It's that time of the year again and by now, the majority of movie blogs and sites will have posted their list of top movies. Here @tMF, we're celebrating our sixth month and our first top ten list.

Jeremy, our film review administrator and David, one of our film reviewers, will soon be posting their own top ten lists. In the meantime, here's mine!

TOP TEN FILMS OF 2007
By Jed Medina @tMF

Joe Wright's Atonement premiered at the Venice Film festival to much acclaim, but failed to win any major awards. It went on to become one of the year's most nominated films, notably at the Golden Globes.

I think of Atonement as one of the best films of the year. It's a rare cinematic feat- a visual feast that satisfies on many levels- it's ambitious filmmaking from a talented director, has a terrific story,  with stunning visuals, and features amazing performances- especially from James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.

And I'm not the only one who thinks highly of this film.

Says Variety:

"Rarely has a book sprung so vividly to life, but also worked so enthrallingly in pure movie terms, as with “Atonement,” Brit helmer Joe Wright’s smart, dazzlingly upholstered adaptation of Ian McEwan’s celebrated 2001 novel. Period yarn, largely set in 1930s and ‘40s England, about an adolescent outburst of spite that destroys two lives and crumples a third, preserves much of the tome’s metaphysical depth and all of its emotional power. And as in Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice,” Keira Knightley -- echoed by co-thesp James McAvoy --proves every bit as magnetic as the divas of those classic mellers pic consciously references."

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The dynamic duo of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is simply...awesome! In their latest project, they succeeded in bringing to the screen the magic and the horror of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

One film reviewer even went to the extreme and declared:

"Perhaps the greatest director and actor duo in film history, Burton and Depp again show us what can be achieved on the big screen."

Even Time has this to say: "Burton and Depp infuse the brilliant cold steel of Stephen Sondheim's score with a burning passion. Helena Bonham Carter and a superb supporting cast bring focused fury to this musical nightmare. It's bloody great."

Says the Hollywood Reporter: "The blood juxtaposed to the music is highly unsettling. It runs contrary to expectations. Burton pushes this gore into his audiences' faces so as to feel the madness and the destructive fury of Sweeney's obsession. Teaming with Depp, his long-time alter ego, Burton makes Sweeney a smoldering dark pit of fury and hate that consumes itself. With his sturdy acting and surprisingly good voice, Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages."

...but let us say the last word:

"Sweeney Todd is rare cinema that creates a world consisting of greed, love, vengeance, rivalries, obsession, evil, delicious pies and did I say it’s all wrapped up in a musical? I didn’t want this movie to end. "

"Before starting on the script, I wanted Charlotte Gainsbourg to play the role, because I wanted to work with her again. As I said, life is all about chance. Shortly afterwards, I went to New York and Audrey Tautou, who I had never met, was on the plane sitting next to me. We got to know each other, but didn’t talk about the book. She already knew that Charlotte had the role. However, two or three weeks later, Audrey told her agent that if Charlotte could not do the film, she would like to play Camille. As she is a generous girl, she did not want to take the role from Charlotte. " says director Claude Berri.

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The acclaimed French director is talking about how he cast French star Audrey Tautou ( A Very Long Engagement, Amelie) in the lead role for his new film, Hunting and Gathering (Ensemble, c’est tout).

What's the Movie About: In mid-2004, Anna Gavalda’s best selling novel Hunting and gathering was brought to the attention of celebrated producer and director Claude Berri (Jean de Florette, The Housekeeper). Berri believed that the combination of contemporary subject matter, tender and often humorous dialogue, and the unique setting would lend itself wonderfully to the cinematic form, and immediately secured rights. Three years later, the resulting film is a sensual, romantic fable that digs deep into the heart of human by emotion in all its forms. Both realist and poetic, Hunting and gathering tells a universal story about happiness regained through love and friendship.

Duris, regarded as one of the most exciting and talented actors today, has been a regular in Klapisch film- playing the lead roles in both The Spanish Apartment and Russian Dolls- two films highly successful at the box office. Now another collaboration.

Says european-films.net:

French director Cédric Klapisch wowed both French and international audiences with his quick-witted charmer L'auberge espagnole (The Spanish Apartment) from 2002, which introduced Romain Duris and Cécile de France to legions of new fans. The unsure student and his lesbian best friend returned for the sequel Les poupées russes (Russian Dolls), set -- though not filmed -- five years later, with all the characters hitting thirty. For his upcoming film Paris, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the French capital, Klapisch regular Romain Duris will play the pivotal role of a possibly terminally ill Parisian, while the director has also recruited some of France's finest talent to star alongside Duris, including Juliette Binoche, Albert Dupontel, François Cluzet, 2007 French Shooting Star Mélanie Laurent, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard and Gilles Lelouche. The film will premiere in France in February 2008.

"I've been out to LA a couple of times but, over there, the Grenouille in me always comes to the surface. I feel completely terrified, totally flummoxed, like I don't understand what the hell is going on. I've no desire at all to go back there," says the acclaimed British actor Ben Whishaw.

While many actors would do anything to become a Hollywood star, here we have someone who is, at most, reluctant to even go to Hollywood!

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His role in I'm Not There is so small that many of his fans (myself included) were simply disappointed. After playing the lead in Perfume, we expected to see him taking on more challenging roles. Perhaps we'll get that satisfaction in two of his upcoming films: Brideshead Revisited and Bright Star.

Oh and he got another film coming up: The Restraint of Beasts!

"A total of 106 leading North American film critics participated in the second indieWIRE Critics' Poll, surveying the best in film for 2007. Voting was conducted in nine categories during the first half of December. This poll was created to continue the tradition of a national survey of critics, by calling attention to the year's best -- and, in many cases, most overlooked -- films, providing a meaningful counterpoint to much of the year-end hoopla."

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The top 20 films, according to IndieWire:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. Zodiac
3. No Country for Old Men
4. Syndromes and a Century
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
6. I’m Not There
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Colossal Youth
9. Killer of Sheep
10. Offside
11. Black Book
12. Once
13. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
14. Eastern Promises
15. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
16. Regular Lovers
17. The Host
18. Southland Tales
19. Into the Wild
20. Ratatouille

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The report further says: Still unseen by the general public as the year comes to a close, Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" dominated indieWIRE's annual survey of more than 100 North American film critics. Set for a limited U.S. release starting next week, the exceptional fifth feature by P.T. Anderson was named best film of the year in indieWIRE's poll of 106 film critics.

One of Australia's rising star, Khan Chittenden in one of his most important films, WEST.

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What's the Movie About: Pete (Khan Chittenden) and Jerry (Nathan Phillips) are cousins and best friends, going nowhere in the west of Sydney. They are unemployed and shiftless – bored, drunk and stoned most of the time. When Jerry gets a girlfriend and a job at a fast food chicken outlet, Pete moves from selling small amounts of marijuana to selling harder drugs, supplied by an older friend Steve (Tim McCunn). Jerry’s new girlfriend Cheryl (Gillian Alexy) responds to Pete’s obvious interest; they begin an affair behind Jerry’s back. All of them are now using Pete’s free drugs.