Direktoren for det hele (The Boss of it All), Lars Von Trier, 2006

Von Trier, inhabiting once again the guise of cinematic Merry Prankster, here expertly deploys his acerbic, subversive wit for a theatrical, metafilmic Comedy of power and performance.

Se, jie (Lust, Caution), Ang Lee, 2007

Ang's sumptuous, neo-classical film sharply recalls the star-crossed lovers of Curtiz's Casablanca, and is, likewise, by turns sweeping and intimate. Much of the credit for its ultimate success is due Wei Tang, who, as Wang Jiazhi, lives a whole life in her prodigious lead performance.

Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck, 2007

Affleck's directorial debut is a solid one, making much of his native sense for translating the grimey textures of Dennis Lehane's Boston. Were it not for cloudy story logic and a general lack of narrative tension, this quietly assured film may well have been a triumph.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Andrew Dominik, 2007.

Dominik's obsessive, lyrical film is possesed of a sensual acuity borne at once of Malick's prarie, all windblown grasses and hissing cicadas, and the snowbound saddle tramps of Altman's McCabe and Mrs Miller and de Toth's Day of the Outlaw. Perhaps more impressively, however, the film's resolute narrative drive is an absolute excercise in tone, mood, and precision.

Nue Propriete (Private Property), Joachim Lafosse, 2006

Despite a keen, painterly visual sense and a typically stirring performance from Isabelle Huppert, Lafosse's characters are too thinly drawn to bear the weight of his superficially wrenching domestic tale.

Great World of Sound, Craig Zobel, 2007.

Zobel's deceptively well crafted tale of music biz hucksterism buoys a seemingly limited premise with impeccable comic timing and an emotional heft all too uncommon in this sort of fare.