Recommended Movies

Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic is a great neo-noir. Alain Delon stars as the cop, Richard Crenna as the crook, and Catherine Deneuve as the femme fatale.

While focused on anti-gay bigotry in Uganda, Call Me Kuchu is a reminder that bigots and their potentially deadly hate are found all over the planet.

Ulrich Seidl’s deeply affecting Paradise: Love focuses on the relationship between a middled-aged Austrian tourist and a young Kenyan man.

Possibly Louis Malle’s best film, the Oscar-nominated semi-autobiographical drama Au Revoir les Enfants focuses on the tragic friendship between two boys.

Pedro Almodóvar’s brazen 2004 ‘gay film noir’ Bad Education is 1 of the most daring exemplars of the noir genre. Gael García Bernal and Fele Martínez star.

Best Actress Oscar winner Joan Crawford is terrific as the devoted mother of psycho daughter Ann Blyth in Michael Curtiz’s 1945 noir Mildred Pierce.

Best Actress Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland delivers a shrewd characterization in Mitchell Leisen’s heartfelt To Each His Own.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s capably acted urban family drama Tokyo Sonata exposes the seemingly inexorable unraveling of Japan’s traditional social fabric.

Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In features a refreshingly mature blend of character study, budding romance, and supernatural horror.

Jay and Mark Duplass’ clever indie comedy-thriller Baghead isn’t your average ‘cabin in the woods’ movie. Cast: Greta Gerwig and Ross Partridge.

David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express is a surprisingly entertaining mix of action and silliness. James Franco and Seth Rogen star.

A story about true love – between 2 male friends – the 1925 Cobra is Rudolph Valentino’s most effective star vehicle. Nita Naldi costars.

Writer-director Francis Veber’s The Valet movie is his latest hilarious French farce. Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Gad Elmaleh and Kristin Scott Thomas.

In the unsettling thriller Targets, Peter Bogdanovich points out that life and art are irrevocably intertwined. A superb Boris Karloff stars.

David Mamet’s commercially unsuccessful morality tale Redbelt is possibly his most impressive to date. Chiwetel Ejiofor leads the capable cast.

Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers rivals better-known fare partly thanks to Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco’s charismatic performances.

South Seas sex worker Joan Crawford proves herself a fine dramatic actress and destroyer of pious missionaries in the vastly underrated drama Rain.

Inspired by the Bugsy Siegel and Virginia Hill affair, Vincent Sherman’ skillful crime drama The Damned Don’t Cry is Joan Crawford’s second best Warners movie.

The genius of Lon Chaney and the best production values that MGM could buy make William Nigh’s ‘exotic’ Mr. Wu movie adaptation a must-see.

In Tom Forman’s Victorian but engrossing melodrama Shadows, Lon Chaney brings dignity to his Chinese victim/savior stranded in racist England.

An homage to unconventional families mixed with social commentary, Charles Chaplin’s 1921 movie The Kid remains just as touching 9 decades after its release.

MGM star Ramon Novarro delivers a charismatic performance in Fred Niblo’s still impressive silent era mega-blockbuster Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

Man of a Thousand Faces Lon Chaney delivers another phenomenally creepy portrayal in Wallace Worsley’s top-notch revenge thriller The Penalty.

In the memorable Sparrows, silent era icon Mary Pickford meets Jesus while fighting the evils of child trafficking. They don’t make them like they used to.