The Dark Knight
What else is there to say about this movie? A massively popular, hugely successful, artistically-complicated comic book movie. It’s hard to avoid the specter of Heath Ledger’s death hanging over the film, but the quality of picture makes this a celebration of his talents more than an obituary. For those few out there who thought it overlong, self-serious and exhausting, nothing will change their minds, but I will point out one moment that embodies everything that makes this movie praiseworthy. Toward the end of a chase sequence Batman on his motor bike causes the Joker’s semitruck to flip end over front. Christopher Nolan shoots it straight on with no cuts and no trickery. We are seeing a full size truck flipping over on the streets of Chicago…erm, Gotham City.  Nothing I have seen this year, or in many years past, has taken an audience’s collective breath away like that moment. It is that sense of wonder, of “how did they do that?” that made people fall in love with movies in the first place. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to those people who ran out of the theater when they saw the train on screen coming right for them. “The Dark Knight” is filled with that feeling from beginning to end. It’s tiring, but it’s also splendidly crafted with one of the best ensemble casts of the year.

The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke is not a familiar face to most college students. And even for those of us old enough to have have enjoyed his ’80’s heyday, the beaten mug he wears now bears little resemblance to the kid in “Diner.” All this talk of his career renaissance is falling on deaf ears around college campuses, so lets talk about the movie. “The Wrestler” is a top notch character study, focusing mostly on former superstar wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson and his relationship with an aging stripper played fearlessly by Marissa Tomei. Their dovetailing story lines focus on details of their flagging careers; two people who rely on the bodies that are quickly failing them with age. The beauty of Darren Arofnosky’s movie is that on the stage and in the ring neither look flawed; Rourke’s back ripples with power and Tomei’s taught body shows no signs of age. But after they are done perfoming and the lights are up and their clothes go back on, the director captures the weariness in their eyes. Maybe it’s just Tomei atoning for her Oscar few think she deserved and Rourke pining for the one he was supposedly destained to get, but this movie seems much more than a splendid performance.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
It’s easy to write off this homemade documentary as an especially weepy episode of Dateline—the tragic tale of a man murdered by the mother of his child and the efforts by his family to get custody of that child, Zachary, and bring the killer to justice. But what separates “Dear Zachary” from similar ripped-from-the-headlines movie of the week fodder is the skill and emotion with which it is told. It features no beautiful photography or groundbreaking investigative journalism, but behind the tears (and there are many) are the purest of intentions: true love, and in a form of that particular emotion that seems little understood in Hollywood. Love is the pain Zachary’s grandparents feel sharing custody with the woman who shot their son in cold blood but walks free on the streets of Canada for years before the extradition hearing. An outraged Kurt Kuenne set out to make a movie for his deceased friend’s son, so Zachary would know how beloved his father had been. But beyond the anecdotes and fond memories, Kuenne follows this horrific story to the end, and finds a purpose for this film beyond the very personal original intention. The twist ending is provided not by fate but by the filmmaker and his growth in understanding of what family means.

In Bruges
When “In Bruges” was released this spring it was a pleasant surprise. Colin Farrell’s career has been filled with promise but few total successes. The mix of Martin McDonagh’s words and the filthy-mouthed Irishman’s natural charisma is enough to make this tale of hit men stuck in purgatory-on-earth exciting and hilarious. But the city of Bruges, which serves as a decadent yet believably boring backdrop, is the real star. Of course there are the typically strong performances from Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes, but it’s the Bosch-ian setting and Ferrell’s wallowing that makes “In Bruges” worth revisiting.

Slumdog Millionaire
Sappy, heavy-handed and fantastic, Danny Boyle’s modern fairy tale is wonderfully told and beautifully set. The “Who Want’s to Be a Millionaire” framework is simple and creates loads of tension, and the location photography shoots India’s sumptuous beauty and filthy underbelly all at once, often in one frame. This is what movies are supposed to be right? You laugh, you cry, you cheer and it all ends with dancing. Danny Boyle takes his eclectic taste and dips it in a Bollywood coating that, while sugary-sweet, has plenty of spice. Outstanding performances from little-known actors (in this hemisphere, anyway) turn this lovely postcard into something more substantial.

