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Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News

1. Lars and the Real Girl 2007 It's a premise as fanciful as Jimmy Stewart's Harvey, and yet the movie has a sweetness that manages to be pixilated and plausible at the same time. full review
2. Mr. Bean's Holiday 2007 The Wikipedia page on gurning lists Atkinson right behind Jim Carrey as one of the world's leading practitioners of grotesque face-making. And this is his ghastly masterpiece. full review
3. Puccini for Beginners 2007 Proving that a movie called Puccini For Beginners actually can be as deeply pretentious as its title implies, Puccini For Beginners attempts to pick up the torch once carried by Woody Allen for the romantic comedy of ideas.
4. Shooter 2007 Shooter won't win any Oscars, but it has blood and brains, and even some heart. They're splattered all over the screen. full review
5. Copying Beethoven, (Klang der Stille) 2006 A feminist fantasy that you can either embrace -- as director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) seems to have done with an unbecoming schoolgirl gushiness -- or repeatedly be pulled out of the story by its falseness.
6. Fay Grim 2006 Fay Grim is a farce in which people die and lives are ruined. Which is to say, it's peculiarly funny, but you have to be an existentialist with lightning-fast reflexes to get all the jokes. full review
7. Brokeback Mountain 2005 If the cowboy movies of John Wayne and John Ford were about the opening of the American West, Brokeback Mountain is the somber slam of its closing.
8. The Constant Gardener 2005 The director's fluttering hand keeps the ground constantly shifting beneath our feet, which is just what this beautifully wrenching adaptation for the screen requires.
9. Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man 2005 I'm Your Man never quite gets its man in a coherent frame, but for all its zigs and zags outside the lines, the portrait of Cohen that emerges is a fascinating one.
10. The Producers 2005 ... to have seen either the original movie, or Lane and Broderick on Broadway (I saw both) is to be reminded what a lamentable knockoff this is.
11. Hotel Rwanda 2004 If [Schindler's List] had never been made, Hotel Rwanda might seem better than it does, and probably better than it is.
12. Secuestro Express 2004 So relentlessly violent and grim that it makes you yearn for a purifying shower.
13. Vanity Fair 2004 The satire is sharply observed and the performances acutely felt, most of all Witherspoon's.
14. Vera Drake 2004 The question that makes the movie subversive is one it never asks, even though contemporary audiences probably will: Where would women be if we returned to a world like this?
15. White Chicks 2004 Much of what passes for humor in White Chicks derives from such charming plot devices as the lactose intolerance of one of the brothers.
16. 21 Grams 2003 This may be the most brilliantly made movie of the year. But you don't enjoy 21 Grams, you recover from it. full review
17. Primer 2003 Writer-director Shane Carruth makes a low-tech, low-budget entry into a staple of science fiction and manages to make it feel like a genre you've never been to before.
18. Punch-Drunk Love 2002 Manages to be both heartbreaking and happy, while managing to look like nothing you've ever seen before. full review
19. The Trials of Henry Kissinger 2002 Takes a fresh and absorbing look at a figure whose legacy had begun to bronze. full review
20. Baran 2001 Majidi is an unconventional storyteller, capable of finding beauty in the most depressing places. full review
21. Love the Hard Way 2001 [The story] is often overly simplistic when it is trying hardest for emotional complexity. full review
22. Gojira 1954 Political charge elevates Godzilla far above its reputation for cheesiness, but not so far that it should be mistaken for political satire.