My Favorite Movies

Stanley Kubrick's masterwork of Anthony Burgess' brilliant novel. If you haven't seen this get off your ass and go, it is a true experience.

Long ago when I first heard of Cabaret I initially wrote it off from the title alone and the presence of Liza as just an overdone musical. And then I saw it and realized it is possibly the greatest musical ever. It has such humanism and heart.It's a personal top ten favorite for me.

Defintely one of the greatest American films, and greatest fims ever. Dean is a true icon and Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood are tragic and transcendent all at once. The film goes like an accidental eulogy for its main stars, all of which died at young ages. See it in its original widescreen, seeing it any way else cheats one out of a true film experience.

It's frickin' Casablanca, of course it's good. I don't have to say anything else, but I'll do it anyways. This is the movie that cemented the Bogie legend, gave us almost a dozen classic lines, and gave us a beautiful and tragic Ingrid Bergman. Although the entire cast is pitch-perfect.A movie that gets better and better with each new viewing.

It's not innovative and it did not advance filmmaking. Singin' In The Rain is just the best of its kind. Every number is a winner, particularly Donald O Conner's 'Make 'Em Laugh' and the title tune, in which Gene Kelly was suffering a cold but the look on his face is pure ecstacy. Debbie Reynolds is amazing, and Jean Hagen totally brings down the roof with her comic timing. One of the top ten greatest movies ever.

Famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman directed famed Swedish director Victor Sjostrom in this magnificent drama. I just saw the episode of the Dick Cavett show last nite in which he interviewed Bergman and Bergman noted this film as the one containing his greatest close-up shot.

The first of Bergman's silence of God trilogy is the best of them all. Harriet Andersson is the young woman who finds that her mental illness is incurable, all while her beloved husband, father and brother must watch her spiral into madness.Remarkable.

Federico Fellini's epic of minutiae is also one of the top ten best films ever. Every scene is an inviting and stinging episode into the psyche of Marcello Mastroianni as wayward writer. Whether its the scene of him and Anita Ekberg in the Trevi fountain, or the very uncomfortable scene of papparazzi flashing bulbs at a woman whose husband has just murdered their children and committed suicide, Fellini's La Dolce Vita still leaves a deep impression to this day.

This is film as art! Truffaut's handheld camerawork is downright groundbreaking, and Jeanne Moreau is an absolute miracle! You'll fall in love with her too.

Greatest adaptation of any Philip K Dick novel. Absolutely engaging from frame to frame.

Fritz Lang's masterpiece tells the story of a child killer (played with chilling realism by Peter Lorre) who is wanted by everyone from locals to the mob. A milestone in movie history.

One of my absolute favorite movies! Everything about it is just genius! Rotwang is one of the greatest movie characters of all time, and the sets are magnificent. Astonishing!

You could not make ths movie today. Tod Browning's American Gothic masterwork showcase real circus freaks, who actually dined with other MGM stars at one point, as they defend one of their own from exploitation and worse. One of the best and most unique films ever made!

Damn if this isn't one of the best and most entertaining movies ever.The puppets tend to slow things down here and there, and things are rather shaky throughout but it's one of Peter Jackson's first features. And it's essential.

No matter how good Lord of the rings is, this will always be Peter Jackson's best movie. Kate Winslet is amazing and the effects and cinematography are to die for.

Allen's iconic film is a wonderful mix of wit, comedy, and heartbreak. Keaton is just to die for, and the short animated sequence is gut-bustingly hilarious.

I can never pick a favorite Woody Allen film, it's always between this one and Purple Rose of Cairo.This has the best cast he ever assembled.Dianne Wiest is brilliant, chewing on the magnificent character she is given, And the sight of Michael Caine and Max Von Sydow sharing the same scene is a joy.

There's hardly anything remotely conventional from this delicately funny, tender, twisted romance from screenwriter extraordinaire Charlie Kaufman (the genius mind behind Being John Malkovich and Adaptation) and director Michel Gondry (possibly the greatest music video director ever). Added bonus are the actors. First up is funnyman Jim Carrey doing his most emotionally raw and bruising performance ever. Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind is ambitious and bold, and maybe crammed with a little too many ideas, but it's quite simply a cinematic breath of fresh air, and a true gift for cinephiles.

Carrey is Joel Barish, a Manhattanite who wakes one cold winter morning, hops a train and heads out to Montauk on Long Island. He feels mysteriously drawn there, and drawn to Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet, hardly better), a total free-sprit sporting dyed blue hair, 'blue Ruin' she calls it, that he meets on the train ride home. The two feel a strange connection neither can explain, but they don't care.

