Queue me

OK, so I'm headed to the Northeast Kingdom for the next week and will be mostly away from the Web.

The last time I did this, more than a year ago, I posted a series of open threads asking for book/music/movie recommendations. I'm still working my way through those suggestions, but that's no reason not to keep adding to the list.

Somewhere to the right side of your screen is a nifty little widget displaying my Netflix list. Help me out here. What's missing? What's there that doesn't need to be there?

Obviously, movies I've already seen (or already own) won't be on that list, and you'll have no way of knowing whether a particular movie I Really Ought To See is missing from that list because I've already seen it or because I've shamefully and inexplicably never heard of it, but I don't see any way around that particular inefficiency. It's not really a problem, though, since recommendations of things I have already seen will either prompt me to nod agreeably and think "Ah, yes, that was a good one" or to think "What on earth? That movie was awful." The ensuing conversation, in either case, is usually great fun.

So please let me know what I've forgotten that shouldn't be neglected, and what I've included that probably should be left out. We could complicate the game here, for bonus points (and to prevent my Netflix queue from stretching beyond my reasonable life expectancy): For every recommended addition to my list, also recommend one subtraction.

(Or not -- no one's really keeping track of the bonus points anyway, and even if we were it'd be like those Skee-Ball arcades on the boardwalk, where watching all those tickets coming out of the machine is always more fun than trading them in for the junk behind the counter.)

Comments

[EarBucket]

I'd remove the noisy and often incomprehensible Luhrman version of "Romeo + Juliet." Replace it with Kenneth Branagh's flawed but brilliant Hamlet.

The film version of "Proof" is pretty bad, and no match for the theatrical version. I'll recommend "Away From Her," a far superior film about dementia.

Don't see anything else on there you shouldn't watch, but I'll recommend these:

"The Last Waltz," the farewell concert of The Band, featuring guest appearances by pretty much every great American musician, plus Neil Diamond.

"Noises Off," one of the finest farces ever committed to film, and one of the oddest ensembles.

"A Face In The Crowd." If you haven't seen this one, Fred, put it at the top of your queue right now. You'll eat it up with a spoon.

[twig]

'Zero Effect' with Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller, if I didn't recommend last year. It's a clever little movie that might have both those actors best performances.

Also, Millennial Actress. Hell, the complete works of Satoshi Kon. You won't regret it.

[twig]

Also, the last 20 minutes of A.I. aren't worth mentioning. You'll figure out where the movie should have ended - just stop watching there.

[Lila]

I don't know if they're available on Netflix, but Amazon has them: you must see at least one of the Santo movies, featuring the Mexican masked wrestler Santo, Enmascadero de Plata. Picture a cross between the Adam West Batman, pro wrestling, and Hammer Films. My personal favorite so far is "Santo y el Blue Demon contra Dracula y el Hombre Lobo"; "Santo y el Hacha Diabolica" is also good. There are 52 in all; El Santo had an incredibly long career both in wrestling and in the movies.
MST3K featured one of them (by its English title, "Samson vs. the Vampire Women"): http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Samson_vs._the_Vampire_Women

Also, since it looks like you're a Kurosawa fan, don't miss Ikiru.

[sylunethesigher]

Every time I have caught Happy Endings on cable I have been bored and disappointed given the all-star cast. Are you familiar with the works of the director Yasujiro Ozu? You might consider his movie Late Spring. It's slow-moving, but if you're at all familiar with Asian cinema, you know there's a lot worse out there.

[Praline]

Technologically unfit, so can't find the Netflix, for which I apologise if I'm repeating myself.

But: Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter. Gorgeous, elegant fairytale of a movie, with one of the best struggles between a low-key, naturalised presentation of absolute good and absolute evil that I've ever seen. Manages to make a duet of 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arm' into a frozen-with-tension battle scene. Just, just, brilliant.

And while on the subject of Expressionist movies, the version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that stars Fredric March is pretty darn brilliant as well. Accept no imitations.

[tony]

"Used Cars" with Kurt Russell. I laughed more during the opening credits than I do at most entire comedy movies!

[Mikael Vejdemo Johansson]

As for Proof, I'd like to counter the above derecommendation with a recommendation. It is true that it doesn't measure up to the stage version, and that there are better movies out there depicting dementia.

