December is a critic’s designated month to moan and whine about
the mediocrity of the year’s movies. It’s often true, and for sure a year studded
with masterpieces has yet to happen in my lifetime. Mostly, though, our kvetching
has to do with end-of-year fatigue and the inevitable hazard of a critic’s life
— combing through bushels of chaff for a handful of wheat. As for me, I’m not
going to complain about a year in which my runners-up outnumber my 10 best,
in which terrific documentaries abound, and in which great performances exceed
the space I have to acknowledge them. Here are my best of the year, in no particular
order.

 

 

10 Best

Collateral

The Incredibles

The Return

Before Sunset

Notre Musique

Kinsey

Tarnation

Prisoner of Paradise

Since Otar Left

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

 

Honorable Mention: Sideways, Last Life in the Universe,
Moolaadé, The Sea Inside, Springtime in a Small Town, Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban, Maria Full of Grace, Enduring Love, Hiding and Seeking,
Bang Rajan, Shrek 2, The Yes Men, Bright Leaves, The Inheritance, My Architect,
Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst, Almost Peaceful, Chisholm ’72, Born Into
Brothels, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Farmingville, Untold Scandal

Best Re-Release: The Battle of Algiers

Great Performances: Rhys Ifans as the sinister, pitiful
psychotic threatening Daniel Craig in Enduring Love; Julie Delpy, adorably
neurotic, verbose and improvising with mad brilliance in Before Sunset;
Laura Linney, who walks away with Kinsey as the randy scientist’s devoted,
long-suffering wife; Laura Dern, who walks away with We Don’t Live Here Any
More as Mark Ruffalo’s devoted, long-suffering wife; Jeff Bridges as a bereaved
father in fully denied agony in The Door in the Floor; Ivan Dobronravov
as a boy torn between love and hatred for his absentee father in The Return;
Fenella Woolgar as a poor little rich girl in Bright Young Things; Louis
Kahn, Jonathan Caouette and Aileen Wuornos, all being their multiple selves
in, respectively, My Architect, Tarnation and Aileen: The Life and
Death of a Serial Killer; Gong Li as two women in love in Zhou Yu’s Train;
Catalina Sandina Moreno as a naive drug mule in Maria Full of Grace;
Carl Reiner as the old duffer out of retirement yet again and bluffing away
in Ocean’s Twelve; Hilary Swank, intense but underplaying a role that
could so easily have been overdone, plus Morgan Freeman, speaking volumes barely
audibly, in Million Dollar Baby; Eddie Marsan, wonderfully low-key as
the nervous prospective son-in-law to the excellent Imelda Staunton, in the
otherwise unimpressive Vera Drake; Freddie Highmore as the reluctant
model for Peter Pan in Finding Neverland; Javier Bardem, giving his all
from the neck up, and Mabel Rivera as his devoted sister-in-law, in The Sea
Inside; Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe as the radiant African pilgrim encountering
Israel, warts and all, in James’ Journey to Jerusalem; Billy Crudup,
a dainty little darling in Stage Beauty; Dinara Drukarova and Esther
Gorintin as a determined granddaughter and her crafty grandmother in Since
Otar Left; and last but by no means least, Bridget Jones’ Big Underpants,
as very much appreciated by Hugh Grant.

Cutest couples: Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin in I
♥ Huckabees; Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Collateral; Jim Carrey
and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Paul Giamatti
and Thomas Haden Church in Sideways; Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before
Sunset; Nicole Kidman and little Cameron Bright, sharing a bath in Birth.

SPECIAL AWARD FROM THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF SADOMASOCHISM:
The Passion of the Christ.

AND REMEMBER: Forget The Alamo.

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