Slant Magazine

1. 35 Shots of Rum. With a poeticism married to unassuming, piercing emotional and physical realism, Claire Denis's final masterpiece of the decade, 35 Shots of Rum uses one clan's moment of multiple transitions as the filter for an examination of the difficulty of letting go. With Agnes Godard's tender cinematography locating beauty in the view out through a train's conductor window and the sight of a young woman shopping for a rice cooker, Denis lyrically and compassionately confronts time's inexorable forward march, parent-adult child separation, and the universal desire for companionship, all issues encapsulated by a rapturous café sequence that glides, burns, and swoons with dance-like fluidity and grace. NS

Ed Gonzalez:
1. Two Lovers
2. Up
3. Revanche
4. Julia
5. Where the Wild Things Are
6. The Hurt Locker
7. 35 Shots of Rum
8. Inglourious Basterds
9. That Evening Sun
10. The Window

Honorable Mention: Sherlock Holmes, Oblivion, Bright Star, California Dreamin', Great Speeches from a Dying World, Fados, Tetro, Taxidermia, Night and Day, and The Sun

Nick Schager:
1. 35 Shots of Rum
2. Two Lovers
3. You, the Living
4. Julia
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Revanche
7. Up
8. Tony Manero
9. Treeless Mountain
10. The House of the Devil

Honorable Mention: The Hurt Locker, Bronson, Munyurangabo, Sherlock Holmes, The Sun, Cargo 200, Tokyo Sonata, Tetro, Moon, and Coraline

Joseph Jon Lanthier:
1. A Serious Man
2. 35 Shots of Rum
3. Antichirst
4. Fantastic Mr. Fox
5. Two Lovers
6. Araya
7. The Window
8. Coraline
9. Tetro
10. Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR

Honorable Mention: Broken Embraces, The Headless Woman, The House of the Devil, Hunger, The Limits of Control, Moon, Summer Hours, Taxidermia, You, the Living, and The White Ribbon

Andrew Schenker:
1. The Headless Woman
2. Two Lovers
3. 35 Shots of Rum
4. Summer Hours
5. You, the Living
6. Still Walking
7. Tetro
8. Revanche
9. Tokyo Sonata
10. Julia

Honorable Mention: 24 City, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Beaches of Agnes, Il Divo, Drag Me to Hell, Lorna's Silence, Night and Day, Serbis, The Sun, and Tulpan

Bill Weber:
1. Hunger
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. A Serious Man
4. 35 Shots of Rum
5. The Headless Woman
6. Cargo 200
7. Sex Positive
8. Where the Wild Things Are
9. The Hurt Locker
10. American Casino

Honorable Mention: The Beaches of Agnes, Crazy Heart, The Girlfriend Experience, In the Loop, Passing Strange, Serbis, Still Walking, Two Lovers, Yasukuni, and You, the Living

Fernando F. Croce:
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Sun
3. Police, Adjective
4. Liverpool
5. The Headless Woman
6. A Serious Man
7. Tokyo Sonata
8. 35 Shots of Rum
9. The Hurt Locker
10. Lorna's Silence

Honorable Mention: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Beaches of Agnes, Drag Me to Hell, A Perfect Getaway, Public Enemies, Revanche, Sugar, Summer Hours, Tetro, and Two Lovers

Ryan Stewart:
1. Two Lovers
2. Julia
3. The Box
4. Bright Star
5. Home
6. Summer Hours
7. Revanche
8. 35 Shots of Rum
9. The Sun
10. Tetro

Honorable Mention: A Serious Man, An Education, Avatar, Big Fan, Halloween II, The Hurt Locker, La Danse, The Messenger, Seraphine, and Up in the Air