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The Incredibles by Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, (director) Brad Bird
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| This is an animated movie--a very well done one, at that--about the trials and tribulations of a superhero family. Fantasy or fiction? On one level obviously a fantasy, but in much more important ways, this movie is about the reality of today's world. In the movie, superheroes are sued and finally forced by the government--and the larger trends and attitudes in the society--into hiding. The heroic aspect of this story lies in the lead character's determination to return to superhero status and fight the apostles of mediocrity and equalization. His son summarizes it very well at one point when told that he runs too fast to be on the track team at school. "Everyone is special," he's informed. He insightfully replies, "That's just another way of saying nobody is." If you ask me, that's not fantasy; that's the reality of today's world, where valedictorians are abolished and test scores are manipulated to make everyone look equal. Don't miss this movie! |
Recommendation Level:   |
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Julia Child: Biography by A&E Network
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| This lady simply loves life. It’s not about food or entertainment nearly so much as this. Watch how she does it. Be inspired and uplifted in the process.
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Gettysburg (1993) by starring Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Jeff Daniels
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| This movie gives you the basics -- essentially what happened at the famous battle of Gettysburg. But those basics are presented with riveting excellence! Even if you have little or no interest in the Civil War, you will after watching the heroics and determination displayed in this movie.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Deterrence (2000) by starring Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton
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| It's the not-too-distant future. Saddam Hussein's son has taken over Iraq and is credibly threatening the United States with a biological and chemical attack. The newly "selected, not elected" President must decide whether to listen to all of his pragmatic advisors (including his wife) - who insist that the U.S. not make a preemptive strike, as it will damage relations with its allies. Or: take whatever means necessary to quickly deter the threat. What does he do? You're not going to believe it, but you'll be glad you watched this amazingly real rendition of what is required of a President in times such as ours. Any day now, the events of this movie could quite literally become headline news.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Ordinary People (1980) by starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Timothy Hutton
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| A young man comes to terms with the death of his brother in the context of dealing with a cold mother, a weak father, and his own suicidal emotions. Excellent acting and directing, and although not uplifting somewhat hopeful as the main character, Conrad (played by Timothy Hutton), successfully uses psychotherapy to challenge his thinking and starts to move past the neuroses of his family.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Billy Elliot (2000) by starring Julie Walters, Jamie Bell
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| The setting is County Durham, Great Britain, in 1984, and things "up north" are even grimmer than usual: the miners' strike is in full rancorous swing, and 11-year-old Billy's got problems of his own. His dad has scraped together the fees to send him to boxing lessons, but Billy has discovered a different aptitude: a genius for ballet dancing. Enjoyment of life is good. Dance is a magnificent expression of loving life -- all the more so if made a career. Determination overcomes cowardice and irrationality, both within oneself and even, sometimes, in previously irrational people. These are the feelings you are left with at the end of this delightful movie.
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The Tamarind Seed (1974) by starring Julie Andrews, Omar Sharif
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| A surprisingly riveting love story between a British woman (Andrews) and a Soviet spy (Sharif) seeking to abandon his country to pursue a self-interested, very unCommunist love in the free world. Suspenseful and twists and turns right up to the very end. The Sharif character falls in love with Andrews’ mind, and not only her body, making for a different kind of love story than the one you typically see.
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Chocolat (2001) by starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp
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| The gypsy asks the little girl what she's peddling ... Religion? Communism? The girl simply answers: "Chocolate." If you think this movie is only about chocolate, then you're missing a theatrical milestone. It is about chocolate (and deliciously so), but it's about so much more: love of life versus emotional repression; good versus evil; duty to family/community versus allegiance to self; lust for life versus lust for an afterlife. It's a magnificent movie on every level -- acting, directing, script, characterization. If you want to be uplifted, inspired, amused, entertained, angered and encouraged to think, then watch this movie immediately.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
The Talented Mr. Ripley by starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law
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| It’s a modern-day Crime and Punishment. The psychology of insanity and deception is not pretty, but if you’re going to make a movie out of it, this one borders, at times, on the brilliant. The plot unravels in ways you never thought possible -- yet are logically inevitable. Excellent acting, wonderful background and music/scenery.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
A Leap of Faith (Recording, 2000) by featuring Faith Prince
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| Tony-award winner (Guys and Dolls) and nominee (Bells Are Ringing) Faith Prince presents her first solo show, recorded live at Joe's Pub in New York in January 2000. You'd never know it from this vastly entertaining recording that combines terrific song selection with a lot of fun patter. When the familiar screwball voice starts to intone the Rodgers and Hammerstein standard, the audience can't help laughing, but the combination of lyric and character soon becomes surprisingly poignant. Recommended for Faith Prince fans as well as anyone who wants to become one.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Dolores Claiborne (1995) by starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh
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| Based upon a Stephen King novel, the movie provides a picture not of supernatural horror, but the only real kind of horror human beings can impose upon one another -- abuse -- and the attempt to survive it. Kathy Bates offers a magnificent performance. At times, too rough around the edges with the gratuitous harsh language, but overall a riveting story. The Nova Scotia background is spectacular.
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As Good As It Gets (1997) by starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt
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| A very well acted dramatization of the obsessive-compulsive personality -- and its inevitable unraveling -- in action.
