1. "Zero Dark Thirty"

Like "All the President's Men" and "The Battle of Algiers," "Zero Dark Thirty" turns a story we know -- or, rather, thought we knew -- into a riveting tale of tension and suspense. Like "Zodiac," it depicts a hunt against the odds, and what that costs the people committed to following a trail of rumors and half-truths. Like "Broadcast News," it depicts the humanity and humor of a high-stress workplace, where ordinary people try to do extraordinary things and bond while getting on each other's nerves, and vice-versa. Yet it's also its own film, and defiantly so. Journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal researched a script that speeds through a decade like a lightning bolt, culminating in a silent raid on a house that may, or may not, contain the most wanted man alive. Kathryn Bigelow's direction turns truth into drama -- and, yes, takes a few liberties -- moving forward with both dread and excitement. And Jessica Chastain's Maya, a monster hunter who looks into the abyss, begins the film with frustration and ends it alone, on a colossal plane, a few tears of exhaustion rolling down her face. It's not an easy fist-pumping celebration of "We did it!" but deeper, more difficult questions of "What now?" and "What next?" and "What did this cost us?" With its unadorned style and slow-burn pacing, "Zero Dark Thirty" is a technical and journalistic achievement as much as it is an artistic one, a film where silence speak volumes and illumination is found in the shadows. -- James Rocchi

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(Columbia Pictures)