The 100 Best Movies Of The Complex Decade

Complaining about the film world’s lack of originality and daringness would feel shameful if it wasn’t so damn easy to find reasons to grumble. And the last 10 years, which have seen a multitude of trends come and go, A-list movie stars continually fail to open non-franchise movies, and the box office dominance of one Harry Potter, have given us plenty reasons to criticize. For instance, we’d need at least four hands to count the number of lifeless and inept horror remakes that genre fans have been assaulted with, and you know it’s slow creatively in Hollywood when Spider-Man gets completely rebooted (with this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man) a mere five years after a $337-million-earning sequel (2007’s Spider-Man 3).

As you can tell, though, it’s a celebration around the Complex offices these days, after 10 years doin' it, and doin' it well, and when it came time to reflect upon the films that best represent our brand’s decade-long run, one fact became clear: For all of the whining movie purists do these days, those of us who painstakingly seek out quality over instant accessibility have more cause for elation than bitching.

Thanks to names like Judd Apatow, David Fincher, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Joel and Ethan Coen, as well as sick genre purveyors from countries such as France and Spain, the last 10 years have collectively been catnip for us reel folks. See for yourselves as we count down The 100 Best Movies Of The Complex Decade.

RELATED: Green Label - Best Hip-Hop Movies of All Time

Follow @ComplexPopCult

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Jaime King, Carla Gugino, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Rosario Dawson, Nick Stahl, Brittany Murphy, Alexis Bledel, Michael Clarke Duncan, Devon Aoki

One of the illest comic books ever gets the frame-for-frame treatment by its own creator, Frank Miller, and it more than makes up for pap like The Spirit. Vigilante justice, serial killers, and the sublime beauty of an amoral society. Wow, that sounded like a term paper we bought off the Internet.

Director: Jared Hess
Stars: Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, Aaron Ruell, Diedrich Bader, Haylie Duff, Shondrella Avery

Seven years after the fact, Napoleon Dynamite seems about as hip as the phrase “Fo shizzle.” There's plenty to blame for the oddball comedy's loss of coolness, chief of which are all of those irritating “Vote For Pedro” T-shirts, every unimaginative Napoleon costume seen on Halloween, and star Jon Heder's inability to make anything else of note since. But none of that is director Jared Hess' fault, so give the film another chance, will you?

Forgetting about all of its negative ubiquity, we're still impressed by the director/co-writer's bizarrely singular world, a rural town that doesn't seem completely of our time yet doesn't feel ancient, either. The film's cavalcade of quirky, one-of-a-kind characters only adds to the strangeness; throw it all together and you've got a highly quotable and unique pop culture phenomenon with strengths that extend well beyond ligers and “fat lard” llamas.

Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, Anna Paquin, William Baldwin

Jesse Eisenberg shines as a teenager dealing with the divorce of his parents in Park Slope, Brooklyn in the 1980s. Partly based on director Baumbach's life, the film effectively (and often comically) captures how familial strife has repercussions on every member of the clan. Special props to Billy Baldwin for his hilarious portrayal of a libidinous tennis instructor.

Director: Kasi Lemmons
Stars: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Taraji P. Henson, Cedric The Entertainer, Mike Epps, Martin Sheen, Vondie Curtis Hall

After getting out of the bing, prison DJ Ralph "Petey" Greene (Don Cheadle) becomes a popular Washington D.C. radio talk show host and community activist in the 1960s and '70s. You see, the fear of having a train run on you isn't all prison's good for.

Director: Ben Stiller
Stars: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Brandon T. Jackson, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Bill Hader

A pampered cast of actors thinks they're playing soldiers in a Vietnam movie but unwittingly get dropped in the middle of a real-life drug war. The jokes are fast and furious, but the flick is most memorable for Downey Jr.'s amazing take as a white dude in blackface. Way more convincing than Ted Danson.

Director: Gore Verbinski
Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman, Jane Alexander, Amber Tamblyn, Lindsay Frost, Daveigh Chase

Japanese people are sick, but somehow Hollywood's remake of the old watch-this-video-and-die story managed to be far creepier than the Japanese original. One final scene in particular still gives us the heebie jeebies, which is why we always watch it curled up with your mom.

Director: Nicholaus Goossen
Stars: Allen Covert, Nick Swardson, Doris Roberts, Linda Cardellini, Shirley Jones, Shirley Knight, Joel David Moore, Kevin Nealon, Jonah Hill, Peter Dante

This joint, featuring all of Adam Sandler's recurrent background players, may actually rival the Hanukkah-celebrating-comedian's best for raw hilarity. Whether it's Allen Covert busting off on Nick Swardson's mom or Linda Cardellini's "Push It" karaoke, Grandma's Boy is brimming with laugh-til-you-cry moments. Shit's (not) wiz-eak!

Director: Joe Cornish
Stars: John Boyega, Jodie Whitaker, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon James, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Nick Frost

First-time writer-director Joe Cornish turned in one of the year's most wow-inducing debuts with Attack The Block, a hip, live-wire, and kinetic alien invasion flick that should have evolved into the summer's most crowd-pleasing sleeper. Instead, unfortunately, people just slept on it altogether, but there's no reason why this English genre mash-up can't earn a cult following in years to come.

The story is simple: A gang of unlikeable thugs in South London mug an innocent woman, prepare to haul ass away from the crime scene, and stumble across the beginnings of a wide-scale E.T. onslaught. The invaders, which look totally kick-ass with their glowing teeth and shadow-like bear forms, wreak havoc, prompting the previously bad kids to become heroes, an arc that Cornish handles brilliantly, without resorting to schmaltziness or heavy-handed sentimentality.

Attack The Block is, ostensibly, Cornish's love letter to Steven Spielberg's earlier, youth-led genre fare (The Goonies, specifically) and John Carpenter's old bombastic action flicks (Assault On Precinct 13, Escape From New York). Like those classics, which gained their followings over time, Attack The Block will someday find its rightful audience. We'll be waiting.

Director: James Wan
Stars: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Monica Potter, Shawnee Smith, Mike Butters, Tobin Bell

Victims of the serial killer "Jigsaw" must solve his elaborate puzzles and learn the true value of life or die painfully in his diabolical death machines. Unfortunately for them, this test has no multiple choice section.

Director: Trey Parker
Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa Moyo, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie

Those sick South Park guys spoof Jerry Bruckheimer action movies with puppets in this story of an elite counter-terrorism organization. Seriously, anyone who can't get a laugh out of "durka durka carbomb" or two marionettes engaging in some graphic scatologic sex needs to chill out.

Director: Mark Waters
Stars: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lizzy Caplan, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer

If you ever wonder "How the hell did Lindsay Lohan get so famous?" then you clearly haven't seen the superb high school comedy that made her a star. Tina Fey blessed "Big Red" with a surprisingly smart screenplay that foreshadowed her 30 Rock style (but none of LiLo's fuckery).

