I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That's the two categories. The horrible be like, I don't know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don't know how they get through life. It's amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you're miserable, because that's very lucky, to be miserable. --Woody Allen in Annie Hall

ere are my top twenty-five favourite films (linked to the good old Internet Movie Database), in chronological order:

1. Ugetsu monogatari (1953), Mizoguchi Kenji. I hate resorting to mere adjectives, but this film is brutal, poignant, and hauntingly beautiful.
2. Some Like It Hot (1959), Billy Wilder. It's still very funny. It's still quite sexy. It has witty dialogue, singing, and dancing. It was made by Billy Wilder with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and of course, Marilyn Monroe. How can anyone take their eyes off her? What more could anyone possibly want from a movie?
3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962), David Lean. I tend to like ambitious movies, even when they fail. I appreciate filmmakers who take chances and aim high. Fortunately, this one succeeds quite well in every respect. However, you get the sense that this film became something beyond what the filmmakers had ever imagined before they began making it. They probably had set out to make an adventure film about T.E. Lawrence, but they eventually wind up with a film about, well... Somehow the movie took on a life of its own. The film itslef became entranced by the vastness of the desert. About this hypnotic adventure epic, Roger Ebert wrote: "The impulse to make this movie was based, above all, on imagination. The story of Lawrence is not founded on violent battle scenes or cheap melodrama, but on David Lean's ability to imagine what it would look like to see a speck appear on the horizon of the desert and slowly grow into a human being. He had to know how that would feel, before he could convince himself that the project had a chance of being successful."
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Stanley Kubrick. His detractors often like to point out that HAL 9000 was perhaps Kubrick's most compelling character in all of his films. However, I think there's nothing wrong with that. Very notable Kubrick detractor Pauline Kael wrote in her review of The Shining that 2001 shows that "mankind began with the weapon and just went from there... man is a murderer, throughout eternity." Well, Pauline Kael notwithstanding, but it's quite obvious that this is just my kind of movie. Please see entry below for further comments.
5. Chinatown (1974), Roman Polanski. "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." Perhaps the best noir ever made, this is such a rich, complex, layered, and sumptuous work that you'll make new discoveries everytime you see it. As a matter of fact, it's so rich that I have to watch the damn thing a couple of times just to understand what the hell's going on.
6. Annie Hall (1977), Woody Allen. I don't reckon I have ever come across a more quotable movie.
7. Alien (1979), Ridley Scott. This has got to be the most suspenseful film I have ever come across. When it was released back in 1979, people had not seen anything like it before, and they had no clue what to expect. While it does not have as many gorgeous visuals as one would come to expect from later Ridley Scott films, the originality of the story and the intriguingly original but thoroughly developed biology behind H.R. Giger's alien are just astonishing. From the elegant yet mysterious opening credits onward, this film is incredibly well-designed in every respect. The now-dated 'Mother' computer console room aboard Nostromo notwithstanding, the production design is still breathtaking in terms of ingenuity and the staggering level of detail. It still amazes me that this film was made way back in 1979. Furthermore, this is also the first movie to depict a seriously conceivable future, complete with dirt, grime, and an overwhelming grunginess as well as sleek and shiny inorganic surfaces of the future (in addition to the ominous presence of biologically freaky organic ones).
8. Manhattan (1979), Woody Allen. Although it lacks sympathetic characters, this work is filled with so many gorgeous images (camera work from the great Gordon Willis) and accompanied by wonderfully uplifting music. Remember that image of them sitting next to the bridge at daybreak?
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Steven Spielberg. A lot of hokey, pulpy fun, but very well done, and holds up well. I love the sequels too. This is Spielberg at his best and most tolerable-- when he's not playing a serious filmmaker.
10. Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott. This is perhaps the most visually striking film ever made, and its thematic richness provide sufficient fodder for endless distertations.
11. Fanny och Alexander (1982), Ingmar Bergman. This coda to his film career sums up the major Bergman themes quite nicely. There's a very poignant moment in the film which I can identify with quite intensely. After the death of her husband, the mother of the children, in a very deliberate means of catharsis during the middle of the night, paces back and forth while screaming at the top of her lungs, in measured intervals. You really feel her pain and despair.
12. The Right Stuff (1983), Philip Kaufman. See entry below.
13. Sasame yuki (Makioka Sisters) (1983), Ichikawa Kon. Even though Donald Richie hates it, this is still a gorgeous film based on the Tanizaki Junichiro novel. This is also one of the relatively rare features appreciated by both Pauline Kael and me.
14. Brazil (1985), Terry Gilliam. I don't know what to say about this one at the moment, but I really love my Criterion Collection set.
15. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Woody Allen. Clever, funny, and ultimately heartbreaking, this is probably my favourite effort from Woody. I think Allen himself mentioned this one as his favourite effort. Even Pauline Kael liked this later effort. It also features Mia Farrow's best onscreen performance. She said this was her favourite as well; she cited in her autobiography the reason being that Allen himself didn't appear onscreen.
16. Ran (1985), Kurosawa Akira. The almighty Kagemusha was merely a dress rehearsal for this one. This is the real thing. Because she's way better at this than I am, here's Pauline Kael's capsule for the New Yorker:
    

