By Christy Lemire

Associated Press

Here are Associated Press movie critic Christy Lemire’s Top 10 films of the decade.

● “No Country for Old Men” — This breathtaking saga of crime and carnage along the Rio Grande emerges as the Coen brothers’ masterwork among their bold and eclectic filmography. In adapting Cormac McCarthy’s novel about the repercussions of a ruined drug deal, Joel and Ethan Coen (and the great cinematographer Roger Deakins) have created an evocative, beautifully bleak landscape. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones both give subtly powerful performances, but Javier Bardem is chilling in his Oscar-winning supporting turn as an eccentric serial killer.

● “There Will Be Blood” — An inventively gorgeous yet wildly weird epic about greed, lies, manipulation and insanity, with a terrifying leading performance from Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthless California oil man. Except for its inescapable intensity, you’d never know this was a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. All his usual stylistic tricks are gone; the “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia” director seems more focused on character and storytelling, and he leaves you gasping.

● “American Splendor” — A film unlike any other that year, and perhaps unlike any other, period. Wildly ambitious and imaginative, and consistently successful. Part feature and part documentary with some animation tossed in, the story of cranky comic book writer Harvey Pekar is full of sharp comic observations. As Pekar, Paul Giamatti is vividly funny and sad, usually at the same time.

● “Far From Heaven” — This would have been one of the best films of 2002 based solely on its exquisite cinematography and production design. Add Julianne Moore’s complex performance and writer-director Todd Haynes’ keenly observant script, both Oscar-nominated, and you have a movie that’s nearly flawless. Haynes’ loving homage to the Technicolor female-driven melodramas of the 1950s looks and feels so authentic, it makes you forget you’re watching a new movie.

● “Sideways” — Also starring Paul Giamatti, further proving that beneath his character-actor looks lie the talent and versatility of a leading man. Disarmingly written and beautifully cast, with equal amounts of humor and heart, Alexander Payne’s middle-aged, coming-of-age tale of loneliness, love of wine and unlikely relationships resonates long after the lights go up. Superb supporting work from Virginia Madsen, Thomas Haden Church and Sandra Oh.

● “Memento” — Told backward, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s revenge thriller leaves you reeling over what you just saw — or didn’t see. Its narrative approach is ingenious (and turned out to be hugely influential), and it must have been incredibly hard to craft and make all the details fit. As a man seeking revenge for his wife’s murder, Guy Pearce is dark and tormented. And in supporting roles, Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano are perfectly mysterious.

● “Mystic River” — A modern-day Shakespearean tragedy, this is one of Clint Eastwood’s best ever as director, more haunting over time than even his 2004 best-picture winner, “Million Dollar Baby.” A gripping, gorgeous film about revenge, friendship and lost innocence in a richly detailed Boston setting. Excellent performances from an incredible cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney.

● “The Squid and the Whale” — There isn’t a false note in this darkly funny story about married writers who are divorcing and how the split affects their sons. Writer-director Noah Baumbach’s film, loosely based on his own ’80s adolescence in Brooklyn, N.Y., is poignant and observant, hilarious and achingly sad. Jeff Daniels is perfect as the pompous patriarch whose glory days have long since passed; he gets excellent support from Laura Linney as his wife and Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline as their confused kids.

● “WALL-E” — Pixar’s masterpiece. The animation company maintains its impeccable record with this irresistible, visually marvelous tale of the last robot on Earth. It’s groundbreaking in its simplicity. Although the little guy and his lady love, Eve, exchange maybe three words total, director Andrew Stanton is resourceful enough to find infinite ways for them to express themselves.

● “Wonder Boys” — Michael Douglas shines in the unlikely role of an English professor and novelist who’s stuck, personally and professionally. The acting is categorically strong from a talented ensemble cast, especially Robert Downey Jr. The dialogue is insightful, and although the story takes place over a wild weekend, the situations never seem forced in director Curtis Hanson’s hands. It’s one to stop and watch every time it comes on TV.