1. Pleasantville, Pleasantville is a New Line Cinema film first released in Canada on September 17, 1998 starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton, Jane Kaczmarek and J. T. Walsh are also featured.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville_(film)
2. Into the Wild
3. Hoax
4. Bourne Ultimatum
5. March of the Penguins
6. Little Miss Sunshine
7. Capote
8. About Schmidt
9. Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
10. Garden State
11. Seabiscuit
12. Catch Me If You Can
13. The Talented Mr. Ripley
14. Fast and Furious
15. Fahrenheit 911
16. Rounders
17. Cellular
18. Godfather
19. Apocalypse Now
20. Blade Runner
21. Eyes Wide Shut
22. There's Something about Mary
23. The Matrix
24. Pan's Labyrinth
25. Twin Dragons
26. Return to Paradise
27. Slacker
28. Studio 54
29. Your Friends and Neighbors
30. My Dinner with Andre, 1981
31. Saving Private Ryan
32. Negotiator
33. Wild Things
34. Primary Colors
35. Big Lebowski
36. Apostle
37. Aviator
38. Pursuit of Happyness
39. Primeval
40. Sicko
41. U.S. vs. John Lennon
42. Stranger than Fiction
43. Wrist Cutters
11 comments:
Charlie Wilson’s War
In the film “Charlie Wilson’s War,” the nitwit and deeply corrupt congressman elevated to heroic status through Tom Hanks’ ever-charming performance has a meeting with Pakistan’s then-dictator Zia ul-Haq in which they broker a deal for a joint effort to “save” Afghanistan from the Soviets. It’s all great fun; the United States is, as always, on the side of the good guys, in this case the Afghan mujahedeen, who later morphed into the Taliban, hosts of al-Qaida.
The movie does not mention that the mujahedeen went to war against the Soviet-backed government then in power in Kabul after the government committed the unpardonable crime of allowing female students to attend rural schools. The film casually notes that Gen. Zia, the U.S. ally in this effort to bring “freedom” to Afghanistan, was, like so many of the movie’s heroes, a hard case full of contradictions, as exemplified by his having murdered Pakistan’s previous ruler, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Bhutto was, of course, the father of Benazir Bhutto, killed last week in Pakistan.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080101_what_good_time_charlie_brought/
The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo.
Crime and Punishment.
39 Steps.
SuperBad
I disagree on your "Best Movies" list. I wouldn't put these:
Pleasantville
Bourne Ultimatum
About Schmidt
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
Garden State
Catch Me If You Can
Eyes Wide Shut
There's Something about Mary
The Matrix
Wild Things
in my top 500 let alone the best I'd ever seen. Do you have a narrowed definition of the list?
Taxi to the Dark Side.
The story of Dilawar unfolds at the moment of maximum fear of strikes against the American homeland and against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The M.P.s who performed the interrogations were under tremendous pressure to produce results, yet they were given only the vaguest guidelines as to how they should behave. They were told, however, that Al Qaeda trained its members to resist. If prisoners failed to give satisfactory answers to questions, it could mean that they had something to hide. And so the incarceration—and, in some cases, the abuse—went on. Dilawar, a taxi-driver, was arrested, along with three of his passengers, after he was accused of driving the getaway car in a raid against an American base. It later emerged that the Afghan who made the charge against him was actually the one involved in planning the raid. Gibney tells us that only seven per cent of the prisoners in Guantánamo were captured by American and Coalition forces. In Afghanistan, most of the detainees were turned over by Afghans friendly to the Americans—members of the Northern Alliance or local police and the like. Some of these people may have had grudges against those they named. It is not known why Dilawar was accused, but, as his tormentors admit, it became clear before the end of the interrogation—during which he was hung up by his arms and repeatedly struck on the legs—that he was innocent. They kept hitting him, however. They all took turns.
David Denby
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/03/24/080324crci_cinema_denby?currentPage=2
Ratatouille
Dont Look Back 1967
Lucky You 2006
Cincinnati Kid 1965
Michael Clayton 2007
Lookout 2007
Kite Runner 2007
Things We Lost in the Fire 2007
Bee Movie
I'm Not There, about Bob Dylan
Cloverfield
Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull
Don't Mess with the Zohan
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford
King of Kong
My Kid could Paint That
Enchanted
Lust Caution
Southland Tales
Juno
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