MOVIES: Best of 2007 -- preliminary comments

I saw about 75 or 80 movies this year, about the same as usual. Potential Oscar contenders that I missed for one reason or another: Into the Wild, The Kite Runner, Eastern Promises, A Mighty Heart (all for simple lack of interest, though I will see them if they actually pick up major nominations), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (I ran screaming from the room when they started sewing his eye shut; I've always been squeamish about eyes), and I'm Not There (it was clear after the first thirty minutes that none of this was going to make any sense if you weren't already a Dylan cult member, which I'm not.