    Set in the sixteenth century, [Kurosawa's] 1985 spectacle, a variation on the theme of "King Lear," is static, but it deepens, and it has its own ornery splendor. It's a totally conceptualized work-- perhaps the biggest piece of conceptual art ever made. For the first forty minutes or so, the picture is all preparation, and it seems dead, but then the preparation begins to pay off, and by the end the fastidiousness and the monumental scale of what Kurosawa has undertaken can flood you with admiration. The fine, harsh percussive score is by Toru Takemitsu. In Japanese.

    
    
17. Barton Fink (1991), Joel and Ethan Coen. This is probably in my top three favourite Coen brothers film, but I don't think I've watched this as much as Lebowski.
18. Gattaca (1997), Andrew Niccol. Okay, I'm a sucker for visuals, and this is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. This is an amazing and intelligent sci-fi flick that is packed with so much gorgeous images, music, and actors that you may overdose on its sumptuousness. It features timeless architecture by good old Frank Lloyd Wright and 90s favourite Antoine Predock. It boasts a score by composer Michael Nyman. It has cinematography by Kieslowski collaborator Slavomir Idziak. It oozes Modern Things. Almost minimalist but elegant, the production design from Jan Roelfs, who like Nyman had previously worked on a number of Greenaway films, is distinguished by clean lines and sleek surfaces that, especially when accompanied by Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Jude Law, constitute a gorgeous feast of refined eye candy. Most importantly and surprisingly enough, beneath all that polish, there lies some fairly interesting ideas about the implications of genetic engineering. (Am I using too many adjectives here?)
19. The Ice Storm (1997), Ang Lee's incredible adaptation of Rick Moody's novel. This film is great since it has all my particular bases covered bigtime.
20. LA Confidential (1997), Curtis Hanson. How many more L.A. noir films can we get on this list? Perhaps it's not as deep or as profound as Chinatown, but it remains an astonishingly complex, tight, well-written, well-paced, well-crafted, and totally delightful movie to watch. It's perfect filmmaking.
21. Rushmore (1998), Wes Anderson. It has: humour, wit, tight script, cool actors, odd sensibility, a very distinctive and evocative soundtrack, a nice, autumnal look (despite its Houston location), and Bill Murray at his best. I think part of its appeal lies with the fact that a lot of people, myself included, feel (in a semi-elitist sort of way) that it's a movie just made for you and you alone. It speaks in a language with a sense of humour and deadpan sensibility that only you can understand and appreciate. It's like arriving at college and finally finding like-minded individuals who have been missing all your life.
22. Being John Malkovich (1999), the first feature film from our beloved Spike Jonze, as well as from crazy genius screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. After years of directing some of my favourite music videos, we can hardly expect anything less than brilliant. He doesn't disappoint here. This may be the most clever movie I have ever come across. Almost every line of dialogue shines. The film is also sympathetic to the flawed but hyper-human characters. While they may be experiencing bizarre circumstances in this movie, their behaviour is entirely believable. Needless to say, it's a staggeringly odd work, and yet in the end, it deals with the most basic and intrinsic aspects of human existence: desires, the nature of self, immortality, etc.
23. Fight Club (1999), David Fincher. Incidentally, wasn't 1999 an awesome year for film? It rivals 1939 and 1974 as the best single year for American cinema. Please also see entry below for further comments.
24. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Michel Gondry. As you would expect from those crazy metaphysical cinematic geniuses Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry, this film pokes you in places where you aren't normally poked, and I mean it in a good way. No matter how far out their shtick may appear to be, they are ultimately interested in examining the utter strangeness of human nature (which also happens to be the title of their first feature-length presentation). Oh yeah, it's quite poignant too.
25. Under the Skin (2013), Jonathan Glazer. This one pokes you in places where you aren't usually poked, and that's a compliment.

