_Heeb_ Best of 5769: Film

The lunar calendar finished its cycle and the Jewish year 5769 became 5770, so we decided to use the opportunity to reflect upon the best films of the lunar year 5769.

1. Inglourious Basterds (Weinstein Company)

"Masterpiece," the last word in the script, was also the buzzword that director Quentin Tarantino’s 10-years-in-the-making WWII epic had to live up to, and we weren’t going to settle for anything less. Still, Basterds managed to blow us away. While Tarantino’s films have always explicitly referenced their own cinematic influences, this time the 49-year-old director takes it one step further by explicitly making cinema itself an important character. The pitch-perfect story rolls out like a blood-spattered red carpet and climaxes in a gleefully violent conclusion at the premiere of a Nazi propaganda film—an ending that will surely be one of the most discussed in film history. OLIVER NOBLE