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The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) - Hypnotic, entertaining social satire with great everything, especially a wonderful score/sound design and a terrific script crammed with memorable dialogue.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (David Leaf & John Scheinfeld, 2006) - A feast for Lennon (and Yoko) lovers, this film helps to put some perspective into what the Anti-Vietnam-War Movement was about. Sure, the filmmakers have an agenda, but it's exhilarating to see Lennon take on Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and John Mitchell AND win! 
The Taming of the Shrew (Franco Zeffirelli, 1967) - - Boisterous Shakespeare adaptation of one of the Bard's funniest plays with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in their full glory. Excellent use of locations.
Underneath (Steven Soderbergh, 1995) - Modern film noir involving the heist of an armored car and various backstabbing characters. Pretty good but somehow predictable at the same time, perhaps because the novel was filmed before with Burt Lancaster as Criss Cross.
Julie & Julia (Nora Ephron, 2009) - Cute film about how Julia Child wrote her French cookbook and how a young woman in the 2000s used it to change her life for the better. The bottom line of the film though is that it shows two happy couples in one movie.
Cover Up (Alfred E. Green, 1949) - Good murder mystery which is somewhat hampered by a low-budget and an underdeveloped plot. Maybe it would have been better as an hour-long TV show, but it's certainly watchable.
The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (Gerard Oury, 1973) - Laugh-out-loud French farce involving a beloved rabbi (Dalio) returning to Paris from New York City and how he gets mixed up with a French bigot (Louis de Funès), an Arab rebel leader, the French police, Arab assassins and more than one wedding. This is certainly one of the funniest French films I've seen and puts Jerry Lewis to shame.
Carmen Jones (Otto Preminger, 1954) - All-black musical set in The U.S. with music by Bizet and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II follows the Carmen story and features Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge and Pearl Bailey. Definitely worth a peak to see something different and to hear the famous music.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (Frank De Felitta, 1981) - Creepy little thriller, originally shown on TV, shows how four rednecks killed an innocent man and had justice meted out to them supenaturally after the court system failed. Sure, some of it is implausible, but it's good for what it is.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam, 2009) - Muddled but watchable Gilliam fantasy has good performances by Christopher Plummer and Heath Ledger but there's still something missing, and it's hard to tell how much of it is because of the use of the three stand-ins for Ledger.
Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008) - Reichardt's followup to Old Joy is similarly shot in an American neorealist fashion and has a solid performance by Michelle Williams. My problems thus far with her films seem to be that she's a master of mise-en-scene looking for a compelling story to tell. The films seem stylistically similar to Lynch's The Straight Story with little of its power or poetry.
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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page
Last edited by mark f; 01-20-11 at 12:17 PM.
