OWEN'S BESTS
8. Once
In a year when Hairspray and Sweeney Todd arrived on the big screen with fervor and panache, John Carney's wee gem of an Irish indie brought off something miraculous. It invited you to swoon the way that only a great musical can. Yet it did so quietly, realistically, with nothing more than two lost souls — a 30ish Dublin busker and the coltish Czech émigré he meets in the street — gathered at the piano, or in a recording studio, to declare the tender ardor they can express only through music. A lot of movies make you cry; this one makes your heart burst.

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