With everything else that’s been going on this year (the new job, the new house, the new wife) I’ve hardly been to the cinema at all this year so this will have to be a top five rather than a top ten. There’s only one other film we saw at the cinema this year that I can think of (Indiana Jones and the Ridiculously Improbable Third Act (which wasn’t as bad as many people made out but still far from great)). Three of the five were animations, one was British and two were from the Middle East. Wouldn’t have guessed that one.

1. Waltz with Bashir

When I first saw the trailers for this, I figured it was just a Persepolis derivitive but, although I loved Persepolis, this one is easily the better film. One of the best war films I’ve ever seen. Jawdropping, rotoscoped animation and a Max Richter soundtrack tell the directors true story of his invovlment as a young man in the Lebanon war in 1982 and why his brain has blanked out any details of it.

2. Wall-E

3. The Dark Knight

4. Persepolis

5. Happy Go Lucky

We went to see this the day we were originally supposed to move house. That was the day it fell through at the last minute. We, understandably went a bit crazy that weekend and decided to get married on the spur of the moment on the way back home from the GFT. (Three weeks later, we were married and breaking the news to the relatives).

EDIT: and I completely forgot that Son Of Rambow (which I loved on levels normally reserved for Michel Gondry) was this year. So call it a top 6 and stick Son Of Rambow in at 2