My Favorite Movies

Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor make such a magical pair. I think this may be the best movie I have ever seen in my life. It's so simple yet so perfect.

Maggie Smith is reason enough to love this film. And the score by Patrick Doyle is beyond beautiful. I loved the score so much I actually bought it from Amazon, something I never do.

Um, this movie is freaking amazing. I wish I were idealistic and sexy. Then maybe I could meet Ethan Hawke on a train and talk with him allll night long.

Forget Rear Window or Strangers on the Train, I now know what Hitchcock is truly capable of. And it surpasses any characteristic style or typical chase-and-evade scenes of usual Hitchcock fare. I was never more creeped out when Jimmy Stewart's character kissed the kind-of-but-not-really Madeleine. This is THE definitive psychological thriller.

Superb performances all around, especially the female ones. I suffer from major Bette Davis idolatry, while Anne Baxter is the epitome of ambition gone wrong. This film is awesome because from the beginning you know what's going to happen, and you wait and wait for the inevitable ruin, and the scenes just keep on building up and building up, but when the final showdown arrives the effect is still like WHAM.

I have decided that I will limit myself to one Woody Allen film in the films I consider my "favorites," and this shall be the one. Annie Hall may be the world's darling, but this is truly a neglected jewel in the American cinema. It's clever ("Life doesn't imitate art; it imitates bad television" haha Juliette Lewis LOVE), manipulative, and filled to the brim with memorable chracters. And my god Judy Davis is SO GREAT to watch. Her magnetism is like, arresting.

Words cannot describe how much I love this movie. The scenes between Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway crackle with electricity. Glamorous x 1000. I want to BE one of the members of their gang. Backed up by a stellar supporting cast, it also boasts a catchy score, magnificent camerawork, and one HECK of an ending.

One of the few movies that captures Faye Dunaway's ephemeral glamour to the fullest. I'm so glad I saw it.

Never in my life have I been so completely immersed in a movie. Frightening scenes that aptly illustrate the vicious cycle of crime. Painfully gorgeous camerawork that perfectly contrasts the brutal violence with the almost ethereal beauty of the beaches. It passes along a message without directly telling you, but you still emerge from the movie a wiser, sadder human being. And more scared of little kids.

I never thought a Woody Allen film could be so GOOD without Woody Allen actually acting in it. You can tell Allen really, really loved this film - there's such an atmosphere of realness in this (despite the fact that the story is far from real). There's none of that self-mockery prevalent in many of Allen's films - he completely immerses the audience in the 30s and Mia Farrow's look fits perfectly with the surroundings. The lines are convincingly delivered and it's funny, but not in the usual sharp, zinging humor - it's lighter, fluffier, and infinitely more lovely.

I have never in my life seen a documentary as magnificent as this - engrossing all the way through, paced meticulously, beautiful camerawork, insightful interviews, adorable children, breathtaking artwork. Amir Bar-Lev manages to capture footage of Marla that makes her look almost idiotic that the audience is supposed to question her capability of doing this. Bar Lev mostly keeps his opinions out of his documentary (as contrasted to the omnipresent Michael Moore...blegh) but the few times he actually steps into the camera and speaks it's always carefully introspective and highly respectful. He has grown to care about these people, particularly the mother, and I can feel his pain resonating through the camera when he was forced to perform the "confrontation". I want to keep my opinions out of this review but it's obvious the father doctored them up, probably without the knowledge of the mother. The reporter was kind of a bitch in the way she said things but she was the one that brought up the best points. But seriously, why the heck should it matter so much? The paintings are beautiful no matter who painted them, and I seriously want to buy a couple hundred and put them up in my house because of the sheer freedom and rapture they evoke. This was originally just supposed to be a documentary about modern art but it escalated rapidly into much more than that. It makes the documentary much more evocative but the director's hesitations are palpable...I empathize entirely. The modern art elegy could have been just as beautiful because I am in LOVE with those paintings.

