1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 
Directed by Peter Jackson

Return of the King  may not be the best film of the series. And it may not even the “best” film of the year, but this third and final chapter in the heralded Lord of the Rings trilogy is the embodiment of the sum being more than its parts. What does allow it to steal my top spot, however, is that it's a part of something so much bigger than itself. That’s why I’m selecting the whole trilogy for this year’s top honor in moviemaking. Call it cheating but if you approach Lord of the Rings as one gigantically beatific filmic effort then all the flaws of the individual films magically disappear. The meandering Fellowship ends up looking like a substantial first act; the hit- or-miss subplots of the Two Towers is just the series warming up and gearing up for The Return of the King, a film which, as I said in my December review, is the ultimate “consolidator of a trilogy that has gone from precarious to perfection in the most naturalistic of ways.” I suppose the most magnificent thing abut ROTK is that it ended up holding together as well as it did--the palpable sense of dread mixed with fervent action and substantial, dare I say Shakespearian, emotions add up to the perfect escapist fantasy film. Nothing else in my lifetime may top the experience of watching these films. That Peter Jackson didn’t screw it up as many directors before him making their crucial “third film” have (check out my comments on Matrix 3 below), that the performances only deepen during the final stretch as they advance on Mount Doom, and that this impeccably paced film makes the other two look so seamless is why I’m comfortable with finally, FINALLY, calling this already timeless series the best film(s) of the year… I only hope the Academy Awards do the same thing.
The Trilogy: A+

2. Lost In Translation Directed by Sofia Coppola
Now… on to the real “best” film of the year. At the risk of sounding maudlin, Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation may be the most soulful and life affirming film I’ve ever seen. It may also be the most illusive romantic comedy ever made. Every once and a while a film comes along and floors me in a very deep and personal way and so I can’t fully explain Lost’s effect over me other than to say this sleepy film's ethereal qualities lulled my aesthetic sensibilities at around the same time the two leads were warming my heart. As a man searching for meaning in life and finding it in the youthful gaze of an equally "lost" girl (Scarlett Johansson) while visiting the strange and wonderful world of Japan, Bill Murray delivers not only the best performance of the year but the best performance of his career. And who could have guessed that one the most romantically simpatico couples in movie history court each other in a film where a kiss is barley exchanged? Lost is a story that takes the typical film model of burgeoning love and replaces it with something so much more stimulating than interlocking bodies. This film gives us a story of interlocking minds.

3. Kill Bill Directed by Quentin Tarantino
A bravura piece of filmmaking that’s unrelenting, unforgettable, unparalleled… and that’s only the first half of Tarantino’s blood soaked, two-part kung-fu saga!!! Uma Thurman cuts and slices her way through the coolest revenge flick of the year. This is an artifact of retro kung-fu pulp that’s even better than the mélange of films being paid homage to. This is also proof positive that QT is more, so much more than a one hit wonder.  

4. Songs From the Second Floor
Directed by Roy Andersson
Songs is one of the best films I’ve ever seen precisely because it’s the only film of it’s kind I’ve ever seen. To describe or deconstruct the “plot” is to miss the point. Songs is an absurdist end-of-days foreign film that defies rational logic; one tableau after another played before me with a simultaneous effect of humor, ghastly anticipation and flat out wonder. Shot by the visionary Swedish director Roy Andersson, the film depicts many enigmatic vignettes (from a man peddling plastic Jesus' to vistas of endless traffic jams) but the camera never moves, it just sits there and observers these strange beings and I may found myself doing the same thing. The characters that inhabit this film have no earthly motivation but neither did Charlie’s three vacuous Angels, so quality is obviously not inherent in a movie's logic. If you’re lucky enough to see the film, then sit back and don’t allow the word “why?” to enter your consciousness. A
Full Review

5. Mystic River Directed by Clint Eastwood
There are a few things that keep Clint Eastwood’s new drama from taking the top spot. First off, the Tim Robins misdirection belongs in a movie that is more concerned with thrills than story (something like Eastwood’s last pop thriller Blood Work). Secondly, the explanation of why the killer did what he or she or they did was never adequately explored and does not hold up after a second viewing. Otherwise, this is a nearly flawless and entirely tragic crime odyssey where three men who have known each other since childhood meet many years later under the circumstances of a murdered child. The men are played by the great Kevin Bacon, the greater Tim Robbins and the greatest Sean Penn, and Penn’s portrait of a morally complex man tormented by sadness and revenge is unforgettable—he’ll get the Oscar no problem. Thinking back to the films I’ve seen, high mined drama didn’t get much better than Penn’s gut wrenching balcony sobbing scene were the friend that “may” have killed his daughter, Robbins, consoles the grieving father. While the formula may be a bit too Stephen King-ish for most, the sober minded/no-nonsense Clint makes Mystic River a crime film about so much more than the crime. There is a eerie sense of Greek tragedy as all the events of past and present interconnect into one inciting movie going experience. If it beats Return of the King for best picture I’ll not only understand but I’ll be happy be for it. A film like this was made to win awards.

