I Recommend...(The Short List)

Possibly my favorite movie. Funny, weird and insightful about our culture, but in a way where the movie still revels in its own silliness and absurdity. Endlessly quotable. The plot deals with alien corpses, a radiation addled scientist, punks, revolutionaries and repo men. Features my favorite actor: Harry Dean Stanton

Surreal.

This movie will change the watcher in the same way as a car crash changes a person. This is more an experience than a movie. It won't easily leave your mind. For the rest of your life you'll remember The Holy Mountain. It's an onslaught. There is symbolism and confusing, surreal, absurd imagery in every second. There is not a single frame in this movie where there is not something a little out of the ordinary. It's fatiguing in its insanity. The plot is thin, you'll forget it's there.

Alejandro Jodorowsky is a mad man. The stories behind his movies productions are just as interesting as his movies. George Harrison was originally supposed to play the lead. Jodorowsky had to movie the production to New York because he was getting so many death threats. Jodorowsky almost never uses actual actors and the main players in Holy Mountain were put on an actual spiritual quest. Jodorowsky fed them hallucinogens, took them to the mountains and filmed them going through rituals that included subjecting them to their worst fears.

Holy Mountain is probably not Jodorowsky's most well made movie (that's probably Santa Sangre), but it is the most insane thing I've ever seen.

A couple warnings, Jodorowsky's films are filled with nudity. It's wall-to-wall. There's some imagery people might find disturbing. It doesn't last very long though.

Drama/Fantasy

The most beautiful movie ever made. Filmed in over 20 different countries. The locations are amazing and all real, there's barely any special effects or CGI in what you'll see. It's amazing from credits to credits, whether it's the ridiculous visuals or the performance of the 6-year-old Romanian actress who co-stars. Ebert said it best: "You might want to see for no other reason than because it exists. There will never be another like it."

Set in the 1920s, a stuntman is grievously injured and befriends a little girl in the hospital. He tells her an incredible story about men seeking revenge (one of whom is Charles Darwin).

Western. Directed by Sergio Leone. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef.

When I think of the word "epic" my mind immediately leaps to this movie. It's almost perfect, there's one scene that drags and the rest flies. The characters cover so much ground, going from one dangerous situation to the next. The score is brilliant. The characters are flat, but nothing could matter less. Action is never very far away. There's even a little bit of humor.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

One of the blackest of black comedy. Satire played so straight someone not paying attention could miss the humor all together. In fact, the amazing George C Scott wasn't even told it was a comedy (and somehow he managed to be the funniest in the movie. Some of the most iconic images in movies come from Dr. Strangelove.

A general goes insane and sends planes to nuke Russia. The president convenes his war cabinet to figure out what to do. Peter Sellers plays three roles. Has my all-time favorite ending. And, seriously, I can't stress enough how incredible George C. Scott is.

Drama

Directed by Christopher Nolan (the new Batman trilogy, Memento). Stars Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine (you're going to start to realize that I love Michael Caine) and Scarlett Johansson.

One of my most watched movies. It's about an escalating rivalry between two magicians. Excellent cast, story, direction. Without spoiling anything, I'll say some people don't like the ending. I didn't mind it.

Drama

Directed by the Coen Brothers. Really, you should watch all of the Coen Bros' movies. They've made two bad ones: Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers and even those have their redeeming moments (in The Ladykillers "We must all have waffles, forthwith!" is one of Tom Hanks' best line readings ever). They have a few lesser ones, but they're all pretty good.

My favorite gangster movie. Set during Prohibition, it tells a complex story of two rival gangs (the Irish and the Italians) with Gabriel Byrne stuck in the middle. There's some amazing action pieces, but it's not an action movie. The real entertainment comes from watching Gabriel Byrne plot and try to survive.

Romantic Comedy.

Directed by Billy Wilder. Stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.

Romantic comedies suck. This one doesn't. It's genuinely funny and surprisingly dark for a rom-com made in 1960. Jack Lemmon manages to be likeable even as he's playing a kind of spineless loser.

Monty Python movie.

The best religious satire ever. Probably the best Jesus movie too.

Russian.

Soviet movie directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Very long, very slow, but once you get into the movie's rhythms it seems to fly by. It gets labelled as sci-fi, that's all I'll say. It feels a lot like "Easy Rider" in that it consists mostly of watching people travel and taking in the scenery. The entire ending portion of the movie is really powerful.

There exists an area called "The Zone." If you want to go into The Zone, you need to enlist the services of men known as stalkers. This is a movie about a trip to The Zone.

