 |
|
| Papillion | |
| Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | |
| Release Date: 1973 | |
| Principal Cast: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman | |
| What makes this film special for me (apart from the tremendous acting of Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman and the unique story) is that for a time I lived in Suriname near the border with French Guiana where the film is set. While there I visited the ruins of the penal colony up the Marowijne River from the town of St. Laurent where the movie takes place. | |
 |
|
 |
|
| Eraserhead | |
| Director: David Lynch | |
| Release Date: 1977 | |
| Principal Cast: Jack Nance | |
| There is no film maker like David Lynch. There is no movie like Eraserhead. The protagonist is caught up in a hellish nightmare which exists somewhere between reality and who knows where. Eraserhead is a one of a kind masterpiece. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| La 317éme section | |
| Director: Pierre Schoendoeffer | |
| Release Date: 1965 | |
| Principal Cast: Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer | |
| This little known film (I saw it way back when HFF rented videos by mail and it is not available on DVD that I know of) about the French army in its impossible task of trying to subdue the Viet-Minh revolutionary forces in Indochina. There are no super solders slaying hundreds with weapons that never run out of ammo, just hardened stoic foot soldiers who know that their efforts are in vain but struggle on none the less. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| The Stoning of Soraya M. | |
| Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh | |
| Release Date: 2009 | |
| Principal Cast: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò, James Caviezel, Navid Negahban, Ali Pourtash, David Diaan, Parviz Sayyad | |
| In a small Iranian village some time after the overthrow of the Shah, a man falsely accuses his wife of adultery so that he can marry another woman. This is perhaps the most riveting, emotion filled movie I have seen; it is also a hard lesson of just how mistreated women are in many parts of the world even today. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Fargo | |
| Director:Joel Coen | |
| Release Date: 1996 | |
| Principal Cast: William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Kristin Rudrüd | |
| Sometimes I wonder about my apparent attraction to comic violence. Then if I found myself living in North Dakota there is no telling what I might be driven to do. None the less this is the Coen brother's masterpiece. The pace of the film as the pieces fall into place, and the forces that are put into motion by desperation and stupidity play out to the grisly ending. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| The Terminator | |
| Director: James Cameron | |
| Release Date: 1984 | |
| Principal Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn | |
| Here Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast; his acting is robotic and guess what? In The Terminator he IS a robot! Result: Excellent doomsday movie. One of the best. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Amores Perros | |
| Director: Alejandro Gonzáles Iñarritu | |
| Release Date: 2000 | |
| Principal Cast: Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo | |
| Three seemingly unrelated stories converge at breakneck speed. The resulting collision is both unexpected and riveting. Unfortunately in Amores Perros, like most Spanish language films, the English subtitles completely loose the feeling and emotion of the dialogue which is a pity. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Richard III | |
| Director: Richard Loncraine | |
| Release Date: 1995 | |
| Principal Cast: Ian McKellen, Annette Bening | |
| Best ever screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. The postmodern, neowermacht setting is perfect for the evil characters who populate this film. Ian McKellen is of course superb. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Children of Men | |
| Director: Alfonso Cuarón | |
| Release Date: 2006 | |
| Principal Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore | |
| Yes another terrific doomsday movie (Okay, I happen to like them; they give the writer almost unlimited possibilities for mayhem). Children of Men introduces a novel and terrifying scenario to end the human race, no more children, and then a child is born and it’s off to the races. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Alien | |
| Director: Ridley Scott | |
| Release Date: 1977 | |
| Principal Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt | |
| Alien set the bar for scary tales of encounters with extraterrestrial life forms. Few films have come close since. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| La Cité des enfants perdus | |
| Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro | |
| Release Date: 1995 | |
| Principal Cast: Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon | |
| Who but Jean-Pierre Jeunet could write and direct a movie like this; a surrealistic nightmare of a story in which a mad scientist kidnaps children in order to steal their dreams. The set and story just knock you out. Every part is perfectly cast and carried out to perfection. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| District 9 | |
| Director: Neill Blomkamp | |
| Release Date: 2009 | |
| Principal Cast: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope | |
| This astonishing film is set in Johannesburg (the writer/director is South African) and has a plot/story line that is refreshingly original and thought provoking yet has more than enough violence and guts splattering to satisfy even the most jaded movie goer. The use of the shantytowns as the set for the homes of the "refugee" aliens is, intentionally or not, a powerful metaphor, and the inclusion of Nigerian Mafia in the film brings a stinging smack reality to the film. It is the most believable alien movie I have seen in a long time. Perhaps ever. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| To Have and Have Not | |
| Director: Howard Hawks | |
| Release Date: 1944 | |
| Principal Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan | |
| Yeah, I know except for the opening scene the movie in no way resembles the book of the same title by Hemingway. None the less it is a touching if tough (especially Bacall) story with great acting and a joy to watch. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| El Espinazo de diablo | |
| Director: Guillermo del Toro | |
| Release Date: 2001 | |
| Principal Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Fernando Tielve | |
| A young boy is sent to a remote orphanage where he encounters a ghost, and so begins this tale of horror set in Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War. This movie will truly creep you out. | |
| |
|
 |
|
| Capernaum | |
| Director: Nadine Labaki | |
| Release Date: 2018 | |
| Principal Cast: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Bankole, Kawthar Al Haddad, Fadi Kamel Youssef as Selim | |
| This a heart tearing exposition detailing the horrifying conditions of the refugees in Lebanon. Horrifying yet breath taking in its presentation and understanding of the squalid conditions of children abandoned to their fate. The story being as Zain El Hajj (played by Zain Al Rafeea himseif a Syrian refugee), a 12-year-old from the slums of Beirut is suing his parents for "having given birth to him". | |
| |
 |
| One, Two, Three | |
| Director: Billy Wilder | |
| Release Date: 1961 | |
| Principal Cast: James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Hanns Lothar | |
| This film is easily one of the funniest movies ever made. A Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin behind the Iron Curtain with a staff of ex-SS must convert a card carrying communist youth to save his job. Viewers who don’t know their Cold War and WWII history will miss half the jokes especially since they come at you one after the other at 90 to nothing. | |
| |
|
Last Updated on January 22, 2024