o what kinds of film do we really appreciate? Ultimately, the best films leave you slightly different than before you’ve seen it. Some may prompt animated discussions with your friends over long dinners. Others may force you in a state of silence or dazed speechlessness. All of them hold up, or even demand, repeated viewings, and they reward their audiences with something new each time the latter partake in them. Like all great art, the best films often provoke, disturb, scare, or challenge its audience.

The following includes links to resources to some of our favourite films, directors, and actors. This enumeration is not the definitive reflection of our cinematic tastes, since not all of our favourite titles have appropriate links. Again, we'll do the best we can with what we've got. This is one of those listings where what's left out is often just as revealing about me as what's include. More of our movie ratings can be found at our letterboxd profile. Finally as an additional resource, readers may also want to check out our media page. This page is divided into:

• Titles, particularly interesting films to check out.
• Directors, the auteurs who produce great works. Note who did not make the cut.
• Cinematographers, DPs who shoot great images.
• Actors, including many people who make me laugh.
• Resources and reviews.
• DVD and Blu-ray reviews.

• The Right Stuff (1983), Philip Kaufman. "How the future began." Ostensibly a docudrama based on Tom Wolfe's book about heroic American test pilots and NASA's pioneering Mercury programme, this Philip Kaufman epic carries surprisingly unconventional intonations and sensibilities. It also features a cool cast as well as an appropriately soaring score. A thoroughly delightful and perahps even a giddy experience, The Right Stuff is just an incredible movie whose sprawling canvas manages to convey an amazingly wide range of emotions. Although it's one of the funniest films I have ever come across, it's also filled with excitement, suspense, wonder, romance, euphoria, insightful depiction of a decidedly different era (with its nascent aerospace technologies as well as its even more unusual societal values), and even perhaps poignancy (particularly the somewhat troubling episode involving Gus Grissom's less than heroic return from space). The deadpan humour and the satire notwithstanding (admittedly not all of the corny jokes, various caricatures, and motifs work), this intelligent film also manages to glorify and honour these courageous American heroes without resorting to shallow jingoism. Dennis Quaid's mile-wide smile alone is worth checking this movie out. Here are a few interesting items:
  
  
  • Pauline Kael not only called the following "the most winning speech of the whole three-hour-and-twelve-minute movie," but also "the wittiest and most deeply romantic confirmation of a marriage ever filmed":
    

    Listen Annie. If you don't want the Vice President or the TV networks to come into our house, then that's it, as far as I'm concerned. They are NOT coming in, and I'll back you up one hundred percent on this! I don't want Johnson or anybody else to put so much as one TOE inside our house. You tell them I said that. You tell them Astronaut John Glenn told you to say that.

    
    
  • I totally agree with her.
  • Visit a great fan page with loads of info.
  • Hear some sound clips.
  • The Ed Harris and Scott Glenn Tribute Page is a lot of fun.
  • The Definitive Ed Harris page is also worth checking out.
  • The actual Brigadier General Chuck Yeager appeared as a bartender in the film.
  • Finally, this movie has little bits of magic scattered all over the place. One instance is described by the following excerpt from Pauline Kael's review:
    

    Strapped in and almost immobile [in the capsule], John Glenn [played by Ed Harris] is also the beneficiary of a magical effect that he himself can't see. The lights from the equipment that are reflected in the windows of all the astronauts' helmets hit him just right; we see two tiny lines of jewelled lights streaking down his face, one from each eye. "Astro tears" the movie crew called them. They suggest Jesus in space.

