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I just completed my Top 10 of the decade.  Now I present my Top 10 of the year....er...Top 6.  I don't fill up 10 spots just to fill up 10 spots.  This list is limited by the films I've seen and I'm sure others like 500 Days of Summer would have made the cut if I had actually seen them.

 6. STAR TREK:  Directed by JJ Abrams

Number 6 is Star Trek because it was the most fun I had at the movies this year.  The spot-on casting and imaginative reinterpretation of JJ Abrams made this one a winner.  Can't wait to see more of these film with this cast.  I haven't been this into Star Trek since The Next Generation.

 

5.  BROTHERS:  Directed by Jim Sheridan

 

I didn't consider this an amazing film upon my first viewing.  It is quietly effective and marked by strong performances from an excpetional cast.  These kind of films are all but disappearing from the local multi-plex in favor of CGI laden, plotless eye candy.  I include Brothers here because it's hard to make a decent straight up drama anymore and this one exceeds often enough to classify it as a winner.

 

4.  PUBLIC ENEMIES:  Directed by Michael Mann

 

One of the most underrated directors working today delivered a great old fashioned cops and robbers tale.  Mann scored big when he cast two of the biggest actors working today (Johnny Depp and Christian Bale) as adversaries in this tale of John Dillinger/Melvin Purvis.  It's sleek, great to look at, action packed and involving.  Films like this hearken back to the best films of James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart and make me think that Hollywood hasn't completely forgotten how to make intelligent entertainment. 

 

 

3.  MOON:  Directed by Duncan Jones

 

The most overlooked film of the year, Moon has the best performance by an actor this year...Sam Rockwell acting with Sam Rockwell.  It's a great burden to have the weight of the whole picture resting on your shoulders but Rockwell is up to the challenge in this intelligent, timely and intriguing film about man's attempt to play God.   For those of you who like their sci-fi thought provoking and challenging, this film is for you.  For those of you who don't....I think Avatar is still playing at the local multi-plex.

 

 

2.  INGLORIOUS BASTERDS:  Directed by Quentin Tarantino

 

Tarantino makes films for film geeks like me.  Those of us who get references to Emil Jannings, Danielle Darrieux and such.  This is his crowning achievement in my opinion.  His revisionist World War II drama takes on the usual wild Tarantino ride with the expected sudden outbursts of bloody violence nestled between scenes of witty conversation.  He may have the best instincts of any director working today, knowing exactly when to reign himself in and when to unleash the primal beast.  This film is directed with the confidence of a master who knows he can get away with inserting a David Bowie song in a World War II piece.

 

 

1.  THE HURT LOCKER:  Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

 

I give this pic the edge over Inglorious Basterds because it's the first great war film about the Iraqi conflict.  It's taught, suspenseful and surprisingly apolitical.  Jeremy Renner gives a great performance as the leader of a bomb squad that disarms bombs before they can explode and kill allied troops.  It's tough and gritty without sinking into cheap emotion or gratuitous violence .  This film gave me insight into a conflict too often muddied by irresponsibile politicians and sensationalistic media coverage.