1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
   
   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a truly great movie.  Jim Carrey plays Joel Barish in what can only be described as his best performance to date. He is sweet, shy, kind, terrified, angry, bitter, resentful, hurt, scared. He runs the gambit in this picture, as we follow Joel through the process of erasing every memory he has of his darling Clementine.
2. There Will Be Blood
   
   Daniel Day Lewis earned his oscar for There Will Be Blood. He owned every word he spoke in the movie. It’s truly one of the most remarkable performances in film history. The movie is dark and chilling. Greed hangs heavy in the air like the oil spouting from the wells. It’s a gritty, wonderful picture filled with intensity from the first frame to the last.
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
   
   This is how fairy tales should be: dark, menacing, filled with scary characters. It’s great to see a fairy tale like Pan’s Labyrinth on the screen. It’s everything fairy tales were meant to be, not the glossed over, kiddie stuff we’re usually shown.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums
   
   I’ve seen The Royal Tenenbaums at least a dozen times, and I never get tired of it. I’m still moved every time Chas tells Royal, “I’ve had a rough year, dad.” This is what every Wes Anderson films tries to be. This is his masterpiece. Gene Hackman is perfect in the role Wes wrote especially for him. The supporting cast plays every role exactly as they should. I can count several actors’ best performances in this film: Ben Stiller, Luke and Owen Wilson. I’ve never laughed so much while holding back the tears.
5. Adaptation
   
   Cleverly written. Odd. Bizarre. A movie within a movie? There’s a lot you can say about Adaptation, but one thing you can’t call it is boring. Whenever one Nicholas Cage won’t do it for me, I turn on Adaptation and enjoy two Nicholas Cage’s, fighting with one another, bickering like twin brothers. This might arguably be Cage’s best role, in the least, it’s his best role this last decade.
6. Brokeback Mountain
   
   Fewer movies have ever been more talked about. Ang Lee brought us the first really successful romantic film about two gay men. Ledger proved once and for all he could act. For too long, he’d been the darling of sophomoric action flicks and cheesy romantics flicks. Here, he proved he could play anybody.
7. Children of Men
   
   The world as we know it is gone. Humanity is dying off. Children can no longer be conceived. That is, until one girl becomes pregnant. Children of Men is a daring look at a dystopia where a world has gone mad, where violence and hatred reign supreme. And it isn’t until the world has lost what matters most: its children, does it realize the poor path it chose.
8. Memento
   
   “Remember Sammy Jenkis”? There are few movies that have ever been executed as well as Memento. It’s the movie that introduced the world to Chris Nolan. He had already made a small movie called Following, but it wasn’t until Memento hit theaters that the world took notice. A man attempting to avenge the death of his wife who cannot make new memories? It’s a great concept made into a great movie.
9. Wall-E
   
   Pixar proved with Wall-E that it’s possible to make a great animated film with which anyone can identify. The first 30 minutes are devoid of dialog. We see little more than a robot going about his duties, but we get the whole picture. Pixar tells the story beautifully without a shred of dialog, without explaining details, simply by doing what animation does best: showing us. Wall-E may be one of the few completely animated characters that conveys more emotion and tugs at your heart strings harder than most human performances.
10. Letters from Iwo Jima
    
    Letters from Iwo Jima is a gorgeous film. We get a real glimpse into the lives of the Japanese during WWII. There’s no propaganda. There’s no evil men in uniform out to murder Americans. We see soldiers, dying on the battlefield, serving their country. Directed by Clint Eastwood, this is infinitely better than the film he directed depicting the American side of events: Flags of Our Fathers.

Honorable Mentions

• Grizzly Man
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2
• No Country for Old Men
• City of God
• The Dark Knight