1. Juno I hadn't originally heard of this film, but the more I did, the more I knew I had to see it. The previews were amazingly funny, and I knew I'd find that heart in the film to make me feel and think. Once it was finally released in my area, I knew why it became the thing I just had to see. It was definitely the film that made me laugh the most all year, and it did a pretty damn good job of making me cry as well. I think it should be required viewing in high schools across the country.

2. Once This is the film that made me truly appreciate Indies. It was originally out, unbeknownst to me, earlier in the year, but it didn't come out my way until August. I hadn't heard of it, but looking up the summary, it sounded like something I might like. Again, I was right. It had amazing music and amazing feelings. Quite the unconventional love story.

3. Black Snake Moan This was one I went to go see as it fit within my timeframe that day. I ended up being the only one in the theatre that afternoon, and with the things I saw on the screen that day, I couldn't decide whether there would be safety in numbers or whether I would rather watch them privately, between the sex and the violence. Nonetheless, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Samuel L. Jackson should have been nominated for something for this.

4. Freedom Writers I realized way after I became a writer that films about writers have always figured prominently in my lists of favorites. This is a film that not only I couldn't wait to see, but that I couldn't wait to take my 14-year-old son to. Along with being a writer, I also aspired to be a teacher, so a film about a teacher that shows her under-achieving students how to become good writers is going to figure pretty prominently.

5. Reign Over Me I never would have thought Adam Sander could be this good. Put it this way ... he's my teenage son's favorite. I picture them sharing the same sense of humor. But this guy made me feel in this movie. He is an incredibly good actor, and it's something we never get to see with his usual choice of roles. I just could not believe that he held his own next to Don Cheadle.

6. Waitress This woman was so horribly abused in this film; there was just no way you couldn't feel for her. The range of emotions she goes through while pregnant were astonishingly correct. Of course, the back story was in some ways another story altogether. The filmmaker, Adrienne Shelly, wrote the film while pregnant, and before the film went on to achieve success at Sundance she was found murdered. A complete shame, as this film proved she had a good career ahead of her.

7. Georgia Rule Ironically, this movie that starred Lindsay Lohan, featured Felicity Huffman playing Lohan's mom, an alcoholic. Also starring Jane Fonda, these three generation of women worked on their lifetime of ignoring each other's problems. Anyone that watches this movie and doesn't recognize the dysfunction that exists in their own family isn't looking closely enough.

8. August Rush I live by the rule that everything happens for a reason, and that seems to be the same thing the young orphaned boy in this film lives by. He has a weird suspicion his whole life that his parents were brought together by music, and feels that if he plays the music that he hears in his head, his family will be reunited. The fact that the boy is actually a musical prodigy once he starts playing brings up the question of why. Robin Williams is amazingly mean in this movie. I didn't think he could ever do anything that would make me hate him. But I did here. It's also the second movie in my top 10 with Keri Russell (Waitress is the other).

9. Martian Child Yet another movie in my top 10 about an orphan. What can I say, I'm a mom! And John Cusack starred in his second movie of the year as a widower. I wanted to see the other, Grace is Gone, but for some odd reason it never made it out here, definitely making me feel like I live in the boondocks, instead of the Chicago 'burbs. Before his wife passed, they were planning on starting a family, and he feels at one point he needs to continue that dream of theirs, and can't get his mind off an orphaned boy who claims he is from outer space. In so many ways these two need each other, although the courts don't necessarily approve of it. A definitely warm movie.

10. The Bucket List Any movie with two of the best actors in our time, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, has to be good. And when it's a film about the two of them facing their own mortality, it's just that much better. Both of the stars made me laugh, with Nicholson as the curmudgeonly old man with his usual caustic wit, and Freeman as the blue collar family man that seems to be the only one that can put Nicholson in his place. And wow, did it make me feel. Anyone that walks out of this film without tears from both laughing and crying wasn't paying attention.

The Best Soundtracks of 2007

I love a good soundtrack. Asked for my favorite genre of music, many times I'll say  soundtracks. I like the stories they tell, as a truly good soundtrack can be popped into the CD player, and you can see the movie play out before you as you listen. The best ever for this is Goodfellas. You hear the instrumental part of Layla and you can just see the guy hanging in the back of the refrigerated truck. Pure brilliance. Here's the best from this past year.

1. Once My #2 movie is my #1 soundtrack. I was brought up on folk music, and Irish folk music is always the best. The filmmaker here knew what he was doing when he hired one of the guys that starred in The Commitments to write the music for the film, and hiring a very young female musician for the same purpose, he soon changed his mind against hiring actors for the lead roles, using the musicians to act and sing the music they wrote. Excuse me for a moment while I hit play on iTunes, as just writing about it makes me want to listen.

2. August Rush My #8 movie is my #2 soundtrack. Sensing a theme here? The music that this boy creates is truly magical. He says in the film he believes in music the same way some people believe in fairy tales, and I know what he means. Additionally, some of the music is based around a Van Morrison tune, Moondance, and the music his father plays is yet more Irish folk music.

3. P.S. I Love You And yet a third movie featuring Irish folk music, this one has a man that mostly posthumously plays the music he knows from his native country. Yet, the soundtrack features not just the music he plays, but other music in this genre as well. It's fabulous. I really ought to create a mix of the first three films.

4. Hairspray the only thing that kept this movie out of my top 10 is one spot. It's #11, but #4 in my soundtracks. The music does a great job of taking you back to that era and says one thing the entire time ... fun. You just can't listen to this music and be depressed. I can't listen to it without doing the cha cha and rumba with Michelle Pfeiffer in The Legend of Miss Baltimore. And how can a soundtrack that also features John Travolta go wrong?

5. Black Snake Moan We've made a few trips to New Orleans, and the music in this film very much reminds me of what we'd hear from the locals on Bourbon Street, the ones we'd pitch a few dollars to. My favorite is Stack-O-Lee complete with enough four letter words to make a sailor blush. But man, do I love to sing this, imagining myself sitting in a seedy club on Bourbon Street, walking in to use the bathroom, but not being able to tear myself away from the music. Oddly, I listen to this a lot while I'm drying my hair.