Million Dollar Baby is admirable for its spare style and its ability to handle its melodramatic, hyper-emotional elements with restraint, making them even more powerful. From a classic underdog story set in the world of female boxing, it goes off in a completely unpredicted direction; such a shocking wrench in tone and plot would sink a lesser film. Yet thanks to Clint Eastwood’s assured direction, it works. All three leads, Hilary Swank as the determined boxer, Eastwood as her reluctant trainer, and Morgan Freeman as Eastwood’s long-time employee and friend, are perfectly cast, and the acting rapport is genuine. I'm not a huge fan of Swank, who hasn’t done any interesting work since Boys Don’t Cry, but her performance is so natural and true, as is Morgan Freeman's, that they are a joy to watch. No flash, no glitz, no arty shots, just a great story, great acting, and some great directing from Eastwood, whose art is only improving with age.

After being badly miscast in Gangs of New York, Leonardo DiCaprio finally has a role he can sink his teeth into in The Aviator, playing young playboy-billionaire and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. In contrast to Million Dollar Baby, the film is all glitz and color and flash, another bravura piece of big-scale movie making from Martin Scorsese in almost top form. For any film buff, the best part is the lush recreation of the golden age of Hollywood. There’s Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, an entertaining cameo from Jude Law as Errol Flynn, and best of all, Cate Blanchett’s sly, on-the-edge-of-parody portrayal of Kate Hepburn. The first scene where the eccentric Hughes and the unconventional Hepburn meet, filmed in the slightly faded colors of a period newsreel, is funny and enchanting. The Aviator is an American tragedy that strangely ends decades before its well-known final act, but the strong performances and confident direction make this one of the best films of the year.

For silly, pure, and almost perfect light entertainment, with just a tad of gore, look no further than the British horror-comedy, Shaun of the Dead. A British parody of just about any zombie flick, the running gag is that Shaun, the slacker hero, doesn’t appear to notice that most of his neighbors are turning into zombies. The inventive screenplay is filled with laugh-out-loud jokes, for example, when Shaun and his roommate argue over the merits of the records they’re throwing at fast-approaching zombies. Even though the movie is fairly violent (characters are eaten by the living dead and plenty of zombies get whacked with Shaun’s weapon of choice, a cricket bat), the film remains light in touch, and the end is actually heart-warming. For lovers of the BBC comedy The Office, there’s a bonus in the casting of Lucy Davis as one of the zombie-fleeing team, and a brief cameo by Martin Freeman in one of the film’s funniest scenes.