penis when seen in the right context is the most wonderful sight for a woman. But when seen in the wrong context it's like a monster movie.” -Michael Scott, appreciating women, in The Office

19. "“My money is on a Freudian pizza.” -My best friend, trying to explain why I always have weird dreams

18. "“When someone gives you odds like 10,000 to 1, you take it. If John Mellencamp ever wins an Oscar, I'm gonna be a very rich dude.” -Kevin Malone, describing one of the vortexes of my personal hell, in The Office

17. "“I gave them their happiness.” -Vanessa Redgrave, making our jaws drop, in Atonement

16. "It's not enough you love blow and I love puff." -Amy Winehouse, crooning a drug reference I don't understand, in "Back to Black"

15. "Because deep down, you know you deserve to be punished, don't you Mr. Potter?" -Imelda Staunton, finding the devil wears pink chiffon, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

14. “Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The US Government has lost its credibility so it's borrowing some of mine.” -Tom Hanks, brilliantly lampooning on at least five different levels, in The Simpsons Movie

13. “I love you. I'll wait for you. Come back. Come back to me.” -Keira Knightley, making us swoon, in Atonement

12. "What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?” -Javier Bardem, making us bite our lips, in No Country for Old Men

11. “You’re not making the rules, you used to when you did this, you don’t do this anymore, elections have consequences.” -Barbara Boxer knocking out Jim Inhofe as the CHAIR of the Environment and Public Works Committee

10. “Just imagine the fan fiction.” -J.K. Rowling, outing Albus Dumbledore

9. “I'm not suprised. Pam is the office mattress.” -Angela Martin, spouting her always hilarious hypocrisy, on The Office

8. “I saw “Wedding Crashers” accidentally. I bought a ticket for “Grizzly Man” and went into the wrong theater. After an hour, I figured I was in the wrong theater, but I kept waiting. Cause that’s the thing about bear attacks…they come when you least expect it.” -Dwight Schrute, sharing his wisdom, on The Office

7. “Could you double-check the envelope?” -Martin Scorsese, finally winning his Oscar

6. “Once I'm officially regional manager, my first order of business will be to demote Jim Halpert. So I will need a new number two. My ideal choice? Jack Bauer. But he is unavailable. Fictional. And overqualified.” -Dwight Schrute, describing his perfect Assistant to the Regional Manager, on The Office

5. “She’s Alexis, big as Texas, she knows what it’s like to be both sexes.” -Kenny, rapping rhapsodic, about his boss, in Ugly Betty

4. “We only said goodbye with words.” -Amy Winehouse, shedding her sorrow in song, in "Back to Black"

3. "“And my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake, I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” -Daniel Day-Lewis, finally falling over the edge, in There Will Be Blood

2. "You can't stop what's coming.” -No Country for Old Men giving Tommy Lee Jones (and all of us), a universal truth.

1. “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.” -J.K. Rowling, closing the door, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Heath Ledger (1979-2008)

"There ain't never enough time, never enough..."

Remember to Dream

While growing up, I was often one for dreaming-fancifully staring out the windows and staring off into space, wondering what the world beyond my own quaint little town was like. Oftentimes, these daydreams occurred whilst staring at the pages of a book or a magazine, and one in particular, a Life magazine about exploration and man’s quest to become one with nature, would surely jut me into the farthest reaches of space and sea, of jungle and mountain.

These images are flying forward today with the death of Sir Edmund Hillary. Truth be told, I knew little about Sir Edmund outside of his fateful journey one half-century ago. He was a politician but not a particularly successful one (John Glenn would surely beat him in that arena), and a Knight of the Garter (possibly Britain’s highest honor). But to know Hillary was to know his accomplishment, and few in the 20th Century could boast such a feat as to reach for the heavens on earth, or at least the “nearest thing to heaven” to quote Deborah Kerr.

One has to wonder, with the dwindling number of explorers in the world, where the next generation will come from, and where will they go? Where are the Edmund Hillary's, the Neil Armstrong's and John Glenn's, the Thor Heyerdahl's and Jacques Cousteau's? Where are those individuals who will reach into the depths of nature and not try to conquer it, but instead shoot to solve its mysteries? In this age of digital, well, everything, and the stress on the small, do the world’s citizens still want to reach for the stars? I pray that the imagination still thirsts for the grand and quixotic, and I’d like to think that this generation of men and women, those who discovered the world (and beyond) anew in the 1940s-1960s, are not the last to want to go into the depths of the natural unknown.

