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Here is a film that boasts one of the truly icky scenes in recent memory, and a well-earned one, at that: the villainous captain has to...stitch himself up. If you've not seen Pan's Labyrinth, I hesitate to go further, but, in general, this movie is not best for the squeamish. If you've got the stomach for some of the powerful and realistically captured violence, the experience will be worth it. Though Ivana Baquero, as Ofelia, is excellent, the notable performances come from Doug Jones, as the titular Pan and the Pale Man, and Sergi Lopez, as Captain Vidal. Neither are familiar faces or names, but both are commanding on-screen, and fearsome in ways that most movies can't properly get across to audiences. Pan's Labyrinth is joyful, stomach-turning, sad, haunting, exciting, and a movie that demands your immediate perusal, if you've still not seen it.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Has Jim Carrey ever been better than he is here, in this 2004 romantic dramedy from writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry? What of Kate Winslet, as his romantic lead? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, like most of the movies on my list, is more often a painful experience, a story that yearns to dredge up those painful memories that make up our love lives. The plot is, as in any Kaufman script, unique and complicated; basically, Carrey and Winslet are romantically linked but decide to break it off. Both are so initially infuriated with the other that they separately go to a doctor to have any memories of the relationship erased. But what happens when they both go back through those seemingly unsatisfying memories and realize that they'd rather have the other around than be ignorant?

Carrey, looking surprisingly like Peter Krause with his lengthy haircut and stubble, is quiet and introverted here; later the same year, he'd star in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, in an extremely underrated performance as a wildly extroverted character. Of course, no Oscar love was sent his way. Luckily, Winslet, as the weird, frustrating, sexy Clementine, got an Oscar nod. Her feisty performance stands out not only in the film, but in her filmography. Sterling supporting work came courtesy of Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, and Mark Ruffalo, all of whom work for the medical company erasing the leads' memories; suffice to say, their love lives are as complicated and bitterly tinged. As a meditation on what love is, and whether it's worth all the turmoil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a titan among films.

1. There Will Be Blood

Much has been appropriately made of this film's lead performance, an emotional, sometimes nutty, and vicious star turn from Daniel Day-Lewis, who appropriately won the 2007 Oscar for Best Actor. But I've seen this movie more than enough times to know it's about far more than just Daniel Plainview dominating everything and everyone; frankly, even the initial viewing makes it clear that writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has more in mind, focusing on religion, capitalism, fathers, sons, brothers, families, and more. What people may not have noticed is that There Will Be Blood also features the crispest, most involving cinematography, a pained lead character with far more depth than it would initially seem, an equally flawed but slimier antagonist in Eli Sunday (Paul Dano, in an underrated performance), and one-of-a-kind sequences. Milkshake, anyone?

Day-Lewis, as an up-and-coming oil magnate who says that all he wants is to make as much money as possible and squash all rivals, manages to bring out all the notes in a seemingly one-note character. Plainview, of course, wants what most people want: acceptance, love, and family, as is made clear during the subplot where he meets his long-lost brother, who may not be all he says. This plot ends violently, with one of the scariest shots of Day-Lewis, but there's a catharsis there in the form of tears; Plainview does something terrible, but does so because he's been lied to by someone who should have known better. He sees himself and his enemies in Eli, a preacher who's as much about money as Daniel is, he sees a potential heir in his adopted son, and he sees all of it fall apart. There Will Be Blood is Paul Thomas Anderson's crowning achievement; there's nothing more to say aside from the last line of the film: I'm finished.

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