The best of the best

‘THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD’

Leisurely paced — it runs two hours and 40 absorbing minutes — and exquisitely shot and lit by ace cinematographer Roger Deakins who also photographed the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” director Andrew Dominik’s revisionist take on the notorious Wild West outlaw (“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”) is filled with a pervasive melancholy and moments of startling, unexpected humor. Fans of HBO’s late, great “Deadwood” should start queuing up now.

‘ATONEMENT’

What’s most striking about Joe Wright’s sterling adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel is how Wright manages to bring a thoroughly modernist sensibility to material usually reserved for starchy Merchant Ivory-style corset dramas. As remarkable as Keira Knightley is, this is truly James McAvoy’s film. McAvoy finally delivers on the hype that’s made him Hollywood’s current flavor du jour.

‘JUNO’

Laugh for laugh, smile for smile, this was the most purely pleasurable movie I saw in Toronto. Teen pregnancy played for laughs sounds like a dicey proposition, but director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody find the sweet spot that helped make this the most universally adored film of the festival.

‘I’M NOT THERE’

Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan phantasmagoria has the same reckless inventiveness and mastery of form of mid-1970’s Robert Altman. (Think “Nashville” with Dylan music replacing Altman’s C&W playlist.) Of the six actors who play Dylan, Cate Blanchett is the most unlikely, and the most unforgettable. Did someone say, “Oscar”?

‘INTO THE WILD’

So visually stunning and emotionally devastating that you could almost miss just how perfectly cast and brilliantly acted even the tiniest role is. Sean Penn’s masterwork deserves to win Academy Award nominations for Penn as writer/director, cinematography, editing, sound, score, lead Emile Hirsch and supporting actors Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook. Not that William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Jena Malone and Vince Vaughn aren’t spectacularly good as well. And the fantastic original songs by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder could fill the Oscar song category all by themselves (and probably sell a few million soundtrack CDs in the process).

‘NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN’

The Coen Brothers’ strongest overall work since their Oscar-nominated “Fargo” 11 years ago. Cormac McCarthy’s lean, angular prose finds the perfect visual correlative in the Coens’ rangy, elegant visual style. An instant classic.

— Milan Paurich