Sci-fi/Horror

Directed by John Carpenter.

Just an awesome, balls-to-the-wall crazy sci-fi horror movie. Kurt Russell is the man, Wilford Brimley does some great work. The monster starts insane and only get crazier. It's a movie so good even the dog in the beginning is an excellent actor.

Comedy

Easily one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It's a perfect parody of '70s blaxploitation movies. The more blaxploitation movies you've seen, the more you'll enjoy it. But if you've never seen any, it's still hilarious. And it gets more and more ridiculous. There's a ton of quotable lines and the guys who made it created it because they love the genres.

The lead actor and director even came up with back stories for a fictional lead actor and director of the movie Black Dynamite. So, Michael Jai White plays Black Dynamite, but he also pretended he was a fake '70s football star named Ferente Jones who got into acting and played Black Dynamite. Just another crazy level to the movie.

Drama

Directed by Spike Lee. Stars Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis.

Maybe the best movie about race ever made (go fuck yourself, Crash). The writing is great, the characters feel real and stylized at the same time. It's both dramatic and really funny. A ton of memorable characters.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Stars Adam Sandler, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Paul Thomas Anderson has not made a bad movie. All of his are great: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and The Master.

It's a romantic comedy about crazy people. Just emotionally maladjusted people with a ton of issues. Adam Sandler is amazing in this as a very lonely man with anger issues. A little bit of whimsy, a little bit of dark comedy. Features the best (read: craziest) pre-sex, dirty talk. And also one of the most heartfelt and emotional hero vs. villain confrontations when Sandler confronts Hoffman, who plays a mattress store owner who also runs a phone sex line that blackmails callers.

French movie that is like watching a boatload of whimsy. Audrey Tatou plays a young woman who meddles in other people's lives. Sometimes it's for the better, sometimes...eh..It's an incredibly charming movie that just kind of makes you smile.

Directed by David Lynch (Mulholland Dr). David Lynch is another director where pretty much any of his movies are a safe bet. Except for Dune, which some people do like, but just not me. Fire Walk With Me ties in with the TV show Twin Peaks so your mileage may vary as far as that on goes and it's kind of a weak movie anyway. Inland Empire is not for beginners, so hold on to that one.

I wouldn't have been able to handle Holy Mountain if I had never seen Eraserhead. It was a movie that changed my notion of what a movie could be. I knew movies could be weird, I didn't know they could transcend to such mind-melting levels of strange.

Eraserhead unsettled me in a way that no film had previously. It was like watching a nightmare, but it's so engaging and surreal that you can't look away. It's a masterpiece and it's inspired so many film makers.

I can't remember where I read it, but I came to the movie after I read an interview with Charles Bukowski. He said he got HBO and the first thing he saw was Eraserhead. He was blown away. He was excited because he thought that's what all movies were like. Then was severely disappointed with the rest of the movie he saw.

And that's kind of what movies like Holy Mountain and Eraserhead do. They move the goalposts of "weird" back. You'll hear people describe something (like Tim Burton) as being so weird. You'll only be able to think about how they don't know what strange is, because they haven't seen the very edge of the bizarre.

Noir.

Directed by Rian Johnson (Looper). Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The gimmick of Brick sounds terrible: film noir set in a high school where all the kids talk in slang from the first half of the 20th Century. But it works and it works really, really well. It doesn't come off a cutsey or forced. It's a great detective twisty story with a cast comprised entirely of amoral characters. It's great just watching JGL's character doing legwork. The tropes of detective stories is made to fit perfectly in the high school setting.

A young outcast's girlfriend is found dead and he tries to figure out what happened.

Greek.

Disturbing, very black comedy about the young adult children of parents who have kept them secluded and fed them wild misinformation about the world. One of the most interesting movies I've seen.

Maybe the best documentary I've seen. It's about a man named Thierry who goes around documenting street artists. Eventually he gets hooked up with Banksy. Then, things get a little strange. Really makes you think about the nature of art.

British black comedy about a bumbling British politician who kind of gets Britain involved in the Iraq War. Very funny and one of the smartest movies I've ever watched.

Comedy.

Stars Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, NewsRadio).

It's frustrating how unknown this movie is, because it's one of the funniest I've seen. It's so goofy and weird. Foley is a man whose father-in-law is murdered. When he stumbles on the body, he thinks he'll be a suspect so he's goes on the run. Nobody is looking for him, though.

So many great bits.

