The Dark Knight
"Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar looks in the bag. The film is bleak and brilliant. Batman is Hamlet and Ledger is a sensation as the Joker. The late legend doesn’t just steal the film, he murders it in style. You will feel utterly numb afterwards" - James Christopher

Gomorrah
"Matteo Garrone’s startling film about the criminal underworld in Naples is one of these rare movies that can alter our perception of life. It's brave to the point of foolhardy" - James Christopher

Man On Wire
"The American director James Marsh has created one of the greatest heist films of all times. Two things make his gripping docudrama so different: it’s all true, and the only thing stolen is air. It isn’t about art, it’s about us" - Cosmo Landesman

There Will Be Blood
"Paul Thomas Anderson's movie about the scramble for oil is a masterclass in how the West was truly sold. It's a marvellously entertaining soap: a sort of Dickens does Dallas, without the sex or swimming pools" - James Christopher

Time and Winds
"The kind of movie that was invented for the word “ineffable”. It is, at a guess, about life’s relentless march, about death, rebirth, and the hollow limits of religion in the face of overwhelming nature. When you’ve got it you’ve got it for good" - Kevin Maher

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
"Every frame of this Romanian drama set in the 1980s about two female students trying to arrange an illegal abortion is brilliantly thought out. A stunning and demanding watch" - James Christopher

Alexandra
"Aleksandr Sokurov’s strange and dusty fable charts the unlikely visit of an old Russian woman to her grandson’s desert garrison in Chechnya. Full of intriguing mysteries" - Edward Porter

Appaloosa
"Director (and star) Ed Harris reintroduces us to the old-style strong and silent western hero. Get ready to swoon" - Wendy Ide

Assembly
"Feng Xiaogang’s epic war film is just about the most impressive one since Saving Private Ryan" - Cosmo Landesman

Australia
"Baz Luhrmann's long-awaited, and over-budget epic manages, against the odds, to avoid turning into one big sunburnt stereotype about Godzone country. Compellingly beautiful and breathtakingly cruel" - Anne Barrowlcough

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