In case you hadn't heard, gay cowboys are so hot right now.

It was a phenomenal year for film, from the sweeping majesty of love under the Wyoming sky in Ang Lee's masterful "Brokeback Mountain" to the long-awaited return of the Dark Knight in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins." And who could have guessed that onetime Bruce Wayne George Clooney could write and direct one of the year's most acclaimed films with "Good Night, and Good Luck?" Add to that a sly and riveting turn in the brilliant "Syriana," and the former "E.R." star had a pretty good year.

But if 2004 was the year of the biopic, 2005 was all about broadcasting the voices of dissent and discontent. "Crash" tackled the unsavory specter of racism, while "Munich" probed the quagmire of Israeli-Palestinian violence. In a time of continuing political uncertainty, Hollywood and the American public stepped up to prove that this country is, now more than ever, committed to confronting these social issues - both within the darkness of a local multiplex as well as in the national dialogue such topical films have spurred. We live in a marvelous era when 50-year-old lifelong conservatives can, with open minds, appreciate hot cowboy-on-cowboy action.

Now, to coincide with the recent announcement of the Academy's picks for the top films of the year, the Michigan Daily's film critics and junkies offer up our own takes.

Jeffrey Bloomer

1 Brokeback Mountain

An emotionally transcendent experience - Ang Lee demonstrates a singular ability to frame characters with a preternatural sense of time, mood and circumstance. And while much of its appeal lies in its universality, make no mistake: The film's subject matter does lend to its power. This is revolutionary work.

2 A History of Violence

A visceral jolt of pure, brutally inspired moviemaking. David Cronenberg's most readily accessible film is also his most pointed, at once a playful noir, a fascinating character study and, in its own way, the most politically subversive movie of the year.

3 Match Point

It's telling that the finest moments in "Match Point" come after its big twist. Woody Allen's ingenious play on simple notions of luck and morality is among the most patient studio movies in years, carefully building toward its narrative hook and then actually taking the time to consider it afterward. The final shot ingeniously closes the film with smug, teasing confidence.

4 Syriana

With "Syriana," Stephen Gaghan cements his reputation for crafting audaciously complex visions of international politics that make up for what they lack in lucidity with taut, nervy and keenly entertaining storytelling. The film raises more moral and ethical questions than it can answer, but then maybe that's the point: not so much to convince as to provoke.

5 Grizzly Man

The rare documentary with such comprehensive access to its subject that it completely envelopes us in its stark, almost voyeuristic grasp. The film paints a disquieting portrait of Timothy Treadwell, a funny, unusual brand of activist who exhibits stunning recklessness and finally unconscionable devotion.

6 Oldboy

An unrelentingly graphic Korean revenge epic steeped in a bizarre ideology of violence and institutionalized horror. The images it evokes are unforgettable - less because of the actual physical torture (though it's in no short supply) and more for its hauntingly creative pageant of human suffering and redemption.

7 Capote

Told in increasingly powerful segments, "Capote" offers both a large-scale and a small-scale story brimming with moral and intellectual grey zones. But what's really at stake here - and what really makes the movie - goes deeper than its (already compelling) surface story and into the mind of its subject, masterfully invoked by soon-to-be Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman.

8 Turtles Can Fly

The first film out of Iraq since the war began is an apolitical, harrowing tale set in the weeks before the war began. The film's focus is Satellite (eagerly played by Soran Ebrahim), a brilliant 13-year-old orphan/local businessman rendered with a complexity rarely seen in screen youths.

9 Munich

Steven Spielberg's careful, beautifully written and directed depiction of the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack is not the polarizing indictment that many might expect but rather a searching, conflicted thriller intended to raise retrospective questions rather than reignite deeply imbedded cultural fire.

10 King Kong

The kind of gorgeous, outrageously high-minded spectacle we've come to expect from Peter Jackson.