Many films covered war, birth, death

The Great Debaters, a portrait of how educators in the 1930s sowed the seeds for the civil rights movement, rounds out my 10-Best list. Denzel Washington's mostly true Depression inspirational is an intellectual action film celebrating charisma and guts. In a year of blood and guts, it offers much-needed cinematic balm.

Speaking of Washington, so terrific both as drug kingpin Lucas inAmerican Gangster and poet/professor Melvin Tolson in Debaters: He might pull off the hat trick of three Oscar nominations - best actor (Gangster), director, and supporting actor (Debaters).

Only Philip Seymour Hoffman, superlative inBefore the Devil Knows You're Dead, The Savages, andCharlie Wilson's War, enjoyed a year as memorable as Washington's. But Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elahand No Country for Old Men), Josh Brolin (Gangsterand No Country), and Jason Bateman (Junoand The Kingdom) came mighty close.

For best line of the year, my nomination comes from Juno: "Dad, I'm dealing with things way above my maturity level."