But then we're gradually filled in. Basically Joel and Clementine have had their memories of one another, and their two-year relationship, completely wiped away from their minds. Literally. Clementine did it first after seeing a television ad for a company known as Lacuna where Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (the great Tom Wilkinson) will ask 'Why remember a destructive love affair?' Joel is devastated when he finds out and so decides to have the procedure done on himself. So on the night before his train trip to Montauk, Dr. Mierzwiak's assistants Stan (Mark Ruffalo), Patrick (Elijah Wood) and Mary (Kirsten Dunst), enter Joel's apartment as he sleeps, attach strange headgear to him and begin the process of wiping away his memories of Clementine, starting with the most recent. The job is made complicated though when Patrick attempts to get with Clementine using Joel's memories of her. Stan and Mary simply get stoned, strip and dance.

From there we find out what's happening in Joel's head, giving Gondry the chance to let loose with his brilliant knack for effective imagery. Joel's struggle to save the memories of the woman he loves mirrors Kaufman and Gondry's struggle to explore how memory defines our lives. It's amazingly gorgeous, shot with an eye for beauty by Ellen Kuras, grounded by the raw and deeply felt performances by Carrey and Winslet. Their bond is never once in doubt. He's totally recessive, she's impulsive and moody. In life though the two always hit some kind of roadblock. 'Just because you talk constantly doesn't mean you're communicating,' Joel says.

Carrey digs deep to get inside Joel. He was robbed of a much-deserved Oscar nomination, just like in The Truman Show and Man On The Moon. And Winslet, one of the best actresses working today, has never been more electrifying on screen, nailing Clementine's wit and vulnerability. The supporting cast have their moments to shine as well. Woods manages to elicit laughs for his creepiness, but also manages to convey the toll that stealing another's life takes on you. Dunst is brilliantly wounded but also graceful as a woman betrayed by Dr. Mierzwiak, who has an obvious strain of melancholy thanks to Wilkinson. And Ruffalo excels, showing he can bring nuance to any role, no matter its size. When Mary asks him how she appeared when she developed a crush on the doctor, Ruffalo replies 'You looked happy,'. Then takes a beat and finsihes, 'with a secret.'.

Eternal Sunshine is littered with secrets that are gradually revealed, making the entire story rich and best of all, real. Even the song 'My Darling Clementine' attains a palpable resonance as Joel fights to save Clementine in his own head. Simply put: Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind is a pitch-perfect piece of filmmaking that has laughs and heart and invoke hard-earned discussion. It's a total keeper.

Most French films are brilliant, but not many of them actually make you want to drop everything and fly off to Charles de Gaulle Airport. Such is the fanciful, delightful, quirky, ebullient power of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie, anchored by the timeless beguiling performance of Audrey Tatou as the titular waif. Amelie rests in a Paris that's so palpably romantic you might be disappointed to find it's mostly a made up place, like the New York City that once existed in Woody Allen's best films. It's a Paris filled with likable oddballs and outrageous coincidences.

In this dreamy City of Lights we have Amelie Poulain (Tatou), a quiet, wide-eyed beauty who choreographs the best of luck for the people around her, like a lonely waitress or an isolated hermit. Amelie herself is someone who has grown up without affection, under a doctor father who only touched her when he was examining her, and a mother who tragically committed suicide. Her drive to bring joy to others kicks off when Amelie finds an old box of toys and anonymously returns it, and delights at much life changes for its recipient to have it back. From there she begins a series of meddlesome adventures and crusades that would make Jane Austen proud. She also meets a man, Nino (actor-director Matthieu Kassovitz) but finding love isn't easy for this makeshift Cupid. Waiting for her to come to the realization that she is indeed entitled to love is long, but long like an afternoon spent in a Paris cafe.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) is a specialist when it comes to visual dazzle, and Amelie is no less visually sumptuous. An entire background of dark green suddenly leaps with the placement of the color orange. Best of all with Amelie, it's a film that takes real chances, not just with its storytelling techniques, but with its willingness to let its star be the embodiment of charm rather than a hollow imitation, and Tatou nails it. Years later her grinning face still can make cinephile and non-cinephile alike swoon over the thought of this film's gifts. Amelie herself is one who wins us over with her charms, but the movie itself is seductive. Still one of the last decades greatest.

I absolutely love this movie! I just never get tired of it! Dig that title tune!

A Kurosawa masterpiece, which is saying something considering Seven Samurai and Rashomon. One of the best films of the last twenty five years, which sees King Lear set in feudal Japan. Brilliant action sequences, and an unforgettable performance from Mieko Harada. Essential.

A magnificent adaptation of that Scottish play (Macbeth)! One of Kurosawa's best!

One hell of a movie. Scorsese cuts deep into the soul, exploring what motivates us into depravity, and what stands a chance of keeping us sane, using a decaying New York City as its backdrop. De Niro is extraordinary!

