Raise the Red Lantern: Da hong deng long gao gao gua (1991)

This foreign film was nominated for the Oscar in 1992 [and should have won]. It is about a young Chinese girl who can no longer afford to go to college and is left with few options upon returning home. She starts the film with an emotional dialogue with her mother about her...

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Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Let me just start by saying Björk sure is weird... This film is about a single mother that moves from Czechoslovakia with her son to give him a better life. We learn pretty quickly that she is going blind and that it is a hereditary disease. Before she does completely blind...

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Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)

Ah Michael Moore, everyone's favorite documentary maker... to hate. No one gets more grief than him, mainly with due cause. He is the same and opposite as Glenn Beck (Fox News nutcase), same in his slanted views only showing one side of the story. Same because they are both...

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The Quiet Man (1952)

John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara team up again under the direction of John Ford (previously teamed up for Rio Grande). The premise of the film is that Wayne plays a man returning Ireland and the home he grew up in after living in America.We get hints of his past throughout and...

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The Kid Brother (1927)

Harold Lloyd will always be the 2nd best slapstick silent film behind Buster Keaton. His most memorable films are Safety Last! and The Freshman, I would rank this his 3rd best film. Lloyd plays the same character profile as Keaton and just doesn't have the same quality of...

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Earth: Zemlya (1930)

This film is included in the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die" Book and is listed because of its historical impact in the Soviet Union. This silent film is about collective farming and a citizens uprising against the rich people in their town when they are given a tractor.Highly...

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Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

It is kind of funny that there are two directors with a lot of films I have to watch. Woody Allen has a lot of comedies that have been recognized and Alfred Hitchcock has a number of suspense/mystery films recognized as well. The funny part is that I space out the Hitchcock's...

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Crazy Heart (2009)

This is one I had planned on watching before the Oscars but just didn't have time. Jeff Bridges won the oscar for best actor and the theme song won best song. You probably know Bridges from his character "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski, or his most recent hit Iron Man where...

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Old Dogs (2009)

There are a lot of films that I watch, that I just know are going to be bad. Why do I watch them? Well, sometimes they surprise me. Daddy Day Care for example, it only had a 5.5 on imdb yet I gave it a 7/10.With John Travolta and Robin Williams you always have potential for...

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The Endless Summer (1966)

This documentary film is about two surfers and their friend [the narrator, writer, and director] who take a trip around the world following the summer season. They start in California, head to Africa, around to Cape, to Australia, then finally to Hawaii.It is a really fun story;...

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The Cameraman (1928)

Over the last year it has become clear to me that I am a much bigger fan of Buster Keaton than Charlie Chaplin. To me, slapstick comedies are some of the only silent films worth watching. Chaplin has an element of drama to all of his comedies, his Tramp character is actually...

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The King of Kong (2007)

This film is about uber-dorks [super dorks]. Die hard classic game fanatics who spend countless hours trying to set world record high scores in 25 year old arcade games like: Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Missile Command, etc.This storyline follows a feud between Steve Wiebe and Billy...

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Ordinary People (1980)

Starring Timothy Hutton as the younger son, with Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland as the parents. This film is about a family dealing with the death of a teenage son. The surviving brother of the accident blames himself, and the mother blames him as well.This is a heavily...

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Library of Congress: National Film Registry (3)

Part 3 of the Library of Congress Short films that I have been working on. Finding these online takes more time than actually watching them, which can be a real let down for the bad ones. I'm making my own archive, so contact me if you want a full collection of all of these...

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Moon (2009)

This science fiction film directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, & Frost/Nixon) was one of the best British Films of the year and nominated for a BAFTA award...

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Oscar Animated Short Films (2009)

The Oscars are now over and I have been able to watch all 5 nominees for animated short film, as well as two others that made the short list, e.g. the pool of 10 the 5 nominees were chosen from.I have ranked the five nominations from my favorite to least favorite, then reserve...

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Ponyo [on the Cliff]: Gake no ue no Ponyo (2009)

Shortened from its original title "Ponyo on the Cliff" to just "Ponyo" on US release. This was the film that got snubbed for an Oscar nomination. I'm a pretty big fan of the director Hayao Miyazaki and have already reviews one of his earlier films on this blog (here). So I...

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Way Down East (1920)

Even if you don't like silent films, you have to experience a D.W. Griffith film at some point in your life. His most well known works include The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages. This film, Way Down East, was only two and a half hours,...

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Kurt Cobain About a Son (2006)

I spend a significant amount of my movie watching time working on movies on a list, or up for an award. With the AFI Dallas Film Festival coming up next month I was browsing through the lineup from last you and spotted this film. Taking a detour for something that looked to...

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