1. Sideways
Wryly hilarious, perfectly nuanced and smart without being smug, director Alexander Payne's road trip through wine country is an unforgettably seasoned exploration of love, friendship and miscellaneous human pratfalls. If all was right in the world, Paul Giamatti would be taking home the Oscar that Jamie Foxx will inevitably win.
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The first and perhaps only Jim Carrey masterpiece, this zanily labyrinthian and utterly postmodern love story from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman unspools within the psyche of a mild-mannered bohemian (Jim Carrey) who decides against having his girlfriend (Kate Winslet) erased from his memory halfway through the process.
3. The Five Obstructions
Danish bad-boy filmmaker Lars von Trier challenges his mentor, Jorgen Leth, to remake 'The Perfect Human' (Leth's 1967 short film) on five separate occasions, each time with new and increasingly difficult restrictions. Part documentary and part avant-garde game, von Trier's provocative head trip is an exotic dessert for die-hard cinephiles.
4. Goodbye Dragon Inn
With his trademark deadpan humor and lingering minimalism, Taiwan's Tsai Ming-liang fashions a nearly wordless love letter to cinema in this elegantly mysterious gem, about an eccentric cast of characters who turn up for one last night in a soon-to-be-closed Taipei movie theater.
5. Tarnation
Brilliantly breaking the rules of documentary filmmaking, first time director Jonathan Caouette chronicles his own dysfunctional family through montages of super-8 home movies, video diaries, clips of '80s pop culture and fictional reenactments. The end result remarkably plays like a psychotronic horror flick based on a true story.
6. Bad Education
A rapturously seductive and densely packaged ode to filmmaking and his Catholic upbringing, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar's visually breathtaking and deeply personal melodrama (disguised as film noir) focuses on two boys whose lives change dramatically after crossing paths decades later as young men.
7. Before Sunset
Absence really must make the heart grow fonder, or else director Richard Linklater wouldn’t have waited nine years to make this enchanting sequel to his underrated 1996 romantic talk-fest 'Before Sunrise.' Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy return as star-crossed lovers given a second chance for happiness together.
8. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Wes Anderson apologists need not sweat the mixed reviews this weird and wonderful tragicomedy has been receiving; aging oceanographer Bill Murray and his ragtag crew of documentarians are as vibrant and constantly surprising as the film’s computer-animated sea creatures and meticulous sub-interior sets.
9. Hero
'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' merely set the stage for Zhang Yimou’s ravishing epic symphony of colors, costumes and illusions. Set over two millennia ago, the film chronicles a visit to the king of China by a nameless warrior (Jet Li) who may or may not have defeated three super-assassins after His Majesty.
10. Notre Musique
Jean-Luc Godard, perhaps the most revered international auteur still working today, lets down his often-jaded guard in this optimistic meditation on the dualities of man and war. Structured in the three acts of 'Dante’s Comedy,' this downbeat poetic/philosophical diatribe shows maestro Godard in a return to form.
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