However, it is, to my knowledge, the only reasonably believable fictional movie portrait of a research mathematician out there. Good Will Hunting doesn't come close, and contains some bizarre things, and while a lot of good can be said about A Beautiful Mind, the actual mathematics mentioned in it did not quite convince me.

So watch Proof for this reason.

[Harold]

EarBucket suggests “I'd remove the noisy and often incomprehensible Luhrman version of "Romeo + Juliet."”

As the song I'm listening to at the moment ("March 1st" by "The Trucks") says, "You must be smoking crack". It's Luhrmann (two Ns) and he actually gets what Shakespeare was about. This was pop culture, it doesn't thrive as an academic exercise and it isn't well served by dawn-of-moving-pictures style attempts to simply film a theatrical performance. It's supposed to be a spectacle for the masses and Romeo + Juliet admirably succeeds where supposedly "faithful" adaptations often fail. Luhrmann learned from the best of modern stage productions, he's kept Shakespeare's language, which is hard to better, but seen fit to ignore the stage directions and other aspects of the script that were so terribly constrained by the technical capability and budget limitatons of that period. One of the most common criticisms from reviewers prior to its release was that it had ruined the original play while not achieving the goal of being accessible to a modern audience. The audience figures and retail sales make it clear audiences didn't agree with the last part, and I don't see how anyone who knows Shakespeare's context could agree with the first. I don't expect to see a better version of Romeo and Juliet in my lifetime.

(I have nothing against the Hamlet suggested as a substitute, except that it's no substitute at all)

As to the rest of the list, well Fred, My So Called Life is very rare example of a TV drama which actually ended in a satisfying way before it jumped the shark, and worth watching for that reason alone. I don't believe I've seen that particular episode of MST3K, any reason you chose it Fred ? You needn't watch the film of Catch 22 if you've read the book (but I've no opinion as to which you should prefer if you haven't). Mulholland Drive is an odd pick, it seem unlikely that a Lynch fan would have missed it for so long, and if you're not a fan then Mulholland Drive probably isn't the place to start. Similarly, Red isn't (as might intuitively seem likely to an English speaker) the first of Kieślowski's triology but the last part. If you haven't seen the others please start with Blue, which is utterly beautiful. I don't see anything on the list that's so awful you should rather stare at a wall for two hours, although as someone else already suggested, you could sensibly switch off A.I. before Spielberg's sentimentality gets the better of it at the end.

The lack of any clue what you have seen really is a problem. We don't know if you're a huge Cohen Brothers fan, or have never even seen Fargo. We can't tell if there's only one (that I noticed) animated movie because you don't much like them, or because you've seen hundreds and Netflix didn't have any you wanted to see. Should I recommend "Free Enterprise" to someone who might not even like Star Trek ? Should I mention "Dellamorte Dellamore" even though you might not have the context ? Maybe you hated "Shallow Grave" and "Trainspotting" in which case there's no point in recommending his less acclaimed third movie "A Life Less Ordinary" now is there ?

[julia]

- To Have and Have Not
+ Woman of the Year

-Stagefright
+ Witness for the Prosecution

-Giant
+Suddenly Last Summer

-The Lady Eve
+Christmas in Connecticut

-Dinner at Eight
+Grand Hotel

-The Paper
+His Gal Friday

-Crimes and Misdemeanors
+Chinatown

-Ten Things I Hate About You
+Clueless

-Rebecca
+Wuthering Heights

-Husbands and Wives
+Hannah and Her Sisters

-The World According to Garp
+Bob Roberts (no connection, I just want one and want to lose the other)

-Proof
+A Face in the Crowd

-Panic
+Fargo

-AI
+Metropolis

Can't ask you to drop My Fair Lady, but you should rent it with the Wendy Hiller/Leslie Howard Pygmalion

-Stagecoach
+The Searchers

-Dr. Zhivago
+Pandora's Box (see Garp/Roberts)

-Bonnie and Clyde
+White Heat

-Saboteur
+North by Northwest

-Play It Again, Sam
+Purple Rose of Cairo

-the extra The Corner
+Sweet Smell of Success

-Romeo and Juliet
+Henry V (Olivier)

[EarBucket]

Sorry, but I just don't get the attraction to "Romeo + Juliet." To me, most of the actors appear to be guilty of the cardinal sin of Shakespearean acting--they don't understand what they're saying. The subtext's very muddled, to my ears, and that really bugs me when I'm watching a Shakespearean adaptation. (Exception: Brian Dennehy, who's fantastic as always.)