Mystery/Drama

It's tough to say why, but I found this movie very unsettling. It freaked me out for a few hours after I watched it. It's also very beautiful and hypnotic. Set in 1900 in Australia, a bunch of school girls and a teacher from a private school go missing during a picnic. The rest of the movie deals with the fallout of their disappearance.

Almost every frame of the picnic is amazing to watch. You could take any frame and it would make a great picture. The direction and composition is dream-like.

Just beautiful animation and a unique story: A young Irish boy in a monastery becomes enamored with helping a refugee monk illuminate The Book of Kells.

Black comedy.

Stars Colin Farrell.

British movie about two hitmen laying low in the quaint Belgium town of Bruges. Mostly a comedy, with a bit of drama and action. Very clever, I wish more movies were like this.

Action/Martial Arts

Indonesian.

The most brutal action movie I've ever seen. The violence is non-stop almost to the point where it becomes fatiguing by the end. It starts with gunfights, moves on to melee and finishes with some extremely impressive martial arts. Possibly the greatest action movie I've seen.

A SWAT team go into a seedy tenement to arrest a crime lord. Things go poorly.

Biblical drama.

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Stars Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel. Cameos by Harry Dean Stanton, Andre Gregory and David Bowie. Soundtrack by Peter Gabriel.

It sounds like a made up movie. All of those people in a Jesus movie. It's crazy, but it's the best Jesus movie (Life of Brian aside) ever made. It was very controversial when it was released for very stupid reasons.

Most Jesus movies focus on the divinity of Jesus or put a lot of emphasis on his sacrifice. Last Temptation is more interested in Jesus as a man. Willem Dafoe is a great Jesus and Harry Dean Stanton has an amazing monolog towards the end.

Japanese. Comedy/Horror

One of the craziest movies I've seen. It was partly written by a child and it shows in the best possible way. It's like Scooby Doo mixed with Evil Dead 2 mixed with just off-the-wall madness. Everything is strange: the sound, the editing, the angles, the special effects, the plot. There's not a single frame of normalcy. Even when normalcy is being shown it's through a weird super-happy Brady Bunch filter.

A bunch of friends go to a haunted house and things go poorly.

Thriller.

Stars Walter Matthau. Co-stars Jerry Stiller.

Such a great, low-key movie. A group of men take a subway car hostage and Walter Matthau works to get them free. No big action moments, but entertaining all the way through. Has one of my favorite endings.

French

Thriller

Directed by Jean Luc-Godard

Godard is one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite directors. If you watch Band of Outsiders, you'll see more than a few things that'll remind you of Tarantino. You can see why. Everything's so cool. The dialogue is great. It even has a memorable dance scene that I like way more than Pulp Fiction's. Kind of experimental directing in a few places (especially that dance scene).

Two men and a woman plot to rob the woman's rich aunt.

Surreal/Horror

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Jodorowsky's most straight forward film, but still very strange, and his take on horror movies. Also his best looking movie with some really beautiful visuals.

I don't want to say much about the plot, but it's basically about a boy who grows up in a circus and is taken to a mental hospital after a traumatic event. Years later, his mother returns and he acts as her arms.

Action/Sci-Fi/Time Travel

Directed by Rian Johnson (Brick). Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Jeff Daniels.

One of my favorite movies of 2012. The pacing and themes are reminiscent of westerns, the action is well-done, but not over-used, the concept is interesting, there's some pathos. More than a couple amazing sequences. I could've done without a few things, but overall: Superb.

Time travel exists, but is illegal. Criminals organizations use it to send people into the past to be killed. The killers are under contracts the stipulate they must eventually kill themselves. Surprisingly, this system proves to be flawed.

Looper also has the greatest child actor I have ever seen. This kid is better than most adult actors.

Try your very best to know nothing about Cabin in the Woods. If you decide to check it out, don't read any descriptions.

I'll tell you this: it's very clever, it's very funny, it may seem like your average dime-a-dozen horror movie, but it is not.

I think it's brilliant.

Stars Spencer Tracy, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine.

Half noir, half modern Western. Old guy kicking ass. Spencer Tracy is incredible, playing a man who shows how strong he is by how much he bends to the people who want him to break. Great build-up. Timeless story. The historical context of the story is especially interesting.

Apparently, it's the most watched film at the White House's screening room.

Musical.

Basically pure jubilation put on film. Great dancing and singing, a kind of silly plot about movies switching from silent to talkies. It's a happy movie.

Psychological drama/Noir/Thriller

Directed by David Lynch. Stars Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini.

Blue Velvet is a very uncomfortable movie, but it's very good and it has one of the most memorable villains of all time. A young man is walking home and finds a disembodied ear. His journey to find out where the ear came from leads him down a very dark path.

