1. Let the Right One In- Tomas Alfredson
While that other vampire movie was taking in loads of cash from teenage girls, with its subliminal messages about abstinence, (whatever!) serious people were checking out this lo-fi gem. As tired as the vampire genre is every once in awhile something comes along to stir it up (ie The hunger, Near Dark, or Trouble Everyday)..this is one of those films. It also has one of the most horrifyingly satisfying underwater gore scenes since Jaws.

2. The Dark Knight- Chris Nolan
Hands down the best comic book movie ever made (yes even better than Superman 2). Any film where the good guy ends up the bad guy in the end gets a nod from us. Heath Ledger steals this film and if he doesn’t get the Oscar he’ll have been posthumously F’ed in the A, by the Academy. This film is also notable because it clearly references our own Scott Chojnacki’s trip to Burma from a few years back when Alfred sez ”Some men can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. .”

3.In Bruges -Martin Mcdonag
We love films where a main character is something other than human. Here it has to be said that the city of Bruges itself is the protagonist. Were also a little embarrassed to admit how much we loved Colin Farrell here. His tragically comedic, violent portrayal of a hit man who can’t live with something he’s done took us aback.

4.Slumdog Millionaire- Danny Boyle
While some will argue that this film is a little too polished and sweet with an ending that is way too storybook, we can only concur. However it starts with a guy being tortured for being too good on a game show. It has kids dipped in shit, purposefully disfigured, and running around with loaded weapons. Nothing storybook about that. It also shows us an India most of us have never seen, and has a wonderfully inventive narrative structure making it better than 90% of the crap out last year.

5. Gran Torino-Clint Eastwood
....because every midwestern caucasian of a certain age has a version of this crotchety racist old school vet with a heart of gold in their life. One has to wonder if Clint enjoyed that in what may be his final shoot out, Dirty Harry didn’t even carry a gun. Like Juno this was written by a Minnesotan (at Grumpy’s bar no less) so once again we shamelessly show our bias.

6.Appaloosa-Ed Harris.
While it was not deadwood season 4, it was nice to see Aragorn in action again. This film would have made the list regardless however because of our pledge to support any film that puts the worlds most underrated actor and Shawn’s old Millenium Group coworker Lance Hendrickson back to work. Ultimately this ended up being about how far one man will go to insure another mans happiness, such as filling someone full of lead. Although were guessing in the long run it would have been better for Aragorn to shoot Renee Zellweger.

7. Che (part 1 only) - Steven Soderbergh.
We love Benicio Del Toro..and this had to be a dream role for him. While the first 2 hrs and 15 min of Che was fascinating in its portrayal of Che’s relationship with Castro and the ousting of the Batistas the second half could have been summed up on a 10 second title card that read “after Cuba Che went to the Congo, then to Bolivia and after running around in the jungle trying to organize the natives he was caught and killed with the help of the CIA” that way the film would have cost half as much to see.

8. My Winnipeg-Guy Madden
We know that there are those out there that will always see Guy Madden as the guy who never got over Eraserhead. We are also aware that there are some wackos that want Madden on Oprah’s couch like James Fry crying tears of literary redemption because my Winnipeg isn’t really a documentary..bleah bleah bleah..who cares.. It was wonderful.

9. Encounters at the End of the World-Werner Herzog.
As long as Werner Herzog continues to show us beautiful images and refuses to separate himself and his overwhelming persona from his subjects we will continue to support him. We also love his knack for holding the shot a little too long in his interviews causing those wonderfully awkward moments like the one he creates with the Native American welder in the film.

10. The Last Mistress-Catherine Breillat
When we heard that the director of Romance was teaming up with Asia Argento, we could hardly contain ourselves. The film accurately portrays (with sweaty hotness) what happens when one person is unable to separate themselves from someone they should have never been with in the first place. Of course if someone made a 2 hr video of Asia smoking cigarettes in her underwear it would have also made the top 10.

SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION
13 Hours in a Warehouse-Adam Olson (DP)
You have to love a film that is exactly what it claims to be and nothing more.. also the writer director is informed enough to make a reference here to the classic film 13 Ghosts, but the real reason we are recognizing this film is that was lensed by our mentor and HP alumni Adam Olson. Everytime we see it, available at REDBOXES everywhere,..our hearts fill with pride.