As frothy, pop-culture-y romantic comedies go, there's a version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Michelle Pfeiffer and Calista Flockheart that's cute. Also worth checking out as the Bard goes is "Looking For Richard" and "A Midwinter's Tale," although you can't get that last one from Netflix.

[EricB]

Long time reader, first time poster.

Let me second Lila's recommendation of "Ikiru", and add mine for the best Biblical movie adaptation I have ever seen, Cheik Oumar Sissoko's "La Genese", from Mali (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0201634/) - a large chunk of Genesis from Jacob's grief over Joseph's supposed death and the abduction of Dinah to the departure of his sons for Egypt during the famine, with flashbacks covering other bits of patriarchal history, as portrayed by Malian tribesmen in the Sahara.

I found it tremendously exiting - it is the only movie I have ever seen which absolutely nails the social setting of Jacob's nomadic iron-age pastoralists and their interactions with their neighbours, the farming villagers ruled by Hamor and the hunter/gatherers led by Esau, who also acts as a sort of Greek chorus commenting on the action. Having actual tribal people acting out the story adds a whole level of authenticity to a story set in a world where everyone recites their genealogy back three generations before any other conversation can proceed, and where the tribal chiefs headed to a conference are proceeded by women sweeping the dust from in front of their feet and singing their praises.

Available on netflix, I might add.

[EricB]

Forgot to recommend a deletion from your queue, so I'll do two - you don't have to waste precious life-span watching "10 Things I Hate About You", which is trivial fluff; also, the Luhrman "Romeo & Juliet" can be skipped in favor of any number of better Shakespeare adaptations.

[Jeff]

I would echo the rec/derec not to start your Lynch experience with Mulholland Drive. However, if you've seen (and enjoyed) Twin Peaks, you'll like MD.

re Romeo+Juliet: there are some eye-rolling moments, such as when Pa Capulet calls for his saber and is handed a rifle (or shotgun) made by the Saber Company -- gettit, gettit, har har har. For "Fun with Shakespeare", I recommend getting the Olivier and the Branuagh Henry V to see how two excellent directors get completely different takes from the same play.

Transamerica is good, but I think Normal is better.

I'd also add Saving Face. Although it's set in a tight-knit Chinese-American community, it could take place in any patriachal group. Great acting, great direction, and a happy ending that doesn't feel forced.

I'd possibly remove Fight Club (the "twist" doesn't really work for me), and add Spellbound: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Leo G Carroll, Alfred Hitchcock and Salvidor Dali. Now that's a "movie cocktail"!

[Errol Flynn]

I can't find your widget, but I also can't resist a public cry for recommendations of any kind, so...

First, as a newspaperman if you haven't seen His Girl Friday you should, I dunno, turn in your copyediting badge or something.

The Second Coming: starring Christopher Eccleston as God.

Stay: this movie is mindblowingly excellent, but no one ever saw it because it's impossible to describe.

Wolf: the best werewolf movie about the publishing industry ever made.

[stingraylady]

Two recommendations: The Story of the Weeping Camel. It's a straight up documentary set in outer Mongolia, not a disney film, but you'll swear by the end that those animals talk. also, Brige to Terabithia if you haven't seen it. I'd lose Catch 22, it's a very poor adaptation, not worth it if you've read the book, and if you haven't what are you waiting for. I'd also lose the kill bill's, but I have a low tolerance for revenge flicks.

As a budding English Ren. lit scholar, I have to agree with Harold's take on Romeo + Juliet. I'd also have to say that while Branagh's Hamlet is visually stunning and well put together, it is way over the top at times; it also, like most of Branagh, tends to avoid the messier or more daring interpretations, and that just isn't as fun. I'd recommend Michael Almereyda's 2000 version of Hamlet, starring Ethan Hawke as the jaded generation X version of Hamlet lost in a world of mind-numbing entertainment, corrupted corporate economics, ubiquitous surveillance, and communication en-/dis-abled by technology. Oh, and if you like Shakespeare adaptations, don't miss my favorite, Titus.

[Muse of Ire]

At last a game I can play!

I personally find "The Graduate" so dated it's unwatchable. (I know: heresy. Shoot me.) I'd substitute "Little Big Man," another iconic Hoffman performance and a film that holds up really well.