Director: Michael Mann
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Jada Pinkett Smith, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall

In Michael Mann's dark crime thriller, Jamie Foxx plays a spineless cab driver forced to chauffeur Tom Cruise's mysterious, grey-haired assassin around on a night of cold-hearted contract killings. For once, it isn't Cruise's Scientological rants that make him scary.

Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart

The movie that jump-started Will Ferrell's career as a lead actor. This Christmas flick was more than suitable for children but had enough adult humor to keep the older heads satisfied. Plus, it's funny enough to make even the Chosen People laugh!

Director: Michael Moore

Strong on left-wing views, Michael Moore's documentary effectively exposed the shady dealings of the Bush Administration in relation to the 9/11 attacks. And unlike Bush, he makes his case using actual evidence!

Director: Sam Raimi
Stars: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Dileep Rao, Reggie Lee, Adriana Barraza

When a bank employee (Alison Lohman) denies a loan extension to an old gypsy lady (Lorna Raver) the nasty witch puts a curse on her. This shit is old-school horror in the vein of Raimi's classic Evil Dead, with plenty of grossness but minus the excessive gore. You won't even miss it.

Director: Pierre Morel
Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Xander Berkeley, Katie Cassidy, Leland Orser, Jon Gries

In this hard-hitting throwback tale of revenge, an ex-secret service agent (Liam Neeson) uses his investigative and rather creative kill skills in a desperate attempt to save his teenage daughter from the Euro-thugs who abduct and drug her to sell her into sex slavery. And you thought a charm bracelet said "I love you, baby."

Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox

If you had 24 hours of freedom, what would you do? We'd do some things we can't put in print. Ed Norton decides to spend his time with friends and family before heading to the bing to serve seven years for dealing drugs in this gritty Spike Lee joint. Remember kids: Drugs will do YOU!

Director: Matt Reeves
Stars: Michael Stahl-David, Odette Yustman, Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, T.J. Miller

We can't imagine what it'd be like to helplessly watch a behemoth creature decimate Manhattan, so who are we to berate the film's characters for being so damn grating? Besides, Hud (the wisecracking cameraman) does some amazing lens-work throughout for an amateur (major film flaw…overlooked). The monster is revealed gradually and with mere blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpses, making it look cooler than what it actually is: an anorexic Godzilla.

Director: James Wan
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson

The first time you watch Insidious, the bloodless, old-school scare show from Saw director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, the most likely reaction is unnerved fear, mixed with the exhilaration of realizing you've actually watched a genuinely scary movie—the total opposite of Hollywood's horror output in recent years. But it's not until the second or third time that one sits with Insidious that Wan's low-budget remixing of old-school haunted house movie tropes really earns its stripes.

In ways similar to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (which, of course, is superior—relax, purists), Insidious maintains its scariness upon repeat viewings. Credit the slow, methodical pacing, which allows the film's well-timed jump scares to impact greatly (you'll never look at a baby's crib the same again), and Whannell's knack for creepily iconic imagery, such as a spirit that looks like Ozzy Osbourne in drag, malevolent ghouls that resemble those in the slept-on horror gem Carnival Of Souls, and a final shot reminiscent of Donald Sutherland's last hurrah in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

The frights come often and hit hard in Insidious, and it's been far too long since we've said that about a horror flick not made in France or Spain.

Director: Martin Campbell
Stars: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright

James Bond hasn't been the same since Sean Connery was 007. Thankfully Daniel Craig brings some balls back to Britain's favorite secret agent with crazy aerial stunts, killer fight scenes, and, of course, a dime piece waiting to be the holster to his pistol. We're glad he's back to his old self.

Director: Brad Bird
Stars: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Spencer Fox, Sarah Vowell, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Pena, Brad Bird, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberg

Sure, there are animated movies with more artistic cred but Pixar managed to tell a good story about a family of retired superheroes, kick ass, and give you lifelong fantasies starring Holly Hunter as the most flexible woman in the world. The mind reels.

Director: Bryan Singer
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Alan Cumming, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore, Kelly Hu

After a well-received, but lackluster first run, director Bryan Singer and the merry mutants took it back to the lab and introduced fan favorites like Nightcrawler, invoking classic Chris Claremont storylines from the '70s comics. Oh, and they made the whole mutant thing an analogy for being gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Director: Henry Alex Rubin and David Alex Shapiro

This sports documentary follows quadriplegics who play full-contact wheelchair rugby, a.k.a. Murderball, and compete in the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. If ever you need motivation to get up off of your ass, this movie's got you.

Director: Bryan Bertino
Stars: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Lanasia Greenlee, Glenn Howerton

Memorial Day Weekend 2008 was supposed to be owned by those horny cougars in Sex And The City; that was, before Bryan Bertino, the first-time writer-director behind The Strangers, tamed Sarah Jessica Parker and her randy cohorts at the box office. Genuinely creepy and intelligently made, The Strangers blindsided Hollywood, capitalizing on a superb trailer and turning a huge profit on the strength of positive word-of-mouth exposure.

And, yes, we too let our appreciation be known. Hell, we still are—other than Insidious, no mainstream horror flick has come close to matching The Strangers in legitimate scariness since that fateful Memorial Day Weekend.

Harking back to spooky genre classics such as 1963's The Haunting, Bertino skipped gruesomeness for atmospheric chills, mounting tension through off-camera sounds, skipping vinyl records, and out-of-focus shots of the film's masked intruders prowling behind stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman.

The Strangers also has the best reasoning from a villain about his or her choice of home-to-invade out of all this subgenre's entries; when Tyler asks one of the anonymous baddies why she and her hubby are under attack, her emotionless assailant simply says, “Because you were home.” Translation: “You're just shit out of luck, girl.”

Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Chloe Moretz, Geoffrey Arend, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg, Minka Kelly

Any man who's ever been dumped by a girl or suffered a broken heart at the hands of a she-devil should relate quite heavily to the innovatively presented rom-com (500) Days Of Summer. With its nonlinear structure and quirky humor, director Marc Webb's energetic and perfectly sentimental tale of doomed love flips the guy/girl dynamic to make Joseph Gordon-Levitt's hopelessly romantic character the victim and Zooey Deschanel's aloof one an inadvertent ice queen.

Though seeing Gordon-Levitt get put through the emotional ringer can be tough for equally scorned dudes, (500) Days Of Summer earns its cringes and tears every step of the way.

Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Regan, Tom Wisdom, Rodrigo Santoro

Testosterone on celluloid is basically the only way to describe 300. Dumb, simple, and raw like an exposed bullet-wound, there are few movies that can get you mindlessly pumped for a little of the ultra-violence like 300. Rent this now and tonight you'll dine in hell!

Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Sasha Barrese, Rachael Harris, Mike Epps, Mike Tyson

The Hangover blindsided Hollywood execs and audiences alike in the summer of 2009, laughing its way into history books as the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. How? It's simple, really: Prior to its release, the comedy genre was stagnant, devoid of event movies since 2007's Knocked Up. That all changed, however, courtesy of a one-man wolf pack, a bizarre yet effective Mike Tyson cameo, and a baby jacking its little weenus.

Phillips' comedic mystery—about three groomsmen trying to locate the groom after a night of hard partying in Las Vegas—used its detective story veneer and subversive unpredictability to show that a high concept is more important than big-name stars. It also doesn't hurt to have Zach Galifianakis on board to drop quotable after quotable, or a manic Ken Jeong as your villain.

Director: Sofia Coppola
Stars: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris

First off, how can you not love Bill Murray, right? The comedy legend could play a mute in a film and it'd still leave us in stitches, thanks to his uncanny ability to derive laughs out of stares, raised eyebrows, and indifference.

Which all plays greatly into Sofia Coppola's unconventional romantic comedy Lost In Translation, starring Murray as a disenchanted actor making ends meet by working in Japanese commercials. His disillusionment its matched by that of an unhappily married, younger chick (Scarlett Johansson) he meets at a hotel bar.

Budding, butterfly-in-stomach feelings emerge, and Coppola, who also wrote the script, steers clear of cheesy sentiments, instead grounding the hypnotic Lost In Translation in fine-tuned subtlety.

Director: Todd Phillips
Stars: Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Piven, Ellen Pompeo, Craig Kilborn, Leah Remini, Perrey Reeves, Elisha Cuthbert, Andy Dick, Rick Gonzalez, Patrick Cranshaw, Matt Walsh, Artie Lange

Three 30-somethings hit a rough patch in life and decide that re-living their college fraternity days will help them sort things out. And it does, of course, because all of life's answers can be found in a coed or at the bottom of a Jäger shot.

Director: Oren Peli
Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat

You know what's really scary about Paranormal Activity? Anyone of us could've made it in our own homes, with any store-bought video camera. Well, assuming you' ve got the same degrees of talent and vision that first-time filmmaker Oren Peli had when he shot this reported $15,000 found-footage haunted house (or is it?) flick and mined genuinely goose-bumpy scares from nothing more than noises and tightrope pacing.

That Paranormal Activity raked in $193 million at the box office, has spawned two successful sequels (with another due out in October), and dethroned the Saw franchise to become Hollywood's new October sure thing only add to Peli's do-it-yourself wizardry. OK, so maybe we couldn't do all of that.

Director: Danny Leiner
Stars: John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garces, Neil Patrick Harris, David Krumholtz, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Siu Ta, Christopher Meloni, Malin Akerman

Finally, Korean- and Indian-American dudes got a movie that didn't depict them as grocery owners or taxi drivers. H&K, two regular-ass stoners on a super-specific munchies mission for the lil' burger you love to ate, are the most trailblazing tree blazers ever. Respect due.

Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Jake Weber, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Lindy Booth, Jayne Eastwood, Boyd Banks, Inna Korobkina, R.D. Reid, Kim Poirier, Matt Frewer

In this remake of George A. Romero's 1978 horror classic, strangers seek refuge in a shopping mall while the blood-thirsty reanimated dead gather outside. It's like Black Friday with zombies!

Director: David Dobkin
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Christopher Walken, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper, Jane Seymour

We thought weddings were a time to mourn the death of a man's sex life until we watched Wilson and Vaughn as horny bachelors preying on lonely women. Money, power, and respect work wonders but female jealousy and desperation will get you laid all the same.

Director: Michel Gondry
Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Jane Adams, David Cross

A smelly-looking white couple breaks up, then tries to erase their memories of each another. The words "postmodern romantic dramedy" are horrible, sure, but they can also be used to describe a great movie. And with Gondry directing and Jon Brion doing the score, this is like a two-hour version of "Videos Kanye West Wishes He Had Made."

Director: Curtis Hanson
Stars: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, Michael Shannon, Anthony Mackie, Chloe Greenfield, Taryn Manning, Evan Jones, Omar Benson Miller, Eugene Byrd

Eminem's polished, emotive biopic transformed him from national scourge to national hero and brilliantly demonstated the rhyme-writing process, legitimizing the art form in the eyes of Middle America. Because real hip-hop gives a shit what Middle America thinks of it.

Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Ellen Wong, Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Brie Larson, Johnny Simmons, Satya Bhabha, Mae Whitman

For anyone who grew up with a Nintendo Entertainment System next to their bed, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a reverential and hilarious gift from the gods. Staying true to Bryan Lee O'Malley's original comic book series, Edgar Wright's highly stylized adaptation piles on the video game punctuations and kinetic energy.

Michael Cera basically plays a slightly cooler version of his standard “awkward overachiever” character, so it's a good thing that the film's supporting players hold things down, especially Culkin as the snarky best friend. Best of all, it's a believable fantasy—who wouldn't fight seven evil exes to power Mary Elizabeth Winstead up, no coins?

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, Jim Broadbent, Henry Thomas, Brendan Gleeson, John C. Reilly, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan

In the pantheon of Martin Scorsese's greatest movies, Gangs Of New York is, admittedly, not even in the top tier, a holy ground occupied by flicks like Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas.

Flawed Scorsese is still infinitely better than most filmmakers' best efforts, though, and Gangs, set against the turf wars that formed the Big Apples in the mid-1800s, has plenty of brilliance to spare. Aside from the stunning sets and costumes, which all received Oscar nominations, Gangs has the benefit of a towering Daniel Day-Lewis performance as crime lord Bill The Butcher, one that's a madcap and frightening precursor to his best-acting-of-the-Complex-era work in 2007's There Will Be Blood.

Director: J.J. Abrams
Stars: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood

Young James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise fight to protect the universe from the time-traveling Romulan terrorist (Eric Bana) who killed Kirk's father and altered the time-space continuum. This unrelenting space jam will get up in Uranus for real.

Director: Alexandre Aja
Stars: Cecile de France, Maiwenn, Philippe Nahon

While visiting relatives in the countryside, two French college chicks (Cecile de France and Maiwenn) encounter a sadistic, mutilating serial killer. It's nice to know that other countries are just as twisted as we are.

Director: Larry Charles
Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitan, Luenell Campbell

Disguised as a sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic Kazakh journalist, Sacha Baron Cohen interacts with unsuspecting citizens and exposes American xenophobia, homophobia, and racism. Hey, did you know we're a country of backwards morons? Niiiiice!

Director: Peter Sollett
Stars: Victor Rasuk, Judy Marte, Melonie Diaz, Silvestre Rasuk

We all love Kids for its comical glorification of NYC teenagers, but to us, Raising Victor Vargas feels a lot more authentic. The sweet (not sappy) story of adolescent love is also an ode to the Lower East Side—the real L.E.S., minus the misanthropic gerbils who hang out at Supreme.

Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Faran Tahir, Shaun Toub, Paul Bettany, Leslie Bibb

Finally, a movie that brought Iron Man's kick-ass persona to a mainstream audience. One of the best superhero movies of all time helped Robert Downey, Jr. reach heights he hadn't experienced since crack rock.

Director: Paul Greengrass
Stars: Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Straithairn, Joan Allen, Scott Glenn, Edgar Ramirez, Albert Finney, Joey Ansah

Former CIA assassin and amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) comes out of hiding to finally uncover all the secrets of his shadowy past while avoiding hitmen sent by his former government handlers. This is the best of the griitty spy series that left James Bond shaken and stirred.

Director: Billy Corben

Scarface was cool, yeah, but Billy Corben's documentary featuring some of Miami's biggest snowmen tells you what really went down in the '70s and '80s when the economy was shit but successful drug runners were copping whips and crashing them for fun. And there's no fake Cuban accents, either.

Director: Fernando Meirelles
Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Alice Braga, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen

This beautifully shot and skillfully acted crime drama tells the story of a young aspiring photographer caught in the middle of the drugs and violence that run rampant in his poor Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. Listen up, Capo: Real gangsters do wear flip-flops.

Director: Ryan Fleck
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Anthony Mackie, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Denis O'Hare

Typically, movies about white teachers and inner city students follow a lazy, worn-down pattern: Students first resist the teacher, but soon warm up to him or her and ultimately steer clear of street violence and/or prison. In the immensely underrated independent drama Half Nelson, though, that approach is flipped on its head, with a role reversal that's both daring and truthful.

Ryan Gosling plays a junior high school teacher who seems to have his shit together, at least in the eyes of pupils, but, in reality, he's a closeted drug addict. One of his students, played by Shareeka Epps, accidentally catches him in an abusive state, and director Ryan Fleck's magnetic film spends the rest of its time passionately developing a non-threatening teacher/student bond that goes against everything flicks like Dangerous Minds have taught us about instructor/learner relationships.

Director: Adam McKay
Stars: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Adam Scott, Kathry Hahn

Though it ranks at the bottom of Will Ferrell's catalog, 2006's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby exhibits the chemistry between Ferrell and co-star John C. Reilly. Step Brothers, however, maximizes on their interplay to the point of uproarious combustion. The simple plot—two 40-year-old man-children become step-siblings against their will—is the perfect setup for Sirs Ferrell and Reilly to constantly one-up each other with delusionally egocentric boasts ("I've been called the songbird of my generation") and ruthless insults ("You and your mom are hillbillies; this is a house of learned doctors").

Easily Ferrell's second-funniest movie (keep reading this list for the first), Step Brothersis one of those special comedies that remains laugh-out-loud hilarious with every subsequent viewing. It's a modern-day classic for "Boats N Hoes" alone.

Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy

A salesman (Simon Pegg) who's only slightly less aimless than his slacker best friend (Nick Frost) tries to win back his dissatisfied ex-girlfriend and deal with family issues during a zombie apocalypse. A romantic comedy with zombies? That's date night done right.

Director: Pascal Laugier
Stars: Morjana Alaoui, Mylene Jampanoi, Catherin Begin, Isabelle Chasse, Robert Toupin

French writer-director Pascal Laugier's Martyrs is essentially two movies in one, and neither one is recommended for the squeamish. Before the hard-R-rated shocker takes a sharp left turn at its midway point, Martyrs rests gruesomely in home invasion territory, with Clive Barker-like supernatural elements mixed in for good measure. But then Laugier's script veers into existential, slow-burning dread, and once it's all over, Martyrs asks heavy questions about the afterlife and almost provides some answers. With skinning, of course.

Director: Frank Darabont
Stars: Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Nathan Gamble, Toby Jones, Marcia Gay Harden, Frances Sternhagen, Andre Baugher, William Sadler, Alexa Davalos, Sam Witwer, Melissa McBride, Chris Owen

Within the 2002-2012 Complex era, 2007 was, hands down, the pinnacle for cinema. Many of the year's top flicks will appear shortly on this list, so we'll spare you the shortened breakdown here. But one film from '07 that was unfairly swept beneath the year's awards-earners and higher-profile fare—and, unfortunately, has yet to achieve its deserved cult status—is Frank Darabont's emotionally scarring adaptation of Stephen King's novella The Mist.

A random, large group gets trapped inside a supermarket once a massive, blanketing mist engulfs their town and unleashes otherworldly monsters into the area. Locked together unwillingly, the folks, in true Lord Of The Rings style, divide and try to conquer one another, all while the aforementioned creatures do their best to bust into the store and chow down.

Before its final scene, The Mist is already an absolute gem, but then Darabont takes an unbelievably brave and, no doubt about it, bleak chance: He executes one of the biggest downer endings imaginable. As divisive as it is, The Mist's closing image is powerful enough to merit the entire film an inclusion on this countdown.

Director: Cary Fukunaga
Stars: Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mejia, Diana Garcia

This poignant and violent drama follows a Honduran teenager (Paulina Gaitán) in search of a better life and a runaway Mexican gang member (Edgar Flores) who's being hunted by his old homeboys as they cross paths while riding atop trains to the U.S. border. It's a gang-banger!

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Stars: Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl

Say your girl loves vampires, but her measuring sticks for great bloodsucker characters are Edward Cullen and Bill Compton—first off, we feel your pain. Secondly, it sounds like she's ready for the “Let The Right One In Test.”

Antithetical to Twilight and True Blood in every way, Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's slow-burning undead drama handles budding love better than Bella/Edward (even though, yes, the suitors are a little boy and an equally little girl vamp) and is scarier in its quietest moments than True Blood's Eric Northman ever is at his most diabolical. Show Let The Right One In to wifey and see if she's willing to admit its superiority; if not, try not to hide your disappointment beneath a Taylor Lautner shirt.

Director: David Cronenberg
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl

You won't find a more thorough badass than Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai Luzhin, the henchman for a Russian mob family in London. Dude will break your face just for breathing, don't matter if it's the streets or the steam room. We haven't been more entertained by an all-male nude Turkish bath scene since...well, ever.

Director: Shane Carruth
Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford

This might sound like a diss, but here goes: Primer should be watched with two fresh aspirin pills nearby. Brainy and structurally irregular, independent filmmaker Shane Carruth's dense feature debut requires a great deal of attention and thought from its viewers; in that sense, it's evidence that Carruth is someone who believes that his audience is predominantly intelligent; though we're sure a few dimwits have seen Primer with their more astute friends, it's still admirable of Carruth to not have dumb things down.

Greed and scientific possibilities are the major themes in Primer, a short but cerebral movie about four yuppie entrepreneurs who discover a way to use time travel to fatten their wallets. Pretty much all of the dialogue consists of scientific jargon, and the non-sequential order of scenes moves like a wilder version of Christopher Nolan's Memento at times. If you're willing to give the old noodle some intricate massaging, Primer will reward you with an inimitable mind-fucking.