    
    
  
  
  
  
• RoboCop (1987), Paul Verhoeven. I think Verhoeven is a badly misunderstood director in America partly due to the fact that he's Dutch. Most critics think he's just an exploitation director gone out of control. As an outsider, he clearly sees the loud, bombastic, violent, jingoistic, fascistic, and always over-the-top characteristics of American society, and all of his films, from campy Showgirls to Starship Troopers to Robocop, choose to reflect and comment on this, often in the form of satire. That's why all of his films have a sense of humour that most Americans often do not see.
• Sans soleil (1982) Chris Marker.
• The Selfish Giant (2013) Clio Barnard.
• Seppuku (Harakiri)(1962), Kobayashi Masaki.
• Se7en (1996), David Fincher. Despite the predictable ending, it's pretty tight in every respect. Amazing titles design too. To support my gleeful admiration for its production design, Rogert Ebert writes, "Although the time of the story is the present, the set design suggests the 1940s; Gary Wissner, the art director, goes for dark blacks and browns, deep shadows, lights of deep yellow, and a lot of dark wood furniture. It rains almost all the time." That's why it's such a pleasure to watch.
• Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai) (1954), Kurosawa Akira.
• Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost LA (1995), Morgan Neville. Documentary about the concept of LA and its built landscape.
• Showgirls (1995), Paul Verhoeven. This is one of the pinnacles of western civilisation.
• Silence of the Lambs (1991), Jonathan Demme.
• Sånger från andra våningen (Songs from the Second Floor) (2012), Roy Andersson.
• Spring Breakers (2012), Harmony Korine. I can say so much about this, but not now.
• Starship Troopers, (1997) Paul Verhoeven. With a ridiculuously sexy and nubile cast (featuring super sexpot-extraordinaire Denise Richards) and awesome special effects and production design, this campy big-budget movie's gleefully and gratuitously violent, sadistic, cynical, satirical, morally ambiguous (and perhaps a bit confused in tone), insightful at times, and as hilarious as hell. In other words, it's my kind of movie that's essentially badly misunderstood by everyone, its partisans as well as its detractors. It even rivals Verhoeven's infamous and giddy camp extravanganza Showgirls in terms of utterly over-the-top trashiness. Movies are rarely this much fun.
• Synecdoche, New York (2008), Charlie Kaufman's debut as director is as gloriously weird as you expect it to be.
• Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese.
• Thelma and Louise (1991), Ridely Scott.
• Three Kings (1999), David O. Russell.
• Titanic (1997), James Cameron. Being the effete cultural snob that I am, I reckon I have more problems with its fans than the film itself. Yeah, the sacchrine material was probably way beneath what Kate Winslet can accomplish with her formidable talent. Yeah, it was a sappy no-brainer story, but in the end, it was probably worth its $200 million. Everything about this movie was well-done except for the big, dumb love story plot in the middle of everything. A production design tour de force, the movie was at its best when depicting the sense of everything being tilted; I loved it when those historically accurate-looking dishes slid off their cabinets and shelves.
• True Lies (1994) James Cameron. This gets a mention here not only because of its Harrier jet, but also for its being one of the most enjoyable and funniest movies ever made (and by Cameron standards, it doesn't aeem to take itself too seriously).
• Vertigo (1958), Alfred Hitchcock.
• Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Todd Solondz. Official site of the very funny but accurate look at life in suburban junior high. One of my favourite lines: "Yo Wiener, you better get ready, 'cause at three o' clock today, I'm gonna RAPE you!"
• Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Kathryn Bigelow. This is perhaps the most exiciting movie I have ever seen, yet everyone going in all knows how it ends.
• Zodiac (2007), David Fincher.

