Susan's Movie Page
David says I'm a movie snob; I say anyone who sees one movie a year doesn't have much basis for criticism. And quite a few of my favorites fall short of high art. But I do see a lot of movies that don't register on the public radar, and I like to plug the good ones when I can.

My favorite movies you never heard of

• Bottle Rocket (1996, Wes Anderson) Manic young man has criminal ambitions, gets his pals to buy into his elaborate plan.
• Brick (2005, Rian Johnson) Murder mystery set at a Southern California high school.
• Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1987, Mark Lewis) A documentary about huge toads brought to Australia to kill some pest that have become pests themselves.
• The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989, Peter Greenaway) Restaurant chef helps facilitate the affair between a woman and her lover, until her husband, a brutal criminal, finds out. Really gorgeous and really horrific.
• The Daytrippers (1997, Greg Mottola) With her family tagging along, soft-spoken young woman goes into the city to confront her cheating husband. Starring Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber
• Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch). No "Walking." Meek accountant (Johnny Depp) heads out for a job in the Wild West, finds big trouble, ends up on the run. Score by Neil Young.
• Fitzcarraldo (1982, Werner Herzog). Man with a plan -- to build an opera house in remote South America -- must first haul his steamship over a mountain. Best seen with "Burden of Dreams," Les Blank's documentary on its making.
• Five Corners (1988, Tony Bill) Wacko's kidnapping of the object of his obsession mobilizes her friends in the Bronx. Starring Jodie Foster, John Turturro, Tim Robbins.
• Half Nelson (2006, Ryan Fleck) Inner-city high school teacher with a crack habit becomes entangled with student.
• Henry Fool (1998, Hal Hartley) Disruptive boarder ignites a garbageman's literary genius.
• House of Games (1987, David Mamet) Unworldly psychiatrist gets caught up with a bunch of conmen.
• Lantana (2001, Ray Stewart) Anthony LaPaglia as a police detective searching for a missing woman as his marriage founders.
• The Lives of Others (2006, Florian Henckel von Donnensmarck) German-language movie about a Staasi agent in the early 1980s spying on a playwright and his girlfriend.
• Malcolm (1986, Nadia Tass) No "X." Odd loner with a genius for mechanics builds a bank-robbing machine.
• Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953, Jacques Tati). I saw this about 20 years after my parents did, and when I mentioned it to them, my mom immediately started imitating Tati's tennis serve. Deadpan humor, no dialogue, lots of sound.
• The Navigator (1988, Vincent Ward) I'm not much for fantasy, but I liked this dreamy story of medieval Britons who end up in modern-day Auckland. Kudos, also, to Ward's 1993 "Map of the Human Heart."
• Northern Lights (1979, Jim Hanson/Rob Nilsson) Dakota farmers struggle through the winter of 1915. Nilsson's more Cassaveteish stuff -- "Heat and Sunlight," "Chalk" -- is also worth a look.
• Small Faces (1996, Gillies MacKinnon). Overshadowed by "Trainspotters," another story of rough life in Glasgow. A boy is influenced by two brothers, one an artist and one a thug.
• Trees Lounge (1996, Steve Buscemi). Buscemi's directorial debut, about a loser who hangs out at a Long Island bar and gets way too involved with teen-age Chloe Sevigny.
• Trust (1991, Hal Hartley) Bad-news teen (Adrienne Shelly) hooks up with edgy young man (Martin Donovan).
• 24 Hour Party People (2002, Michael Winterbottom) Quasi-documentary-style portrait of a Manchester rock impresario.
• Voyager (1991, Volker Schlondorff) From Max Frisch's "Homo Faber." Engineer-in-crisis Sam Shepard takes European road trip with charming Julie Delpy. Sounds cute; it's not.
• Whatever (1998, Susan Skoog) Long Island high-school student (Liza Weil) might go on to art school, or she might come to a bad end with those troublemakers she hangs out with.

My favorite movies you have heard of
(A baseline indicator of my taste)

• Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola)
• Being John Malkovich (1999, Spike Jonze)
• Brazil (1985, Terry Gilliam)
• Breaking the Waves (1996, Lars von Trier)
• Chinatown (1974, Roman Polanski)
• The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
• Days of Heaven (1979, Terrence Malick)
• Desperately Seeking Susan (1985, Susan Seidelman)
• Fargo (1996, Joel Coen)
• Local Hero (1983, Bill Forsyth)
• Lone Star (1996, John Sayles)
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971, Robert Altman)
• Miller's Crossing (1990, Joel Coen)
• The Philadelphia Story (1940, George Cukor)
• Raging Bull (1979, Martin Scorsese)
• Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980, John Sayles)
• The Right Stuff (1983, Philip Kaufman)
• The Sweet Hereafter (1997, Atom Egoyan)
• Wonder Boys (2000, Curtis Hanson)
• Zero Effect (1998, Jake Kasdan)

My favorite performances

• Christian Bale, Rescue Dawn (2007)
• Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Russell Crowe, The Insider (1999)
• John Cusack, The Grifters (1991)
• Hope Davis, Next Stop Wonderland (1998)
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York (2002)
• Julie Delpy, White (1994)
• Robert De Niro, Raging Bull (1979)
• Martin Donovan, Trust (1991), The Opposite of Sex (1998)
• Illeana Douglas, Grace of My Heart (1996), To Die For (1995)
• Ben Gazzara: His 1998 supporting roles in The Big Lebowski, The Spanish Prisoner, Buffalo 66, Happiness
• Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson (2006)
• Gene Hackman, The Conversation (1974)
• Felicity Huffman, Transamerica (2005)
• Jessica Lange, Blue Sky (1994)
• Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rush (1991)
• Joe Mantegna, House of Games (1987)
• Sean Penn, Carlito's Way (1993)
• Sarah Polley, Go (1999), Guinevere (1999)
• Bill Pullman, Zero Effect (1998)
• Alan Rickman, Truly Madly Deeply (1991), An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
• Sam Shepard, Voyager (1991), Don't Come Knocking (2006) 
• James Spader, Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
• Terence Stamp, The Limey (1999)
• John Turturro, Quiz Show (1994)
• Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves (1996)