The greatest movie of the 80's no doubt! De Niro is acting perfection, with amazing turns from Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty. Amazing camera work at play as well, especially the visceral fight scenes. A killer movie!

Martin Scorsese' masterpiece! The storytelling is incredible, it's a movie for the ages!

Hitchcock's classic is being released in a new Blu-Ray edition this week, and I highly recommend it. Northwest By Northwest is the most fun Hitchcock has ever had with a movie. Cary Grant is the personification of suave and cool, dig that suit! To see him running around the UN building, to an open cropfield to Mount Rushmore is the essence of movie magic. An absolute treat of a film, that will keep you looking to the very end!

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are perfect! The scenes between them are romantic, hypnotic, and nail-biting! And Claude Rains gives his best performance yet!

There's a reason Alfred Hitchcock is the greatest director of all time! See this along with Rear Window, Notorious, North By Northwest, Psycho, Strangers On A Train, the list just goes on. James Stewart gives his best and most disturbing performance ever, and Kim Novak is phenomenal! Classic, complete with a rhapsodic score from the great Bernard Herrmann.

It's a sweltering day in Indy today, which reminds me of this modern classic from Spike Lee, a movcie he still hasn't topped, and really, doesn't need to. Other than Pulp Fiction this is the best film of the past twenty-something years.Every shot is hypnotic eye-candy, complete with a scorching soundtrack and terrific performances.

In the Bible, one famous tale has God becoming very angry when man attempts to reach Heaven by building a tower, called Babel. In order to put a halt to the work, he devised different languages that made communication and comprehension impossible. Thus the word babel came to mean noise and nonsense.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, and the uber-gifted Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu and his remarkable screenwriting collaborator Guillermo Arriagaâ"completing a trilogy that began with Amores Perros and continued with 21 Gramsâ"masterfully applied the concept of babel to the here and now: a world under threat of terrorism, domestic and abroad, and divided by race, language, culture, religion and money. Sound heavy? Only if you arenâ(TM)t into seeing something absolutely extraordinary and shattering. Nearly five years later Babel is still one of the richest and most emotionally stirring film of the past ten years, an invitation for audiences to breach the babble and noise of our modern times, and begin really communicating with one another.

Inarrituâ(TM)s film throws us right into the lives of broken individuals and families, from the poor streets of Morocco, to Tokyo, to middle-class San Diego to Mexico. Babel, like its namesake word, is a cacophony of dialects and languages, including sign language. It also boasts a fractured timeframe and parallel stories to add to the disorientation, but pay close attention.

Then there are his actors, who work miracles, large and small, guiding us through Inarittuâ(TM)s global maze. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are San Diego couple Richard and Susan, in Morocco attempting to cope with the loss of a child. Their other two children are home with the maid, Amelia (a haunting and brillint Adriana Barraza), who defies Richard by taking the kids to Mexico with her ill-tempered nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal) for a wedding.

The game-changing event occurs when Susan is shot in the shoulder while on a bus tour. The bullet comes from a hunting rifle, fired by the son of a goat-herder, doing target practice. Susan is bleeding and near death, and stranded in a remote village, as Richard attempts to call for help. The shooting makes international headlines, and is predictably hyped into a terrorist incident. The impact of that shooting goes all the way to Tokyo, to the Japanese man who sold the gun to the goat-herder. Heâ(TM)s also trying to cope with the suicide of his wife, and the emotional implosion of his deaf-mute daughter Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi, the filmâ(TM)s most devastating character), drifting into sexual promiscuity.

To this day however, no review or essay can really do justice to this film. Itâ(TM)s a remarkably integrated picture of a world in fear, in crisis and in denial. Pitt has never been more emotionally wired, bruised and raw. Itâ(TM)s his most moving performance on screen ever. Barraza will leave you hollow, simply with searing images (captured beautifully by Rodrigo Prietoâ(TM)s ace cinematography) of her stranded at the Mexican border, wandering the desert for aid. Kikuchi is the most unforgettable, whether wandering a Tokyo disco, where the sound literally goes silent so that we only hear what she hears, or standing naked on a high-rise over a bustling, uncaring city. She nailed every nuance and soul-shattering detail. But really, all of Babel has this effect. To this day, it till speaks to our shattered world marred by terrorism and fear. Itâ(TM)s still impossible to shake.

Talk about a movie with equal parts bark and bite. Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu's debut feature Amores Perros is a little bit of Go and a little bit of Pulp Fiction, mixed with genuine moral consequences concerning the characters' actions. Inarittu's movie has literal bite, a meditation on our relationship, not only with violence, but with the very animals we refer to as 'man's best friend.' It's a tour de force of a debut feature.

