It was a night in late May. So far in 2006, I had seen plenty of good movies, a few dud ones (can I have that two-and-a-half hours back please, Memoirs of a Geisha?), but no greats. Usually by the halfway point of a year, I have seen plenty of instant classics - last year had given us Sideways, The Upside of Anger, Dig!, Vera Drake and Hotel Rwanda by this point. I was worried that film quality was declining.Then I went and saw The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.This is a magnificent film, one of those rare beasts that gets everything right: acting, directing, cinematography, screenplay, the lot. Tommy Lee Jones should have been amongst the five Best Actor Oscar nominees this year, he is better than all of them! His directing will also be remembered as one of the great debuts of all time. The script by Guillermo Arriaga is as special as his screenplays for Amores Perros and 21 Grams, applying the non-chronological sequencing again to great effect.After all my worshipping, I have little space left to outline the plot, but maybe that is best left for you to encounter as you go along. This is definitely a movie to be seen on the big screen; the awesome cinematography of the Texan and Mexican landscape wont work half as well at home. Make sure you don't miss The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada!