OSCAR SEASON - Best Films

And now on to my top 10 list for 2005. Despite some stiff competition a couple of movies really stood out for me this year. Do you want to know which two? Well, read the list.

10) Murderball - The most even-handed look at the disabled I've ever seen. It doesn't dare treat these men with kid gloves. They're fathers and fighters and some of them might just be annoying jerks.

9) The Squid and the Whale - A wonderful performance by Jeff Daniels is imperative to this story of adolescent confusion.

8) Junebug - An ambiguous portrait of conflicting family personalities. It's city versus country, intellectualism versus religion, art versus functionality, and self-involvment versus empathy. And a different person seems to win each round of the fight.

7) Grizzly Man - It's surprising how deep this look at a silly fool who played with grizzly bears really goes. It's humanity searching for answers, and in this case I don't think they found what they were looking for.

6) Munich - Despite a couple of lesser scenes, this still ranks as one of Spielberg's best works. An engrossing look at the cycle of revenge on a political scale. Eric Bana is well on his way to stardom.

5) Walk the Line - Two absolutely, undeniably great performances carry the whole film. Joaquin Phoenix is simply great as the man in black, but Reese Witherspoon ain't too bad either.

4) Cinderella Man - The most overlooked film of 2005. This sweet, endearing and yet powerful story about the underdog making it big is Ron Howard's best work. Paul Giamatti is the best actor working today, unless it's Russell Crowe. This film has 'em both.

3) Syriana - Perhaps the smartest movie of the year, this is a surprisingly in depth look at the world's need for oil. And it is a need.

2) Match Point - One of Woody Allen's best films, and quite a departure from his norm. Astoundingly smart, and well-paced, and well-written, and well-acted, and ... well, you get the point.

1) Brokeback Mountain - One of the best-written films of recent memory, these characters are perfectly fleshed out in nearly every way on the page. Ang Lee and Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal are very much up to the task of bringing them to life on the screen. This is also a watershed movie we'll be talking about for a long time to come. 40 years from now they'll do documentaries showing this film as a defining moment when America grew up just a little in its attitude toward homosexuality.