I second the suggestion to dump "Stage Fright." The hero behaves like an idiot.

"Notorious" should go to the top of your queue instantly. Smart and sexy!

If you're a Bette Davis fan and you haven't seen "Jezebel," you must.

Have no opinion on "Romeo + Juliet," but while we're on the subject of Shakespeare, I heartily recommend the Branagh version of "Much Ado About Nothing" and the Ian McKellan version of "Richard III." And speaking of Branagh, "Dead Again" is a fun little thriller.

[Steve]

Lollilove: Indie Christopher Guest-type mockumentary made by Jenna Fischer of The Office and her husband. And the plot is about helping homeless people, but really is a dissection of people's attitudes about charity. Lots of fun...especially considering this was a weekend project among friends.

[Geds]

Lollilove

Is there any way of finding that without resorting to Netflix? I totally want to see it.

Meanwhile, Keen Eddie. It was a Fox show they managed to make 13 whole episodes of about a New York detective working with Scotland Yard. It's kinda like Snatch in serial form.

[smgt]

The Graduate dated? It's an amazing movie.

I think one of the problems with the number of derivative directors and writers out there is that truly amazing movies become so heavily borrowed from that people become so used to the knockoffs that the don't give the originals a chance. I know people who've turned Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, The Father, and The Graduate off a few minutes in because they don't think the movies are "original " enough.

Then I start to cry.

[Laima]

I'm not a film buff, and have never heard of most of these movies (although many of them sound interesting).

I *will*, however, second "Proof". Can't speak to how accurate its portrayal of research mathematicians is (although I know one or two of them), but I found it very accurate at portraying a female genius, which is something I almost never see anywhere in the mass media. Male geniuses are everywhere (relatively speaking), and in the popular imagination, it seems that superior intellect/genius *must* equal male, but that hasn't been my experience. In fact, ime, often the males who everyone recognizes as super-brilliant (and who are often given a pass on practicing even the most basic of social skills) are less so than their female colleagues, who are ignored and passed over (and/or derided as "unlikable"). But ymmv, of course.

[LMM]

Does this mean no LB: Friday?

[Jeff]

Does this mean no LB: Friday?

Look down one thread.

[JessicaR]

I got to stick up for The Lady Eve and To Have and Have Not, especially the latter. My suggestions Fearless (the Peter Weir directed one), Yojimbo, and Hatari.

[Jos]

I heartily recommend (...) the Ian McKellan version of "Richard III."

Yes! It's this move that got me into Shakespeare into the first place.

[JessicaR]

Thought of one to take off, Yankee Doddle Dandy, the numbers are okay but everything else is filler.

[Lila]

How come when I try to go from "preview" to "post" I get sent back to "preview"? Anyone else having this problem?

[Lila]

(Hm, okay, that time it posted, so I'll try again without previewing.)

Re movie depictions of dementia: This is pretty good, and only 6 1/2 minutes long.

[julia]

Spellbound: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Leo G Carroll, Alfred Hitchcock and Salvidor Dali. Now that's a "movie cocktail"!

I agree about Spellbound, but it was Gregory Peck.

[Machiavelli]

Get rid of the two unfortunate Shakespeare renditions and replace them with Nunn's "Twelfth Night" and "Sin Noticias de Dios"

[MikeJ]

The very fact that R+J is generating such fevered responses pro and con means it's probably worth watching. I liked it a lot, and I hated Moulin Rouge. And the recommendation for Hamlet with Ethan Hawke was right on. As was the Branagh Henry V.

And Julia, taking Bonnie and Clyde off the list? Shame, shame.

[burgundy]

I kind of hated both Romeo + Juliet and Hamlet 2000, largely because of the performances (as stated above, the actors have to actually know what they're saying. Amazingly enough, Bill Murray was one of the best at that, in the latter movie.) I found Richard III with Ian McKellan hard going (not bad at all, just difficult to follow); I think it's more accessible if you're already familiar with the play, which I wasn't. Titus is pretty awesome. But I think, in terms of Shakespeare on Film, my highest rec would have to be Macbeth, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Ian McKellan and Judi Densch. It's from the late 70s, I think. It's really a filmed play rather than a movie adaptation, and it's a minimalist production, and it is TOTALLY WOW. Also, Ian McKellan is hot, but that's probably not a selling point for you.

