The Best Films
Hollywood hit home runs with a mysterious family man, gay cowboys and more...

•A History of Violence
A man (Viggo Mortensen) who may have a more colorful past than his wife or small-town neighbors know was the hero of this multilayered thriller that boasted everything we want in a movie: great plot, sex and surprises.

•Crash
We agree with Oprah here. This standout ensemble drama, showing diverse folk making snap judgments—usually wrong—based on race or ethnicity, packed a heart-clutching punch.

•Brokeback Mountain
A haunting love story about two cowpokes (Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) involved in a long-term affair. Set against Wyoming's infinite sky and big mountains, the all-too-human drama of its plainspoken characters poignantly reverberated.

•King Kong
This year's sexiest leading man, furry hands down, was the sensitive ape in a wondrous adventure tale. He's understanding, protective, and laughs—well, it's more of a teeth-baring grin—at his lady love's jokes. What more could a gal (Naomi Watts) ask for?

•Munich
Inspired by real events, a complex thriller thoughtfully probed the growing disenchantment of an Israeli secret agent (Eric Bana) after he's assigned to assassinate terrorists who'd massacred his nation's athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

•The Squid and the Whale
Like a balloon deflating, a puffed-up patriarch (Jeff Daniels) suffered puncture wounds to his ego when his marriage and family life fall apart in an incisive dramedy.

•Walk the Line
In a splendid biopic, Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) overcame a whole lotta woe while he burned, burned, burned for true love June Carter (Reese Witherspoon).

•Capote
A piercing look at the making and breaking of an artist. Author Truman Capote (a brilliant Philip Seymour Hoffman) sows the seeds of his own self-destruction while working on In Cold Blood.

•Good Night, and Good Luck.
Showing how TV news legend Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) took on bullying Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, director-cowriter George Clooney made pertinent points about freedom of speech and journalistic courage.

•Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Our favorite family film of the year. Dim Wallace and crafty Gromit, his canine caretaker, saved the day in their first—and we hope not last—feature.

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Celebrity Favorites
CRASH "It's brilliantly acted, a beautiful story, visually amazing. I thought it was a complete film." —Keira Knightley

CAPOTE "I think [Philip] Seymour Hoffman gave a genius performance." —Ralph Fiennes

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE "It is a wonderful movie, really intense, really real for anyone who has been through a divorce. I'm telling everyone to go see it. —Zach Braff

BATMAN BEGINS "That's the way that Batman should have been done from day one." —Dennis Haysbert

HUSTLE a FLOW "It was off the chain. The movie had great performances, great atmosphere. It had a great heart." —Marg Helgenberger

THE RETURN OF THE R-RATED COMEDY

So long, suggestive PG-13. Dirtier is better, and funnier too. That was Hollywood's big discovery in 2005, as two of the year's highest grossing comedies—Wedding Crashers raked in $209 million domestically and The 40-Year-Old Virgin collected $109 million—were loaded with scenes saucy enough to earn both pictures an R rating. It wasn't just topless lasses and lewd language that merited the big R. Rather, it was moments such as Wedding's gleeful and prolonged under-the-table groping scene and Virgin's how-much-does-it-hurt-to-get-your-chest-waxed montage. To cut out either scene would be to lose major laughs.

What next? Unrated versions with additional nude scenes and even racier bonus features. Studios have discovered that DVDs marked "unrated" outsell tamer versions of the same film by 9 to 1. Which explains why an unrated Virgin disc has just come out and one of Wedding is due Jan. 3.