Publication Date: Friday, January 5, 2007

Susan Tavernetti's Picks

10. Casino Royale -- Daniel Craig leaves viewers shaken and stirred as he single-handedly pours new life into a 44-year-old franchise. The most unpredictable agent in Her Majesty's Secret Service sports the icy blue eyes of a man who wears his license to kill more comfortably than Armani. The blond Bond injects attitude and adrenaline into one of the year's best thrill rides.

9. The Queen -- Director Stephen Frears pits stuffy royal protocol against the national outpouring of grief over the death of Diana, the people's princess, in 1997. Helen Mirren's commanding performance as Elizabeth II transforms a speculative British drama into a poignant character study. All hail this Queen!

8. Inside Man --With a savvy script by Russell Gewirtz, Spike Lee took the heist-and-hostage film all the way to the bank. Instead of having a dog-day afternoon in Lower Manhattan, Clive Owen settles a score while dodging Denzel Washington in the socially relevant caper flick that confronts issues of race, religion and civil rights.

7. Borat -- Fearless and outrageously original, British comic Sacha Baron Cohen stumbles across the US and A, setting off satirical fireworks and more mayhem than the Marx Brothers could ever muster. Shocking? Offensive? Politically incorrect? You bet. But Cohen's funhouse mirror kept me laughing out loud for a month at its cultural reflections.

6. Half Nelson -- In an incredibly nuanced and understated performance, Ryan Gosling plays an idealistic inner-city teacher by day, crackhead by night. He embodies his classroom lecture material -- " Everything is made of opposing forces" -- in Ryan Fleck's rare film about friendship, forgiveness and forces beyond one's control. There's not a sentimental or judgmental note in this flipside of the 1967 film "To Sir, with Love."

5. United 93 -- Paul Greengrass met a seemingly impossible challenge: Capture the horror and honor the heroism of those aboard the only 9/11 flight to thwart the intentions of its hijackers. Combining a no-star cast with cinema verite style, the director powerfully depicts the emergence of let's-roll courage.

4. Notes on a Scandal -- The relationship between Judi Dench's disturbed spinster and Cate Blanchett's desperate housewife makes for riveting drama. Both actors turn up the intensity in director Richard Eyre's wickedly smart study of repressed desire and sorrow-soaked lives.

3. Pan's Labyrinth -- Revisiting the haunting landscape of "The Devil's Backbone," Guillermo del Toro ties a child's fantasy to the war-torn horrors of fascist Spain. Enchanting and disquieting, the highly imaginative R-rated fairy tale celebrates those who resist tyranny.

2. Deliver Us From Evil -- As former priest and convicted pedophile Oliver O'Grady soft-pedals his crimes before the camera, Amy Berg's documentary builds to a searing expose of clergy sexual abuse and the complicity of Catholic Church authorities. A gut-wrenching glimpse into the wounded lives of the faithful, this revelation demands more than a mea culpa.

1. Babel -- A stray bullet functions as a narrative device that allows Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to interconnect the most pressing issues of our times: cultural imperialism, globalization, violence, immigration and isolation. As people and cultures clash on three continents, the Mexican director constructs a tower of philosophical musings and memorable images. Alternately vibrant and bleak, "Babel" allows viewers to linger and fill in the blanks, thinking, talking and arguing about the year's most resonant film long after the lights come up.

Susan Tavernetti's pans:

Marie Antoinette -- Big hair doesn't hide the empty-headedness of Sofia Coppola's giggly, girly biopic.

Lonesome Jim -- I spent 91 minutes in Cromwell, Indiana, with Steve Buscemi's sad sacks and losers so you wouldn't have to.

The Protector -- This bone-snapping, skull-smashing, tendon-cutting spectacle of extreme violence exploits and cheapens Tony Jaa's Muay Thai talents.

The Prestige -- Director Christopher Nolan couldn't transform his mean-spirited illusion into magic.

The Fountain -- Pretentious and preposterous, Darren Aronofsky's substance-lite longing for eternity seems to last that long.