And Then There Was One

No glory for Days of Glory. No life for The Dead Girl. Breaking and Entering can't find its way in. Despite highly credible suggestions to the contrary, none of these films will open this weekend in Chicago, meaning that only Inland Empire stands between me and my Top Ten List. In a way, this is a relief, given that I'm already having trouble sorting about 15 films I admire about equally into spots 7-20. Plus, having lived so recently in much smaller film markets where I know I'd be waiting on a lot more titles than this, I'm hardly complaining. I just hope the others eventually emerge here, especially The Dead Girl, which doesn't have a name director or a brand new Oscar nomination to advertise it.

Another reason I'm anxious for these three movies? When I look ahead at the release calendar for 2007, I am forced to ask myself: will I ever go to the movies again? Give or take platform and holdover releases like the Oscar nom'd The Lives of Others and Black Book or the always interesting Philip Haas' The Situation (with Connie Nielsen), I might be on sabbatical till David Fincher's Zodiac on March 2, or Zack Snyder's 300 the week after. Can anyone think of a reason why I wouldn't be?

(Image © 2006 StudioCanal/Inland Empire Productions)