Inarittu, working from a stinging, take-no-prisoners script from novelist Guillermo Arriaga, Amores Perros is a movie in which violence meets coincidence. The narrative goes back and forth through time, but always re-telling similar incidents from different views.

It all starts with a whiplash of an opening scene: that of a car chase through the streets of Mexico City that erupts into a horrific accident. It's that accident that brings all the disparate characters together. First we get 'Octavio and Susana', in which we meet star Gael Garcia Bernal, who treats his violent with the utmost kindness. He's also in love with his sister-in-law Susana, and goes into the dog-fighting business to help her escape his abusive brother.

Then there's Daniel and Valeria. Daniel is a successful magazine publisher who has taken up with a Spanish supermodel, Valeria. After she's severely injured in an accident she's confined to a wheelchair. When their beloved dog goes missing, tension between the two mounts.

Finally there's 'El Chivo and Maru' in which famed Mexican actor Emilio Echevarria plays a disillusioned political activist more in love with his pack of dogs than his neighbors who gets more than he bargained for when he takes in a stray.

No fair telling how the many characters meet up exactly. That's one of the movie's powers, others being its explosively kinetic pace. Inarittu and Arriaga would employ similar storytelling techniques in their follow-up films, 21 Grams and Babel, but they never created something as freshly fierce as Amores Perros.

Director Darren Aronofsky scored a knockout of a film debut with 1998's stunning Pi, a low budget indie whose restless camera was mind0bending. His follow-up, Requiem For A Dream, adapted from the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., by the author himself and Aronofsky is no less time capsule worthy. It's mostly a bummer of a movie, sure, its views on drug culture excruciatingly harsh. But no true cinephile would dare skip a viewing of this amazing film, which also works as a salute to the power and magic of movies.

Set in Brooklyn, in Aronofsky's native Coney Island, the film stars Jared Leto as Harry Goldfarb, a kid with big dreams of going into business with h is best pal Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Tragically, the business ends up being drugs, and the two men become hooked, along with Harry's girlfriend Marion (Jennfer Connelly, shockingly raw and riveting), who ends up selling herself as a sex slave for a fix.

The movie's staying power, though, comes from the viscerally raw performance of Ellen Burstyn as Harry's lonely, widowed mother Sara. Sara becomes fixated on appearing on a television game show, and begins downing diet pills in order to fit herself into a dress she wore in her youth. The pills leave her bereft of food and plagued by hallucinations. It's an award-caliber performance, one that got her a much-deserved Oscar nod for Best Actress (she lost to Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, go figure).

Aronofsky, with cinematographer extraordinaire Matthew Libatiique and editor Jay Rabinowitz craft a movie that absolutely assaults the senses. There are jump-cuts, split screens, and enough distorted images to rival Jacob's Ladder. It all adds up to a brutal portrait of lives spiraling out of control. Leto is brilliant in his role, losing twenty-five pounds to portray Harry's gaunt look, but he also expertly captures the grieving soul beneath. And his scenes with Sara are palpably poignant, a son and mother tragically drowning in failed dreams and delusions.

There were many who felt the film went too far, and indeed it has a brutal veneer to rival that of A Clockwork Orange and Natural Born Killers. Its final montage of emotional, mental and physical devastation is laid bare with an unflinching honesty. In a decade where Hollywood sought to play it safe at every and any chance it got, movies like Requiem For a Dream were right there to slap us into reality, and give us a real story.

Along with Requiem For A Dream, this should be required middle school viewing to keep the kiddies off drugs. Ultra-cool.

There really is no way to properly praise Stephen Frears hilarious and poignant adaptation of Nick Hornby's 1995 novel than by writing about it in the form of something main character Rob Gordon (changed from Rob Fleming) spends almost every waking hour of his life doing: making lists.

Top Five things to know about the 2000 movie High Fidelity.

1. It stars the inimitable John Cusack as Rob Gordon, a guy just as obsessed with ranking the women in his life as he is ranking the music.
2. Though Hornby's book took place in London in the 80's, Frears moves things to Chicago circa 2000.
3. Cusack was born to play Rob Gordon, catching every little nuance that shows this man as the music obsessive he is.
4. He's joined by an excellent supporting cast of ladies, from Lili Taylor to Catherin Zeta-Jones to Lisa Bonet, and even his sister Joan in a marvelous cameo.
5. He's also joined by his buddies, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), who own the Championship Vinyl record store with Rob.

