Films that didn't make my top ten list this year but might have in another year and are well worth seeing:
a sadly underseen comedy - with great work by John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei - that couldn't quite sustain its edge in the final third;
surely the best rave movie since "Go," with a ubiquitous-neon vision of Tokyo that will forever be etched in my memory;
Roman Polanski's cleverly constructed and highly absorbing thriller;
Noah Baumbach's caustic social commentary, with a wise-beyond-her-years performance by Greta Gerwig;
the mainstream American comedy with the highest hit-to-miss ratio this year and a lot of big laughs;
Nicole Holofcener's
which made any theater playing it a bullshit-free zone;
the best Disney animation in two decades and the family entertainment of the year;
an excitingly confident debut by Lena Dunham and a great New York movie; and
the most fun Western in a coon's age, in which Hailee Steinfeld gives those nasty boys all they want and then some.
