More like a “little guy films we loved,” and boy, did it suck that I could only pick five. (Since Bright Star seems to be…dimming when it comes to the Oscars, I do wish I picked it in retrospect. But I feel like it’s so nice, so classy, so well done that it can’t be ignored? That in a lot of ways, it’s gotten more attention than a Whip It?)

Anyways, it’s an imperfect, passionate list, and I love my In the Loop blurb:

You know how the Eskimos have 40 words for snow? In the world of In the Loop, there are over 40 different and ever more colorful ways to say “f*** off!” A joy to watch, and you can get the DVD on January 12, Iannucci’s feature-length variation on his BBC series The Thick of It is a word-mad rush to war. With an ensemble cast (including My Girl’s Anna Chlumsky) led ably by the angry sexy Scotsman Peter Capaldi as spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, the film follows bumbling British politicos as they’re used as pawns for America’s hawk agendas. The script is particularly brilliant, with the charge coming from the pleasure of watching people play around with words, words, words as they verbally eviscerate each other. Yet the screwball comedy set-up, the barrage of insults and one-liners, hide the scathing message at the heart of this merciless, truly-black hearted satire (one of the few films deserving of the word “satire”)—that through forces of ego and one-upmanship, these horrible, well-meaning idiots have just authorized a war that will kill thousands of innocent people, civilians and soldiers alike. It is a work of genius, and if we weren’t living in such idiotic times, it would be mentioned in the same breath as Dr. Strangelove. As it should be.

And when I post next - I’m in the middle of a lot of crazy, wonderful things at the moment, a Goodbye to All That, I suppose - I really want to talk about the fascinatingly imperfect Jennifer’s Body.