Top Five Reasons High Fidelity works:

1. Rob's inspired monologues directly to the camera brilliantly channel Woody Allen a la Annie Hall.
2. The script was headed by Cusack collaborators D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink (The Grifters), who lose none of the book's stinging wit or comic spirit.
3. The women are amazing, just check out Zeta-Jones as a babe who leaves Rob for a dork.
4. Tim Robbins is comic perfection as a new-age douche named Ian who's bedding Rob's main squeeze, Laura,
5. The music kicks serious ass, as Rob blasts everything from The Clash to The Beta Band in his store.

Top Five Highlights of High Fidelity

1. Jack Black music snob telling of a square who comes into the store inquiring about Stevie Wonder's I Just Called To Say I Love You.
2. Rob's fantasizing about the many ways he can dispatch of Ian.
3. Rob going through all of his break-ups, right down to a girlfriend he had in the seventh grade.
4. Bruce Springsteen himself makes a killer cameo dispensing advice to Rob.
5. It's a damn good movie.

Thanks to Joe Boenlein, I couldn't get this one out of my head. So head out and get one of the top ten funniest movies ever to tickle the funny bone. Every frame is filled with laugh-worthy gags, and enough quotable lines to put Monty Python to shame. You'll laugh till you cannot take it anymore! There is no stopping in the white zone. Do you like gladiator movies? Oh stewardess I speak jive. Oh I could go all day. Thanks Joe.

From a distance (meaning if you haven't seen the movie yet), Road To Perdition might not look like your cup of tea. Tom Hanks as a ruthless hit man in Depression-era Chicago? Forrest Gump coldly killing people? Road To Perdition took everyone by surprise way back in 2002, with its ace cinematography, strong direction and incredible performances. It has all the right ingredients to hook you for two hours. The whole film is like a Tom Hopper painting come to vivid life.

Mendes and co-screenwriter David Self adapted the film from the graphic novel of the same name by Max Allen Collins, with illustrations by Richard Piers Rayner, with flourishes of father and son dynamics and the issue of violence being ingrained within us, as part of the American being. It may be a gangster film, but it bears little resemblance to The Godfather or Goodfellas, or even The Sopranos. Rather, it has the lyrical punch and complexity of a Clint Eastwood film.

It begins with the narration of 12 year old Michael Sullivan Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) telling us about his father, Michael Sr., a hit man for the Irish mob. Michael Sr. is indeed played by Tom Hanks, with a thin mustache and an arresting stare, enough to wash out the schmaltzy image he's known for. Hanks is devastatingly brilliant in the role, emotionally closed off to his eldest son, buttoned up in a suit and tie, looking like a gathering force of nature. His Michael Sullivan Sr. is fiercely devoted to John Rooney, the mob kingpin who's taken care of him for years like a son. 'So who has a hug for a lonely old man?' Rooney asks in a warm, familial manner with a hug. Rooney loves Michael, and his family, wife Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and their two sons, Michael Jr. and Peter. As played by the late, great Paul Newman, in a role that earned him his final Oscar nomination, Rooney is man that we can't help but notice is a man who can switch from violent overlord to warm father figure. Newman rips into the role, and watching this master at work is a thrill, whether playing a piano duet with Sullivan or viciously ordering a hit. Newman and Hanks are just as terrific together onscreen, their confidence is palpable, their talents entirely in the service of character and not ego. And when they end up on opposing sides, it's devastating and riveting.

Tragedy and revenge are the sparks that ignites Perdition's saga. Rooney's actual son, Connor (Daniel Craig, a livewire) resents the affection and love he bestows on Michael. When Michael Jr. is found hiding in the trunk of the car Michael and Connor are driving, Connor is paranoid the boy will talk about what he saw. Connor murders Sullivan's wife and youngest son, leaving Michael and Jr. to go on the run to Chicago, in a futile attempt to seek aid Frank Nitti (the great Stanley Tucci) a lieutenant of Al Capone. They must also dodge Maguire (Jude Law, my favorite role he ever did), a crime photographer who doubles as a hit man. Maguire enjoys clicking the shutter as a victim is dying before his eyes. Law is perversity incarnate, all thinning hair and rotting teeth. He's just too excellent.

Shot in harsh winter, with rain everywhere, Road's greatest legacy is the work of cinematographer Conrad Hall, who captures scenes of shootouts and bank robberies with poetic ease. It's pure camera artistry from Hall, who won a posthumous Oscar. Add to that Thomas Newell's haunting score, and Road To Perdition is an artistic triumph.

Still, it's the actors who really bring the movie to vibrant life, and they all manage to cut deep on a personal level. 'We are all murderers in this room', says Rooney to Sullivan. This is a movie with words and scenes that get under your skin, and stay there for good measure. That's why it deserves to be called one of the greatest of the last decade.

Cronenberg sort of adapted Burrough's classic novel, but also incorporated elements of Burrough's other novels, and even Burrough's own life. The visuals are mesmerizing, and all the actors bring their A-game, especially Judy Davis, always underrated.

