Best Movies of 2004
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Before SunsetNine years on, in eighty minutes of something close to real time, Jesse and Céline have lost enough to make every line count.Read the review
DownfallBruno Ganz gives the definitive screen Hitler, trembling and raging in a bunker, in a film that watches the collapse with forensic calm.
Million Dollar BabyEastwood's boxing film is sold as an underdog story, turns into something far darker, and its craft never flinches from the turn.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of AzkabanCuaron throws out the tour guide and shoots the series like an actual film.
The IncrediblesA superhero film about middle age, marriage and thwarted talent, made with more style than most live action blockbusters manage.
Kill Bill: Volume 2The talking half, and David Carradine turns a punchline villain into something almost tragic.
The AviatorA biopic that uses film stock as a clock and still cannot escape the standard checklist of a life.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindGondry does the erasure in-camera, and Carrey's restraint makes the science fiction feel like memory.
Howl's Moving CastleThe most beautiful of Miyazaki's films to look at and the most careless of them to follow.
Mean GirlsTina Fey's field guide to high school cruelty is endlessly quotable, sharper than teen comedies usually dare to be, and Lindsay Lohan's finest hour.