[Jos]

I found Richard III with Ian McKellan hard going (not bad at all, just difficult to follow)

What's difficult to follow? I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say the movie's basically all about Richard scheming and backstabbing his way to power.

[Ray]

Add
I Went Down
Downfall
Chinatown
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources
La Gloire de mon Pere & Le Chateau de ma Mere
Cyrano de Bergerac
The Host

Remove
Open Season

[julia]

Aw, Mike, if you're only going to watch one movie about a sociopathic killer with psychosexual issues, shouldn't it be...

[burgundy]

It's been a while since I watched it, but I think it had to do with who specific characters were and how they related to each other and various motivations (at a more specific level than 'power-hungry schemer'). I'm usually pretty good at following along without hand-holding, so I don't know why that one was so difficult for me. I don't know enough about the play to be able to evaluate it in terms of what got cut, relative to what was cut in other movie versions of his plays. My guess was that something about this particular adaptation of this particular play made it more difficult for those unfamiliar with the source material, but since I'm unfamiliar with the source material, I could be completely wrong.

[jamoche]

My objection to "Romeo + Juliet" is that I can't stand watching wobble-cam. I only lasted a few minutes, so I can't say anything about its quality.

However Shakespeare fans absolutely must watch the Canadian TV series "Slings & Arrows" - backstage at a thinly-disguised Stratford Festival. It's marketed as a comedy but that doesn't begin to cover what it is.

[jamoche]

I found Richard III with Ian McKellan hard going (not bad at all, just difficult to follow); I think it's more accessible if you're already familiar with the play, which I wasn't.

Really? I knew nothing about it, and liked it so much the next day I read the entire play just to see what else I'd missed and actually enjoyed it - quite the opposite of my HS Shakespeare experiences, where we were plunked down with the play and expected to "get" it just from the text. (Probably doesn't help that I rarely visualise, so stage directions were skimmed over the way I did the pictures in comic books.)

Why do teachers do that, anyway? Plays were never meant to be read, they were meant to be performed.

[Drak Pope]

Oh my God you guys Kosovo's independent Russia's pissed off we're all going to die in a thermonuclear war and you're talking about Ian McKellan!?

[Dash]

The Cuckoo, a Finnish film. Early in WWII, a Finnish soldier who refuses to fight and a Russian soldier, who narrowly escapes a court-martial when the jeep taking him away comes under attack and his guards are killed, take refuge with a Lapp woman whose husband has himself gone off to war. None of them speaks any of the others' languages.

I second Looking for Richard and McKellan's Richard III, although unfortunately both actors are just plain too old to make the part of Richard at all persuasive. If you squint slightly when looking at the screen, it helps. Sorta. A little. Okay, it doesn't, but they're still pretty good. (Kevin Spacey as Buckingham in Looking for Richard: just. plain. good.)

Throne of Blood is excellent. I'd also recommend the Polanski Macbeth.

If you like The Station Agent (which I also second), you might enjoy The Castle--the 1999 Australian film with Michael Caton. Both are fun and quirky in not dissimilar ways.

You've seen Babette's Feast, right? If not, you'll want to. Really. You will.

[Dash]

Oops! Forgot: Living in Oblivion about a director trying to make an independent film. Steve Buscemi as the director. I found it very funny and was just thinking I'd like to see it again. YMMV, of course.

[burgundy]

Oh my God you guys Kosovo's independent Russia's pissed off we're all going to die in a thermonuclear war and you're talking about Ian McKellan!?

Can't do a damn thing about Kosovo or Russia. Can't do a damn thing about Ian McKellan either, come to that, but I can at control whether I'm watching him or not. But if it makes you feel better, you can pretend that this thread is all about advising Fred what movies to bring with him to his fallout shelter.

[Derryl Murphy]

ONCE was my fave from last year. I also strongly recommend THE ITALIAN (a Russian film, of course), THE LIVES OF OTHERS, and VENUS. Oh, and FIDO is a nice way to cap the zombie craze.

Reading THE TERROR by Dan Simmons right now, and I also recently read Bill Bryson's bio of Shakespeare. Both recommended.

