Wit (dir. Mike Nichols)
Mulholland Drive (dir. David Lynch)
Ghost World (dir. Terry Zwigoff)
Innocence (dir. Paul Cox)
Waking Life (dir. Richard Linklater)
In The Bedroom (dir. Todd Field)
Gosford Park (dir. Robert Altman)
Storytelling (dir. Todd Solondz)
Read My Lips (dir. Jacques Audiard)
The Piano Teacher (dir. Michael Haneke)
A Beautiful Mind (dir. Ron Howard)
The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson)
Monsoon Wedding (dir. Mira Nair)
Monster’s Ball (dir. Marc Forster)
Fat Girl (dir. Catherine Breillat)
Millenium Actress (dir. Satoshi Kon)
Donnie Darko (dir. Richard Kelly)
The Majestic (dir. Frank Darabont)
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (dir. Zacharias Kunuk)
Moulin Rouge! (dir. Baz Luhrmann)
Bully (dir. Larry Clark)
The Son’s Room (dir. Nanni Moretti)
How I Killed My Father (dir. Anne Fontaine)
Lost and Delirious (dir. Léa Pool)
Nowhere in Africa (dir. Caroline Link)
Metropolis (dir. Rintaro)
Amelie (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
The Deep End (dir. Scott McGehee and David Siegel)
Kandahar (dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
L.I.E. (dir. Michael Cuesta)
The Pledge (dir. Sean Penn)
What Time Is It Over There? (dir. Ming-liang Tsai)
Black Hawk Down (dir. Ridley Scott)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (dir. Steven Spielberg)
Monsters Inc. (dir. Pete Docter)
Joy Ride (dir. John Dahl)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen)
Spy Kids (dir. Robert Rodriguez)
From Hell (dir. Albert and Allen Hughes)
The Anniversary Party (dir. Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh)
Me Without You (dir. Sandra Goldbacher)
Shrek (dir. Andrew Adamson)
Intimacy (dir. Patrice Chéreau)
Human Nature (dir. Michel Gondry)
Startup.com (dir. Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim)
The Cat’s Meow (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
Psycho Beach Party (dir. Robert Lee King)
Winged Migration (dir. Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud)
The Score (dir. Frank Oz)
The Others (dir. Alejandro Amenábar)
Millennium Mambo (dir. Hsiao-hsien Hou)
Ocean’s Eleven (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (dir. Peter Jackson)

American Psycho (dir. Mary Harron)
You Can Count On Me (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)
Werckmeister Harmonies (dir. Béla Tarr)
Panic (dir. Henry Bromell)
The Terrorist (dir. Santosh Sivan)
Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang)
Shadow of the Vampire (dir. E. Elias Merhige)
Quills (dir. Philip Kaufman)
Girl on the Bridge (dir. Patrice Leconte)
Requiem for a Dream (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Almost Famous (dir. Cameron Crowe)
Traffic (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
Sexy Beast (dir. Jonathan Glazer)
George Washington (dir. David Gordon Green)
Wonder Boys (dir. Curtis Hanson)
Code Unknown (dir. Michael Haneke)
Memento (dir. Christopher Nolan)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (dir. Ang Lee)
Unbreakable (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Chicken Run (dir. Nick Park)
Dinner Rush (dir. Bob Giraldi)
The Claim (dir. Michael Winterbottom)
My Dog Skip (dir. Jay Russell)
Amores Perros (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Diamond Men (dir. Dan Cohen)
The Gleaners & I (dir. Agnès Varda)
Maelström (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
Dancer in the Dark (dir. Lars von Trier)
The Cell (dir. Tarsem)
Under the Sand (dir. François Ozon)
High Fidelity (dir. Stephen Frears)
The Contender (dir. Rob Lurie)
Best in Show (dir. Christopher Guest)
Pollock (dir. Ed Harris)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (dir. Joel Coen)
Faithless (dir. Liv Ullmann)
In the Mood for Love (dir. Kar Wai Wong)
The Emperor’s New Groove (dir. Mark Dindal)
The Dish (dir. Rob Sitch)
The Widow of Saint-Pierre (dir. Patrice Leconte)
Ginger Snaps (dir. John Fawcett)
The Crimson Rivers (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
Everything Put Together (dir. Marc Forster)
Tigerland (dir. Joel Schumacher)
The Isle (dir. Ki-duk Kim)
Cast Away (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
Space Cowboys (dir. Clint Eastwood)
Dr. T & the Women (dir. Robert Altman)
Gladiator (dir. Ridley Scott)
Chuck & Buck (dir. Miguel Arteta)