Oh wow. This is so fantastic I don't even know where to begin. It seems to me that whenever Stephen King writes a non-horror story, the movie that results from it is almost always amaazing. Stand By Me is one of most touching films about friendship and growing up I've ever seen. The dialogue is cute and poignant all at once. River Phoenix is a true find - he can display a wide range of emotions many adult actors have difficulty accomplishing. Just ten minutes into the movie I found myself tearing up - it wasn't particularly sad, but the displays of friendship were SO beautiful. At the end, I cried buckets. The next morning I'm still slightly emotional, also because I just found out River Phoenix died at 23. The songs are perfectly matched to the decade and some of my favorite moments are when the boys sing along to the songs. Although the boys swear and smoke and talk about sex with each other's mothers, they are still innocent, and the juxtaposition of the "older" gang with theirs shows what could be right around the corner. It's a terrific coming-of-age story and the understanding between Will Wheaton and River Phoenix is visceral - their connection is so deep it's beyond human understanding. And playing in the background lies some GORGEOUS Portland scenery. It achieves a beauty that isn't artificial but simply captures the mood perfectly.

this movie scared the crap out of me. ellen burstyn gave a hauntingly real performance, shuffling around in her prized red dress. frightening and beautiful.

Terrific movie about relationships and heartbreaks. I love all aspects of this film, from the Jon Brion soundtrack to the quirky yet beautiful cinematography. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet have good chemistry, oddly enough.

YES! It's been a while since I've seen a truly, truly good screwball comedy worthy enough to be added to my favorite movies. Gosh if only I could snag an adorable man like Henry Fonda had I possessed Barbara's Stanwyck's gift of seduction.

I have spent a week contemplating what to say about this movie and still I'm left speechless. I'll always be left speechless, I think. This might be the first movie I've been left simultaneously awed and confused as hell. And by awed I mean AWED the highest extent of the word.

Of course I've got to give credit to ALL the Bob Dylans, not just Cate Blanchett. Each aspect of Dylan's character could be a stand-alone story by itself. Heath Ledger's story in particular made me cry because it was so beautiful and sad and flustered and self-assured all at once. I love how Haynes enmeshes each discrete style with a particular embodiment of Dylan, from grainy documentary to 8 1/2 Fellini to crackly b&w to expansive Western. The music is so perfectly selected, it's magical.

Haynes is a true auteur: methodical, original, and COOL. I cannot believe freaking Jason Reitman got an Oscar nomination when there's genius like Haynes lying around. But I'm Not There will remain at the selectively viewed area like all art films, like it or not.

I don't really understand it, but that is part of the appeal. I WANT to understand. Please help me understand, Bob Dylan.

I love movies that make me both cry and laugh, and Good Bye Lenin is filled to the brim with those moments. The Lives of Others was another film about the Berlin Wall coming down, but while that one emphasized how messed up the DDR (or GDR? I'm so confused) was, Good Bye Lenin illustrates how imperfect any kind of society can be, capitalist or socialist. Alex (who is the hottest German guy I've ever seen)'s socialist vision becomes more of what he hoped was rather than what actually was. Obviously socialism isn't perfect, but his mother's quaint imaginary world serves as a respite for the loud and harsh realities of capitalism. This movie has humor (mostly involving Alex's efforts to find socialist stuff in an increasingly capitalist east Germany) and drama. Sometimes it gave me this overwhelming sense of nostalgia, which was kinda weird because I wasn't even alive when the wall was still up. It deals with a lot of issues but comes out on top with a beautiful climax and, not a happy, but a kind of cathartic, ending.

It may not be deep or meaningful, but this is the kind of film I like best: raunchy, sexy, showstopping, gaudy, golddiggerry fun.

I didn't like the ending, but the rest was perfection. Favorite scene: Cobb's breakdown.

Oh my gosh, this is FANTASTIC! The best movie I've ever seen about writers' block, that's for sure. Links unrelated themes in an absolutely flawless manner. Nicholas Cage once again shows his versatility as an actor by portraying his Charlie Kaufman-esque role. Completely breaks all conventions and blurs the line between cliche and real life, producing a very fun and wackadoo script. Well DONE, Mr. Kaufman. (P.S. I don't think you're fat.)