Black comedy.

British satire about a group of wanna-be Islamic terrorists (including one white guy). A dark movie about a dark subject, but it doesn't compromise and the result is very, very funny.

Comedy

Directed by Woody Allen. Stars Woody Allen and Diane Keaton.

I'm not a huge Woody Allen fan and I definitely prefer his comedies to his dramas. This is one of my favorites of his that's not as talked about. It's a parody of tropes found in Russian literature. I haven't read much Russian literature and I found it hilarious, so I imagine there's a lot of in-jokes and references for someone well-versed in the subject.

Other Woody Allen movies I've liked: Bananas, Midnight in Paris, Annie Hall, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Very interesting documentary about the MPAA, the organization that assigns ratings to films. It details their hypocritical, anti-artistic, homophobic, nonsensical and downright dishonest practices of the MPAA.

Amazing crime documentary that's not for the faint of heart. There's some footage, pictures and examinations of the horrible murders of three children. It's sickening.

But, if you can stomach that you'll see the railroading of three young men (the West Memphis 3) who are being put on trial based on hearsay and the fact that they liked heavy metal music. You hear about the various bunglings and improper procedures of the police. You're also introduced to the completely fucking insane step-dad of one of the victims.

There are moreParadise Lost movies. The second one isn't bad, it mostly examines the impact of the first movie, spends a lot of time on the crazy step-dad and looks at some new evidence. I haven't seen the third one, but I imagine it's pretty good.

The movie does leave out some disturbing facts about Damien Echols, one of the boys being put on trial. It's a little odd the film makers left some of that stuff out, but most documentaries don't strive for objectivity.

Action/Comedy

Directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). Stars Michael Cera and a ton of other people.

One of the most fun movies I've ever seen. Awesome action, great writing and the music is fantastic. Scott Pilgrim falls in love with Ramona Flowers and has to fight her 7 Evil Exes.

Chinese. Directed by John Woo.

The most amazing gun fights I've ever seen. And yeah, the poster isn't lying to you. There's a gunfight where the hero hold a baby while shooting.

Thriller

Stars Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier.

A man invites his wife's lover over to his house. Various cat and mouse games ensue. Very clever, fun movie.

Madness.

Stars Nicholas Cage.

Nic Cage has a super weird accent and thinks he's a vampire. It's a work of god damn genius.

Drama. An HBO broadcast.

Stars Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. Written by Cormac McCarthy, adapted from his play of the same name.

Two characters, one set. Sam Jackson saves Jones from killing himself. They discuss the value of life and the existence/importance of God and faith. Very philosophical, very heavy. The end is brutal.

Comedy

Stars Chevy Chase as an investigative reporter. Really funny, super quotable.

Psychological drama/Horror

A very divisive movie. Some people find it too slow, some people find the gorgeous Isabelle Adjani to be too shrill and some people find it to be disturbing, nihilistic trash. So, fair warning. I loved it. It is disturbing, there a few sequences I never though I'd see in a live-action movie.

It's about a man who comes back from a long trip and finds his wife acting very strange and carrying on an affair. The surface and the sub-text are about a crumbling marriage. And what's in between is Lovecraftian madness. Has one of the darkest endings I've seen.

Biopic.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who also directed Drive. Stars Tom Hardy, who was Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

Amazing movie, incredibly entertaining. Based on the true story of one of Britain's most famous and most violent prison inmates. There's a ton of great action, it's got a nice framework and non-linear story structure. What I wasn't expecting was how funny the movie was.

Western.

Directed by the Coen Brothers. Stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon.

Re-make of a John Wayne film that, with a few exceptions, far surpasses the original. Rooster Cogburn is one of the most memorable characters in film. A young girl's father is murdered, she hires a U.S. Marshall to help get vengeance.

Directed by Robert Altman. Stars Phillip Baker Hall.

One actor, one location and that's the entire movie. It sounds like it would be boring, but it is one of the most engaging movies I've seen. It helps that the actor is amazing and he's playing a post-presidency Richard Nixon getting drunk and ranting into a tape recorder. I don't get half the references Nixon alludes to, but it doesn't matter. Hall's intensity drives the movie so well, it feels like it's only half it's running time. There are action movies that don't grab me the way this does.

It also does an amazing thing and makes you feel for Nixon. Great ending and a unique movie all around. Inspired Paul Thomas Anderson greatly.

Comedy

Stars Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon.

Hey, Matthew Broderick's in a good movie! Kind of a dark comedy about a high school election and all the people involved. Very well written.