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Stars: Ulrich Muhe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur

For a movie based around quiet conversations and no action, The Lives Of Others is one hell of engaging thriller, one that sinks its hook into viewers through its refreshing lack of gimmicks and visual pizzazz. Set in 1984, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's picture places viewers right alongside a German military captain (the late Ulrich Mule, in a dynamite performance) as he bugs the home of, and subsequently eavesdrops on, an innocent man, leading to self-questioning and moral conflicts galore.

The intrigue is so unrelenting that you'll think that Mule and company are riding shotgun in Vin Diesel's whip, not staring and conveying personalities through suggestion and subtleties. Besides, we've seen what von Donnersmarck can do with actual run-and-gun theatrics, and the result, the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie snoozer The Tourist, ranks as one of the worst movies of the Complex decade. Be thankful no one leaps off of buildings here.

Director: Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Rose McGowan, John Brolin, Freddy Rodriguez, Marley Shelton, Jeff Fahey, Michael Biehn, Bruce Willis, Naveen Andrews, Michael Parks, Nicky Katt, Stacy Ferguson, Quentin Tarantino, Kurt Russell, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Tamia Poitier, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosario Dawnson, Tracie Thoms, Zoe Bell

Screw the underwhelming box office performance numbers. Grindhouse, the crazily ambitious double-feature from Robert Rodriguez (responsible for the gory zombie romp Planet Terror) and Quentin Tarantino (he of the women-in-danger, car chase hybrid Death Proof), never stood a chance with mainstream audiences. A pure, uncompromised flashback to old-school exploitation films mostly seen in trashy cinemas, Grindhouse catered to a very specific kind of moviegoer: One who'd choose Herschell Gordon Lewis over Joseph Gordon-Levitt any day. As far as in-theater experiences are concerned, nothing has topped Grindhouse's four-hour ride since its release.

Director: Seth Gordon

It's the archetypal good-versus-evil film, except that it's about two video-game-obsessed, middle-aged nerds, not sword-wielding hero and a devilish monster.

Simply about two guys' shared desire to pull off the highest King Kong arcade score of all time, the riveting and often hilarious King Of Kong is a purebred underdog story that's just as appealing for non-gamers as it is for hardcore players. It's also home to one of the decade's greatest villains: the delusional and seriously unlikeable Billy Mitchell, whose mullet and unhealthy self-image make him the kind of douchebag you'd pay a quick grip to snuff in the mug.

Director: Jee-woon Kim
Stars: Im Soo Jung, Moon Geun Young, Yeom Jeong-ah, Kim Kap-su

Thanks to the influx of “J-horror” remakes in the early 2000s, Japan was universally recognized as Asian cinema's top purveyor of scary movies; yet, interestingly enough, the best of all recent Asian horror flicks hails from South Korea.

A Tale Of Two Sisters (unconvincingly remade by Hollywood in 2009 and re-titled as The Uninvited) holds up, nine years after its release, as one of the last decade's strongest psychological creep-outs. Showing hardly anything in the way of gore or jump-scares, master genre filmmaker Ji-woon Kim blends mental instability with potential supernatural activity, showing how a girl's return home from the loony bin, after her mother's death, triggers full-blown insanity.

As an unsettling mood piece, A Tale Of Two Sisters is tough to beat.

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger, Daniel Bruhl, Omar Doom, Mike Myers, B.J. Novak

Quentin Tarantino is an easy target for cinema purists who lack senses of humor: He's a certified weirdo in real life, his movies shamelessly pilfer from older flicks, and he doesn't know the meaning of the word “subtlety.” But we'd be hard-pressed to find one reason as to why the snootiest of film critics could hate on Inglourious Basterds, QT' s most daring and, dare we say it, mature work.

And that's saying a lot for a movie whose revisionist, and wonderfully cartoonish, history shows Adolf Hitler's face getting turned into Silly Putty by machine gun fire and a hammy Mike Myers in old-man makeup. What, it's still Quentin Tarantino, after all.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Alison Pill, Denis O'Hare, Joseph Cross, Victor Garber

Right-wing politicians and other blowhards might want to zip Sean Penn's lips, literally, but there's no denying the fact that the man is a brilliant actor. And in Gus Van Sant's beautifully executed biopic Milk, the hard-edged actor goes completely against type to play openly gay San Francisco public official Harvey Milk, a loving and driven man who was tragically gunned down by a rival in 1978. Just as important as Penn's work are the contributions from Van Sant and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who, together, help Milk to transcend the usual biography film customs.

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Stars: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolff, Adam Arkin

To follow up their Academy Award-winning and brutally horrific 2007 gem No Country For Old Men, directors Joel and Ethan Coen did, naturally, something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. At least visually.

That last caveat is necessary here because, for all intents and purposes, 2009's A Serious Man is just as bleak as No Country, except minus the bullet-holes and lethal bolt pistols. Michael Stuhlbarg (better known as Rothstein on HBO's Boardwalk Empire) plays a nebbish professor whose lives goes on a negative tailspin after his wife leaves for him a fat, hairy rube.

The impact of A Serious Man doesn't truly hit the viewer until moments after the end credits cease. Throughout the film, Stuhlbarg's character endures one setback after another, yet his descent into hopelessness only hits at what the movie drills home in its haunting final shot: God, if he does exist up there, has no time for man's redemption. He does, however, have time to get in the last laugh.

Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Stars: Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston

A strong ensemble cast can bolster the most mundane of scripts into something that's watchable on a performance level, if nothing else. So imagine what a multi-talent flick can become when the writing is of A-grade quality? Well, you'd have a film on par with Little Miss Sunshine, the eccentric yet earnest comedy about a dysfunctional family that goes on a soul-searching road trip full of belly-laughs, tears, and unpredictable turns.

Director: Chan-wook Park
Stars: Min-sik Choi, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong

The ultimate revenge movie begins when a businessman is locked in an anonymous hotel room for 15 years with no explanation. After getting released, he sets off on a violent, twisted quest to uncover the mystery of his captor and his motivation.

Director: Ang Lee
Stars: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, David Harbour, Kate Mara

If you're the type who can't watch a single moment of Ang Lee's superb and heartbreaking love story Brokeback Mountain without uttering the words “pause” or “a-yo,” then we suggest you click on over to Grandma's Boy (which, yes, is also on this list—how's that for open-mindedness?). For those able to exude maturity and appreciate stellar storytelling and tremendous, Brokeback Mountain, led by Jake Gyllenhaal's and the late Heath Ledger's magnificent performances as gay cowboys, is one of the Complex decade's strongest romances, and, most importantly, emotionally affecting movies.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarin Hinds, Geoffrey Rush, Mathieu Kassovitz, Omar Metwally, Hanns Zischler, Ayelet Zurer

Mossad agent Avner (Eric Bana) leads a team on a black-ops mission to kill everyone involved in the 1972 Black September assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Nebbish, these Jews are not.

Director: Joshua Marston
Stars: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza, Yenny Paola Vega, Patricia Rae

Movies about the drug trade tend to offer several visceral qualities, namely high body-counts, blood-drenched gunfights, and at least one cop character seeking justice. What makes writer-director Joshua Marston's harrowing Maria Full Of Grace such a masterwork is how starkly it goes against those expectations.

Covering thematic ground similar to films like Traffic, Maria Full Of Grace opts for a much more intimate approach, centering its narrative around a well-meaning, Bogota, Colombia, teenager (an exceptional Catalina Sandino Moreno) who smuggles drugs into the U.S. in order to provide for her poor family. The acting is impeccable, and Marston's script, along with his mostly observational, undistracted direction, taps into the heart of a seemingly heartless subculture.

Director: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Stars: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Christopher Plummer, Pete Docter, Delroy Lindo, John Ratzenberger

No matter how much Botox people inject into themselves, or how many dollars are dumped into plastic surgery procedures, there's no escaping the truth: We're all growing old, and, eventually, there will come a time when we have to reflect upon our lives.

One can only hope that his elder-year recollections are half as pleasant as those of Up main character Carl (voiced by Ed Asner), a curmudgeon who longs for his deceased wife, Ellie. In never-ending mourning, Carl finally breaks out of his woe-is-me funk thanks to an energetic Boy Scout, with whom Carl heads into the clouds on his home, a makeshift hot air balloon designed to fulfill his beloved's dream of one day visiting Paradise Falls in a balloon.

Up is a Disney-Pixar movie, so, obviously, Carl makes it to Paradise Falls, in a touching climax that's impactful despite its predictability. Much of the credit goes to a flashback montage that's shown earlier into Up, a joyous, silent mini-movie that follows Carl's relationship with Ellie from their pre-teen years all the way through her death by illness. It's a triumph in emotionally powerful filmmaking, and more than enough to leave both older men and sensitive youngsters with damp eyes.

Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman, Jay Baruchel, Anthony Mackie, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker, Brian F. O'Byrne, Margo Martindale, Michael Pena

Nearly all of cinema's inspirational boxing movies are designed to produce tears, but, once the film's third act begins, Clint Eastwood's superb Million Dollar Baby does so with an unstoppable force. All that precedes the finale is certainly uplifting; Hilary Swank plays a down-on-her-luck waitress who dreams of becoming a professional boxer, a dream that she sees through with the help of an old curmudgeon of a trainer (Eastwood).

Though he's cold toward her at first, Eastwood's character quickly warms up and becomes a father figure, which Swank needs after she's hospitalized during a pro bout and isn't visited by any family members except money-grubbers. As her situation worsens, Swank asks Eastwood to help her die in peace; sneaking into her hospital room one night, he gives Swank a lethal injection and calls her “my darling, and my love.” Cue the eye flooding.

Director: Alexander Payne
Stars: Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

Who would've thought that watching a couple of middle-aged schlubs embarking on a wine-tasting trip could be damn funny? Not to mention, poignant? It takes a refined master of the small-scale human dramas like Alexander Payne (Election, last year's The Descendants) to wring huge laughs and rich emotion from such an inconspicuous concept. And, furthermore, it requires a pair of underrated (at the time, at least) actors like Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church to make said schlubs immensely endearing.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger

After the massive success of 2008's The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan had so much Hollywood clout that he probably could've talked Jennifer Aniston into doing a sex scene with Angelina Jolie. Note to self: Give Christopher Nolan's manager a call. So what did he do? He challenged himself with his trickiest film yet: a secret agent thriller set within dreamscapes.

After months of hype, Inception proved to be a cerebral yet accessible blockbuster, with incredible effects (the no-gravity fight sequence), star-making performances (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy) and the year's most debated ending. Now, Nolan can most likely talk any other A-list actress (say, Charlize Theron), into joining Aniston and Jolie if he wants. Note to self: Somehow call Christopher Nolan directly.

Director: Kim Jee-woon
Stars: Min-sik-Choi, Byung-hun Lee

Last year, the serial killer genre got a shot of pure grisliness with I Saw The Devil, South Korean director extraordinaire Kim Ji-woon's shockingly, and merrily violent thriller that made it onto our Best of 2011 list, with ease. Lee Byung-hun (G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra) kills it as the film's lead, a distraught widower hell-bent on torturing his wife's murderer (the superb Choi Min-sik) to no end, blurring the lines between who's bad and who's good. No matter whose side you're on, though, Ji-woon goes to outrageous lengths to make the decision-making process a difficult one—pondering allegiances while seeing Achilles Tendon's getting severed and disemboweled organs is never easy.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Anderson, James Badge Dale, David O'Hara, Mark Rolston, Kevin Corrigan

With source material as dope as the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, Martin Scorsese's take on the cop-gangster switcheroo could hardly fail. But with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon at their best—and Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin stealing every scene they're in—the remake is even better than the O.G.

Director: Julian Schnabel
Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Consigny, Marie-Josee Croze, Olatz Lopez Garmendia

There's arguably no greater compliment than this: Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell And The Butterfly shows us the true magic of cinema. Scoff at the cheesiness of such a proclamation all you want, but we defy you to view the artist-turned-director's adaptation of stroke victim Jean-Dominique Bauby's 2007 memoir and not stare in awe at the sheer prowess on display.

Largely shot to represent Bauby's own point-of-view, Diving Bell captures the difficulties and limitations of Bauby's bout with locked-in syndrome (paralysis from the neck down, with only one eye to communicate with) through experimental camera angles, claustrophobically radiant cinematography, and powerful optimism.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, David Morse, Ralph Fiennes, Evangeline Lilly, Christian Camargo

A highly trained bomb disposal team in Iraq struggles with a new sergeant (Jeremy Renner), who appears to be a reckless adrenaline junkie. If this taut, well-paced war thriller doesn't make your pulse race, you must be flatlining.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger

Christopher Nolan's dark and unrelenting follow-up to Batman Begins pits Christian Bale's gravelly voiced Cape Crusader against one of the best movie villains ever: Heath Ledger's maniacal Joker. Sadly, he won't reprise the role, but, on the bright side, Maggie Gyllenhaal won't be back either.

Director: Tony Gilroy
Stars: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack

Films don't get much more grown-up than Michael Clayton, the engrossing directorial debut from Bourne screenwriter Tony Gilroy (who also penned the Clayton script). Anchored by George Clooney in a certified dude-is-a-movie-star performance, the corporate thriller achieves a consistent tenseness as Clooney's morally ambiguous Clayton comes to terms with his own integrity and motivations as he mentally battles his way through a big-business conspiracy.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Emily Mortimer, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Jude Law, Helen McCrory, Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Griffiths

If you remember that first Hugo trailer, then you no doubt recall how quickly cinephiles' red flags began waving. Devoted film buffs knew that the almighty Martin Scorsese's latest, an adaptation of author Brian Selznick's whimsical look at silent movies and childhood adventure, was going to be a family-friendly diversion from Scorsese's usual grit, but the initial preview, marred by lame pratfalls and a grimacing dog, hinted at a miscalculation of Marmaduke's caliber.