This is an actor's film. Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent each give mesmerizing performances and inhabit their characters in such a way I was like...wow, these two have a history together. Sarah Polley guides events along in a seamless manner, letting the actors shine individually while restraining these moments to make the movie more cohesive. Out of the three movies recently made about Alzheimer's (The Notebook, Iris, and this), Away From Her is by far the best. And I really dig those Canadian accents.

Visually brilliant biopic about an original directed by an original. Love, love, love.

mind-blowing. just mind-blowing. and the guy who plays danny is hot bald!

This movie has taken away my western virginity, and what a great first it turned out to be! Tense, magnetic performances by Crowe and Bale. What I love about this movie is how so much is left unsaid but you know EXACTLY what the characters are thinking. If you think about it, Bale hardly says anything but his facial expressions and the way the camera pans in and out of a scene contribute so much to how we perceive things.

This totally deserved to win over Saving Private Ryan. Gwyneth and Joseph Fiennes make Shakespeare sexy! mannn I wish Shakespeare were my lover.

Unbelievably cute! I watch this three, four times every Christmas Little Natalie Wood is a sweetheart.

It's so pretty! That movie poster does not do Audrey Tautou justice.

The cinematography is awesome, but it's not why I love love love this film so much. It's all Orson Welles - all, all, all.

Quentin Tarantino makes me feel cool. Why, oh why, did I not see this earlier?

My faaavorite Disney movie. it's so original and quirky, managing to maintain that ineffable Disney charm but just stopping it from being too saccharine.

Lacks the seedy debauchery of its precedents and thus attains a kind of superficial Hollywood sheen that actually works for it rather than against as with many cases. It pays homage to those old Bob Fosse classics but also turns into a new direction entirely. It's less about the self-involved players behind-the-scenes - which plays a starring role in the likes of All That Jazz and Cabaret - and more about the thrillseeking, tabloid-ingesting audience hungry for any sort of monkey show the stars can put on. So they respond accordingly. I know many people don't think this movie deserved the BP back in 2003 but I will defend it to the death because it's my favorite large-scale production modern musical. It's not a movie that you think about a lot afterwards but you can't deny the musical numbers weren't astonishing, not to mention fun. Bill Condon had a knack for pulling out showstopping performances from actors I didn't even know could sing! So I thank him for that.

A gem in Pixar's star-studded repertoire.

This is grrreat! Leslie Caron proves to be the only person able to keep up with Gene Kelly's MAD dancing.

Aging James Stewart and Princess Grace. Mm, a deliciously carnal romance.

This is an incredibly underrated film by Woody Allen, overlooked for the likes of Annie Hall, which is good but you've gotta admit not spectacular. Allen delves deep into the soul of a messed up, womanizing, pill-popping old writer who steals and colors his own life experiences and throws them into his own novels. This is the first Allen film where the word f-ck is used gratuitously, and while it did take me aback the first few times, it makes way for an edgier, tougher understanding of an entirely different character from Allen's typical neurotics. Judy Davis's hysterics never fail to impress, even in her limited role. There's the expected hilarious one-liners mixed in with some wise, pithy zingers that truly shed some thought on life. I guess it's not for everybody, but I'm sure everybody can agree on Harry lamentation near the end: I'm ODing on myself!

This movie is freaking brilliant. Ann Miller lights up the stage every moment she's visible. She may not be as good a dancer as professional Bobby Van, but she's got more edge. In movies it's the combination of attitude and spunk AND talent that take you up a notch. Ann Miller wears the star power on her sleeve. It's unfortunate she was never really given a leading role to project her talent but this is a pretty darn good substitute. "Too Darn Hot" and "Tom, Dick, and Harry" are without a doubt my favorite numbers, I swear I've watched each of them at least twenty times. But Cole Porter is an awesome composer and I also love "Why Can't You Behave," "We Open In Venice," and "Always True to You in My Fashion."

However, the movie is really sexist. Why does Howard Keel's character treat Kathryn Grayson like crap and she still comes running back to him? Granted, they both behave rather badly but why does Kate have to give the concession?

i LOVED it. shirley maclaine is endearing in her vulnerable position. the chemistry between nicholson and maclaine is smoldering. winger captures the more tender scenes. love love.

hilarity foudn in black humor. mmmm for wes anderson goodness.

adorable movie. i love harry.

Dustin Hoffman, my main man. D-U-S-T-I-N.

"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" This is so engrossing I inadvertently leaned in. The director did a terrific job of combining the elements of mystery, action, scifi, unforgettable dialogue, magnificent makeup, sparse scenery, and Charlton Heston in all his machoness - all into one smashing movie.

rounded characters, fabulous storytelling, and the customarily hilarious one-liners. dianne wiest impresses me every time. it's like a vast painting by renoir or something. nothing gets resolved but the story runs so deep. it leaks autumn.

fabulous chemistry with vivien leigh and gable. if anything is gonna make you cry, this will. first part amazing, second part quite good, but not as.

A movie about selfish, beautiful people who so knowingly use people for their own purposes it somehow becomes okay. I feel like Patrick Marber was influenced by Husbands and Wives, except while there only Mia Farrow attained the manipulative, destructive bitch award, here it's like Mia Farrow split her personality into four and they transmogrified into some kind of gruesome, navel-gazing monster. It's a reflection of what society has become today, I think, which doesn't make it any easier to stomach but strikes an unpleasant chord at our insides and forces us to admit something we don't want to admit. And that's why I think a ton of people dislike this movie - it's evasion.

After much debate with myself, I have decided that I love this film. It's the definitive 80s teen movie and all of the high school stereotypes have their own time to shine. It's absorbing and even a little sad, but at the same time never loses its sense of fun. Judd Nelson stood out in every scene - he plays bad boy to perfection.

Only the French can pull this off. Schnabel turns what could be a potentially boring subject into a magnetic, lyrical splendor. The climax was perfect, the acting was heartfelt, and the music fits like a glove. Never does it turn into arty nonsense or meaningless froth.

And I have changed my mind about cinematography: Atonement, you no longer hold the position of the most beautiful movie in the world, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon has surpassed you by miles. At the end scene when the eye looks at things sideways, roaming all around, and then all of a sudden the camera flips right side up, I thought I would cry from the gorgeousness. It's not a pretentious kind of beauty, it's as if you had just perchanced upon the moment and happened to capture it at exactly the right time at the right angle, and somehow this discovery happened a thousand times over. My gosh, if only Schnabel and his band of artistic geniuses could get together and turn MY life into something this fantastic.

Oh gosh, it's so hard to get all my thoughts into something coherent. Um, well, this was brilliant. We're living in real time, and every second these characters spend together counts. They've grown up and matured, become more jaded with things like love and life, but the connection between them is still as strong as ever before. What I love about these two films is that we've only known these characters for as long as they have. We've listened to their conversations like they were our known, we know about their insecurities, and their hopes and dreams, but still both characters remain as elusive as they are to each other. But we want them to be together, and surely as they do. What's beautiful about this movie is not what is said, but what is left unsaid. We feel the palpable pain each has gone through these nine years even though they try not to talk about it. Gone is the passionate heart-pouring when they were 20, only to be superseded by the trite adult-talk about "how have you been doing" and so on. It was so short, and I wanted more. It was complete, but not really.

Despite the fact that I spent the entire movie thinking that Dianne Wiest was Olive and Helen was Jennifer Tilly (of which I feel like a huge dumbass, thank you very much), this movie contains all elements that I love of Woody. The coldness that hits your bones when another layer is unwrapped, cynicism and idealism jumbled together so that you can't even tell the difference between the two, the subconscious prejudices we build up only to have them joyfully knocked down by Woody's slight of hand, hilarity found in unexpected areas, and the pseudo-intellectual junk always popping up when you least expect it, a welcome respite that always pertains to the subject matter but tangentially at best. All this sounds very ambiguous but it's the movie as a whole that works the best. There wasn't any particular moment that stood out, the movie itself stood out.

I love, I love. Jim Carrey makes a seamless transition from comedy to dramedy and back again. The set designer does a great job of flitting the audience to different personas and maintaining the balance between contrived and "real" - to Truman, at least. Well casted and thought provoking. I was thinking, what if my life were a tv show? And then I was like, that is such an incredibly selfish idea. But then I was like, but my life is so incredibly predictable and so similar to Truman's. I want to break out too. And that is what the movie is all about.

The thing that amused me most was that Humbert Humbert called Lolita "Lo". I don't know why. Battle of the pedophiles at the beginning was probably the best thing I've seen in my life. Sue Lyon is marvelous as the eponymous nymphet even though Hayley Mills could've given her a run for her money. James Mason is good at being the slightly creepy character that jibes well with his burned-out actor in A Star is Born. I sympathize with noone but I'm drawn to everyone.

Wowza. I will never be able to listen to Mr. Ludwig van the same way again.

Scratch anything I've said before, Veronica Lake is THE poster girl for adorability. Preston Sturges sure knows how to pick his leading ladies. Very, very good satire with a solid message and well-timed transitions. I love films that show versatility.

I cried when Jake Gyllenhaal didn't believe that Gwyneth Paltrow wrote the proof. So sue me. It was sad.

I love that you don't know where this movie is going until it gets there. I turned cold when Gwyneth Paltrow read out Anthony Hopkins' "proof."

Creepy and engrossing. The scene where armless/legless man lights the cigarette never fails to amaze me.

Incredibly over-the-top and really typifies the area where reality meets illusion. The style takes some getting accustomed to but the dance numbers (oh wow, oh god wow) are really something. Oh mann Anne Reinking.

Very Chinese, very classic Ang Lee. It's really hard to describe what exactly Ang Lee's style IS, but I can almost always identify it. I can physically feel the slight, soft spoken man behind the camera. He owns his subtleties. I usually can't stand watching movies for longer than two hours but this one kept me mesmerized. I felt like I was walking a tightrope alongside Tang Wei as she practiced her fluid movements of espionage. Ang Lee keeps the line of vision taut with tension, angular, lucid, and, yes, very Chinese.

Finally, a movie where Elia Kazan doesn't go overboard! I owe it all to Natalie Wood's stunning theatrics and Warren Beatty sheer sexiness. The narrowminded town is so beautiful yet shockingly cruel to these young lovers and Kazan let the story spew out the message instead of forcefeeding actors. I'm impressed.

It's like, intelligent American Pie. It shies away from sentimental moments and even makes fun of them. Jason Lee has that got that va va voom goin on.

This is one of the best romantic comedies I've seen in a long time. The story is romantic and snappy, keeping just the right amount of mystery so that it is not confusing but whimsically engrossing. I loved having the setting during Bill Clinton's time - it weathered and toughened out the story in an aspect where it definitely could've been too "fairytale". Isla Fisher is the European Amy Adams; I thought she was so, so adorable whenever she delivered anything. I hope she gets a great career in the future.

I still kind of hate Ryan Reynolds because his acting style has touches of the egotistical and fake, but I think he manages to obtain a decent amount of chemistry with all four female characters (Abigail Breslin included). The casting was pretty much flawless, even though I think they could've had Elizabeth Banks do more and had us like her more. She can be perfectly endearing, that one.

But as a general idea, I highly recommend this movie to anyone and I couldn't stop smiling throughout!

Oh. my. gosh. I did not know what to expect at all but all those blew out of the water once I was introduced to the fairytale city of Bruges. The atmosphere is SO netherworldly, so hazy yet cerebral, it's like you have all the time in the world to think but the thoughts that come out of your mind are as dreamlike as the city. It's so unexpectedly funny but then it quickly shifts moods from comic to tragic to pensive to tragicomic.

The most masterful moments come when everything is still. I don't know how anyone can create such an original combination of genres and assorted moods. The location choice is flawless.

The movie has almost no plot complications or suspenseful moments, yet I love it SO MUCH! It's a floating, pattering, whirling confection of a movie, and Amy Adams fits snugly inside Delysia Lafosse. I think she can have a tendency to be pigeonholed into the ingenue role, but she seizes anything that is thrown at her and you can tell she truly delights in whatever she does, no matter how small or predictable her role is. I love the concept of stuffing a movie into a DAY; the vision of people rushing breathlessly around to fit their events in a day is not something often explored and was executed magnificently!

Admittedly the story is not much but that is really the essence of the movie - it entertains and delights, but afterwards you can't really remember what happened, just that you were put in the best mood ever while watching it.

This is the textbook definition of vicious self-satisfaction. Evan Rachel Wood's hilarious deadpan steamrollers over everything she touches. The way she holds herself with such decisive control is impressive at such a young age (I can kind of imagine Dakota Fanning in something of this role in the future, actually) and she is the one that makes this movie THE best out of all its precedents (Heathers, Cruel Intentions).

It was necessary for this movie to be independently made because the straight-up racism wouldn't have been approved anywhere else. And the racism and gutsy ventures into taboo territory are what make this movie unforgettable.

But even though I really, really enjoyed this movie, it lacked the balls to make the full vitriolic monty, opting for the redemption arc instead, with internal turmoil + tears+ all. Come on people, we don't live in the age of the Hays code anymore - not everything has to end for the good.

Ruby Keeler is an admittedly gorgeous but boring woman, so I'm glad she isn't given a whole lot to do except moon over the guy and then retreat into the background. But the other three women are so colorful and over-the-top, I can't resist this musical. Another Busby Berkeley spectacle with themes for each musical number. Pettin' in the Park was so, so naughty and We're in the Money is the definitely the cutest little clock song EVER. I'm glad Ginger Rogers got her time to shine because she wasn't used nearly enough in 42nd Street. I love the liberal stereotypical showgirlesque atittudes of all of them and the unrestrained dialogue. If these guys were capable of this this early in the cinema game, think of what fantastic movies we could have had had the Hays code NOT been in place! Such sensuality wowowow.

So much stuff running through my head while watching this cinematic splendor. One of the best movies of the film noir age. It's dramatic but for once the drama is well-earned. At first you think Gilda is going to be the typical femme fatale and you hate her guts but secretly love her seduction but then all of a sudden layer by layer is unwrapped until all is left is the soft underbelly of vulnerability. Sexuality oozes out of Rita Hayworth au naturale. You get the feeling some actresses try too hard to attain this but Rita has the self-assurance of a truck...she's different from Monroe's ditzy loveability, she's tough as nails but voluptuously magnetic. Pictures don't do this woman justice because it's way she moves and glides and sings and speaks that give the real package. Seriously did people get dance training is this movie because everybody seems to have this purposeful glide even when they're being slapped around or fall down? For once it's the story that's not important and even to the actors it's somewhat of a farce. There is some serious hot-and-heavy going on with Ford and Hayworth and I can't stay away from any scene they're in together. But I think the interspersion of the ridiculous gang story is actually quite helpful because it doesn't make the chemistry too exhaustive. I honestly think this movie is a good blueprint for whomever wants to make a love-hate-misunderstanding film because it never shifts the focus yet doesn't focus TOO deeply.

I usually don't like this type of film - what with the relative lack of plot and everything - but the idea of those two lost souls hanging on to each other is just too gorgeous for words.

A delightful confection of a movie made primarily to showcase Edith Head's sumptuous outfits. It's really an experience to see all these big stars having a grand old time f-cking each other in a big glass of champagne. A satire of sorts, but the main purpose of seeing this movie is to have FUN, because you're never gonna see anything like this again.

Sometimes all you need is a bunch of old film clips and a handful of aging stars to create a masterpiece. This was truly the Golden Age of Hollywood. I NEED to own this collection, immediately.

I knew I was going to like this movie the minute I picked it up. First, the time period. Second, the concept of growing up (the bildungswoman). Third, the DIALOGUE. Funniest, wittiest, most poignant thing ever. It's like, college age Stand By Me, sans adventure and bullies, plus marital strife and job doubts. It's male bonding at its finest. It's 50s age "Friends" with men. It's the thinking man's American Graffiti. It's WONDERFUL. I wouldn't mind seeing a Diner 2 and Diner 3 if Levinson could bring these guys back intact. Also, Mickey Rourke and Tim Daly were so sexy back then. And Ellen Barkin too.

The first (and probably only) Roman Polanski film that has really gripped me beginning to end. The perfect balance between macabre and everyday life. The thing I love most about this movie is that it makes sense. There is no sense of mystery and confusion at the end and I appreciate that from a horror movie. Mia Farrow plays the role of her life - I can't think of a better casting decision, period. It runs slow even though it's only two hours, but I like to think of this movie as an epic horror - the action moves slow but there's always STUFF going on. I also liked the random fertility symbols that popped up, especially the mousse in the napkin representing period blood. Also, the greatest thing: Mia Farrow's OUTFITS. I WANT that wardrobe.

One of my favorite films of 2008. David Fincher kind of runs hot and cold for me - hated Fight Club, loved Se7en, despised Zodiac, ADORED this movie - but I can always appreciate his meticulous attention to detail. He manages to harness his painstakingly exacting energies into a circularly flowing, organic movie. It's beautiful and cold at the same time, but the emotional connections are ever present all the same. Watching the characters age and Benjamin youthify explains without words the cycles of life, no matter if you're flowing backwards or forwards. One of the few movies where themes snap into my brain as easy as Lego pieces. This is not an actor's film; it's all Fincher's and he revels in his creation. The audience bathes in the glory of Brad Pitt's heyday and those brief moments Daisy and Benjamin can meet up in the middle, emotionally and physically prepared for each other. Blanchett is an absolute gazelle. Brad Pitt...words cannot describe his visual magnificence. I like how this movie is mainstream enough to appeal to the public but sophisticated enough to extend to the rest of us picky people. Christopher Nolan, eat your heart out. David Fincher has ARRIVED.

One of the most affecting and audience accessible silent movies ever. Symbolic, full, and innocent. Perfect length.

Sometimes I have the most unreasonable attractions to movies. I know this topic has been covered time and time again, and the ending was complete copout - and by complete I mean COMPLETE - but then I think about the twenty something GenX dialogue, and the constant pop culturing, and the time-tried tug-of-war between reality and ideals, and the difficulties of finding a job and keeping your identity at the same time, and what to do with yourself after college, and sticking with the guy you know you love forever even though it gets so freaking complicated you want to die, and selling out to the corporate monolith but liking it, and the compromising of artistic vision, and feeling pretentious over those who are more successful than you, and the feeling of being simultaneously overloved and underloved at the same time, and the times where inertia overcomes and all you want to do is watch tv and chain smoke forever and talk to a psychic for hours on end, but kicking back and bitching with your friends makes you feel that much better even though nothing has changed, and...oh gosh I could go on and on - everything about this movie is ME. Wino 4ever!

Okay, now after watching this and Let the Right One In I look upon middle school life completely differently. I can't watch another kid's movie without thinking some terrible bullying involving knives or something is going to come soon. I have become desensitized to juvenile violence, I think.

Heather Matarazzo is so impressive I don't even know what to say! I don't look upon her as a little kid but as a human with terrible conflicts going inside her. Solondz has really three-dimensionalized Dawn so that everybody can identify with her and pity her and also hate her at the same time. Everyone has a little bit of Dawn in themselves but she's so extreme you have to laugh. But you understand her too.

Made me understand what black comedy truly is. Just when you think the screenplay can't get more original Solondz throws another curveball at you. The scene that sticks out most is the cake one. WHOA what a bitch mother.

Now this is more like it! A slow, simple story that flows out organically and doesn't force anything. It starts out lightly but somehow manages to pull out a spectrum of emotions: laughter, heartbreak, peace, frustration. Richard Jenkins is truly a work of art. Instead of stealing the show for himself he reacts to the events and people that happen. The story isn't about him, and he doesn't make it about him, and I appreciate that. The change is subtle yet quick and pronounced and Jenkins never breaks character. He leaks grief and jadedness wherever he goes but you can sense when he is really happy and when his passive bubble is burst. This isn't a role with lengthy soliloquys and in fact the character is quite an awkward one but somehow this only makes it more humanistic, more compassionate.