So tonight, before you head into the cozy enigmas of the unconscious, take a look at the world surrounding you, whether it be the stars in the heavens or the ground below you (or, in my case, the heaps of snow blocking the street), and take a long hard look at the beauty of nature, perhaps even allow yourself to imagine yourself, to wonder and think and pretend. After all, Everest, the Poles, the Moon: they too just began as dreams.

Supporting Actress Smackdown 1990

For those of you who love the wonders of actressing on the edges, Stinkylulu's Supporting Actress Smackdowns need no introduction. This month, Stinkylulu tackled the lovely ladies of 1990, and yours truly is one the panelists. Make sure to head over there and discuss Oda Mae Brown, Marietta Fortune, Karen Hill, Myra Langtry, and Stands With a Fist (seriously, has there ever been such variety in the names of the supporting ladies?)

I, who have to admit I wasn't greatly impressed with the film output of 1990, will readily proclaim that my favorite of the ladies was Ms. Annette Bening, turning in one of her (to date) three Oscar-nominated performances. Bening's delicious con artistl in The Grifters was a true delight, and a nice throwback to the supporting actresses who have populated the film noir genre (my personal favorite film genre). When I first started looking into Bening's perf, I kind of figured that noir, like most genre pieces, would have largely been ignored in this category. Boy was I wrong! Roles as diverse as Angela Lansbury's floozy maid in Gaslight to Cathy Moriarty's childlike bride in Raging Bull have been recognized by the little golden guy. Winners, as Bening illustrates, are far less common; only Claire Trevor's lush mistress in Key Largo has come out on top of the category.

And yet, as any Oscar watcher knows, nitpicking must ensue when discussing Oscar's rather fickle choices. And when it comes to film noir supporting actresses, Oscar's dismissal of Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil was one of his biggest mistakes. Granted, 1958 was a year filled with snub miscalculations (Jimmy Stewart and Orson Welles were not included amongst the Best Actor lineup), but Dietrich's snub is particularly grating because she does so much with so little screentime. She can't be onscreen for more than ten minutes, but she flies to mind when I think about the film. The ladies of The Grifters (particularly Anjelica Huston) seem to have borrowed a bit from the world-weary Tanya; each has a history that is alluded to in the film more than actually viewed, leaving the plot largely in the hands of the male protagonists. Dietrich's whisky-worn vocal timbre indents each line-reading, and her eyes and eyebrow raises with Welles show that she's the only true equal to Hank Quinlan in the film. While Charlton Heston may be able to one-up Quinlan due to circumstance, Dietrich's Tanya is his equal, and therefore her place at the stunning conclusion of the tale seems fitting.

Unlike Touch of Evil, Bening's Myra is not the equal to Huston's Lilly Dillon, but she is definitely her only challenge in the film. The real genius to Bening's performance is that one is never quite sure how much this woman is capable of; whilst we know that Huston has a lot of tricks up her sleave, the enigmatic, seemingly bubbleheaded Myra doesn't show her cards, leaving the audience and her co-grifters guessing what she would do for success. Sometimes this is a bit problematic (at times, I wonder if even Bening herself knew Myra's intentions), but as a whole this is a wildly entertaining performance, and a grand counterpart to Huston's epic turn.

I personally would have handed both Dietrich and Bening Oscars in their respective years, but what about you? Head over to the Smackdown and voice your opinions on the actresses of 1990's edges!

TV's Trek to the Big Screen

Sex and the City is one of those shows that somehow managed to be as beloved in my world as the movies that I obsess about on an almost second-by-second basis. I think it might be the whole saga of the show-seriously, the soap operatics of this show on paper must seem a tad bit obscene, and yet with characters as brave and strong as Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha to fall in love with, everything seems to give over to a believable reality. Countless hours I have spent curled up with these fabulous ladies, obsessing over which one of them I'm most like (Charlotte, to the point where people I hardly know have insinuated I have a bit of Ms. York in me) to the countless string of Jimmy Choos the ladies click-clacked all up and down Lex. And yet, their recent movie news has got me thinking: which of my other favorite television series needs to get itself to the big screen?

Some of the movies that I would list have already (successfully) made their ways to the big screen (South Park and The Simpsons). Almost certainly the one that I most long for onscreen, and yet wouldn't happen in a million years, would be having my most beloved of teenage shows, Ally McBeal, return to the screen. I know that Calista Flockhart is on another hit television series on ABC (Brothers & Sisters, and yes, you should be watching it), Jane Krakowski is likely hoofing it up on Broadway, and Courtney Thorne-Smith is demeaning her worn, but sharp personality opposite Jim Belushi, but really, it's time these actors lawyered up and gave me what I've been waiting years and years for-a return to the courtroom. Hell, I'd settle for simply an office meeting and a show tunes medley down at the bar (with dancing baby in tow). Alas, David E. Kelley's best series won't be seeing the big screen anytime soon, so can I at least send out a plea-release the DVD's in a Region 1 version! I can't stand my lack of Ally anymore!

