Dance with a Stranger (1985--England): Gripping, passionate movie based on the true story of the last woman to be executed in England. Rupert Everett drew me to this movie, but the best performances are from his co-stars, Miranda Richardson and Ian Holm.
Downtime (1998--Scotland): Tense, ultra-low-budget thriller that's like Speed in an elevator shaft, with winning performances from all involved. I sort of doubt you'll be able to find this, but if you do, watch it.
Gallipoli (1981--Australia): Intensely moving story of two young Australians who sign up for WWI and find themselves at the bloody battle of Gallipoli. One of Mel Gibson's first films; directed by Peter Weir. I've seen this probably 20 times (for a while I had the incredibly depressing tradition of watching it every New Year's Eve -- don't ask why), and every time I'm still tense at the end, praying that somehow it comes out differently this time.
The General (1998--Ireland): Based on a true story. Brendan Gleeson is brilliant as a master criminal tangoing with the police. Lots of humor. Directed by John Boorman.
Kiss or Kill (1998--Australia): Tarantino-esque road movie of a pair of young con artists who get caught up in a much more serious situation. Lively and unpredictable, but violent.
Lone Star (1996): Thoughtful, engrossing story of a sheriff in a small town in Texas (the excellent Chris Cooper) and his investigation into a decades-old murder that may have involved his father, who was a legend in the town. Written and directed by John Sayles, my personal hero.
Ma Vie en Rose (1997--Belgium): After Boys Don't Cry, this movie's plea for tolerance seems a little wussy, but it's a sweet, touching film. Little Ludovic wants to be a girl, but the grown-ups around him can't handle it.
Men with Guns (1998): Another John Sayles movie, this one almost entirely in Spanish, about the conflict between the native people and the modern world in an unidentified Latin American country. Moving, poetic, and beautiful.
My Name Is Joe (1999--Scotland): Excellent, little-noticed film about a down-and-out Scot who's putting his life back together, only to see it fall apart again thanks partly to his efforts to help people. Though there's humor in it, it's mostly bleak and sad, very moving. Subtitled, even though technically it's in English.
Traveller (1997): I forgive Bill Paxton for Twister because he used his paycheck from that to help finance this movie. A wonderful study of a con man wandering the South with his protégé (Mark Wahlberg, who's terrific).
Comedies
Cold Fever (1995--Japan/Iceland): Extremely off-beat, Jim Jarmusch-like story of a young Japanese man who reluctantly travels to Iceland to perform funeral rites for his parents, who died in a remote part of the country.
The Daytrippers (1997): A suburban housewife (Hope Davis) brings her slightly nuts family with her into New York City to confront her husband about a note she's found that suggests he's having an affair. Funny, if a little too sitcom-y.
A Friend of the Deceased (1997--Ukraine): You wouldn't necessarily put the words "comedy" and "Ukraine" together (much less "hit man"), but this is a funny, absorbing movie about a young man who hires a hit man to do away with himself, but changes his mind when his life starts to look up -- only he can't get in touch with the killer to call it off.
The Inheritors (1998--Austria): Pitch-black comedy about a group of peasants who inherit a farm, and their struggles to keep it in the face of opposition from the local wealthy landowners. Excellent acting creates characters you really care for, making the sudden tragic turns that much more affecting.
A Merry War (1997--England): In pre-war England, Richard E. Grant ditches a steady job because he thinks the working class is more noble. Witty and entertaining, with great performances from Grant and Helena Bonham-Carter as his girlfriend.
Mother (1996): You'll have to like Albert Brooks' bone-dry humor to like this, but if you do, you'll be doubled over. Brooks, as a middle-aged divorced man, moves back in with his mother (Debbie Reynolds) to figure out why he has trouble with women.
Safe Men (1998): An unassuming but very funny film with two of my favorite indie character actors, Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn, as Ishtar-like singers who are mistaken for a pair of safecrackers and get drawn into the war between Providence, RI's two biggest Jewish gangsters.
Mock- and Documentaries
American Movie (1999): Very funny documentary about an aspiring filmmaker who makes wretchedly bad horror movies in an attempt to finance his "masterpiece."
Bob Roberts (1992): Hilarious and kinda scary mockumentary about Tim Robbins' right-wing Senate candidate who defeats the wise, experienced, Democratic incumbent through smarmy folk songs about how poor people don't want to work, they just want to get their welfare checks (at least one Republican politician actually did that in a campaign) and blandly charming, genial dissembling (sort of like what Baby Bush did in 2000). Bonus: it's set in PA, and if I remember correctly, the Roberts estate is in Bryn Mawr.
Forgotten Silver (1996--New Zealand): Clever mockumentary about the real father of cinema, an obscure New Zealander. Directed by Peter Jackson, New Zealand's preeminent director, who also did Heavenly Creatures (and now is best known as the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy).
Hands on a Hard Body (1998): Funny and oddly engrossing doc about a contest in Texas where contestants have to keep one hand on a pickup truck at all times; last one standing wins the truck.
A Perfect Candidate (1996): Documentary about the 1994 U.S. Senate race in Virginia between Oliver North and Sen. Chuck Robb. Probably of interest only to politicos, but for us, it's fascinating.
A Self-Made Hero (1996--France): Faux documentary of a Frenchman who's mistaken for a WWII hero. Funny, interesting, and very well done.
All of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries -- This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, and Best in Show -- are hilarious.
I also recommend two documentaries I first saw during the Seattle film festival, when the theme was "100 Years of Cinema." The British Film Institute commissioned a series of documentaries from renowned moviemakers around the world about their country's cinematic history. The two I saw were A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies and New Zealander Sam Neill's Cinema of Unease. Scorsese is voluble and animated, discussing not only the history of movies in America but, as his title implies, the movies that affected his personal development as a filmmaker. Very long -- three videotapes -- but absolutely worth it.
Neill's tour of Kiwi cinema is also deeply personal and affectionate; since the industry is so new and so small in New Zealand, Neill was involved in a great deal of it. The frustration with this documentary is that it will suggest a number of interesting films to you, and you will not be able to find most of them in even the best video store in the U.S. I loved Cinema of Unease so much that I bought it... from a shop in New Zealand, which is apparently the only shop in the world where you can get it. So if you're interested, you can borrow my copy (which also has Forgotten Silver on it). And I have the Martin Scorsese set, too.
Scorsese recently did a companion piece to his Personal Journey for Italian movies, Il Mio Viaggio in Italia (My Voyage to Italy), a highly personal look at the Italian movies that he grew up with and that influenced his work. It's a wonderful lesson on the great post-war directors like Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, and Roberto Rossellini, as well as the neo-realist movement. But it's also revealing and touching to hear Scorsese talk about his childhood, his family, and what these movies meant to them.
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