• Lance Acord served as Spike Jonze's go-to DP for all of his full-length projects before Her.
• John Alcott was Kubrick's longtime DP, and he filmed Barry Lyndon.
• Néstor Almendros filmed the incredible Days of Heaven, among many others, as well as Eric Rohmer's longtime DP.
• Adrian Biddle has collaborated with Ridley Scott a few times. Incidentally, they say that white men can't jump. How about Americans can't operate a movie camera? Just survey the list to follow here. Can you spot any Americans?
• Jan de Bont was Paul Verhoeven's cameraman who became a bigtime director in his own right.
• Jordan Cronenweth. This legendary British cameraman had worked in a wide variety of productions (my favourites include Blade Runner and Stop Making Sense), and he was the father of hot cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, who has filmed everything from the sterile One Hour Photo and grungy Fight Club to the technicolor orgy of Peyton Reed's Down with Love. Oh yeah, he also filmed perhaps my favourite music video of all time (directed by David Fincher), George Michael's almighty "Freedom 90."
• Roger Deakins is best known as the director of photography for Coen Brothers' films since Barton Fink, but he has also worked on a few notable (such as Scorsese's Kundun) and many high profile Hollywood projects.
• Christopher Doyle, the famous Hong Kong-based DP who's getting more awesome each year. He has worked wonders with both Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai.
• Frederick Elmes was often the cinematographer for David Lynch and Ang Lee. Yeah, he's a Jersey boy.
• Agnès Godard is Claire Denis's longtime cinematographer.
• Slavomir Idziak worked with Kieslowski, Michael Winterbottom (I Want You), Andrew Niccol (Gattaca), and Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down), among others.
• Janusz Kaminski is Steven Spielberg's longtime cinematographer.
• Darius Khondji has even filmed a few Chris Cunningham videos, including Madonna's "Frozen."
• Emmanuel Lubezki is the Mexican DP who has worked on several projects with Alfonso Cuarón.
• John Mathieson is the British DP who filmed Scott's gorgeous Gladiator, Hannibal, and Matchstick Men.
• Chris Menges worked for many notable British productions, including David Puttnam and Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields and The Mission.
• Miyagawa Kazuo completed an incredible body of work that included classics from Kurosawa, Ichikawa, Mizoguchi, and even Ozu (his beautiful colour version of Floating Weeds).
• Sven Nykvist needs no introduction. Simply put, he was a fucking god! Bergman once said that Nykvist can make a film without him, but he can't make a film without Nykvist.
• Carlo di Palma was Woody Allen's cinematographer from Hannah through Deconstructing Harry. He also filmed de Sica's Bicycle Thieves.
• Roger Pratt worked on many films with Terry Gilliam and Mike Leigh, as well as Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa and Tim Burton's Batman.
• Rodrigo Prieto is yet another Mexican DP who has filmed Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain and Lust Caution, Julie Taymor's Frida, Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile, and as the longtime collaborator of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel and Amores perros.
• Harris Savides is actually an American DP. He has shot several later films of Gus Van Sant, as well as David Fincher's Zodiac and The Game, Ridley Scott's American Gangster, and Madonna's video for "Rain."
• Eduardo Serra works mainly for French productions, but he has also ventured out to do a few British (including Michael Winterbottom's Jude) and American projects (What Dreams May Come and Unbreakable).
• Barry Sonnenfeld went on to become a noted Hollywood director in his own right, but he became first known for his brilliant camera work for the first three Coen Bros. pictures.
• Vittorio Storaro is the ultimate classic Italian cinematographer, and there are many out there.
• Alex Thomson has worked with, among others, Nicolas Roeg, Ridley Scott, David Fincher, Roland Joffe, and John Boorman.
• Sacha Vierny has filmed classics like Hiroshima mon amour as well as most of Peter Greenaway's painterly spectacles.
• Gordon Willis is on this list for being the director of photography for the Godfather trilogy as well as for the greatest films (certainly the most beautiful) of Woody Allen's career, from Annie Hall through Purple Rose of Cairo.
• Dariusz Wolski has been Ridley Scott's go-to guy in recent years following Prometheus.