Wall-E
We cynics think that nothing good lasts forever and secretly hope that nothing will. But even the most ardent glass-is-half-empty supporters can’t help but take joy in Pixar’s unprecedented run of successes. With “Wall-E,” Pixar has somehow managed to top itself once again, reviving the gentle beauty of the silent film style and engaging an all-ages audience with relevant social commentary. Their mastery of story is topped here by the rich, gorgeous animation, from the details of the waste-filled, post-apocalyptic landscapes to Wall-E’s endlessly adorable way of doing everything.

Milk
Biopics are regularly overpraised. The often try to condense a person into two short hours of montages and monologues. “Milk” ends up on the good side of the fence because Gus Van Sant treats the material, and the man, with respect, plus Sean Penn is perfectly cast as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to hold public office. He’s got a swagger and self-confidence that mirrors the late politician right down to his New York accent and magnetic smile. But “Milk” isn’t about Milk the activist, or Milk the politician—it’s about a time and a city and the man who embodied a lot of that. It reaffirms that often-derided political ideal that a city is made up of individuals. Quite accidentally the movie is actually quite topical, as people in California continue to fight for their right to marry. While Milk would surely be leading the charge to overturn Prop 8 had he not been murdered, with more people like Harvey Milk in office, maybe it never would have passed in the first place.

Doubt
This picture would be much better suited to 2007’s aesthetic. It would make a nice double feature with “Atonement” actually. Doubt is a very unsatisfying movie, in that no resolution to the plot is ever reached. A Catholic priest in the 1960’s is suspected of an inappropriate relationship with one of his alter boys by two nuns. One is wracked by doubts, unwilling to crucify a man for a crime that may never have happened. The other is more steadfast in her assurance that he is guilty. Intriguing as that basic plot may be, it is the framework of the Catholic church in the 60’s and it’s inherent sexism that makes the film fascinating. That and outstanding work from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Viola Davis, as the mother who thinks her son, the only black boy in school, is different enough. All this coming from the guy who directed “Joe Versus the Volcano.” How times have changed.

Iron Man
Many prefered it to “The Dark Knight” and while the last act drags a little once the delightful Jeff Bridges puts his suit on, this movie had the most fun with itself of any this year. Casting Robert Downey Jr. as a boozy billionaire with a golden touch and silver tongue seems too obvious to be inspired. But pairing him with the delightful Gwenyth Paltrow resulted in some of the best male/female verbal sparing since Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn.

Synecdoche, New York
It’s dangerous to let an artist off the leash sometimes and Charlie Kaufman is no exception. “Synecdoche” may have been bizarre, pretentious and artsy-fartsy, but it was also fascinating.

Gran Torino
It’s cartoonish, heavy handed and possibly racist, but don’t hold that against Clint Eastwood. While the story is predictable and the acting sub par, this comes from a long line of truly independent cinema, an heir in some ways to John Cassevetes’ work. Viewers may be turned off by the story or the characters, but they’re impeccably drawn.

The Visitor
A grand coming out for long time character actor Richard Jenkins. He’s played everyone from the dad in Will Ferrell’s “Step Brothers,” to Brad Pitt’s boss in “Burn After Reading;” and that was just this year. It’s too bad more people didn’t see this one, because it has a chance to be this year’s “Once.” Intimate and lovely, “The Visitor” is worth some time.

Wendy and Lucy
Where are all those movies about a girl and her dog? Here’s one featuring a sad, affecting performance from Michelle Williams as a woman trying to make her way to Alaska with her dog. Very quiet and sad, but its what all those mumblecore fellows are aspiring too.

Let The Right One In
Sweden’s answer to the teen vampire craze, this creepy bloody bit of fun is truly terrifying. Not because of the monsterous implications of a centuries old vampire who looks like a 13-year-old girl, but because of how terrible life must have been for awkward kids in Stockholm during the ’80’s. “Let the Right One In” strikes a nice balance between goopy slasher flick and teen comedy. But the overall town is like the Swedish weather, forbidding and cold.