D

[Anna]

Okay, first the things I'll second:

+ Someone recommended taking out Stagecoach and adding The Searchers instead. This is an enlightened suggestion. Stagecoach was the prototypical Western, but it doesn't have much to recommend it beyond the fact that everyone else copied it. The Searchers, on the other hand, is a also Western in the truest sense of the word, but is by far the more complex, interesting, beautiful film. Also, add Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid if you haven't seen it yet. Fabulous does not even begin to describe that film. Great performances, gorgeous cinematography, and one of the most memorable soundtracks ever (I dare you to watch it and not think of this film when you hear 'Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head').

- Another derec for Mulholland Drive; it's not the film to introduce yourself to Lynch with. Disregard this if you're already a Lynch fan.

Now for ones I haven't seen other people mention:

+ The Lion in Winter - If you ask me, it's one of the five best films ever made, maybe THE best film ever made (yeah, Citizen Kane can bite me). They don't write dialogue like this anymore, and they don't get actors like this to deliver it. Just, watch it if you haven't. SOON. SERIOUSLY.

- Catch 22 - It's not that great an adaptation of the book, and it's not that great a film in its own right. I was very 'meh' about it when I finished watching it, which made me sad since I liked the book.

+ Grave of the Fireflies - I'm not sure whether you've watched much (or any) anime before, but this is not what anyone thinks of when they think animation. This is a fabulous film full stop, not just a fabulous animated film. Roger Ebert features it on his 'Top 10 War Films of All Time' list for a reason: it will rip your heart out with the depths of human suffering that it realistically portrays. Bring tissues. Everyone I know who's seen it has bawled their eyes out, but it's not a sentimental film. It just shows war like war actually is, and that's bleak and sad, with moments of extraordinary beauty.

- Doctor Zhivago - I know it's one of the great epics, but EPIC is the key word. It was too long for me, and I got bored quickly. I don't usually have a short attention span, but this one just dragged on and on and on and on...

+ Pan's Labyrinth - This is the best movie I've seen in the past three years. It's a fairy tale in the classical sense of the word, the kind that isn't Disneyfied at all (probably not for the kiddies, this) but still manages to capture the imagination like very few other works can. Plus, the cinematography deserved every ounce of the praise that it garnered on its way to an Oscar or three. Beautiful, violent, magical, and sad.

- Closer - This film has a cast that had me salivating, but watching it left me curiously empty. I certainly wouldn't rank it as a must-see. There are other films on your list that are far more interesting and more fun.

- Galaxy Quest - I've recced some pretty sad or heavy films here, so this one's a comedy. I disliked Spaceballs, but loved this film. Many people think they're similar, but Galaxy Quest is less a slavish parody (as Spaceballs was), and more a loving fun-poking at the tropes that make both sci-fi and the fannish experience enduringly popular.

[Anna]

Haha, the minus on Galaxy Quest should be a plus for 'add it'. Oops.

[Jeff]

I got to stick up for ... To Have and Have Not

The "dead bee" conversation between Walter Brennen and Lauren Becall more than makes up for the warmed-over "Casablanca-lite" plot (and the total rewrite of Hemingway -- for good or ill, is not for me to say)

[Jeff]

The Lion in Winter - If you ask me, it's one of the five best films ever made, maybe THE best film ever made

Definitely a great film, but My Favorite Year (for which many DoublePlusGoods) can easily overwhelm it in hand-to-fhand (or frame-to-frame) combat!

I liked The Closer, but not so much as to put it in a Top 10.

[Mogley]

Uugh, Four Brothers and The Guardian can go (unless you're watching them to be brainless movies, in which case they're brilliant with a few beers). To replace those two, I'd recommend any of Dancer in the Dark, Born into Brothels, The Terminal, and Night at the Museum.

[Iain]

Closer was a great play, but a mediocre movie.

On the Shakespeare front, I'll second (third?) the Richard III recommendations. I've grown to love Twelfth Night with Ben Kingsley, Imogen Stubbs and a bunch of others whose names escape me at the moment. At first it seemed a little odd, but after several viewings I think it's the right way to do that play. Branagh's Henry V is easily his best Shakespeare adaptation.

If you're at all into animation, Bakshe's Wizards is a classic. (I'm not particularly into animation and I still love it.)

Other favorites include Mona Lisa, The Fisher King, My Life as a Dog, and Cinema Paradiso.

The funniest movie ever made (OK, I'm going out on a limb here) is The In-Laws with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk.