BY BOB STRAUSS > FILM WRITER

Some are calling 2007 the best year for movies since ... oh, I don't know, whenever in the misty past such a thing actually occurred.

Not me. I certainly enjoyed a high ratio of films over the past 12 months on a kind of "Man, did you see how fast that truck turned into a alien robot?" level. But I can't say that I saw much unadulterated greatness. In fact, just about every movie that strove for serious status also seemed burdened with a glaring flaw or four this year.

(For a more detailed take on this odd phenomenon, check the "Achilles Tendency" entry at my Reel Deal blog.)

And that includes at least half of the titles on my own top 10 list.

Rather than hold out for perfection in an imperfect world, I pretty much just went with what tickled me the most, which is all I suspect anyone proclaiming year-end best-ofs is doing. I think people of taste - and we were definitely an oppressed minority in a year when so many flocked to "300," three-quels and "Norbit" - can agree that it's a matter of personal preference this time around.

I don't know why my preferences leaned toward sensitive artist types, irrepressible women and stylized action. Maybe it's the whole Iraq thing ... No, scratch that. If 2007's movies taught us anything, it's that we sure don't want to go there.

Anyway, here's what I liked. Give 'em a try. You may not be as impressed, but they're all better than listening to singing chipmunks.

1. "I'm Not There": Todd Haynes' kaleidoscopic impression of all that Bob Dylan could mean was as smart and imaginative as rock's greatest poet himself. And one clear idea threaded through this free-form mind-bender of a movie: It ain't easy for a real artist to persevere in a pop culture that's always trying to reduce and simplify - a struggle the director knows as well as the troubadour.

2. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days": The Romanian abortion movie won many significant European awards for very good reasons. It's a crackling psychological thriller in the real, rare sense, dramatizing how a repressive society instills real fears and paranoid fantasies, confusing its citizens to the point where they can't distinguish between the two. It's also the best-acted film of the year and, since it goes ahead and actually has that abortion, braver than anything made in the land of the free.

3. "Away From Her": Utterly unpredictable yet completely persuasive behavior makes this Alzheimer's love story glow. Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent couldn't be sweeter, or wilier, as the old married couple whose lifelong devotion is delectably seasoned by mutual distrust. Adapted from a great Alice Munro story and directed by Canadian actress Sarah Polley with an emotional wisdom that's just astonishing for somebody still in her 20s.

4. "The Bourne Ultimatum": The most cinematic big action movie of the year, filmed better than anything else he's ever done in director Paul Greengrass' assaultive, swinging camera style. And significantly enough, it was the only film about what's gone wrong with the war on terror that anybody really liked.

5. "Control": I've always been a total Dylan freak, but I knew absolutely nothing about Joy Division's Ian Curtis and his music until this terribly poignant, lustrously black-and-white first feature introduced me to them, photographer-turned-director Anton Corbijn and the most naturally compelling British actor I've met in ages, Sam Riley. Now that's covering the spectrum.

6. "Offside": Iranian gender politics really take a whuppin' from this insolent, impassioned comedy about girl soccer fans trying to sneak into a men-only finals match. The guys have the badges and the guns, but there's no way they're going to win this fight. Nor, of course, is there any way they should.

7. "Atonement": I don't know. Almost put "The Savages" here. This one's more technically ambitious and structurally interesting; that one's better written and acted. I guess, in the end, I very much admired how "Atonement's" tasteful restraint made "The English Patient" look totally ridiculous.

8. "Gone Baby Gone": The most satisfying kind of whodunit, one that pivots on harrowing ethical choices. Ben Affleck joins "Away From Her's" Polley on the most impressive actor-turned-director list; both owe incalculable debts to their brilliant source material writers (in this case, novelist Dennis Lehane).

9. "Grindhouse": Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez turned trash into some kind of art, or at least something so radical that it actually hurt to watch in its original, rollercoaster form. The distributor panicked and sliced this essential double-feature into two separate DVDs. This was no crime against cinema on the order of, say, the destruction of most of "Greed" or the reshot ending of "Magnificent Ambersons." But it did ruin the most unique experience I had in a movie theater all year.

10. "Juno" / "Lars and the Real Girl": Two fantastic young Canadian actors, Ellen Page and Ryan Gosling, led crack comic ensembles that demonstrated Middle Americans can be open-minded, forgiving and flexibly supportive of amorous misconduct. Thanks for the lovely fantasy, friends from the north.

PERFOMER OF THE YEAR
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Savages," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "Charlie Wilson's War."

SOME NOTABLE TRENDS
Music - Though a key element of cinema since silent movies needed live accompaniment, music informed an unusual number of 2007's feature films in integral and ingenious ways.

"Black Snake Moan," "Once," "Hairspray," "Across the Universe," "Great World of Sound," "I'm Not There," "Control," "The Band's Visit," "Atonement," "Romance & Cigarettes," "Walk Hard," "Sweeney Todd," "Honeydripper."

Dishonorable mentions - "La Vie en Rose," "El Cantante," "August Rush," "Alvin and the Chipmunks."

NOT GETTING ABORTIONS
I know that there wouldn't have been a lot of good movies if the women in them had just gotten rid of their unwanted fetuses. But did they really have to act so much like it was an unthinkable option?

"Stephanie Daley," "Waitress," "Knocked Up," "Juno," "Bella," "Margot at the Wedding."

Honorable mentions: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," "Lake of Fire."

HOMOPHOBOPHILIA
Were these movies gay or just terrified that they might be? I still can't tell.

"Wild Hogs," "300," "Blades of Glory," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," "Sleuth," "The Kite Runner."

MAN, THAT WAR SUCKS
Sucked eggs at the box office, anyway.

"G.I. Jesus," "The Situation," "The Prisoner," "A Mighty Heart," "In the Valley of Elah," "The Kingdom, Rendition," "Lions for Lambs," "Redacted," "No End in Sight, Grace Is Gone," "Charlie Wilson's War."

Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT 2007
Chaos theory: Bad behavior and way too much drama ruled -- by David Kronke
Film critic Glenn Whipp's top 10
Film critic Bob Strauss' top 10