10 Best Films By 2013's Most Highly Praised Directors

7. Edgar Wright - Hot Fuzz

The exuberant Brit fanboy who gave us Spaced, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy seems to make every movie as if it was his last. Every frame is packed to the brim with vim-and-vigor energy and a relentless enthusiasm that's infectious. He even shoots and edits to get his viewers high off a swooping camera move into a cup of coffee being poured, beer being tapped, a finger clicking a pen, toast being buttered. Never is his visual comedy sharper or his liveliness more uninhibited than in Hot Fuzz, the best of the installments in the Three Flavors Cornetto series. I know, you can easily argue that Shaun was better, or that Scott Pilgrim was more epic and ambitious, but the steady stream of diamond-caliber jokes in Hot Fuzz sets it above Wright's others. From the unexploded land mine, to the grim reaper brotherhood Neighborhood Watch Alliance, to the fence jumping scene, this one simply has one hilarious laugh after another. It's an action-packed, distinctly British comedy that manages to poke fun at all the cop genre tropes while simultaneously paying tribute to them.