Top Ten #10 – Across The Universe

I’ve never been a huge fan of top ten lists (other than David Letterman’s). Too often they seem obvious or self-congratulatory. But as I’m taking off for the holidays, for the next ten days I hope you’ll find some interest in a countdown of the top ten things that enriched my life culturally in 2007.

With best wishes to all for a Happy New Year!



This Julie Taymor film which wove a bunch of Beatles songs into a trans-Atlantic love story set against the political and cultural background of the 60s seems to be film that everyone meant to see, but didn’t get around to. It got terrible pre-release publicity as a result of an editing showdown between the director and producer and that (along with a lackluster advertising campaign) seemed to rob it of the necessary kharma. It was, however, not only imaginative and entertaining, but pulled off the incredible feat of refreshing its Beatles songs and reconnecting you to what made them so special in the first place. (So the soundtrack shares kudos with the film, which should be out on DVD any day.)