The Stranger

As the beavers get to work damming a stream, the narrator supplies some beaver basics. Did you know that in a single year, a pair of beavers will gnaw through 400 trees? Over the next 20 minutes, the beavers transform their creek into a lake. Then the film cuts to serene moonlit footage. As the beavers rendezvous beneath a sea of stars, violins soar in the background. You'll find the top romance scenes of all time in films like Casablanca and Gone With the Wind—and I am appointing IMAX's Beavers to that list. By tiptoeing around the subject of sex, the filmmakers create a masterpiece of understated eroticism. The audience sits saucer-eyed as the beavers press their breasts to one another and rise onto their hind legs, waltzing through the shallows of the pond in a mysterious ritual. Before long, there appear four little beavers, hitching rides on their parents' backs and threatening to drive the audience into a cuteness frenzy. By Tim Sander