10. C.R.A.Z.Y.
Zac: "I want to be like everyone else."
Madame Chose: "Thank God, you never will."
9. YI YI
A three-hour familial tapestry and a meditation on mortality, urban alienation and human kindness that I'd call epic if it did not primarily focus on something so intimate and ordinary as the passage of time.
8. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
Wong Kar Wai's best film is a deceptively simple tale of a romance that’s never acted upon, told with such longing and restraint that it leaves me insatiably swooned and devastated every time I see it.
7. DUCK SEASON
This minimalist black-and-white gem, a Mexican film about four characters who spend a Sunday afternoon together reminds me why I value small-scale, little-seen independent films so much.
6. ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
Richard: "I want to be swept off my feet, you know? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it."
5. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN
What's most remarkable about Alfonso Cuaron's funny, raunchy, pathos-laced road-trip movie is how both the camera and the narrator keep pulling away from the main three characters, giving the viewer thrilling glimpses of an expansive world: a film is not necessarily a vacuum.
4. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Daniel Plainview: "Aren't you a healer, and a vessel for the holy spirit? When are you coming over to make my son hear again? CAN'T YOU DO THAT?"
3. BEAU TRAVAIL
Honor, ritual, imbalance, jealousy, tension... and release.
2. MULHOLLAND DR.
Coco: "Honey, you're a good kid, but what you're telling me is a load of horse puckey, even though it comes from a good place. "
1. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS
[Royal tells his children of his impending divorce]
Richie: "Is it because of us?"
Royal: "Well, of course, certain sacrifices had to be made as a result of having children. But heavens, no."
A few years ago, I wrote some notes on this film for the Brattle Theatre here.
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