An astonishing piece of work. The kind of movie that raises film to the level of great art. It's a movie that grabs your imagination tight, and shakes it up. Essential!

Almodovar's best! Cecilia Roth is an absolute force of nature, she brings down the house. Fantastic acting and filmmaking.

Movies don't get much hotter than Y Tu Mama Tambien, a teen road comedy about two young studs who learn to see the important things beyond what's between their legs. Rich boy Tenoch (Diego Luna) and middle class hombre Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) could care less about the tense politics and poverty that pervades their native Mexico City. Getting laid is all that matters to them. Tenoch and Julio are close, two seventeen-year-olds with a jones for laying out on diving boards and having simultaneous jerk offs. But their worlds are thrown out of whack when both their girlfriends take off on a vacation in Italy.

So what are they left to do? Find more girls to screw of course. They encounter Luisa (Maribel Verdu) at a wedding. Louisa is a twenty-eight year old babe married to Tenoch's cousin. The two boys entice Luisa with talk (lies of course) of a beach paradise--"Boca del Cielo---that they plan on driving to. Luisa turns down their offer flat, knowing she's out of their league. But when she finds out her husband is cheating on her she decides to take the boys up on their offer and school them in the ways of the flesh.

Out of that set-up comes Y Tu Mama Tambien, a knockout of a film from Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, who up until then was best known for two U.S. films, A Little Princess and Great Expectations. With Y Tu Mama Tambien, Alfonso crafts a deliciously erotic script with his brother Carlos that takes remarkably unexpected comic and dramatic turns. Also on hand is Cuaron's longtime collaborator, cinematographer extraordinaire Emmanuel Lubezski, who gives the sex scenes a smoldering intensity. They're exhilarating. While at a motel, Tenoch comes out of the shower and finds Luisa ready for him. She brushes her face against his crotch with a palpable sensuality that doest cheapen itself into pornography. Julio is watching the both of them, with a simultaneous look of toxic jealousy and arousal. When Julio has Luisa alone later, in the car, he gropes her madly, hands and mouth all over her breasts, and then she shows him how to channel that carnal energy into something worthwhile.

There are no American Pie shenanigans in this film. Fucking a pie is not an option. Here sex is treated as what it is: pleasuring and dangerous. In this film sex reveals the hidden secrets of its participants. The resentment building between Julio and Tenoch underscores they're homoerotic tendencies and attraction to one another. Luisa has secrets too, and they're far more tragic. Things become even more compelling when the boys do discover the beach they didn't even think existed; it's being destroyed by developers---but what they find while there is more eye-opening for them than anything. Bernal and Luna are amazing together, radiating lust and teenage angst marvelously. And Verdu is a revelation, a beautiful combo of delicate grace and striking ferocity. She gives the film a gravity through her character's hard-won wisdom and touching humanity.

Along with fellow Mexican directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Amores Perros) and Guillermo Del Toro (Devil's Backbone), cinema experienced a welcome resurgence of Mexican filmmaking that only got better as the decade went on (Babel, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth). Y Tu Mama Tambien is still a hot-blooded, touching and haunting film that never loses sight of real feeling. This is a film full of naked bodies, and even more stripped down emotions. These were the kinds of movies of the last ten years that shamed Hollywood fluff. Y Tu Mama Tambien may be in Spanish but nothing is lost in the translation.

The Bogie legend strengthened! Bogie astonishes, Mary Astor is a revelation, Peter Lorre is a show stealer and under the direction of a young John Huston, this is every bit the classic its touted as. The stuff that dreams are made of.

Most of the time at the movies this past decade multiplexes were creative dead zones. That's what made Old Boy such a special treat. This little gem from Korea, taken from the manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya, is an explosive revenge tale from director Park Chan-Wook that brought some much-needed life back into cinema. The secrets and surprises of this film are too good to give away, so just the basics: Choi Min-Sik stars as Oh Dae-Su, a womanizing businessman with wife and child who enjoys drinks more than he does them. Then out of nowhere this old boy is taken prisoner, locked up in a hotel room alone, with only a television as his outlet to the outside world. It's that tv that tells him his wife has been murdered. Flash forward fifteen years later and Dae-Su is a free man, randomly dumped in a trunk on a rooftop.

First thing Dae-Su does is make his way to a sushi bar--in the first scene that isn't for the faint of stomach--and gleefully devours a squid, live squid, its tentacles wrangling between his lips. 'I want to eat something that is alive' he says, brilliantly conveying the desperation of a man isolated for fifteen years. The waitress who serves him, Mido (Gang Hye-Jung) feels some sort of empathy with him and the two hook up, Dae-Su jumping her bones with the same verve he had when chomping on the squid.