Murderers… Twisting and Turning… in a “Fairy Tale Place”…

In early February 2008, the debut of writer-director John McDonagh floored me. In Bruges started a trend following David Fincher’s Zodiac in 2007 that at least one movie released in February was a masterpiece. What surprised me most about this gutsy film was how elegantly it focused on two Irish hit men from London. The youngest is Raymond (Colin Farrell), a cocky bloke who comes across as curt to others (“You’re a bunch of fucking elephants!”), but he isn’t mean-spirited, just thoughtless. Ken (Brendan Gleeson), a jovial soul masking a deep sadness, accompanies Raymond as his mentor in their line work and acts in some ways like a surrogate father figure. In a moment of great duress, Ken breaks the silence by reassuring Raymond, “You look good.”

For perhaps the first time in Raymond’s life, he is affected by gnawing guilt over an unforgivable accident he caused. His manic depression has made him suicidal. Their relationship is a fascinating because Farrell and Gleeson work so effortlessly together. A comradery of wit, pain and compassion. Killing for hire to Ken is surmised simply, “It’s what I do.”

Their boss Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes) sends them away to hide in Bruges (“It’s in Belgium.”) after the last job got botched. With his nose in the guide book, Ken explains that “Bruges is the most well preserved medieval town of all of Belgium apparently.” On a wintry canal ride, Ken marvels at the old buildings and churches while Raymond sits with his shoulders hunched, bored out of his mind. Here Bruges is a setting closest to one can ever get to purgatory on Earth. It’s a perfect stage for these killers to reflect and act upon their trespasses. At one point in the Basilica of the Holy Blood, Ken accuses Raymond of “Throwing a fucking moody like a five-year-old who’s dropped all his sweets!”

While standing before Hieronymus Bosch’s oil painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, Raymond is compelled to ask Ken about his views of the afterlife. Ken is at a loss of words at first. A lesser movie would have moved on from there. Instead, we go outside where Ken honestly tries to answer Raymond’s questions. It is a perfect scene. Note how Raymond demonstrates his self-interest when he speculates about a boy never able to go to Bruges and says “I don’t know why.” These characters are so well-written that their own point-of-view is always evident.

CONTINUE READING ►

Being John Malkovich (dir. Spike Jonze)
The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird)
Magnolia (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
After Life (dir. Hirokazu Koreeda)
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A Leuchter Jr. (dir. Errol Morris)
The War Zone (dir. Tim Roth)
Election (dir. Alexander Payne)
Boys Don’t Cry (dir. Kimberly Peirce)
Titus (dir. Julie Taymor)
Three Kings (dir. David O. Russell)
Eyes Wide Shut (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
American Beauty (dir. Sam Mendes)
All About My Mother (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Summer of Sam (dir. Spike Lee)
Sleepy Hollow (dir. Tim Burton)
Limbo (dir. John Sayles)
Fight Club (dir. David Fincher)
The Straight Story (dir. David Lynch)
The Virgin Suicides (dir. Sofia Coppola)
Ravenous (dir. Antonia Bird)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (dir. Anthony Minghella)
Twin Falls Idaho (dir. Michael and Mark Polish)
Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsay)
Topsy-Turvy (dir. Mike Leigh)
Bringing Out the Dead (dir. Martin Scorsese)
Dogma (dir. Kevin Smith)
Man on the Moon (dir. Milos Forman)
Wonderland (dir. Michael Winterbottom)
The Green Mile (dir. Frank Darabont)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (dir. Trey Parker)
American Movie (dir. Chis Smith)
eXistenZ (dir. David Cronenberg)
The Sixth Sense (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Jesus’ Son (dir. Alison Maclean)
The Blair Witch Project (dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez)
Rosetta (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Guinevere (dir. Audrey Wells)
October Sky (dir. Joe Johnston)
The Cider House Rules (dir. Lasse Hallström)
House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Malone)
Rollercoaster (dir. Scott Smith)
Croupier (dir. Mike Hodges)
The General’s Daughter (dir. Simon West)
8½ Women (dir. Peter Greenaway)
The Big Kahuna (dir. John Swanbeck)
Arlington Road (dir. Mark Pellington)
The Matrix (dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski)
Bowfinger (dir. Frank Oz)
Office Space (dir. Mike Judge)
Cruel Intentions (dir. Roger Jumble)
Romance (dir. Catherine Breillat)
The Hurricane (dir. Norman Jewison)
Dick (dir. Andrew Fleming)
Mystery Men (dir. Kinka Usher)
Julien Donkey-Boy (dir. Harmony Korine)

