1. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
2. The Boss of It All (Lars Von Trier)
3. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
4. I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)
5. Offside (Jafar Panahi)
6. Lights in the Dusk (Aki Kaurismaki)
7. Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog)
8. No Country for Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
9. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)
10. Romance & Cigarettes (John Turturro)
Close, but no cigar: Tsai Ming-Liang's "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone," the fake trailers and Tarantino's half of "Grindhouse," Bong Joon-Ho's "The Host," and Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited." I can't decide if Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" is a giant turd or hilariously appropriate. Answer: Both! I liked everything about Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," except the boring lump of Emile Hirsch in the lead role, Eddie Vedder's score, and Penn's uncritical adoration of Christopher McCandless. Unlike previous years, I didn't see anything I completely hated. Thank god I didn't have to sit through anything like "Blue Car" or "The Dreamers" this year. Curse god I didn't see anything as delightfully shitty as Labute's remake of "The Wicker Man."
