Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton delivers his best film yet with this powerful adaptation of the brutal Stephen Sondheim musical. While cinema has seen some decent musicals in the last few years, this one is the best of the recent the bunch. Johnny Depp stars as Benjamin Barker, a banished barber seeking revenge who’s reborn as the bloodthirsty Sweeney Todd. Barker’s daughter and wife were taken away from him by a deranged judge (Alan Rickman), and the villain sent him to prison in Australia. Upon his escape, Barker (looking a little worse for wear, with a white streak blasting through his jet-black hair and a super-pale complexion) returns to London to reopen shop—and kill some patrons. Helena Bonham Carter is excellent as Mrs. Lovett, who grinds those corpses into meat pies. The supporting cast, including Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen, are all first-rate. One of the year’s best films.