Top 50 Films of the Decade, 10-1: Priest

10. Brokeback Mountain- When I think about this film, there's always a second when I wonder what became of Ennis. What he's doing now. It's not a gay movie, it's a movie about a man caught and trying to do the right thing by everyone while staying true to himself. It just happens that that man is a gay cowboy. Some say it's hard to not make a beautiful film set against the Rockies. In that case, more people should set theirs there.

9. Minority Report- Sci-fi with hints of noir, Tom Cruise is at his movie star best, Spielberg's visuals are stunning, and Samantha Morton is buried beneath the skin of a pre-cog begging to quit seeing murder after murder after murder. It's a reminder of what science fiction was born to be but rarely is-- the best genre for examining philosophy and theology.

8. Lord of the Rings- The most fun to be had in the movies this decade, this trilogy took the greatest fantasy books of all time and turned them into the greatest fantasy films of all time. At 9+ hours, that it works at all is amazing. That it works this well is unbelievable.

7. Lost In Translation Sofia Coppola's story of a May/October, quasi-platonic relationship between two jet-lagged, married (not to each other) people stuck in a Tokyo hotel for a week is a study in tone and atmosphere. She nails both. Not a whole lot really happens as we tramps with this pair through sushi restaurants, arcades, and karaoke parties, all late at night. If it doesn't sound like much, it doesn't necessarily seem like much during the first viewing, either. But it evokes an experience like few films I've seen. And the fact that Bill Murray can sit there and be funny doesn't hurt.

6. A History of Violence- Digs deep down and unflinching shows that the violence we pretend to abhor is hardwired into our DNA. Occasionally the graphic novel it was based on shows through a little too much (Ed Harris's eye, for instance), but save for that, perfect.

5. The Lives of Others- Ulrich Muhe's German secret serviceman Wiesler is a true believer in the East German socialist system and has given nearly everything up for it long after those around him have cashed in their ideals for power and perks. We watch him slowly fall in love with a couple he's spying on then slowly lose his faith in the system, all played out in every subtle wince and smile that crosses his face. Confused for anti-socialism or anti-communism, it's really a meditation on courage and bedrock integrity even as one's foundations are crumbling.

4. City of God- Someone once told me hell exists as a deadly cocktail of poverty, hunger, lack of opportunity, and violence and is always threatening to break out here on earth. City of God unflinchingly documents the hell of life in the favelas of Rio as younger and younger children dominate the drug trade as seen through the eyes of a journalism student fighting to escape. Absolutely unforgettable.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- Jim Carrey for once drops the mask and shows his soul. Kate Winslet was at her mercurial best. Kirsten Dunst's skin was snow. Kaufman's non-linear script was the best of the decade. Michael Gondry's direction was superb, with an excellent use of odd set designs that perfectly sum-up the non-sensical nature of childhood memories. Mix them up and you've got a meditation on the nature of love and desire and our apparent inability to not make the same mistakes again and again, even if we know the ending.

2. There Will Be Blood P. T. Anderson's indictment of capitalism and religion and the lies we tell ourselves about each spills across the line to slander in the last act, but by then we're so transfixed by Daniel Day Lewis's Plainview, we can't fight back. The vision of human silhouettes seared upon a burning oil derrick at night is the icon of the decade. Meanwhile, Jonny Greenwood lengthened the staggering shadow he cast across the musical landscape of the last quarter century with a score that redefined the genre.

1. No Country for Old Men Oh that the Coen Brothers don't always choose to tell stories writ this large! With the subtlest bit of misdirection, we're tricked into thinking we're watching a movie about a murderer (Javier Bardom) or a man on the run (Josh Brolin), and not an old, out-gunned lawman (Tommy Lee Jones) who refuses to surrender his soul. Every scene is perfect. Every performance, award-caliber. If the ending is ambiguous it's because THE ending (our ending) is yet-to-be-determined-- but the ambiguity does leave room for hope, something There Will Be Blood does not offer.