6. House of Sand and Fog  Directed by Vadim Perelman
This film floored me. If I haven’t lost you already, listen up. Please forget about the pretentious title and daft trailers, give it the chance to floor you, too. House of Sand and Fog tells the multifaceted tale of a woman who is evicted from her house because of some chicken shit tax loophole only to find out that an Iranian family of émigrés have moved in and she can do nothing about it. Her home is lost, she is lost… yeah, I  know, this notion is analogous to not having a sense of being, etc, etc., but the heavy handedness works much better than the Kevin Kline film Life as a House in which a similar simile (he, he, sounds funny) was used. “She is a blind bird,” the ironclad homeowner says of its former “irresponsible” owner. Kingsley as that man plays the role with a deep respect for the cautious melodrama and this performance ranks up there as some of his best work to date. Here is an actor that has done a complete 180 from his dizzyingly over-the-top performance in 2001’s Sexy Beast  yet he still retains the same coiled up inner verve from that film. The hard-as-nails ex Iranian general could have been an all out villain (I’m thinking something like Michael Keaton from Pacific Heights) but is instead a complex man who does what he does out of necessity and duty. So, then, Kingsley and Connolly, as the scornful alcoholic whose house he’s “stolen,” clash ideologies in a film that takes a similar moral high ground as last year’s equally challenging Changing Lanes. Both films allow us to decide what’s right, what’s wrong and what’s unanswerable, while remaining on the sidelines. Directed with a time tested lyrical beauty, Vadim Perelman’s House of Sand and Fog is easy to stomach because of its emphasis on dramatic understatement over broad sentimentality. There’s no heroes, just a classy morality tale where our allegiance/disfavor/pity for the two different sides is tested in one scene after another.
This is most emotionally demanding film of the year. There’s nothing pretentious about it. This film feels. A

7. Nowhere in Africa  Directed by Jill Spracher
Winner of last year’s best foreign film Oscar and released in America this year, Nowhere is the kind of film that you only need to see once. Once this haunting film gets in you, it’s a part of you. This film tells a story of a Jewish family escaping Nazi Germany and immigrating to Africa (while going native in the process); the complex depiction of the displaced cultural traditions of the African Diaspora bring us to an understanding of how different cultures relate to each other and how, during WWII, the ever-popular movie notion of survival could also apply to preserving ones personal and cultural identity.

8. Bad Santa  Directed by Terry Zwigoff
 To distil the essence of Bad Santa would not be as difficult. I’ll let the film’s embittered elf's observation of the eponymous character sum up the experience: “Your soul is shit. Every single fucking thing about is ugly."   

Yup, that about sums it up. If Kill Bill is full of unrelentingly gruesome action then Bad Santa must be its comedy equivalent. It’s unrelentingly mean. A dark comedy --pitch black, in fact—that, in the process of offending everyone on God’s puke green earth, is easily the funniest film I saw all year. Call me demented but I’d choose this raucous Christmas comedy over the tame Elf any day.

Though Zwigoff's twisted tale is certainly not for everyone, watch it and tell me you didn’t laugh at the scene where Billy Bob tells a hopeful young boy: “Wish in one hand, shit in another, and see which one fills up first.” A
Full Review

9. Master and Commander  Directed by Peter Weir
The Best B+ film of the year! Really, though, the film is a lot better than the arbitrary grade anyone could assign it. After enduring failed epics like Cold Mountain, I respect what this film is doing a lot more now. Master and Commander is a flat out amazing achievement. Amazing not only because of the visuals but the dynamic between the crafty 19th century British naval crew and their dreadful anticipation of a far off threat (ze powerful French warship) that lurks in the nearby waters like Jaws, except with a bigger superiority complex. Amazing also because stars Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, playing shipmates and friends on the British frigate give heartfelt, subtle and generous performances in a big studio film where that was the last thing I expected. And, of course, amazing because Peter Weir has created the most expensive (and expansive) independent film I've ever seen.

10. Love Actually  Directed by Richard Curtis
“Love is everywhere. Love, actually, is all around.”

His name is “Prime Minister” and he’s a big time bachelor (one of the dozen significant characters doomed to fall in love) who also happens to be England’s new, well, just look at the bloke's name. Played by the one-note-and-loving-it Hugh Grant, our first glimpse of this charming Brit is on his first day on the job as England’s new leader. It may be no coincidence that during the opening credits, just when the words “Written and Directed by Richard Curtis” appear, the people on-screen start clapping for their new prime minister. Or are they really clapping for the film’s director? That’s more like it because, you see, this film is a celebration not really of “love” but of itself; or, rather, a celebration of films about love. Call it the Scream of love cliché stories, the Thin Red Line of epic rom-coms, the Robert Altman of romance movie ensembles. Plus all that…on Ecstasy.  So by the end, when a grandiose airport montage of lovers greeting each other played before a grinning movie audience in Los Angeles, it felt like I had seen all these distinct characters starring in their own movies. Which is amazing because this supercharged film gives the audience no breathing room; it has little in the way of narrative finesse and there are no wasted scenes. At its core it’s an unabashed, 200 proof bottle of pure cinematic love juice—ew. It also transcends feel-good territory to become the feel-great movie of the year. A-

1. Gigli

2. Matrix Revolutions

3. Seabiscuit

5. Hulk

6. Whale Rider

7. Cold Mountain

8. The Fighting Temptations

9. The Cooler

10. From Justin to Kelly

10.2 Monster

10.3   XXX