The set pieces that follow are sprayed with blood and mayhem. Dae-Su mystery captor gives him five days to find out who imprisoned him and why. This sets off a series of some of the most incredible scenes in modrn movie history, and it all builds up to a climax that will leave you dumbstruck.

Old Boy made its world premiere at Cannes, and even then it was mostly a love it or hat it affair. But it's impact on the lucky few who have seen it is undeniable. The scenes of mayhem don't play for shock value, they're masterfully part of the greater whole. Old Boy is more than just an action movie with violence and brutality on its mind, it's a movie whose violence and shock are out to make a statement.

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, so what better time to watch the greatest movie to feature the cold cold space. Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is a feast for the eyes and ears, call it Samuel Beckett in space. It's haunting and exciting, pretentious and incendiary, all at once. You'll be hypnotized.

This is the one horror movie that I sometimes wanna look away from. Stanley Kubrick did a phenomenal job adapting Stephen King's amazing book.

A masterpiece! Not for the faint! David Lynch's crowning achievement in surrealism! You'll never feel the same way about anything after viewing this incredible piece of work.

last week I recommended one of the greatest screen epics and romances of our time. This week, get comfy with one of the greatest movies of the 80's and of the last thirty years. director David Lynch crafts a dark portrait of the horrors that lurk underneath suburban America. Dennis Hopper is evil incarnate, the scene of him raping Isabella Rosellini is enough to haunt your dreams. By all means get lost in this film.

The greatest of film noirs! Stanwyck is every bit the femme fatale should be, and Edward G. Robinson is a scene-stealer! A Billy Wilder classic!

This one is neck in neck with Citizen Kane as the greatest American movie ever, as well as the greatest of all time. All the young actors are unforgettable and moving, especially James Caan and Al Pacino. Then of course there's Brando. Classic.

Tim Burton crafted the ultimate Batman! Although I still have my issues with Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, Kim Basinger is a joy, and Jack Nicholson as The Joker, well that's just genius! A visual feast, excellent score, and top-notch storytelling.

Johnny Depp's greatest role playing the 'worst director of all time'. A movie that reminds one why they should love movies. And Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi is a performance for the ages!

Tim Burton's best film. Depp is great in a mostly mute performance that resonates. And the sets and art direction is just extraordinary!

One of the greatest movies of all time! Hepburn and Grant are flawless!

Looking for non-stop manic comedy with heart. Look no further than this Howard Hawks romp (a perfect dud upon its original release) that has Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn doing comedic wonders.An absolute perfect comedy! Hepburn and Grant are comic perfection. and they make it look so easy! The perfect antidote to trite that is The Proposal.

What can I really say about this movie? Hepburn is at the peak of her charm and beauty, listening to her sing 'Moon River' in that aching and untrained voice is a tear-jerker. Oh yea, Mickey Rooney sucks.

What interest could a movie about a housewife in 1957 Connecticut generate? Plenty, it turns out. That was the case in 2002, and I nothing's changed. Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven is a new modern classic, book ended by the brilliant performances if its stars Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. It's also the chick-flick genre raised to the level of art, form the director who guided Moore through the stunning 1995 feature Safe. Here is a movie that is rapturous in its impact, and astonishingly riveting.

In Far From Heaven, 1950's America comes off like an exotic parallel universe, sort of like the 1950's we see in the movie Pleasantville, only alive with thrilling color, a sign that the era was very, very real. Moor is Cathy Whitaker, the ideal housewife, coiffed and costumed like a sitcom wife. She's married to Magnatech TV executive Frank (Quaid) and mother to their two children. She's also a girl who likes to have fun, as in the scenes where she dons an apron and high heels, giggling with her girlfriends over daiquiris. Cathy is so well-regarded that the local paper showers her with praise, calling her a 'woman as devoted to her family as she is kind to Negroes.'

But this isn't some campfest a la John Waters. An impending shadow is about to loom over Cathy's perfect world. Though there is plenty to chuckle at in Far From Heaven (like the aforementioned newspaper praise), the laugh are more likely to come with a sting. Frank begins cruising men, and when Cathy catches him with another man at his office, Frank immediately goes to a doctor for a 'cure' that has no effect. Cathy is so traumatized she won't even tell her best friend, Eleanor (Patricia Clarkson, deliciously witty). She does confide in Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), her handsome gardener. Raymond get Cathy to let her guard down and be comfortable. But Raymond is also black. Consequently, more scandal engulfs Cathy's life.

Cathy becomes a social outcast, uprooted from a life of complacency into a rude awakening of her reality as a woman in America. Moore is astonishing in the role, digging so deep into Cathy they seem to share the same nerve endings. Here actress and character breathe as one entity. And Quaid is just as excellent, far from leading man heroics. His performance is revelatory. Quaid ably finds the aching heart and the unearthed heat in a man plagued by identity crises and prone to casual bouts of cruelty to his wife.