But then we all woke up and remembered that's Martin fucking Scorsese we're talking about, and the iconic filmmaker's Hugo turned out to be anything but hackneyed. Utilizing 3D technology to gorgeous degrees, and anchored by a slew of delightful performances (namely Ben Kingsley's fragile turn as legendary director George Meiles), Hugo is uplifting and welcoming enough for the kids, but, really, it's a grown-up movie lover's playpen.

The film's third act, in particular, is a tour de force of grade-A storytelling and all-out magic. Scorsese presents a series of classic black-and-white, silent flicks in modern-day 3D, and the results are invigorating. Hugo sends the viewer out on a cinema-loving high, more than any other picture this year.

Director: Danny Boyle
Stars: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns

Imagine waking from a coma, going outside into seemingly deserted London, and being chased by a crazed mob of people infected with an incurable rage virus who want to do nothing more than tear you to shreds. And you thought New Yorkers were standoffish.

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Julie Dreyfus, Michael Parks, Sonny Chiba, Gordon Liu, Chiaki Kuriyama

The first volume of QT's fantastically twisted samurai epic has better (and bloodier) girl-on-girl action than your favorite spankwire.com clip. Every character is memorable, each death scene is awesome, and the dialogue is... Well, it's Tarantino.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks, Oscar Isaac

Unsurprisingly, most casual moviegoers didn't know what to make of Drive. One dumbass, in fact, actually wanted to sue the film's backers for selling it as a brain-dead, Fast & Furious-styled action romp, which, of course, it's not. And that's what makes the fascinating Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's first “mainstream” production such an oddity: a commercially released, movie-star-led subversion of popcorn entertainment, made with art-house sensibilities and a general disinterest in conventions.

Winding Refn wastes no time in laying his cards out; after a taut, bravura car chase sequence, Drive kicks into artistic high-gear with its hypnotic opening credits, scored by Kavinsky's '80s prog rock-inspired “Nightcall.” And then Ryan Gosling's nameless character, a stunt driver by day and getaway wheelman by night, quietly falls in love with a neighbor (Carey Mulligan) whose baby daddy is an ex-con in deep with mob types. Once Gosling steps in to help, Drive induces audience whiplash by exploding into beautifully choreographed moments of brutal violence.

The juxtaposition of a tender kiss and a nasty head-bashing in Drive's epic elevator scene embodies all that's special about the film: It's equal parts romantic, visceral, and unpredictable. A fairy tale for gear-heads who love a nice exploding head from time to time. And the year's most exciting and singular piece of pulpy entertainment, bar none.

Director: Lee Unkrich
Stars: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger

Who doesn't wish that they could be a kid again? Back in the days of Juicy Juice and Saturday morning cartoons, there wasn't a care in the world—no bills to pay, girls to please, or jobs to devote one's entire life to, only fun, toys, and coloring books. So once the realization sinks in that, sadly, it's no longer deemed “cool” to stage mini-wars with G.I. Joe action figures inside a bathtub, it's not easy to accept. And that's what the amazing Toy Story 3 affirms, just through the eyes of the neglected playthings.

In the huge franchise's third entry, young Andy, the owner of toys Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), is a college-bound 17-year-old; he's smart enough to understand that littering your dorm room with toys isn't exactly an aphrodisiac, prompting Andy to leave all but Woody behind.

Watching Buzz and his inanimate cohorts grieve over their sudden lack-of-presence in Andy's life brings to mind the viewer's own toys of old. Imagine what they must be feeling whenever they see you have sexy times from the confines of your bedroom's packed closet. The only ones that'd understand are Ken and Barbie, no doubt.

Director: Neill Blomkamp
Stars: Sharlito Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Vanessa Haywood, Manda Gaduka

In this sensational sci-fi smash, humans welcome aliens to Johannesburg, South Africa by putting them in slums, getting them strung out on cat food, and secretly experimenting on them to steal their weapons technology. On the bright side, human-on-human oppression is way down!

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Stars: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones

If you thought Where The Wild Things Are could scare kids shitless like none other, it's safe to assume you've never sat down with Guillermo del Toro's twisted fantasy about a little Spanish girl who creates an alternate reality to escape the harsh realities of the Spanish Civil War. Keep this one in your back pocket if your lil' nephews ever need to be put in their place.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Behold, a film that caters to both the snootiest of cinema aficionados and the shallowest of horndogs. Darren Aronofsky's psycho-erotic study of an uptight ballerina's (a dynamite Natalie Portman) descent into lesbian-tinged, hallucinogenic madness requires multiple viewings. The first time, Black Swan's gorgeous cinematography and unpredictable dementia wash over you; each subsequent watch, you'll have a ball piecing together what's real and what's simply in the hottie dancer's pretty little head.

If that sounds like too much work, you can rewatch Black Swan simply for Mila Kunis's red-hotness and her steamy bedroom romp with Portman. Just tell your girl, “Aronofsky's camerawork is outstanding.” She can't argue with that.

Director: Nicholas Stoller
Stars: Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand, Bill Hader, Jack McBrayer, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd

Prior to his charming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segal, yet another hilarious neophyte from the Judd Apatow camp, never struck us as a leading man type—funny as hell in Knocked Up, yes, but not an obvious headliner. And, for that matter, we were also sleeping heavily on Mila Kunis—figuratively, though, not literally. Which sucks.

Co-written with director Nicholas Stoller, Segal's warm-hearted comedy of heartaches cleverly and tenderly flips the gender roles in romantic comedies; here, Segal is the jilted, lovesick softie, while Kristen Bell is the quasi-villain.

Packed with one-liners galore, smartly written side characters, and a breakthrough turn from Russell Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall proved that date night movies can appeal to both men and women. Especially when they've got Mila Kunis in a bikini.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Mickey Rourke, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei

Mickey Rourke is phenomenal as an "old, broken down piece of meat" struggling to let go of a fading wrestling career while trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. The melancholy moments are balanced by some surprisingly gruesome wrestling action. Just consider Marisa Tomei's ageless stripper bod as the icing on the pierced nipple.

Director: Judd Apatow
Stars: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Leslie Mann, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Martin Starr

This reproduction riot established Judd Apatow and his crew, including former Complex cover stars Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, as a real force in Hollywood. Partially based on the birth of Apatow's first daughter, it grossed over $200 million worldwide. Daddy like.

Director: Neil Marshall
Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, MyAnna Buring, Saskia Mulder, Nora Jane Noone

In this slow-building horror sleeper, a group of women squeeze into an unexplored cave system on a bonding trip and find themselves trapped underground with bloodthirsty mole creatures. We're pretty sure it's a metaphor for girl-on-girl STD transmission during menstruation but we could be wrong.

Director: Greg Mottola
Stars: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Emma Stone, Martha MacIsaac, Joe Lo Truglio, Kevin Corrigan

The story of two best friends at the end of their high school adventure, Superbad finds the Apatow machine at its peak, operating without fear of failure or creative binds. Hilarious, real, and touching, this is a perfect piece of comedic cinema...to draw a dick on!

Director: Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza
Stars: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Pablo Rosso, David Vert, Martha Carbonell, Carlos Vicente

There's an adrenaline-pumping immediacy to the film's frantic third act, due to its unwavering first-person POV. Although, [REC] is guilty of the “found footage” technique's biggest flaw: why the hell would anyone keep taping? In this case, however, we'll let the cameraman's idiocy slide. If actress Manuela Velasco (think an around-the-way version of Shakira) was commanding us to keep the camera rolling, we'd gladly obey, too. Ditto for Jennifer Carpenter in the strong 2008 American remake, Quarantine.

Director: Peter Jackson
Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Mirando Otto, Brad Dourif, Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett

When dealing with a trilogy, it's typical for the second entry to be the most frustrating, since it's unavoidably going to end on a cliffhanger, leaving viewers with cinematic blue balls.

Peter Jackson's glorious The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, however, never comes off as a time-filling cheat, mainly because, like all of the best sequels, it enhances everything that made 2001's story-building The Fellowship Of The Ring so impressive. Meaning, more action, bloodier fights, and increased spectacle, namely from the introduction of the fiendish mini-ghoul Gollum (a brilliant Andy Serkis).

Director: David Fincher
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Joseph Mazzello, Rooney Mara

Unfairly pegged as “the Facebook movie” before its release, The Social Network showed that, when in the hands of a mastermind like David Fincher, the backstabbing ways of annoying smart kids can make for riveting cinema. The film's script, written by industry heavyweight Aaron Sorkin, roars with razor-sharp dialogue, well-placed humor and the seamless fusion of multiple viewpoints.

Even though their characters are the kinds of kids we made fun of in college, Jesse Eisenberg (as now-25-year-old billionaire Mark Zuckerberg) and Andrew Garfield are endlessly captivating, as is Justin Timberlake, finally answering the question, “Who's a better actor, JT or Lance Bass?” (2001's On The Line, anyone? Ahh, forget it.)

Director: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo
Stars: Alysson Paradis, Beatrice Dalle, Nathalie Roussel, Tahar Rahim

Really, any chance to show love to Inside is welcomed, but the fact that it's technically a home invasion movie makes it the only logical choice for top ranking here. Arguably the best horror film of the last decade, this French shocker has it all: unbelievable gore for the bloodhounds, spot-on performances and stylistic direction for cinematic purists, and a quick, 80-minute length for those with the attention span of a sock.

It's also one of the only films in recent memory to make us cover our eyes more than once, proving that even the most experienced and numbest of horror lovers can still be pushed beyond his or her limits. In other words, we shriek like female dogs every time we watch the damn thing.

Inside, written and directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, starts off simply enough. A depressed pregnant woman decides to stay home alone on Christmas Eve to mourn her lover's recent death via car accident, when a mysterious woman (who's kind of hot, in a psychotic way) invades the premise and says that she wants our protagonist's unborn baby—that's right, this Woman in Black wants to cut the fetus out, no anesthesia. What transpires is a downward spiral of butchered family members, blown-off cop faces, and a C-section with scissors, amongst other extreme brutality.

If you've never seen Inside, and what we've just said has enticed your inner sicko, here's some advice: Just buy the “unrated” DVD and avoid any rental discs, since pussy-footed censors refused to allow the movie's uncut rawness to be Blockbuster accessible. We'll never call French people “soft” again.

Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, Peter Mullan, Danny Huston, Charlie Hunnam

Abrupt and fiercely harsh, Alfonso Cuarón's vision of a childless future was unrelenting in its bleak depiction of mankind, but endlessly satisfying in its detailed illustration of the future. It's nice to know we've got something to look forward to.

Director: David Fincher
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch, Chloe Sevigny, Donal Logue, John Getz, Philip Baker Hall, Dermot Mulroney, Brian Cox

Who's the best working director of the Complex decade? Some might say the Coen Brothers, or perhaps Martin Scorsese; we, on the other hand, think it's a no-brainer that David Fincher has reigned supreme. Even though they weren't perfect movies, the acclaimed filmmaker's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008) and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) are still first-rate, and 2010's excellent The Social Networkhandled one of the decade's most influential and important happenings (the rise of Facebook) with accessible intelligence.

Yet, none of those flicks can match up against Zodiac, Fincher's best movie that, unfortunately, also happens to be his most underrated. With impeccable performances from an airtight ensemble, Fincher taps into the obsessions of both the police department and news reporters tracking down the infamous Zodiac killer, who loomed over the San Francisco area throughout the late 1960s and early '70s, even when corpses weren't piling up.

Zodiac plunges you headfirst into a tireless investigation, complete with every interview, document absorption, and dead-end suspect. All with Fincher's standard pairing of a gloomy tone and dark visual presentation.

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson, Garret Dillahunt

When an ordinary Texas Joe (Josh Brolin) happens upon a drug deal gone bad, he takes off with the $2.4 million in cash. In pursuit are a psychotic hitman (Javier Bardem) trying to murk him and a grizzled sheriff (Jones) trying to protect him. Cormac McCarthy's novel is equally dope and nerve-wracking. Yes, we're encouraging you to read a book.

Director: Judd Apatow
Stars: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, Kat Dennings

The movie that turned Judd Apatow from failed TV producer into film comedy god is two solid hours of hilarious jokes on a can't-beat premise, and that's not counting the awesome outtakes. You know we know you're gay if you didn't cut for this flick.

Director: Peter Jackson
Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Mirando Otto, Brad Dourif, Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett

By the time December 2003 rolled along, there was little to no doubt that The Return Of The King, the third and final installment of Peter Jackson's monumental adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy works, was going to be epic.

The comforting proof lied in the previous two films, yet The Return Of The King, punctuated by quieter character moments amidst the expected visual spectacles, is the only one of Jackson's three flicks to make history: It became the first, and still the only, fantasy film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. And rightfully so.

Director: Adam McKay
Stars: Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Chris Parnell

Will Ferrell is at his absolute best playing a dim-witted, chauvinistic TV reporter fighting workplace gender equality in this send-up of '70s culture. With its countless quotables, Anchorman makes other comedies smell like a used diaper filled with Indian food.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciarin Hinds

This sweeping epic about the treachery and hardships that plagued the American oil industry in its early days earned P.T.A. a couple award show appearances. But all you need to know is that Daniel Day-Lewis killed it and he will drink your milkshake. No pause.