If Ally seems a pipe dream, perhaps a more believable fantasy would be the recently offed series Gilmore Girls coming back to me. Yes, yes, I know that it just went off the air, but I'm still in denial that I won't be able to see my Lorelai and Rory again. I'm specifically keeping my Tuesday nights busy at the moment, so as to not notice that my girls are no longer traipsing to town meetings and having disfunctional love lives. The movie could perhaps have Luke & Lorelai once again preparing for the wedding, with Emily barging in and Rory finally making a decision between Jess, Dean, and Logan. CW, you owe me this-the fact that you made me say goodbye to my girls in a season without its genius creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is unforgivable; this would make everything right.

What about you? Which TV shows do you want to see on the big screen?

William Wyler: A Director of Few Words

I've been thoroughly been enjoying the many entries in the William Wyler blog-a-thon that Goatdog has so graciously put together, so I thought that I would add my two cents on one of Hollywood's most accomplished auteurs.
To think of William Wyler, one will inevitably think of actors, and the myriad of performers he has left his brand upon. Picking one of them seemed a Herculean task-how does one pick between the star-is-born (both on-and-off-screen) antics of Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, the crushed naivety of Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress, the mannered perfection of Greer Garson’s Mrs. Miniver, Audrey’s joyous vacation in Roman Holiday or the wounded veterans of The Best Years of Our Lives? I couldn’t possibly pick between the bunch, but one thing struck me about each of these films when I first thought about them. The wordless, haunting and effective scenes that first came to mind when I thought about the movies; Wyler, more than hardly any other mainstream director, knew the power and effectiveness of a quiet moment.
Recall, perhaps The Best Years of Our Lives. Is there anything in Myrna Loy or Fredric March’s performances that is as telling as those haunting glances they give each other showing a sense of lost intimacy and fear that it has forever been lost in a blood-washed field across the ocean? Or perhaps Cathy O’Donnell’s mingled looks of compete adoration and desperation as she undresses the love of her life?
Best Years may in fact be Wyler’s most emotional film (I mean that as a high compliment), but each of his films have that moment where the heart soars or crumbles or thumps, and each of these scenes are largely wordless. Olivia de Havilland’s horrifying ascent up the stairs (and obvious descent into a black depression she will never retreat from) is all about her determined, moon pie eyes and strong lower lip. Greer Garson’s steely face as she’s being robbed is a harried, steely pierce that shows the audience that she’ll be able to survive anything, even as she’s being held captive.
Wyler’s characters also tell their heartbreak with little more than a curt sentence or fake smile. Streisand’s stone-faced gazes at her Nicky show that she knows that she’ll never be this happy again, and it could so easily slip away. Laurence Olivier captures the eternally hungry character of Wuthering Heights, exhibiting his complete misguided devotion to Catherine with hardly a word, but more a vengeful array of huffs and darting eyes.
To conclude this laundry list of moments, I should probably present my favorite, that being the final scene of Roman Holiday. Wyler’s script is largely relegated to anonymous members of the press corps, coming to grab a last moment with Princess Audrey before she leaves behind Rome, and yet Wyler spends most of his camera time balancing between the delicate beauty of Audrey Hepburn and the chiseled beauty of Gregory Peck. Hepburn’s face shifts only slightly through the scene, and yet the audience is able to experience a gamut of her emotions, ranging from confusion at first to betrayal to adoration and finally true heartbreak. As Audrey Hepburn turns around and gives her one true love a gaze, her heart broken, all that she can do is smile a wide grin, covering up the internal tears. A less capable director would have shown the beginnings of tears, but Wyler doesn’t saturate the scene, instead letting it simmer. He’s already hit every emotional button, now all that is left is to fade to black. It’s a near flawless moment from a director who more than once flirted with silent perfection.

Ask and ye shall receive...

Apparently, this has turned into the magical wishing blog. I asked last week asked for Jeanne Shaeen and Mark Warner to both run for the U.S. Senate, and lo and behold, within the last 24 hours both Mark Warner and Jeanne Shaheen have announced their intentions for the U.S. Senate, thus insuring the Democrats have an incredibly good year in the Senate in 2008. And, since the blog fairies are now granting me my wishes here, I'd like an Oscar for Kate Winslet, an Emmy for Kelly Bishop, Al Gore to retroactively win the 2000 Presidential Election, and possibly a pony.