A few weeks ago, my editor here at Film.com asked me to compile a list of my ten favorite movies of the year. It wasn't as easy a task as it's been for me in the past, if only because I think 2008 offered up the dullest release slate of the new millennium (though I imagine it would have been easier if I had already seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Revolutionary Road). The year will be best remembered for elevating the broad comedy genre to something more worthy of the human intellect, and for finally proving to Hollywood studio heads that mature, intelligent and faithful big-screen comic book adaptations can pay off big time. This doesn't mean there weren't some stand-outs that blew my mind; I'll even go so far as to argue my top five picks will soon be called modern classics by the vast majority of moviegoers. Check 'em out, then let me know how wrong you think I am. I'm ready to rumble, plebeians!

10.Funny Games
Most every critic I know was sickened by this movie, calling it high-brow torture porn. And yeah, maybe it is. But unlike Saw or Hostel, the point of Funny Games is to actually attack you, the ticket buyer, for getting off on the heroic violence you're expecting the bad guys to receive. Shame on you.

9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Who would have thought a penis could be so funny? No offense, Jason Segel.

8. Speed Racer
Make fun of me if you want, but ten years from now a lot of people are going to wake up and realize that this movie -- a visual feast of color and adolescent thrills with a powerful message about the commercial corruption of sports -- is nine-tenths genius. Unfortunately, the other tenth is embarrassing.

7. Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. playing Russell Crowe playing a black soldier from the Bayou. Enough said.

6. WALL-E
The cool thing about Wall-E is that it tricked most of the modern moviegoing world into paying good money to see a cartoon that was essentially a silent movie. And nobody noticed.

5. The Dark Knight
A "greater" movie than Iron Man, if only because of the scope director Christopher Nolan shot for and pretty much achieved. That doesn't change the fact that it's a structural nightmare with about 29 third acts.

4. Iron Man
Easily one of the five best comic book movies ever made. Marvel will be living up to the standard it set for the next decade.

3. Rachel Getting Married
While talking about some movies, you've said something like, "It just felt so real." Rachel Getting Married feels more real than every time you said that. It's a painful study of never-ending family trauma that often leaves you with the sense that you're just another guest at this miserable wedding.

2. Milk
Milk might be my second favorite movie of the year, but it's a far more important film than my number one pick will ever be. In an era when civil rights are being taken away in the election booth rather than by the abuses of the federal government, the story of Harvey Milk, a man often called the gay Martin Luther King Jr., should be getting even more attention than it is. (Check out my interview with Milk co-star Josh Brolin.)

1. The Wrestler
I generally grade on a five-star scale, and The Wrestler is the only movie I gave five stars to this year. Darren Aronofsky's direction is flawless and Mickey Rourke's performance -- as a broken-down wrestler struggling to regain the dignity he had in his youth while facing down a terrifying and uncertain future --- will wring tears out of even the most soulless bastard.

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