Tim Grierson wrote an article for Knot Magazine on his favorite moments from cinema in 2003.

He says —When we think about our favorite movies from the last year, do we really think about the whole film experience? Probably not. Instead, we tend to think in smaller units: a great scene, a good performance, a funny line.

Grierson mentions some of my favorite moments — the anime sequence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, that Civil War battle scene in Cold Mountain — and his article got me thinking.

Before the Oscars, let us remember the great individual scenes and moments that defined the past year in cinema (for me):

in city of god, when li'l zé sticks a gun in the hand of 10-year-old steak & fries, points to two small weeping boys and orders him to shoot the child of his choice

in old school, will ferrell's ribbon-twirling routine

in irreversible, when pierre smashes a man's head to pieces with a fire extinguisher

in irreversible, the anal rape of monica bellucci in a street tunnel that runs nearly ten minutes

in x2, when rogue flies out of the blackbird and nightcrawler teleports to get her back inside

in the matrix reloaded, when the pile-up of agent smiths erupts

in bruce almighty, when jim carrey controls what steve carell says

in 28 days later, when jim emerges from a coma to find london eerily deserted

in 28 days later, when the camera pans down and we see jim's thumbs pressed deep inside the army major's eye sockets

any scene with harry in spellbound

in hulk, nick nolte's over-the-top conversation with eric bana in a warehouse

the car chase in terminator 3: rise of the machines

in pirates of the caribbean: the curse of the black pearl, the seamless cgi as johnny depp and geoffrey rush duel up a cave path lit at places with moonlight

in american splendor, the discussion about revenge of the nerds

in once upon a time in mexico, when johnny depp says that the pork is so good that when he's finished, he'll walk straight into the kitchen and shoot the cook, and he finishes eating and walks straight into the kitchen and shoots the cook and some blood unprofessionally splatters on the camera lens

in once upon a time in mexico, johnny depp's blind shoot-out

in lost in translation, when two ladies sitting behind bill murray in a hospital waiting room try their best not to laugh when he finds himself engaged in a futile, linguistically-challenged conversation with an old woman

in the school of rock, jack black and the kids' battle of the bands performance

in kill bill: volume one, the gunshot in the first scene

in kill bill: volume one, the showdown at the house of blue leaves

in the texas chainsaw massacre, when the hitchhiker pulls a gun out of her vagina and shoots herself in the head and the camera pans backward from the front of the van through the hole in her head and out the bullet hole in the rear window of the van

in the texas chainsaw massacre, poor andy hangs from a meat hook with his toes and salvation wriggling just centimeters above the keys of a disused piano

in bad santa, when the hindian guy from office space assaults billy bob thornton

the ending of big fish

in the lord of the rings: the return of the king, when the giant spider stealthily re-appears