Top Ten

PETER TRAVERS (Rolling Stone)

1. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
2. Up in the Air
3. The Hurt Locker
4. An Education
5. Up
6. Where the Wild Things Are
7. A Serious Man
8. District 9
9. (500) Days of Summer
10. The Messenger

I always tend to ignore Peter Travers because he seems to come across as the biggest quote whore in film criticism and his lists generally seem desperate to match the Oscars, rather than personal favorites, but I like this list, and while the awards contenders are there for sure, there seems to a bit of an idiosyncratic mind at work here with Where the Wild Things Are and District 9, two films with no real legitimate shot at any big awards, and with The Messenger, while critically beloved, really who's seen it or heard of it for that matter-- it's box office gross is at a meager $500,000 currently.

Travers' also provided a ten best of the decade:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Children of Men
3. Mulholland Drive
4. A History of Violence
5. No Country for Old Men
6. The Incredibles
7. Brokeback Mountain
8. The Departed
9. Mystic River
10. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy