At first, I shrugged off Sam Mendes's adaptation of this Richard Yates novel. Wow, that really blew the lid off of unhappiness in the '50s, I sighed, jaded and unimpressed. But something about Revolutionary Road has stuck with me. After all the happy stories about the film's reunion of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, all the beard-stroking pieces about how the film captures or overlooks the most essential parts of Yates's novel, and all the praise for Michael Shannon, what changed my mind was the realization that Revolutionary Road isn't about people who are unhappy in the suburbs in the '50s: it's about people who would be unhappy anywhere, at any time.

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Valkyrie, Bryan Singer's latest film, has been swamped with so much controversy that it can be hard to see the movie for what it is. There were reports the German government tussled with the production over whether or not historic locations could be used, and the movie was moved around the release schedule like a hot potato; add in Tom Cruise's larger than life public persona, and you've got a cloud of buzz that could obscure the merits of any release.

And that's a pity, because underneath all that, Valkyrie is a superbly made, amazingly well-executed suspense thriller. It tells the story of the plot inside the German leadership to kill Adolph Hitler in 1943-44, with Cruise playing one of the conspiracy's heads, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. It's not exactly a run-and-gun action film; most of Valkyrie is about men in well-appointed rooms having hushed conversations. That said, the rooms look great and the things the men are talking about are topics like treason and murder and the consequences if they're discovered: "When they find you, they'll pull you apart just like warm bread; it'll be a crime to have known you, then."

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Seven Pounds, the new movie that reunites Will Smith with The Pursuit of Happyness director Gabrielle Muccino, has already had its plot spoiled by Lou Lumenick of The New York Post. But, let's be honest; you don't discover the secret of Seven Pounds in the first act -- you know it in the first scene, if you're watching closely enough. Within a few days, everyone will have divulged the plot of Seven Pounds, which makes my coyness almost irrelevant, but, I don't want to be that guy. Still, there's more to Seven Pounds than that plot, and judging the movie by the "success" or failure of the secrets in the plot is too simplistic.

The first thing worth noting about Seven Pounds is that, while it's being sold as a feel-good heart-warmer, it's actually much tougher -- even crueler -- than the trailers suggests. The Pursuit of Happyness gave us a story about how anything in life can be overcome with commitment and struggle; Seven Pounds is a story about how many things in life there are to struggle against and overcome. Very few movies try -- or dare -- to show us just how much pain there is in the world. Seven Pounds looks at that fact, head-on, and accepts it in a way most movies don't.

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There has been much moaning and bellyaching among critics and industry watchers about how 2008 was "a so-so year" for American movies; all I can say to that is nonsense. Last year was ridiculously strong, to be sure -- any year with No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton in release isn't a good year for movies; it's a gift from the cinematic gods -- but 2008 had its share of great movies as well. Here's a (highly subjective) list of the ten best:

10. Role Models
The irony is that the year's best Judd Apatow movie is the one he didn't make. But could Role Models have happened without Apatow? Starring two actors he made into stars (Paul Rudd and Christopher Mintz-Plasse), it walked the laser-carved line between foul behavior and warm sentiment. With brilliant throw-away gags ("I didn't know Jews could rock like this!") that later turned out to be the carefully-sown seeds of perfectly constructed big-payoff gags, Role Model's go-for-broke sense of fun respected the characters instead of turning them into caricatures.

9. Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York is poised at a fascinating point of possibility for indie film: Will it be the last gasp of the indie boom that saw major studios create, fund and shutter 'dependent' micro-distributors... or the film that represents the rebirth, rediscovery and resurgence of truly independent American movies? Although hard to wrap your head around -- starting with the title and going uphill from there -- the movie's puzzle-box construction and big, bizarre ideas are wrapped around an all too human meditation on art, mortality, love and the struggle to find happiness.

8. Burn After Reading
Much like The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading left critics and audiences scratching their heads; but keep in mind The Big Lebowski has since become a cult classic. With brilliant supporting performances from George Clooney, as a weirdly charming womanizer, and John Malkovich, as a prissy ex-intelligence man, Burn After Reading bizarre comedy isn't just deadpan slapstick, it's also a satire of life in America, where greed and unhappiness lead to horrible, hysterical events.

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Sometimes one stand out performance -- Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, or Ashley Judd in Bug -- elevate a movie to must-see status. These aren't perfect movies, but those performances made them can't-miss movies for anyone interested in the art and craft of acting on the big screen. John Patrick Shanley's big-screen adaptation of his own award-winning play, Doubt, is the most recent example of a movie transformed by one actor's work. And although Doubt's big-name stars include Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, they aren't who I'm talking about.

Not that Streep, Hoffman and Adams aren't amazing in Doubt; they are, and you'd frankly expect nothing less. Streep's Sister Aloysius is one of her greatest roles -- a hard-hearted nun who relentlessly pursues the truth behind the friendship between a young student and the parish's priest. Hoffman's Father Flynn is affable and gentle, but when accusations and glances turn his way, something seethes up in him, and you can't tell if it's fury at being falsely accused... or the fear of being uncovered. Adams's Sister James is a perfect part for the young actress -- Adams has always lent a good-hearted naiveté to her roles. But it's Viola Davis, who appears in just one scene, who takes the movie beyond being just another high-minded Oscar contender with her riveting demonstration of raw acting power.

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Wedged between an army of high-minded Oscar contenders (Milk, Frost/Nixon) and a mob of big-budget Holiday Diversions (Four Christmases, Yes Man), this weekend's Cadillac Records is exactly the kind of movie that's going to get lost in the shuffle at the most wonderful time of the year. And that's a shame: Cadillac Records is a big, rousing, blunt story of the early days of rock and roll -- when the Blues became business, when "race music" became the sound of America, when imperfect people made perfect pop music.

Written and directed by Darnell Martin (I Like It Like That, Their Eyes Were Watching God), it plays fast and loose with the facts -- like portraying a romance between Chess Records label head Leonard Chess (Adrian Brody) and singer Etta James (Beyonce Knowles) and suggesting harmonica maestro Little Walter (Columbus Short) shot and killed an imitator in cold blood. Neither of these scenarios can be proven as true, but if you want facts, go to the library; if you want a great story, go to the movies.

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Opening this week in select cities before rolling out nationwide, Milk has proven to stick with me in unexpected ways. I went to see it a second time just because I kept thinking about how it was made, what it meant, how it played out. Milk stars Sean Penn as San Francisco politician and activist Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, who was shot and killed (along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone) in 1978. Some box-office watchers and Oscar prognosticators are doubting that Milk, as a "gay movie," will play outside of big cities, but Milk isn't a one-issue movie built around a single star -- it's also a great, fascinating political procedural.

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There's a lot riding on Twilight, the big-screen adaptation of the opening volume in Stephenie Meyer's series about an average teen who falls for the vampire boy-next-door. Summit Entertainment is aiming the film like an arrow at the demographic place where Harry Potter and Hot Topic meet, at the yearning hearts of young men and women with a taste for the supernatural, a weakness for the romantic, and the propensity to put on a touch too much eye shadow. Twilight could have been a fairly clumsy movie, a vehicle intended to turn book-buyers into ticket-purchasers and nothing else. And while the movie does have its flaws, director Catherine Hardwicke got one thing perfectly right: She cast Kristen Stewart (Panic Room, Into the Wild) as Bella, the story's heroine.

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