Music is a uniting force in this movie and whomever chose it has a wonderful ear. Good interspersing of African drum beats among the expansive piano runs. The director managed to make New York look very spare but it's never an image of complete coldness. In fact the cinematography is quite warm and this is all owing to Jenkins' quiet sympathy. It just goes to show that depression is not the answer and even though it doesn't end happily I'm left feeling...elevated somehow. Who was really the one most elevated, the immigrants or the professor? I guess the ending shows the professor, the "visitor" was the one that was. I guess the "visitor" is a metaphor for a happenstance upon a really rich culture. I don't know, honestly I'm really struck by Richard Jenkins. I hope he at least gets considered for an Oscar nod. I can't usually tell these things but this nuanced role was played beautifully and naturally.

Seems like I liked this movie a ton better than most. One of the most refreshingly imaginative scripts I've ever had the pleasure of bathing in. It's what I expected Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to be: black black comedy, deadpan, unexpected plot twists, noncommittance, beautiful women and men. It's not without emotion or avoidance of a happy ending either. A vast, vast improvement from Heathers. I will be sure to check this guy out in the future. My one complaint: Noni was CRIMINALLY underused. And what was with the weird voice?

An underrated, still sophisticated Hitchcock exploring the depths of Freudian imagery and repression. Hitch takes his talent for suspense and injects it into something very different from his typical chase-and-evade scenes. I felt the old familiar nervousness during the robbery scene as the shoe drops, drops, drops out of the pocket, only to discover the cleaning lady is deaf. A wonderful scene serving a very different purpose than stock evasion. Although the ending seemed a little too simplistic, it invites you to examine more deeply into the psyches of not only Marnie but also her captor. Icy Hedren and smoking Connery create wonderful antithetical sparks amongst the super-risque material, rape scene included.

How unexpected that this be the film that really caught my interest in 2008.

I always appreciate play-based movies, to be sure, but all that history crap turned me off before I could even give it a chance. But this isn't a history movie - this is a character study of the highest degree. Nobody has praised Frank Langella enough. He doesn't play a well-coiffed irritation, he inhabits the soul of Nixon. He has managed to strip away everything but the essence of Nixon's compulsion to be loved and morally ambiguous actions. It's like that scene in A Few Good Men but less knowingly explosive.

This is a less a history movie than a balletic duel between two inimitable forces. There is parallelism but we're not beaten to the ground by them. Scenes are shown to create emotions. The ending is a bit of a simplification but the movie is aware of that, how television simplifies everything. Rebecca Hall provides some much needed sex appeal. Michael Sheen's performance should rightfully be recognized but Langella makes us forget about him, sadly. I am SO impressed by Ron Howard I don't even know what to say.

This film fairly pulsates with style. The reason I keep on coming back to these play adaptations despite frequent heavyhanded disappointments (see: Doubt) is because I know what they are capable of, if handled correctly. The material is all there: densely packed with emotion but sated with quietude, beautiful people playing beautiful parts and believing in them too, the succulent taste of words words words. All it needs is a strong rope to string all the pieces together. Tennessee Williams has a tendency to read too dramatic and it takes cinema to soften up the dizzying emotions. The transitions between LOUDquietLOUD are flawless. Paul Newman and Liz Taylor are pure sex. I also appreciate the homosexual undertones. One of the best movies I have seen in a long, long time.

Jimmy Stewart is an absolutely brilliant actor. You don't think about it at first but he can display depths of emotions far surpassing his aw-shucks country boy nice guy persona. Kind of like this movie.

One of the few movies that I actually enjoy the "indie"-ness of it all, even including token singer Alexi Murdochl. I like the roller-coaster ride of laughs, and how much you really see John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph appreciate each other, and the crazy descent into earnestness when you least expect it, how you can cry and gasp and totally sympathize and empathize with FINDING A PLACE TO LIVE. I mean, sure, it gets a little too self-aware for my taste and the characters are obviously self-martyred-pretentious but I think the authors are poking fun at that lifestyle a little, as well. Anyway the sentiment is still there and that is all that counts. I really loved it, and I thought I wouldn't.