Best Films:
1 I [Heart] Huckabees (dir. David O. Russell)
How am I not myself? A masterful examination of what being alive means, diagramming the struggle to live happily amidst battling factions of philosophical thought. The laughs get bigger and the feelings get deeper with each subsequent viewing. Cruelty, manipulation, meaninglessness—and the knowledge that human drama is inevitable, but comedy is its own wild creature.
2 Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry)
Forming a nice trifecta with Million Dollar Baby and I [Heart] Huckabees, this mental epic about the nature of feeling and loss is the film that Charlie Kaufman has been working towards his whole career. If Oliver Sacks and Bob Fosse made a film together, this would be it. Jim Carrey was as good in this as he was terrible in the Lemony Snicket flick.
3 Alexander (dir. Oliver Stone)
People who don't like this film can fuck right on off. There has never been before (and never will be again) a $160 million epic that feels at every frame like the pure vision of a passionate filmmaker, unstepped on by prying hands and focus groups. A historical piece that is respectful of the time it is taking place in (Troy, I call you out), a rapturous love story, and an accusatory fusillade at anyone who would destroy knowledge or devalue that which is other due to fear or unfamiliarity. Beautiful and bonkers and like nothing else this year.
4 Primer (dir. Shane Carruth)
One of the most exciting and cerebrally stimulating science-fiction films of all time.
5 Shaun of the Dead (dir. Edgar Wright)
Giddy joy. Everything that's great about zombie films plus everything that's great about British comedy in this droll and fun slice of modern guignol, an enjoyable and bloody good time for all. Pure fried gold.
6 Time of the Wolf (dir. Michael Haneke)
Your SUV will not keep you safe when the Apocalypse comes. No electricity. No safety. No certainty. Only the mercurial emotions of your fellow man in the not so far away, upon whom you must depend for everything once taken for granted. Are you scared? You will be.
7 Bad Education (dir. Pedro Almodovar)
Perverse and delicious in its puzzle box intricacies and gilded excesses, this is Almodovar at his darkest in decades. Imagine a meld of Eve's Bayou and the psycho anime Perfect Blue, but make it weirder and sex it up. That's a good starting point.
8 Million Dollar Baby (dir. Clint Eastwood)
If last year's Mystic River was the state of the world as grand opera, then this is the same theme explored on a smaller and more intimate scale. Eastwood and Morgan Freeman, together again for the first time since Unforgiven (with the added bonus of no gunfighters about), and Hilary Swank reminding us that that Best Actress Oscar was no fluke. Chiaroscuro lighting to die for, and a heartfelt simplcitiy about the drive to feel.
9 (tie) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (dir. Wes Anderson)
Mean Girls (dir. Mark S. Waters)
Two smart character studies that delivered pointed laughs even as they laid social structures bare.
10 Hey, Stop Stabbing Me! (dir. Worm Miller)
No-budget filmmaking at its finest; a twisted and delightful example of clever writing and understanding genre. Plus it has a clothes-stealing monster and a battle to the death.
Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order):
Bright Leaves, Collateral, Control Room, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Innocence: Ghost in the Shell 2, Kill Bill Volume 2, Le Monde Selon Bush/The World According to Bush, Notre Musique, Sex is Comedy, Sideways.
Better Than You've Heard:
Anatomy of Hell. Two years of grad school gender theory in 78 minutes.
Birth. Stylized and murkily tense, with a grand Nicole Kidman performance and the best sequence in film this year. Also, the best opening shot of the year.
Darkness . A gloriously chaotic mix of The Shining and The Watcher In The Woods with a strong chaser of Lovecraftian menace and chthonic crawly things, plus an ending shout-out to Italo splattermaster Lucio Fulci's The Beyond that made me utterly gleeful.
The Best Brigade:
Director: Roger Michell, Enduring Love
Actor: (tie) Colin Farrell (Alexander, A Home At The End Of The World), Bill Murray (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou)
Actress: (tie) Neve Campbell (When Will I Be Loved), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake)
Supporting Actors: Keith Carradine (Kill Bill Vol. 2), Mark Wahlberg (I [Heart] Huckabees)
Supporting Actresses: Agnes Jaoui (Look at Me), Virginia Madsen (Sideways)
Original Song: "Only A Woman" (Team America: World Police)
Best Nashville Movie Experience: The six-hour epic La Commune: Paris 1871 at Nashville Premieres' first Film Festival.
Best Short Film: "Sissy Boy Slap Party," Guy Maddin
Best Music Video: Pet Shop Boys, "Flamboyant" (dir. Nico Beyer)
Best Trailers: The Ring Two (teaser), High Tension, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Ringer.
