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TORONTO — There was much to like about the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (see my daily updates from last week at the CT Movies blog), but rather than simply list my favorite films here, or try to argue for which ones are in some subjective way the "best," I've decided to simply highlight some films that might appeal to different tastes. And so …

If you like mainstream narrative films, check out Agora.

I've already written that Agora isn't so much an anti-religion film as an anti-intolerance film, so rather than elaborate on that, I'd rather say a few more words on my contention that the film is a "smashingly good story." I've heard some grumbles that it is too broad and hence unfocused. One man's lack of focus is another man's scope and breadth, I guess. One of the conventions of epics is that they unfold over a large setting, and it is the very density of the film's population of characters that allows it to be more nuanced in its representation of people than are those more narrowly focused films that inevitably show one side of a conflict as unilaterally good and the other as completely in the wrong.

A scene from 'Agora'

There are three distinct movements in the film. The interludes—containing shots of the earth from space and subtitles filling in the contextual, historical facts—could conceivably make some feel like they are watching three episodes of a miniseries rather than a traditional Aristotelian narrative. The non-traditional structure makes sense within the context of the film, which is about taking a larger (historical or cosmological) view of immediate conflicts and (as director Alejandro Amenábar said in one Q&A session) meditating on the implications (personal, political, metaphysical) that history has often unfolded cyclically rather than in unchecked, linear progress.

Yet despite the vastness of the setting, the film remains more interested in particular human beings and their particular choices than in sweeping generalizations. I absolutely cannot stress enough the importance of Amenábar's decision to build sets and limit the use of CGI. It shows in the performances, (one actor at the Q&A spoke on how much easier it was to act within a set than in front of a green screen) and it keeps the focus of the film on human relationships rather than spectacle. There is spectacle, but it is used to punctuate dramatic highlights and is thus more integrated into the film than are chase scenes or set pieces in the average blockbuster.

The film does an excellent job balancing and integrating external and internal conflicts. The external conflicts move the plot along, but, as in most really good epics, the internal conflicts give the film real dramatic weight. Drama is rooted in meaningful, often difficult personal choices, and almost all of the characters in Agora have to make choices—sometimes between good and evil, sometimes between good and best, often between bad and worse. How they make those choices makes for a fascinating inquiry into how faith informs our decisions.

• Honorable Mention: Mao's Last Dancer.

If you like indies, character-driven films, or comedies, check out An Education.

Lone Scherfig's adaptation of Lynn Barber's memoir (with a screenplay by Nick Hornby) is refreshing. As much a period piece as a bildungsroman—Hornby said he was fascinated by the idea of the moment where the first reverberations of the tumultuous 60s were being felt but had not yet exploded into the public consciousness—the film deftly presents an image of a world in transition, and interweaves that presentation with the story of a family in the midst of it.

A scene from 'An Education'

The thing I liked the most about An Education is that it takes the questions it raises seriously. And they are big questions. Because the film is willing to broach large subjects within the context of a comedy, we have a lot invested in the resolution. Nowhere is this more evident than in a scene between Jenny (beautifully played by Carey Mulligan) and her headmistress (played by the impeccable Emma Thompson) where Jenny questions the necessity of getting an education or bettering herself if marriage and motherhood will still be the only end to which that training and education can be put.

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