A Simple Plan (dir. Sam Raimi)
Dark City (dir. Alex Proyas)
Love and Death on Long Island (dir. Richard Kwietniowski)
The Truman Show (dir. Peter Weir)
Pleasantville (dir. Gary Ross)
Babe: Pig in the City (dir. George Miller)
Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader)
Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson)
Happiness (dir. Todd Solondz)
Gods and Monsters (dir. Bill Condon)
Hilary and Jackie (dir. Anand Tucker)
Antz (dir. Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson)
The Red Violin (dir. (dir. François Girard)
Dangerous Beauty (dir. Marshall Herskovitz)
The Prince of Egypt (dir. Brenda Chapman and Steve Hickner)
Life is Beautiful (dir. Roberto Begnini)
Pi (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Claire Dolan (dir. Lodge Kerrigan)
Your Friends And Neighbors (dir. Neil LaBute)
The Last Days of Disco (dir. Whit Stillman)
The Spanish Prisoner (dir. David Mamet)
Nil by Mouth (dir. Gary Oldman)
Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden)
The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrance Malick)
The Big Lebowski (dir. Joel Coen)
Beloved (dir. Jonathan Demme)
Great Expectations (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
Bulworth (dir. Warren Beatty)
Living Out Loud (dir. Richard LaGravenese)
Out of Sight (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
There’s Something About Mary (dir. Bobby and Peter Farrelly)
Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg)
The Negotiator (dir. F. Gary Gray)
He Got Game (dir. Spike Lee)
Last Night (dir. Don McKellar)
High Art (dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
Simon Birch (dir. Mark Steven Johnson)
Primary Colors (dir. Mike Nichols)
Perfect Blue (dir. Satoshi Kon)
American History X (dir. Tony Kaye)
Run Lola Run (dir. Tom Tykwer)
The Celebration (dir. Thomas Vinterberg)
What Dreams May Come (dir. Vincent Ward)
The Mask of Zorro (dir. Martin Campbell)
Little Voice (dir. Mark Herman)
Insomnia (dir. Erik Skjoldbjaerg)
Small Soldiers (dir. Joe Dante)
The Opposite of Sex (dir. Don Roos)
Madeline (dir. Daisy von Scherler Mayer)

Gattaca (dir. Andrew Niccol)
Boogie Nights (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
L.A. Confidential (dir. Curtis Hanson)
In The Company of Men (dir. Neil LaBute)
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (dir. Errol Morris)
The Sweet Hereafter (dir. Atom Egoyan)
Men In Black (dir. Barry Sonnenfeld)
Children of Heaven (dir. Majid Majidi)
The Ice Storm (dir. Ang Lee)
Jackie Brown (dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Wag the Dog (dir. Barry Levinson)
Princess Mononoke (dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
Eve’s Bayou (dir. Kasi Lemmons)
The Apostle (dir. Robert Duvall)
Sick: The Life & Death Of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (dir. Kirby Dick)
Contact (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
Rosewood (dir. John Singleton)
Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown (dir. John Madden)
The Butcher Boy (dir. Neil Jordan)
Maborosi (dir. Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
Funny Games | The Castle (dir. Michael Haneke)
Titanic (dir. James Cameron)
Donnie Brasco (dir. Mike Newell)
Kissed (dir. Lynne Stopkewich)
Chasing Amy (dir. Kevin Smith)
Ponette (dir. Jacques Doillon)
Shiloh (dir. Dale Rosenbloom)
Clockwatchers (dir. Jill Sprecher)
Career Girls (dir. Mike Leigh)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (dir. Jay Roach)
Suicide Kings (dir. Peter O’Fallon)
Breast Men (dir. Lawrence O’Neil)
Good Will Hunting (dir. Gus Van Sant)
Cube (dir. Vincenzo Natali)
Shall We Dance (dir. Masayuki Suo)
Buffalo ’66 (dir. Vincent Gallo)
Bliss (dir. Lance Young)
Microcosmos: Le Peuple de L’herbe (dir. Claude Nuridsany)
SubUrbia (dir. Richard Linklater)
The Game (dir. David Fincher)
Deconstructing Harry (dir. Woody Allen)
Kundun (dir. Martin Scorsese)
The Full Monty (dir. Peter Cattaneo)
Breakdown (dir. Jonathan Mostow)
Mimic (dir. Guillermo del Toro)
Anastasia (dir. Don Bluth)
As Good as It Gets (dir. James L. Brooks)
My Best Friend’s Wedding (dir. PJ Hogan)
U Turn (dir. Oliver Stone)
Absolute Power | Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
(dir. Clint Eastwood)
Mousehunt (dir. Gore Verbinski)