Todd Picks a Baker's Dozen From 2005

13. Evil Aliens
No, it’s not high art but sometimes a good splatter film is just what the doctor ordered and Jake West’s deliriously blood soaked opus is just what the doctor ordered. He may not quite reach the heights of the Raimi and Jackson films he so clearly loves but he’s in the same neighborhood and has more than enough style of his own to distance himself from the horde’s of hollow Evil Dead imitators. Review.

12. The Proposition
Memo to Guy Pearce: stay out of Hollywood. Indies are where you shine brightest, and you’ve seldom been better than in this grimmer than grim Aussie western. Bleak is a word for it. Minimal another. I go with stunning. Yeah, Nick Cave wrote it but playing up that angle seems like cheap gimmickery for a film that really doesn’t need it. Review.

11. Hawaii Oslo
The bastard love child of p.t. anderson and Wim Wenders. A subtle, elliptical script, gorgeous camera work, fantastic soundtrack, and a dead solid cast including Aksel Hennie - who will be mentioned again farther down the list – make this a keeper. Bittersweet and not afraid to ask difficult questions. Review.

10. Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Wererabbit
The transition from short to feature is a difficult one but Nick Park takes his prize characters through the transition flawlessly. Park is an animator to be treasured around the world and if this funny, charming film doesn’t win the animation Oscar something is very, very wrong. Review.

9. Dead Man’s Shoes
Yes, it came out in the UK prior to 2005 but I didn’t catch it until it hit DVD in the spring and it has yet to make it to these shores. That director Shane Meadows is a virtual unknown outside the UK, as is star Paddy Considine, verges on criminal. Considine has never turned in a weak performance and he is absolutely ferocious in this. Review.

8. UNO
The launch of young Norweigian actor Aksel Hennie as a major force with the pen and camera as well. It’s a tough and tender story of broken loyalties on the fringes of society and Hennie is stellar on all fronts: actor, writer and director. Review.

7. Reconstruction
Another stunning debut out of Scandanavia, this one from Danish director Christoffer Boe. Calling Boe a more existential Wong Kar Wai is not too far off the mark. Stunning photography and fantastic performances drive Boe’s fractured metaphysical love story. Bring on Allegro! Review.

6. Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Michael Winterbottom goes all Charlie Kauffman on us and makes a triumphant return to form in the process. How does a film this experimental manage to be so funny? A cast loaded with the best UK comedy stars doesn’t hurt. Neither does managing to maintain a surprisingly human heart to things. Of course, things this smart generally fail miserably at the box office …Review.

5. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Park Chan Wook concludes his vengeance trilogy in fine style, lacing his trademark visual panache with enough metaphysical musing on the need for redemption to set your inner theologian spinning. Or you can just sit back and enjoy one of the finest thrillers of recent years. Your choice. Review, though this one's Kurt's.

4. Taste of Tea
Make this one comeback film of the year. Katsuhito Ishii dropped out of live action film making after the mixed response to his sophomore film Party 7 – which I personally loathe – and came back with this: a deliciously understated and surreal musing on family. Slyly funny and deeply touching The Taste of Tea proves that Ishii can actually write characters composed of more than empty quirks. I never would have guessed he had it in him but I’m glad he did. Review.

3. Head On
Possibly the most dysfunctional love story ever told. Definitely the most bruising. This film will make you hurt for days. Director Fatih Akin is the future of German film. Review.

2. Pusher 2
The strongest entry in Nicholas Winding Refn’s stunning trilogy of Danish crime films. What I said about Paddy Considine being overlooked outside of his homeland? Ditto for Mads Mikkelsen. He’s always good, but his portrayal of weak willed and weak minded thug Tonnie is clearly the highlight of his career. Review.

1. Sha Po Lang
What is there to say that we haven’t already said? Can its blend of heroic bloodshed, cop thriller and martial arts glory return the Hong Kong industry to its mysteriously abandoned roots? We can only hope. If not this may go down as the island’s last great gasp. Review.