Favorite Films of 2007 - Part 2

For today's Monday Media Review we continue last week's listing of Stephen Simon's (Spiritual Cinema Circle) personal favorite films of 2007. Repeating myself here: we are HUGE fans of the Spiritual Cinema Circle and of Stephen Simon, so it should come as no surprise that we place value on his opinions. Here are the final threee of his 2007 selections and, in Mr. Simon's words, his reasons for these choices:

THE GREAT DEBATERS

A powerful and moving tribute to the courage of the African-American Wiley College debating team and its coach in 1930s Texas. Denzel Washington directs and stars in a film that reminds us of what we can accomplish when we decide that it is we, not the world around us, who define ourselves.

JUNO

A funny, poignant, searingly honest, and loving story of a teenager’s unwelcome pregnancy and her search for both herself and the most appropriate adoptive parents. Ellen Page is simply brilliant as the title character and the film has much to say about love, life, and responsibility. It also has one of the sweetest and most touching final scenes in recent memory.

WAITRESS

An offbeat, often hilarious, and sometimes harrowing story about a small town waitress and her unique talent for baking every kind of pie imaginable. Keri Russell achieves superstar actress status with her complex and nuanced portrait of a woman in an emotionally abusive marriage that she yearns to escape. The film is also a loving tribute to Adrienne Shelly, its writer/director/costar who was tragically killed after the completion of the film.