22) Pride & Prejudice

Joe Wright had to know he was entering impossibly treacherous waters. The BBC miniseries based on Jane Austen's incredible novel has grown a deserved cult, and to adapt the work of Ms. Austen is to expose one's self to a bizarrely insular group of fans who make the strangest demands upon films based on the novelist's terrific work. No doubt, this situation explains why Mr. Wright frankly directs the hell out of this film. Where that 1995 version was an excellent transfer of the novel to television, this is simply an excellent film, graced with a dancing camera that glides between revealing tableaux, capturing each group of conversations at the perfect, most revealing moment and sliding off to the next. It is an Oscar worthy performance behind the camera, a calling card of a filmmaker of extraordinary talent, talent that would later produce the excellent, under-rated Atonement. When you realize that this waltzing lens also captures terrific performances from a stellar cast that, yes, includes a magical lead turn from Keira Knightley, who never before looked lovelier or performed so wonderfully, then you know you are watching magic. Yup, it is a tough fact to fathom, but Joe Wright has created the definitive cinematic version of Pride & Prejudice, one that will both thrill film fans and delight open-minded lovers of the novel. (Sorry guys, no zombies. Thank goodness...)

23) Nobody Knows
24) Far From Heaven
25) Memento
26) Moulin Rouge
27) Amélie
28) The Barbarian Invasions
29) Brick
30) Frozen River
31) Spirited Away
32) Curse of the Golden Flower
33) Pan's Labyrinth
34) Vera Drake
35) Good Night, and Good Luck
36) 28 Weeks Later
37) I'm Not There
38) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
39) The Man Without a Past
40) The Wrestler
41) Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ...And Spring
42) Capitalism: A Love Story
43) The Pianist
44) Kill Bill Vol. 1
45) The Brothers Bloom
46) Closer
47) The Reader
48) Chop Shop
49) Finding Neverland
50) Tarnation