10. Funny People: While many didn’t connect with Judd Apatow’s third film, I found it to be his most complete and satisfying feature to date. Boasting an honest and emotionally unguarded performance from Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a famous comedian who finds out he is dying- and then that he isn’t. While the film proves a bit ungainly at times, it’s both sweet and wickedly funny.

9. District 9: Along with “Star Trek” and “Avatar,” “District 9″ proved that Sci-Fi can be both smart and tons of fun. Neil Blomkamp’s first feature is exciting, thrilling, brutal and packs a surprising and rather emotional punch at the end. First time actor Sharlto Copley makes a great unlikely hero as Wikus and Blomkamp is definitely a director to watch.

8. Up: Yet another classic from Pixar. As gorgeous and intelligent as you would expect from Pixar, which can seemingly do no wrong. And “Up’s” opening, which tells a couple’s 60 year story in 10 minutes, is as emotionally affecting as anything I saw all year.

7. The Road: John Hillcoat’s second feature is as unflinching as his first. An adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel tells the story of a man protecting his young son as they journey across a post-apocalyptic U.S., rife with cannibalism and haunting reminders of an entire culture lost. Viggo Mortensen gives yet another fine performance as the desperate father and strengthens his status as one of the finest actors working. The film doesn’t shy away from the dark nature of the subject matter, but still earns its somewhat hopeful ending.

6. An Education: Director Lone Scherfig’s delicately told story about Jenny, a London teen in the 1960’s, who falls for the wrong man. Nick Hornby’s script is beautifully constructed and heartbreakingly honest. And Carey Mulligan is sensational as Jenny, embodying innocence and a woman’s maturity in equal measure. Mulligan easily earns the comparisons she has been getting to Audrey Hepburn. While she has been somewhat overshadowed by Meryl Streep so far this awards season, Mulligan’s performance was the best by an actress I saw all year.

5. Avatar: The year’s most singular cinematic experience. James Cameron’s first film in 12 years is a visual triumph and demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Using newly designed Performance Capture technology Cameron creates an entire world and a new species, the Na’vi who feel like living, breathing and most importantly, feeling creatures.

4. The Hurt Locker: Katherine Bigelow’s visceral and thrilling tale follows William James, a bomb unit member serving in Iraq. The action is fierce and genuinely exciting and Jeremy Renner turns in a star-making and award-worthy performance as James, an adrenaline junky who only feels alive when he is deciding which wires to cut to defuse a bomb. “The Hurt Locker” keeps the tension dialed up to the max and brilliantly captures the violence and destruction that follows an explosion. Bigelow, who has a real chance to be the first female director to win an Oscar, delivers the best and most muscular action film in years.

3. 500 Days of Summer: Along with “Up in the Air” proves that romantic comedies don’t have to be mind-numbingly predictable. Director Marc Webb and a smart script make this tale of love found and lost wholly original. “(500) Of Summer” shows that a love story does not have to have a happy ending to be funny and romantic.

2. Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino’s ode to cinema and Nazi killing is a delight from start to finish. While Brad Pitt is fun as Aldo Raine, the hillbilly leader of the Basterds, it’s Christophe Waltz who walks away with the movie. Waltz’s turn as “Jew Hunter” Hans Landa is the year’s finest performance and Landa proves to be an instant classic screen villain. “Inglorious Basterds” is Tarantino’s ode to the power of cinema, which he proves by rewriting history in grand fashion. When Aldo Raine looks into the camera at the end of the film and says “I Think this might be my masterpiece” it is hard not to agree with him.

1. Up In the Air: Jason Reitman continues his ridiculously hot start to his directing career with his third and finest film. “Up in the Air” takes flight thanks to three fine performances from George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anne Kendrick and a funny and perceptive script by Reitman- seriously the guy is ridiculously talented. The film is smart, funny, thoughtful and engaging. Clooney is better than ever as Ryan Bingham, a man who slowly comes to question his entire way of life. Not much to say that hasn’t been already, but in this case the hype is well deserved. “Up in the Air” is as good as advertised.

Beneath the action blockbuster (cough “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”) that graced the screen recently hides this mispackaged gem. Every piece of advertising I have seen on “The Hurt Locker” has pushed it as a war packed shoot’em up but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This film isn’t about explosions or tactics, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

“The Hurt Locker” stars Jeremy Renner and focuses on a small Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD), whose job it is to diffuse bombs in Iraq. Yes, it does have its fair share of violence and explosions, but don’t be expecting a Schwarzenegger-style hero spouting off one-liners in between amazing feats of strength. Expect real people in real bad situations.

Renner plays William James, a staff sergeant who straps on his bomb suit at every opportunity. James is a bit unstable, but a good leader when he’s letting his adrenaline junkie side take the reins. His foil, and second-in-command, is the level headed Sergeant JT Sanborn played by Anthony Mackie. Sanborn certainly starts off as more of the hard-nosed solider type, but goes though some severe changes during the movie. That’s where this differs from other war movies. It doesn’t tell us that war changes people, but rather shows us.

It also shows that some men are just meant for war, and they take it differently. The richness and depth of these two characters is certainly the selling point of this film. You get dragged along their emotional gambit. You understand that Sanborn’s business-like approach is to shield himself and the others from the real horrors going on around them. You understand that James is an addict that has been changed into a walking casualty of war.

And while it is a war movie, it isn’t as preachy as one would expect. There is little to do with the traditional war themes, or even political themes. This film isn’t out to prove a point about the Iraq War, or any war for that matter. With just a little script editing, this film could easily be about the Gulf War or the Vietnam War. The setting is wonderful, and I commend them on actually going to the Jordon to get the true middle-east feel to it, but the story and characters are strong enough to survive on their own.

This movie is shot in a style very similar to a documentary, and it leads us to become more immersed in the world of this EOD team. With it’s over the shoulder shots and most of the focus being James, it almost feels as if this is being told in first person. By the time the bombs go off, the watcher is too far engrossed to be pulled away. The grit of the sand covers the actors, and the heat waves stand in the way of the camera lens. Never before have I seen a movie express heat so well, and it only furthers to pull you in.

There are bomb explosions and gunfire in the movie, but the scariest parts are when there isn’t an explosion on the screen. As James approaches each bomb, there is a feeling that this will be the last. Normally there is an unwritten rule that takes a lot of the tension out of movie: The main character can’t die until the end. This rule isn’t true here. There isn’t a safe moment. At no point did I feel as if any member of the EOD team was invulnerable. It leads to an incredible amount of stomach turning tension. When the realistic explosions finally do hit, that tension is released. You feel good that they succeeded or bad that failed.

This movie will undoubtedly be considered heavily for Oscar treatment, and it should. I tried to find faults to pick at, but those that were there were few and far between. It is a great action movie, yet still has both plot and heart. Director Kathryn Bigelow has made a magnificent must see film, and the best film about the Iraq War yet. Stylish, meaningful and gritty, this type of film that wins award, yet still has enough mainstream appeal to make its way out of the art houses and into the big screens nationwide.