It was a very good year at the movies.
A film critic can’t often say that in this age of lowest common denominator blockbusters and formulaic genre retreads — not to mention the growing exodus from the multiplex and the subsequent surge of the DVD and home theaters. The quality of movies in the last two decades, like the screens on which we watch them, has shrunk.
But happily, it was difficult to narrow down my traditional, always arbitrary and unavoidably personal list of the 10 best releases of the previous 12 months. Here are my favorites:
‘Juno’
1. This original take on teen pregnancy and family love from screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman offers a unique combination of hardy belly laughs, edgy smarts and truly endearing characters. Newcomer Ellen Page as the wisecracking young mom-to-be leads a sweetly goofy ensemble including Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Allison Janney. They manage to tell a real, droll and even moving slice-of-life story without resorting to cliche or corn. It was a rare source of light in a year filled with many fine but deadly dark dramas.
‘There Will Be Blood’
2. Speaking of dark dramas, this astonishing Paul Thomas Anderson turn-of-the-century epic (opening in D.C. next week) about the harsh early days of American oil exploration revolves around a ruthlessly ambitious and violently bitter anti-hero protagonist who appears in nearly every scene. Fortunately, a fiery Daniel Day Lewis plays that prospector-turned-tycoon, based on an actual historical figure, in one of the most specific and dynamic character creations of this or any other year.
‘The Diving Bell and theButterfly’
3. No 2007 movie shook me up or made me more thoughtful about my own life than this poetic true account of paralyzed French stroke victim Jean-Dominique Bauby. The movie, featuring discreet humanity and wit by Mathieu Amalric, as directed by Julian Schnabel, it recalls how Bauby kept his heart and mind intact while he blinked out his entire book-length memoir, one letter at a time, with his only moving body part — his left eye.
‘No Country for Old Men’
4. Javier Bardem sends chills down the spine as the air-gun serial killer in the Prince Valiant hairdo — chasing down Josh Brolin and a suitcase full of ill-gotten gains — in the Coen Brothers’ cool, modern Western thriller. Their riveting game of cat-and-mouse examines the wages of pride and greed as it brims with deadpan eccentrics and gallows humor.
‘Ratatouille’
5. Pixar Animation’s latest hit is an adorable celebration of the creative spirit and career passion in a deliciously detailed and broadly accessible cartoon package. Writer-director Brad Bird and an expressive celebrity voice cast infuse a tale of a Parisian rodent’s desire for haute cuisine grandeur with delightful adventure for the kiddies, and often sophisticated satire for the rest of us.
‘Hairspray’
6. This lyrically inspired and socially uplifting fable of shabby-chic retro fabulousness, fat girl power and Kennedy-era racial integration couldn’t be more fun and liberating. With a charming cast, especially rookie star Nikki Blonsky and a transvestite John Travolta, it leaves you humming, toe-tapping and grinning from sideburn to sideburn.
‘Sweeney Todd’
7. The other great movie musical of the year takes an opposite tone but equivalently skillful approach to the adaptation of a great contemporary stage production — in this case, offering master composer Stephen Sondheim by way of master visualist Tim Burton. An unnerving (and singing) Johnny Depp as the vengeful title character gives beyond-close shaves to patrons who become filler for Helena Bonham Carter’s meat pies in a spellbinding, gorgeously designed gore-fest.
‘Atonement’
8. Full of painterly images, erotic connection and heart-rending drama, this unpredictable English costume drama presents Keira Knightley as a gamine aristocrat, James McAvoy as her ardent lower-class suitor and the frighteningly intense adolescent Saoirse Ronan as their love block. As the World War II-era romance becomes a narrative of redemption, with a devastating twist of an ending, you are completely transformed to this other place and time.
‘A Mighty Heart’
9. With hard-boiled direction by Michael Winterbottom, this gripping blend of romantic tragedy, political drama and crime investigation thriller recounts the harrowing events surrounding the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan five years ago. Angelina Jolie proves her professional chops in this measured and heartbreaking portrayal of a wife in grave distress.
‘Gone Baby Gone’
10. About a less global but no less impacting case of a missing person, this gritty and authentic mystery from a novel by “Mystic River’s” Dennis Lehane concerns a little girl who disappears from Boston’s blue-collar underbelly. Co-scripter and debuting director Ben Affleck casts his talented brother Casey Affleck as the protagonist private eye for a ripping good yarn enhanced by a tricky ethical dilemma and a revelatory supporting performance by Amy Ryan as a grief-stricken addict.
