It's that time of year again: with the wreckage of the summer blockbusters behind us, Hollywood slowly gears up toward the big Oscar end-run in December. But world film follows its own seasons, and many great movies come out early in the year. Here are our favorites of 2005... so far.
1. Downfall
Oliver Hirschbiegel's harrowing exploration of evil is one of the best movies about World War II ever made. Through the eyes of Hitler's secretary, it chronicles the destruction of the Third Reich from the inside.
2. My Summer of Love
Pawel Pawlikowski captures the breathtaking intensity of friendship between a pampered boarding student and a vibrant Yorkshire girl. The electric connection between Mona and Tasmin is defined by a marvelous, nerve-wracking give and take. British actresses Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt give stunning performances.
3. Broken Flowers
Jim Jarmusch sends Bill Murray on a quietly hilarous journey through his past, where he faces old lovers Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, and Jessica Lange. Perfectly pitched between melancholy and humor, it is one of Jarmusch's most eloquent movies.
4. Head-On
Fatih Akin's Turkish-German story of the passionate love between Sibel Kekilli and Birol Unell is raw and immediate, a movie that actually deserves the adjective "gripping."
5. The Constant Gardener
"City of God" director Fernando Mereilles does starkly beautiful things with John LeCarre's thriller. The international conspiracy involving the wrong doings of pharmaceutical companies in Africa is every bit as involving as the tragic love between Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes.
6. Look At Me
Agnes Jaoui's second film, which opened last year's New York Film Festival, is a wonderfully emphatic and entertaining film about an overweight girl, her famous father, her music teacher, and the music teachers' ambitious husband. It is told with loving honesty, combining incisive observation with humor that never ridicules its subjects.
7. Darwin's Nightmare
This must-see documentary by Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper shows the impact of globalization, in this case the fishing industry, on the towns around Tanzania's Lake Victoria. Like the terrible brainchild of Naomi Klein and David Lynch, the revelations and insights are both shocking and utterly bizarre.
8. Nobody Knows
Hirokazu Koreeda's drama is a heart-breaking film about four children who are abandoned by their mother and continue to live together in their small Toyko apartment. Twelve year old actor Ayu Kitaura won the best actor award at Cannes.
9. 9 Songs
Michael Winterbottom pushes boundaries with a film that uses raw rock'n roll live footage and unsimulated sex for a tender love story that could not bet told any other way. A courageous experiment.
10. Kings and Queen
Hilarious and moving, Arnaud Desplechin's sprawling drama stars gorgeous Emmanuelle Devos as cinema's newest femme fatale, a modern Parisan woman whose love can be deadly.
