#1 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Simply put, one of the best films I've ever seen. Exquisite in every detail, it's funny, sad, smart and emotionally devastating. Charlie Kaufman is hands down the best screenwriter working today, and Michel Gondry and the entire cast bring his sublime story magically to life. With the decade half over, I'm dying to see if anything will come along to top this.
#2 - Before Sunset Any other year, this would be an easy #1 pick. I sort of dreaded a sequel to Before Sunrise, one of my all-time favorite films and a movie that ends just perfectly. But Linklater, Delpy and Hakwe pull off the impossible -- they honor the first film while creating a whole new romantic classic about regret and rediscovery. And the ending is even more perfect.
#3 - La Mala Educacion (Bad Education) Pedro Almodovar, cinema's most passionate and daring auteur, teams up with the fearless, electric Gael Garcia Bernal and spins a complex noir tale that's actually three captivating movies in one. Bad Education is erotic, suspenseful and disturbing but most of all exhilirating -- you know from the very first frame that you're in the hands of a master.
#4 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou It was inevitable -- the critics, who never quite got Wes Anderson in the first place, turned on him big-time here. Their loss. The Life Aquatic hums along at that distinct Anderson tempo -- meticulous but anarchic, wry but sincere, offbeat but emotionally grounded. And Murray delivers a subtle, hilarious performance as good as his celebrated turn in Lost in Translation.
#5 - The Incredibles Writer/director/performer Brad Bird delivers Pixar's best film since Toy Story 2, a thrilling, funny, thought-provoking metaphor for middle-age suburban life that still plays great to the pre-teen set. I can't think of a more thrilling moment last year than Dash and Violet unleashing their powers for the first time -- no CGI explosion can match the look an a little boy's face when he discovers he can run on water.
#6 - A Very Long Engagement Jean-Pierre Jeunet's follow-up to Amelie is just as visually stunning and narratively ingenious, but its subject matter -- lovers torn apart by the brutality of war -- gives it a weightiness that makes it the superior effort. It is by no means, however, a difficult film. It has a humor and inventiveness that balances its epic plot perfectly and rich, larger-than-life characters who fill every frame with gusto.
#7 - The Aviator Scorsese's epic fulfills the first rule of any historical recreation -- delivering you to another time and place -- in breathtaking fashion. I was riveted by the lavish Hell's Angels premiere, the exuberant Cocoanut Grove scenes, the gripping Congressional hearings. But even more stirring were the private moments between Leonardo DiCaprio's doomed Howard Hughes and Cate Blanchett's droll Kate Hepburn.
#8 - Sideways * Is there a less likely movie hero than Miles Raymond, an uptight wine snob and pathological liar who steals from his mother? The real success of Alexander Payne's Sideways is that we root for Miles, and for the movie's three other expertly-drawn characters, because of -- rather than despite -- their flaws. This is a poignant, romantic and melancholy work of art. And it's funny as hell.
#9 - House of Flying Daggers * This year, director Zhang Yimou delivered two wild, eye-popping martial arts classics with opposite themes -- the political trumping the personal (Hero), and the personal trumping the political (Daggers). I favor the latter for its romantic spirit and its captivating central performance by Ziyi Zhang. On a side note, it's refreshing to see movie heroines who not only equal but surpass their masculine counterparts.
#10 - Spider-Man 2 The rare sequel that's better in every way than its predecessor. Having covered the convoluted origins of Peter Parker's powers and conflicted relationships with Mary Jane and Harry in the first film, Sam Raimi and company are free to truly explore them. What hits home in this film is that Parker is just a kid with the same fears and insecurities all kids have. And he discovers those weaknesses are really the source of his strength.
And the rest... 11. I ♥ Huckabees 12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 13. Friday Night Lights 14. The Motorcycle Diaries 15. In Good Company 16. Hero 17. Maria Full of Grace 18. Ray 19. Closer 20. Infernal Affairs 21. 13 Going on 30 22. Garden State 23. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 24. The Bourne Supremacy 25. National Treasure 26. The Notebook 27. Million Dollar Baby 28. Finding Neverland 29. Kinsey 30. P.S. 31. The Five Obstructions 32. Touching the Void 33. Wimbledon 34. Mean Girls 35. Meet the Fockers 36. I, Robot 37. Dodgeball 38. The Ladykillers 39. Flight of the Phoenix 40. Ocean's Twelve 41. Fahrenheit 9/11 42. Super Size Me 43. Saved! 44. Shrek 2 45. Hellboy 46. King Arthur 47. The Dreamers 48. Collateral 49. The Manchurian Candidate 50. Hidalgo 51. Barbershop 2: Back in Business 52. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton 53. The Return 54. Anchorman 55. Napoleon Dynamite * Needs another viewing