A sedate modern western, a giddily nasty teen comedy and a drama of war and class top the Daily film staff's list of the best movies of the year, and taken together the films provide a telling glimpse into the kind of year 2007 was.

There was no runaway moment that defined the season, no marquee masterpiece that broke records, no big trend that gave writers in my position an easy out at the end of the year. The only consensus that seems to have formed is that this was an uncommonly good year for film and an even better one for discussing it. Whether in service of "300" or "Knocked Up," "Eastern Promises" or "There Will Be Blood," 2007 was a year that invited strong opinions and saw cross-cultural debates at every turn. Are the warriors of "300" gay or Bush surrogates? Is Judd Apatow pro-life? Is David Cronenberg having some kind of weird Clint Eastwood moment? And who, exactly, is that Daniel Day-Lewis character supposed to be?

There has been a place for every movie this year, and there's more reason than usual to celebrate it. No discussion can go without mention of the American writers' strike and how it will affect production in the next couple of years. Jeers out of Hollywood studios have sought to ensure that the strike has only caused the most obvious surface damage, that the long-term security of the industry in the forthcoming years is sound. But with a virtual creative deadlock in the past several months and the chilly reception to the movies that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month, it seems prudent, even urgent, to solidify what went so right this year and also what went astray. Ahead are just a few observations, because in a year as insistently eclectic as this one, it's impossible (believe me, I tried) to extol all of the triumphs and frustrations in one essay.

THE NEW BLOCKBUSTER

In a blockbuster season notorious for its week-after-week slate of sequels to movies that didn't require them, many old names in spectacle filmmaking were dominant (the painfully inane but admirably persistent clanking of Michael Bay's "Transformers" still echoes somewhere in my subconscious). More interesting were the names no one expected to ever be attached to a movie that cost more than $10 million to make. The most accomplished blockbusters - or at least the ones that earned the best reviews - were the ones by directors who started as part of distinct subcultures outside of the Hollywood mainstream but have begun to carve a new niche in the major-budget market.

I'm talking about David Yates ("State of Play"), whom producers hired out of nowhere to direct "Harry Potter of the Order of the Phoenix" and who proceeded to make the only film in the series effective both aesthetically and emotionally. Or Paul Greengrass, the director of movies like "Bloody Sunday" and "United 93," who solidified his talent for action with "The Bourne Ultimatum," the second in the series he directed and by far the most successful. A series like "Bourne," with no real hook to distinguish it, has benefited enormously from his microscopic touch, and has also generated serious discussion outside popcorn circles. (Manohla Dargis of The New York Times even suggested it for a best picture nomination.) By the time Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" opens in July, no Hollywood studio will be able to argue the benefits of snagging a former independent maverick for its next triple-digit movie.

THE APATOW REVOLUTION

There has been no shortage of ink spilled about Judd Apatow, the new mythic figure to emerge from the Hollywood comedy machine, and I'm not about to interject. It's difficult to understate how big of a deal it is that the former folk television hero has become a success that major studios are willing to finance. He and his creative class, which includes the writers of "Superbad," have the ability to crush the crass, hopelessly repetitive frat-pack movies that have long dominated this genre on pure good will alone. His movies strike a chord not just because they're funny, though they really are, but because they're not (just) about making fun of their characters.

No, he's not flawless. If you saw "Walk Hard" last month, you probably understand why most people didn't. But the honesty he imbued in the last two movies he helmed, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," helped turn two modest, partially improvised comedies into instant contemporary touchstones. He's attached as either a writer or producer to four movies scheduled for 2008 - including "The Pineapple Express," already famous for a brief preview that blazed the Web late last year - and there's every reason to be hopeful that his brand becomes a new convention.

WHERE ARE THE MOVIES?