9. Asylum -- Psychologically flawless and thoroughly uncompromising, this unsettling thriller spoke volumes about the dark side of obsession and quixotic madness while venturing to desire's hostile flipside relentlessly and without apology.

8. Grizzly Man -- This bleak monument to the colossal ego and extreme passion of environmentalist Timothy Treadwell enveloped astonishing beauty and pitch-black turmoil while raising the bar on documentary filmmaking.

7. Saraband -- Thirty years after "Scenes From a Marriage" galvanized moviegoers, Ingmar Bergman reunited his volatile lovers in a spare pas de deux of anguish and memories. A bitter pill of a tale from one of cinema's most enduring masters.

6. Crash -- Disenfranchised Los Angelenos dug deep into pockets of hatred, greed and frustration with poetically brittle words and racial tension in this smart and edgy drama rubbed raw by its own narrative anger.

5. Nobody Knows -- This spare, sensationalist Japanese drama of four innocent children abandoned by their mother was a harrowing and claustrophobic adventure in despair, and the most haunting import of the year.

4. Good Night, and Good Luck -- George Clooney's bold and incendiary case for journalistic integrity and fundamental American freedoms was a lean and mean history machine shot in glorious black-and-white.

3. A History of Violence -- David Cronenberg's dense and dirty thriller touched on dusky psychological nerves while maintaining an uncharacteristically easy accessibility. Tense, stagy and deliciously dark.

2. Capote -- A marvelously rich and absorbing biopic of Truman Capote, whose twisted brilliance pervaded every frame of Bennett Miller's debut feature. Philip Seymour Hoffman flawlessly captured the essence of one of literature's most flamboyant and controversial superstars.

1. Brokeback Mountain -- Director Ang Lee squeezed every ounce of urgency, shame and passion out of a private and provocative love between two cowboys. Its eloquent intensity tinged with delicate dignity was unforgettable and I couldn't shake the anguish of that brave and fractured love.

Jeanne Aufmuth's pans

5. Monster-in-Law -- Saccharine clichÈs and a leaden clunker of a script overshadowed any potential for laughs.

4. Stay -- A kinetic world of sharp edges and anxious emotion whose fractured affectations and irrational twists left me yearning for the parking lot.

3. Where the Truth Lies -- This seamy valentine to celebrity was merely a cinematic labyrinth of lewd and crude interludes.

2. Kingdom of Heaven -- It dripped with effort and atmosphere, but I was bored and more than a little perplexed by this unwieldy and lackluster period piece.

1. Elizabethtown -- Cameron Crowe's tribute to his own departed dad was a painful exercise in narrative desperation that left the sticky residue of bad impromptu theater.