LISA'S BESTS
9. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
The story is old — that of a famous American outlaw, done in by one of his own — but the telling is fresh in this haunting elegy by Andrew Dominik. The charismatic title gunslinger, played with wise eyes by Brad Pitt, is, after all, a superstar isolated by his own celebrity. And the coward who craves James' attention, played with career-vaulting delicacy by Casey Affleck, is a resentful suck-up who confuses sour fandom with entitlement. A resonant, confident adagio of a composition, Jesse James invites comparisons to wild-card Westerns of the 1960s and '70s for its juxtaposition of beautifully moody skies and dangerously inward-turning personalities.

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