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Marnie (1964) by starring Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery
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| A portrait of psychological disturbance, abuse and a dramatization of deception running into its inevitable brick walls. Hedren's wonderful performance is reason enough to watch the film.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Vertigo (1958) by starring James Stewart, Kim Novak
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| Retired police detective Stewart, who has a fear of heights, is hired by old school chum in San Francisco to keep an eye on his wife (Novak), eventually falling in love with her, though much more unfolds. Hitchcock was no champion of the heroic in human nature, but his capacity to create suspense and capture human vulnerabilities was brilliant and timeless.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
North by Northwest (1959) by starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint
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| Grant is Roger O. Thornhill (initials ROT), an advertising executive who is mistaken by enemy spies for a U.S. undercover agent named George Kaplan. Convinced these sinister fellows (James Mason as the boss, and Martin Landau as his henchman) are trying to kill him, Roger flees and meets a sexy Stranger on a Train (Eva Marie Saint). Riveting, suspenseful, and beautifully acted and directed.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Inherit The Wind (1960) by starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March
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| This gripping adaptation of the Jerome Lawrence-Robert E. Lee play examines an issue that still causes great controversy: the role religion should play in the schools. As the story unfolds, you witness the fundamental conflict between reason and religion -- along with a dramatic illustration of integrity and courage.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Life Is Beautiful by starring Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
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| Few if any movies have ever pulled it off: the integration of humor with something as life-or-death as survival in a Nazi concentration camp. It may sound like a bizarre mixture, but it works. Beautifully written, directed and acted -- this movie manages to leave you with a sense that for all its evil the Nazi regime, in the end, could not break the human spirit. It moves from a light-hearted, playful romance to a struggle for survival, and is a tribute to all that the human spirit can endure under catastrophic circumstances.
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James Bond 007 Collection Volume I by starring Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan
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| Heroic, adventerous, suspenseful, timeless and rarely disappointing: the James Bond series of films stand the test of time. Excellent psychological refueling. Also search Amazon.com for Volumes 2 and 3.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Sense and Sensibility by starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet
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| A beautifully done movie about romantic love and moral dilemmas confronted by individuals in the repressed, Victorian era. The story, based upon Jane Austen’s novel, shows how such repressive views lead to a false alternative between selflessly denying yourself pleasure versus simply doing whatever "feels right."
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
The Shawshank Redemption by starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
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| Straight-arrow banker Andy (played by Tim Robbins) is railroaded for a double murder and sent to prison for life in the late 1940s. Fellow lifer Red (played by Morgan Freeman) and his buddies eventually come to admire Robbins' moral code--and his ability to get things done, in spite of a heinous warden and brutal prison guard. The movie chronicles Red's relationship with Andy, and the quest for justice. There's also suspense and intrigue. A very well-written and acted movie illustrating the themes of integrity, long-range thinking, and the pursuit of values against all odds.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Ayn Rand: Sense of Life by Produced by Michael Paxton
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| This comprehensive look at a fascinating woman uses interviews with friends and colleagues, family photos, clips of her speaking, and great moments from the films she wrote to portray a complex, passionate person with the brains to articulate her ideals and the guts to stand up for them. Trying to get work in 1930s Hollywood wasn't easy for such a passionate anti-Communist, but Rand persisted and the tales of her life in the theater, her lifelong relationship with actor Frank O'Connor, and her dual career as both novelist and philosopher are both inspiring and dramatic.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Tucker: The Man and His Dream by Starring Jeff Bridges
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| The story of Preston Tucker, the man who revolutionized car design in the late 1940s, only to have his innovation squelched by the "big three" automakers in a legal battle between Tucker and powerful political lobbies. An inspiring story about the commitment to excellence and the rational, principled pursuit of one’s dream.
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Rites of Passage (1999) by starring Dean Stockwell, Jason Behr, James Remar
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| Psychologically very powerful movie with a very high degree of suspense, surprising twists and turns. Addresses the themes of father-son relationships, homosexuality, criminality and life-death literally in the balance. Not the most uplifting movie in the world, but powerfully and interestingly written and performed.
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October Sky by starring Laura Dern, Jake Gyllenhaal
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| A beautifully engrossing story about a boy who puts his thinking, creative mind above the herd -- with inspiring results. Well written and acted, an excellent example of how the determined individual can rise above fear and conformity. A young high school senior, faced with a dreary future as a coal miner in West Virginia, works furiously to build a rocket in the wake of the Russian Sputnik launch of the late 1950’s.
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Click on the cover or title to buy now from Amazon! |
Antz by starring (voices of) Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone
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| In the words of the movie’s main character, Z, "just a boy-meets-girl, boy-likes-girl, boy-changes-underlying-social-order" story. A surprisingly entertaining animated tale. An interesting undercurrent to the story is the value of individualism and thinking for yourself -- and the evil of collectivism. Z, the neurotic but still oddly heroic lead character, teaches his comrades in the ant colony that they should think for themselves and live in freedom rather than blindly follow the order of dictators. He spreads the word that they have a choice, despite what they are told. A particularly wonderful scene depicts Z and the heroine Princess dancing to their own tune in the midst of a dreary, regimented collective group dance.
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The Truman Show by starring Jim Carrey
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| A bizarre but interesting story about a man whose entire life is a 24-hour television show. Everybody on earth knows it except for him. Many critics love this movie because they like the notion that reality is an illusion and the mind is impotent to know anything. The real value of this movie lies in its ability to show the mind’s competence, as demonstrated by the character’s eventual realization of the illusion. It also illustrates the value of the individual’s right to his own life -- and what happens when those rights are ignored. Jim Carrey has real talent. It’s too bad he was born in an age where greatness is not in very high demand.
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