10. Sunshine Cleaning
Its easy to fall in love with a dark comedy that stars both Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wear’s Prada) — it’s a movie that is easy to look at, despite the fact that it deals with cleaning up crime scenes. Alan Arkin lends a great supporting performance in a film that is funny, dark and full of warmth in the end.

9. Choke
Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (who, I am finding, has a ton of fans), Choke is a hysterical comedy that stars Sam
Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) and Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men). It is funny, tragic and riddled with all the reasons that people love Chuck Palahniuk’s work. Fox Searchlight bought this one up quick, so you should be seeing a release sometime soon. (more…)

If you’re looking to do an impromptu Heath Ledger tribute this weekend, here is a list of his best film roles, all available at a Blockbuster or Netflix queue near you.

Brokeback Mountain
Not only the most famous role of his career, this is probably Ledger’s best by far. The movie is understated yet powerfully moving, and Ledger brings an amazing amount of depth and gravitas to his role as a closeted and conflicted cowboy. Ledger is the emotional anchor of the movie and manages to communicate an encyclopedia of emotion behind his steely grimace and cowboy hat. This movie truly shows us what we lost; the amount of talent and promise inherent in this role suggests the art Ledger could one day be capable of.

A Knight’s Tale
What looks on the outside like some sort of Disney-fied knights and middle ages movie, this movie was Ledger’s first real Hollywood star vehicle, and he acquits himself with old-Hollywood charisma. The Romeo And Juliet-style blending of a period piece with modern slang and music works better than it should.

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10. It’s not another American version of Godzilla. (Thank God!)

Let’s get this out of the way first. This movie is not 1998’s Hollywood version of Godzilla. Nor is it the movie that Godzilla should’ve been. Really, aside from the fact that both films feature a gigantic creature thrashing about New York, they’re so different in style and intent that any comparisons beyond that should be immediately disregarded. In other words, forget Godzilla. That movie sucked. Cloverfield, meanwhile, is something different entirely, and warrants all the hype it’s gotten thus far.
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