And then there's Haysbert, deftly playing Raymond for real and not for show or caricature. Raymond boldly takes Cathy out for a drink at a 'colored' restaurant. She's mesmerized by his tenderness. But each one is an unwelcome presence in their respective worlds. Cathy was always polite but distant to her black maid Sybil (the lovely Viola Davis). It's that discovery of her own biases and hang-ups that sets puts Cathy in a new light and puts her life adrift. Indeed the scene where her lilac chiffon scarf flies off of her head can be a metaphor for her old life giving way to a new existence. Raymond happens to find the scarf. 'I had a feeling this might be yours. The color. Just seemed right.'

Color is a major focal point of Haynes' directorial eye, signifying the codes and trademarks that define these characters. It's the cinematic foil of the color schemes used by Wes Anderson in The Royal Tenenbaums. In that film color was an illustration of the cartoonish, here it's the symbol of what roles these individuals are supposed to fulfill according to society's whims. This helps makes Haynes an authentic disciple of Douglas Sirk, the German director who made a name for himself in the 1950's with a series of women's pictures (Magnificent Obsession, Written On The Wind, Imitation of Life) that were thinly veiled attacks on societal conformity. Sirk was best known for a visual style that implemented flamboyant colors, shadows and light, articulating the forbidden and taboo.

Haynes uses Sirk's classic All That Heaven Allows as his template. That 1955 weepie starred Jane Wyman as a widow who becomes a social pariah when she begins dating her gardener, a significantly younger man. That that man was played by the iconic Rock Hudson, himself a closeted homosexual at the time, serves as a perfect subversion of the genre. In Haynes' film, cinematographer Ed Lachman--in a glorious display of visual poetry--floods the screen with color, complemented by the buoyantly romantic score by the late Elmer Bernstein.

Far From Heaven is no mere copycat film. Rather it's a reinvention, one that allows the underlying passions of Sirk's film explode on the screen. Haynes and his producer Christine Vachon aren't searching for cheap nostalgia. This is imitation of life as is, in all its harsh brutality, both figuratively and literally. It's a cracked mirror to the here and now, even ten years later, with fears about race, sexuality and feminism stil prevalent. Those same fears existed back then, and just like today they were sold in packages of religion flag and jingoistic patriotism. These themes were hardly unheard of in George W.'s America, nor are they extinct today. Far From Heaven is movie heaven, it's raw emotion devoid of irony. The past decade produced no end of splashy, gargantuan movies, but few cut as deep as this beauty.

Todd Haynes directs a taut and exciting feature full of the best cheesy glam rock tunes ever!

Hands down one of the best movies of the 90's. Visually arresting and Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are stellar, as is the great villain.

Non-stop laughs all the way through as Allen parodies everything Russian and even Bergman's Seventh Seal.

Here's a rarity, an action movie with some smarts. Course it did come from an Alan Moore classic.

Altman at the peak of his powers! An essential film!

I definitely recommend this, it's probably Altman's finest, and certainly one of the best of the last fifteen years. Author and filmmaker have never melded together so seamlessly and beautifully than the film making genius of Robert Altman and the lyrically erudite short stories of Raymond Carver. The cast is a perfect ten, each one delivering perfectly nuanced performances. The movie runs at 189 minutes at by the end you feel drained, but still compelled to hit rewind and bask in all the little details that make this one of the best movies ever.

Easily one of the funniest movies ever made! Guest and Shearer are comic gold, nailing every line, and every solo. Take it to eleven!

Masterpiece in every sense of the word!

My favorite from Orson Welles. Hayworth is the greatest femme fatale this side of Barbara Stanwyck, the camera tricks require multiple rewarding viewings and the overall film is a treat.

What was Bergman's final film and won him his second Oscar.Absolutely amazing in every frame with the costumes and lighting.Bergman's warmest and most optimistic film no less.

It's Chekov without a shred of comedy, like one of his plays got hi-jacked by Strindberg.The cinematography alone is reason to watch this film.

A John Waters classic! Divine is to die for, she's never been more fun to watch, an dig Debbie Harry, meow!

Easily Allen's funniest and best visually.The score is remarkable, Allen is playing some of it himself.Great comedy.

Here is film raised to the level of art! Carl Theodore Dreyer was not able to make lot of films in his life, but what he did manage to make are classics of world cinema that should be shown in museums. Has and ending that will cut into your soul! It's a movie that makes the greatest case for Christian faith that I have ever laid eyes upon.

The best anime ever.For better insights into it read the comic which is ten times better.