BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN -- Enough already about what a great movie this is -- and how revolutionary, etc., etc. Heath Ledger -- idolized and heralded as the next James Dean -- is telling the press how hard it was to look at Jake Gyllanthal and tell him that he loved him. Get a grip. It's called acting.
The film is lovely -- spare, moving. The women are wonderful as well the two leads but don't forget the short story by Annie Proulx, which is truly a marvel -- that's the real shocking thing in the whole "Brokeback Mountain" scenario -- that such a literate and revolutionary work of art was seen as something commercially -- i.e., for the movies -- viable.

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE -- Along with "Brokeback Mountain" -- truly, the best movie of the year. This is Chekhovian in its simplicity but wide moral complexity. The acting is astonishing, but even more revelatory is how such a simple story could be told with such vibrance, irony and physicality. It feels like a movie that was made a long time ago. William Hurt's performance is the best of his life and one of the performances of the year.

SHOPGIRL -- Why was Claire Danes' performance completely ignored by the award givers and the 10-best list makers? It was, in its grace and wide-eyed wonder at love in the world, the most corageous and truly naturally lovely perforamnces of the year.