Movie Recommendations?

Parent Cafe
21

<p>Breaker Morant was the first movie we saw when we bought our first VCR back in 1983. Wonderful movie with some similarities to Gallipoli.</p>

<p>For French film fans, try The Return of Martin Guerre.</p>

<p>A funny/poignant Iranian film about women dressing up as men in order to watch a soccer match (that country is soccer crazy) is Offside.</p>

22

<p>You Kill Me with Ben Kingsley is terrific and now on DVD. Yep, u probably never heard of it, like so many of the little niche films that don’t make the top 10 box office list…</p>

23

<p>Wow – emeraldkity recommends one of my favorite films ever (Days of Heaven) and one of my least favorite films ever (Wings of Desire) right next to each other. </p>

<p>Others have recommended lots of the ones I would. Before Sunrise is a great film to watch with your teenage kids. (Before Sunset – which my kids loved – isn’t. I thought there should be a special rating for that movie barring everyone under 25.) I put those films into a category of “talkies” that includes the similar work of Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco) and Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, etc.).</p>

<p>I also second Grave of the Fireflies, although it’s horribly depressing. If you haven’t seen them, check out Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away from the same Japanese animation studio.</p>

24

<p>Station Agent
Rabbit Proof Fence</p>

25

<p>My kids turned me on to two delightful little films, one from Japan, the other from China.</p>

<p>[Shall</a> we dansu? (1996)](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117615/]Shall”>Shall We Dance? (1996) - IMDb) is about a “successful but unhappy Japanese accountant [who] finds the missing passion in his life when he begins to secretly take ballroom dance lessons”. I don’t know how “thoughtful” the film is, but it has some nice acting, and quite a lot of all around good feeling.</p>

<p>[To</a> Live (1994)](<a href=“http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110081/]To”>To Live (1994) - IMDb) is one of my oldest son’s favorite. It is a fairly understated film about "Fugui and Jiazhen[, who] endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry… " Fine work, good character development. I think it is fairly thoughtful, and presents some awfully fine moments.</p>

26

<p>The Swimmer <a href=“http://imdb.com/title/tt0063663/[/url]”>http://imdb.com/title/tt0063663/&lt;/a&gt; Lancaster’s greatest role (very depressing movie though)</p>

<p>Kiss Me Deadly <a href=“http://imdb.com/title/tt0048261/[/url]”>http://imdb.com/title/tt0048261/&lt;/a&gt; (violent but hey its 50s violence and the greatest “noir” film)</p>

<p>Also 2 cult films: Bubba Ho-tep <a href=“http://imdb.com/title/tt0281686/[/url]”>http://imdb.com/title/tt0281686/&lt;/a&gt; and
Run Lola Run <a href=“http://imdb.com/title/tt0130827/[/url]”>http://imdb.com/title/tt0130827/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

27

<p>I’m more of a movie-movie kind of fan - I don’t have many suggestions to add to the list, I’m afraid. These were thoughtful films that were also violent, but I think quite worthwhile: Mulholland Drive, Memento, Traffic, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, The Constant Gardener, Children of Men. The last one seemed to get lost in a parade of good films last year, but is definitely worth a rental (based on the P.D. James novel).</p>

<p>Loved Breaker Morant - it was just on TCM last week and has held up beautifully.</p>