My Favorite Movies

Sensational writing, innovative directing and career-defining performances make this my favorite film ever made.

If you're looking for a love story, do yourself a favor: skip "The Notebook" and pick up this gem.

Like few comdic actors before him (Jim Carrey, Robin Williams) this film solidifies Adam Sandler's legitimacy as a dramatic force, worthy of sharing the screen with Don Cheadle. This heart-wrenching story resonates like none other.

This comedic classic is a must-see for anyone looking for a good laugh from a film with substance. After watching this movie you definitely won't have a case of the Mondays!

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's third pairing (the first two were "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator") proves to be their best. And Dicaprio's good cop going toe-to-toe with Matt Damon's bad cop is dynamic. Fantastic writing by William Monahan, masterful directing by Scorsese and powerful performances by DiCaprio and Damon, as well as Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg combined makes this film leave a lasting impression.

Wes Anderson's third writing/directorial effort stands out as possibly his best. Also the third - and final to date - spawn of Anderson's writing partnership with Owen Wilson, who also stars. "Royal" portrays a dysfunctional family like no other film - with humor, eccentricity and heart, making the Tenenbaums are more relatable than most would like to admit!

"'Luck' Has Nothing to Do With It"

By LaGina Phillips

The docudrama on the keystone of early broadcast journalism, "Good Night, and Good Luck," is much more than a history lesson of "This was the way we did news in my day," sputtered by your pipe-toting grandfather.

The story of newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle in the 1950s with communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy is masterfully told through black-and-white cinematography and eloquent, concise dialog. The film tells the story of what happened during a five-month period in late 1953 to early 1954 from the newsroom perspective, without straying too much into the characters' personal lives or McCarthy's dealings outside of what the CBS news team covered.

CBS's Murrow did for broadcast journalism in the early 1950s what The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did for print journalism in the early 1970s, when they exposed President Richard Nixon as being behind the Watergate scandal.

Murrow's pioneering CBS show "See it Now" served as the platform for a series of episodes revealing McCarthy's fear-exploiting ways to the public. Murrow's crusade to bring his viewers the truth at any cost led to the end of McCarthy's reign of terror as chair of the House of Un-American Activities Committee, but also led to the end of Murrow's career.

After airing the controversial McCarthy-centered episodes, CBS's head honcho, William Paley nervously allows Murrow (David Strathairn) and producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney) to air what they please. But after advertisers start to pull out, Paley starts killing the show slowly; first by knocking it down from a weekly show to sporadic slots and reducing its frequency and then finally pulling the plug in 1958.

Murrow's team of newsmen, including Friendly and Joe Wershba (Robert Downey Jr.), stood behind him throughout his tread through uncharted waters. The team, known as "Murrow's Boys," went on to become respected broadcast journalists in their own right.

The cast, led by Strathairn as Murrow, is rounded out by Clooney, Downey, Jeff Daniels, Patricia Clarkson and Tate Donovan. Despite the plethora of familiar faces, the actors' understanding for their characters make you feel as though you?re inside the CBS newsroom with the real-life Murrow and his team as the story plays on. The brainchild of Clooney, who serves as co-writer and director as well as supporting actor, the film weaves actual clips of McCarthy into scenes with the actors portraying the CBS newsmen.

By using clips of McCarthy instead of orchestrating a re-enactment, Clooney pays homage to Murrow's technique. In CBS's McCarthy exposé Murrow ran 25 minutes of uninterrupted footage of the senator, letting McCarthy use his own words to hang himself.

Clooney and his clan pull off documenting a historical event and give viewers a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the CBS newsroom without pounding the audience over the head with mundane details and sensationalizing the hero of the story.

A superb film adaption of the most pivotal moment in journalism and, possibly, the White House as well.

A solid action film that proves that sometimes sequels can actually outshine originals.

This is an absolute favorite of mine. This much-copied and much-parodied film is intense and features several phenomenal performances (Chazz Palminteri, Gabriel Byrne and, of course, the masterful Kevin Spacey).

One of the best TV-to-film translations I've seen. And, in case anyone missed it before, this confirms Paul Rudd's comedic genius!

The second of four Bogey/Bacall films, "The Big Sleep" has a quicker pace and snappier dialogue, compared to "Dark Passage," the only other of the duo's films I've seen so far. Though the cinematography isn't as good as it is in DP, this film is much more enjoyable.

Although the third Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall film, it?s the first I've seen. The pair has so much chemistry it was no surprise to me to learn that they married between their second and third films. The cinematography is amazing, even more so than the average film noir movie. Director Delmer Daves shoots the first half of the film without ever showing Bogart's face, instead shooting his silhouette or from having the camera show his point of view - a technique that could have easily come off as cheesy, but Daves makes it work. I was particularly impressed with Bacall and anticipate seeing more of her. I regret that I didn't discover her sooner. Though I think it'll be hard to top this one, I'm definitely going to pick up the duos other three films: "The Big Sleep," "Key Largo" and "To Have And Have Not."

Writer and director William Wellman couldn't get along with lead Janet Gaynor and tried to walk-out the set of this film, only to be thwarted by MGM; a good thing for the film. Nobody else could have pulled off wide-eyed Hollywood hopeful Vicki quite like Gaynor, and without Wellman's concise directing "A Star Is Born" wouldn't have been the same. The film captures the hope and possibilities Hollywood holds for young aspiring actors, and also the desperation to stay on top once they've made it. A tragic love story and spectacular look into the film industry - with many scenes actually taken from real experiences by various Hollywood insiders.

One might think that as a journalist I wouldn't enjoy this film because of it's negative portrayal of the newspaper business, but I actually appreciate its profile of publishers as greedy businessmen, and, although her ethics were lacking, the portrayal of Ann Mitchell, the columnist who creates the fictitious John Doe; The film captures her desperation as a female in a male-dominated business and as a victim of those publishers' greed. The newspaper business is just a backdrop for what the story is at heart - "Meet John Doe" is a witty, almost satirical look at society during a trying time. Although made in 1941, the film couldn't be any more poignant than now in 2007. "John Doe" has many of the same themes - desperation and faith in the everyday man - that can be found in most Frank Capra films, especially his most popular, "It's A Wonderful Life."

Joan Crawford excels in this role, which she received an Oscar nomination for. It makes one think that Crawford's daughter's novel (which was made into the movie "Mommie Dearest") that depicted her as an abusive lunatic is all the more probable. Regardless, Crawford's performance is riveting in this psychological thriller.

This thriller is intense and eerie. Unlike most horror flicks that take cheap shots to shock the audience, this film gets under your skin and keeps you at the edge of your seat. Funny man Robin Williams is masterful and shocking as one of the best movie villains of the 21st century.

Revered as one of the most tragic love stories ever written, "Wuthering Heights" is also beautifully adapted to film. Laurence Olivier's portrayal of Heathcliff is nearly as powerful as the story itself.

A suspenseful look at several interconnected people in Los Angeles when a devastating quake hits - "the largest natural disaster in American history"; A scary thought for someone who lives in Los Angeles, so close to the San Andreas Fault. Made all the more frightening - nearly 30 years after the film was made - having witnessed the devastation and slow government response after Hurricane Katrina, and with Los Angeles having admitted not being prepared for a large-scale natural disaster.

This dramatic thriller is a cautionary tale about the perils of money; the greed, distrust and paranoia associated with it. In "A Simple Plan," what started out as, well, a simple plan escalates out of control. A masterfully suspenseful film with great performances by Billy Bob Thorton and Jane Fonda, "A Simple Plan" is definitely worth checking out.