• American Film Institute.
• Peter Bradshaw reviews for the Guardian.
• British Board of Film Classification is tough but consistent.
• British Film Institute also publishes Sight & Sound.
• Cinema Review. Reviews galore of recent flicks.
• Cinemania is Microsoft's impressive clearinghouse site about the movies and the people who make them truly delivers. It even features an extensive collection of reviews of past films and classics.
• Criterion Collection. Bergman, Goddard, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, et al. are all here with essays galore.
• CriterionCast.com is an entire network of various podcasts, blogs, news articles, and essays all devoted to watching, evaluating, and collecting the almighty Criterion Collection.
• Dark Horizons features reviews, trailers, and industry gossip of the latest, previous, and forthcoming blockbusters, thrillers, and sci-fi flicks.
• Deep Focus. Well-designed site featuring film reviews by a bloke named Bryant Frazer.
• Roger Ebert usually writes quite well and writes often, and you can read his reviews archived here. He's often the first source I turn to for an opinion. Although he's not Pauline Kael in terms of being a stylist extraordinaire, he's much more amiable and seemingly much less presumptuous or arbitrary. As a true renaissance man, he's unusually well-informed for a critic, and he'll tell you when he isn't too well-versed on a particular subject matter. For an example of a great Ebert review, check out what he has to say about Jane Campion's Sweetie, a strange film that's rather difficult to articulate to say the least.
• Ecran Noir is a must if you like French films and stars.
• Filmspotting is a very professional and well-produced podcast of movie reviews by Adam Kempenaar and Sam Hallgren, Chicago filmgeeks of my age group whom I enjoy listening to immensely. They remind of of Dean Cohen and Brandy French's programme Critics' Corner on KPFK Pacifica radio in LA in the 1980s. Unlike the countless other shows with the Siskel and Ebert, point-counterpoint setup of two guys talking and arguing about the movies, Sam and Adam's programme, like Critic's Corner, is essentially geared toward literate audiences who are already film-buffs. They don't need to pander or to be beholden to the obvious constraints and demands inherent in mainstream media outlets like commercial television. However, unlike Critics' Corner, this isn't an audio version of Film Comment. To be sure, they are quite erudite about film, and they sound much more professional than most college radio programmes of this sort, but they certainly aren't Pauline Kael or Roger Ebert. They basically have the same (pop)cultural reference points as you and me, and they haven't seen every classic film that exists out there. However, they readily admit to this quite often, and they assure audiences that they'll be obliged to address to the omissions as soon as they can. You feel like you're learning about the world of fim with them instead of from them. The bottom line is that you can identify with these guys in a way that you never, ever would with the A.O. Scotts or perhaps even the Manohla Dargises of the world. Incidentally, I agree with Adam more often than Sam, but the former's admiration for the acting skills of Keanu Reeves still freaks me out to no end. And Laura Linney as mere "age-appropriate character delivery device"? Ouch, that's so harsh.
• France Cinéma Multimédia.
• Greatest Films site features detailed reviews and information about them.
• letterboxd, where we keep profile.
• Internet Movie Database is one of the greatest resources on the net.
• Mark Kermode reviews and interviews for the BBC and the Guardian and the Observer.
• Kinema Club. This page is devoted to resources on Japanese films in North America.
• Masters of Cinema. The biggest auteurs are on parade here, a site that's "collating, disseminating film and DVD news for discerning cineastes the world over." This is a great resource.
• Media Resources Center was once a place for me to spend a wonderful afternoon for free when I occasionally had free time long ago.
• MovieMartyr.com by Jeremy Heilman consists of a big collection of reviews of important films from around the world.
• National Film Board of Canada.
• Nowness shows whatever is inetersting or beautiful, whether it comes from the mainstream or underground. You will not be bored here.
• Projection Booth Podcast is for hardcore cult film geeks only, as each episode is usually about 3-4 hours in length.
• Jonathan Rosenbaum. I have to admit I do not understand everything he writes, but the (often obscure) films he chooses to review are well-considered, and what he has to say (which is sometimes almost opaque to me) are always interesting.
• Scarecrow Video is a serious place on Roosevelt out in Seattle's U-District. As an example of how hardcore they are, they even rent out PAL VCRs and region-free DVD players so that you can view selections from their extensive collection in these formats.
• Reviews and Reflections provides detailed reviews with an artistic sensibility as well as interesting related links. Be sure to check out an insightful take on Ridley Scott within the review of the underrared but admittedly very flawed G.I. Jane.
• Sci-Fi Movie Page has a fine collection of articles as well as current and archive reviews.
• Screen Trade Canada is a big site that provides news and information about the Canadian film industry and its people.
• Strictly Film School is a collection of reviews by Acquarello, with a decidedly academic slant. It focuses on the canon of important films from around the world.
• W A R P F I L M S
  Chris Cunningham lives here, among others.
• Watching the Directors is a podcast in which each episode focuses on a particular auteur. Listening is like taking a class on that director.
• World Cinema is a terrific and extensive resource with loads on international actors, directors, and titles.

• digitallyOBSESSED covers a lot of foreign and indie flicks.
• DVD Angle.
• DVD Basen, a very useful Danish site that has links to reviews of DVDs from all regions. This is a good place to start wherever in the world you are.
• DVD Beaver, a personal site of interest to those who like their films artsy and foreign.
• DVD Breakdown is simple and straightforward.
• DVD File has industry news and reviews.
• DVD Journal. More reviews.
• DVD Movie Guide is good for mainstream Region 1 releases. It's straightforard and easy to use.
• DVD Reviewer has detailed reviews of Region 1 and 2 releases.
• DVD Shrine.
• DVD Talk also deals with hardware issues, but the main attraction here is the collection of reviews by cinephile and film editor DVD Savant Glenn Erickson.
• DVD Verdict has some cool Region 1 reviews written in a clever format.