The Film Is Not Enough

Posters of the Year

The skill, taste, beauty, intelligence and wit that goes (or doesn't go) into a movie’s poster design can (and should) have a strong effect on how I feel about the coming film. For instance: a massive image of Jim Carrey’s face with 2's and 3's scrawled all over it is not a good sign, especially when it conjures up memories of a comedy about liars ("The g---amned pen IS blue!"). As a viewer and enthusiast of film and all other art, design is so important. The following are my favorite posters of the year, the films of 2007 with the most beautiful faces:


Across the Universe
"All You Need is Love" - and, apparently, a big splatter-ific strawberry amidst the stars. The poster for Julie Taymor’s love song to a bunch of Beatles love songs is a perfect representation of her style as a director: strange and beautiful.

The Bourne Ultimatum
You know you’ve made it big when simply the back of your head will suffice. Matt Damon’s third outing as Bourne is arguably the best of the series, and this image has a subdued allure that reeled me in.

Charlie Wilson’s War
This one’s here for breaking the mold. It’s too perfect and glossy to be a still from the film, yet it seems candid enough to be; and it manages to establish setting, tone and its three main characters in one shot. Oh, and did I mention Julia’s hair?

Michael Clayton
I would have loved to have been in the board room for this one, when the idea was pitched to blur the MAJOR star’s face and then cover it with text. It worked tremendously well, evoking the film’s themes of digging through corruption... Who am I kidding - people still went to see Clooney.

Black Snake Moan
To illustrate Craig Brewer’s bold, sweat-soaked tale of down-home redemption, the studio opted for a bold, tattered, comic book approach. It’s perfect, it’s hilariously gratuitous, and it probably lured hordes of horny teens who were confused to find that the movie’s actually got brains.

Lust, Caution
This is simple, sexy, and the year’s best use of shadow. The high contrast says mystery, and the Chinese character betwixt the two words says exotic. I haven’t seen this film yet, but I’m sold on this poster.

Margot at the Wedding
Margot gets the prize for best use of negative space and one of the better implementations of color this year. Like they say over at iPod, white is dramatically simple, and that pink lid - matched with the name in the title - immediately cements the star of the show. Don’t you wanna hang this one in your living room or something?

There Will Be Blood
One of the few posters brave enough to opt for just text, it's disguised as a book cover and dressed up in an Olde English font. Then there's that one, thin red line down the center...just in case you were confused after reading the title.

3:10 to Yuma
Composed of scattered, haphazard-ish Old Texas typeface, and putting an anonymous gun-slinger front and center, this poster stylishly screams Western. Fitting, since many declared 3:10 as the return of it.




Honorable Mention:
Planet Terror
This one did an amazing job of expressing the tone of the ‘70's flicks it celebrates, while simultaneously becoming instantly iconic. No one will ever forget Rose McGowan and her fully automatic leg, but it’s SO recognizable at this point, that I left it out of the Top 9 for reasons of obviousness.