Favorite Films

These are some of my favorite films, representing 9 decades of cinema. All synopses are courtesy of IMDb and Yahoo! Movies.

1930s

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Director: Victor Fleming

Screenwriter: Sidney Howard

Producer: David O. Selznick

Cast: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel, Leslie Howard

Synopsis: The epic tale of a woman’s life during one of the most tumultuous periods in America’s history. From her young, innocent days on a feudalistic plantation to the war-torn streets of Atlanta; from her first love, whom she has always desired, to three husbands; from the utmost luxury to absolute starvation and poverty; from her innocence to her understanding and comprehension of life.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Director: Frank Capra

Screenwriter: Sidney Buchman

Producer: Frank Capra

Cast: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Harry Carey

Synopsis: Naive and idealistic Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, is appointed US senator on a lark by the spineless governor of his state. He is reunited with the state’s senior senator/presidential hopeful and childhood hero, Senator Joseph Paine. In Washington, however, Smith discovers many of the shortcomings of the political process as his earnest goal of a national boys’ camp leads to a conflict with the state political boss, Jim Taylor. Taylor first tries to corrupt Smith and then later attempts to destroy Smith through a scandal.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Directors: Victor Fleming

Screenwriters: Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, Edgar Allan Woolf

Producers: Arthur Freed, Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr, Margaret Hamilton, Billie Burke, Frank Morgan, Charley Grapewin, Clara Blandick

Synopsis: When a nasty neighbor tries to have her dog put to sleep, Dorothy takes her dog Toto to run away. A cyclone appears and carries her to the magical land of Oz. Wishing to return, she begins to travel to the city of Oz where a great wizard lives. On her way, she meets a Scarecrow who needs a brain, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who desperately needs courage. They all hope the Wizard of Oz will help them before the Wicked Witch of the West catches up with them.

1940s

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz

Screenwriters: Robert Buckner, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Edmund Joseph

Producer: William Cagney

Cast: James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, Richard Whorf, George Tobias

Synopsis: A musical portrait of composer/singer/dancer George M. Cohan. From his early days as a child star in his family’s vaudeville show up to the time of his comeback, at which he received a medal from the President for his special contributions to the US, this is the life-story of George M. Cohan, who produced, directed, wrote, and starred in his own musical shows for which he composed his famous songs.

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

Director: Elia Kazan

Screenwriter: Moss Hart

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck

Cast: Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, June Havoc, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, Dean Stockwell

Synopsis: Phil Green is a magazine writer who decides to write a series of articles exposing anti-Semitism. After failing to achieve an in-depth grasp of the problem, he pretends to be Jewish in order to experience the hostility of bigots first-hand.

Rope (1948)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter: Hume Cronyn

Producers: Lord Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier

Synopsis: Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley, and as a consequence, decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope, and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David’s father, his fiancée Janet, and their old schoolteacher Rupert, from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Director: John Huston

Screenwriter: John Huston

Producer: Henry Blanke

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

Synopsis: Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico. Through enormous difficulties, they eventually succeed in finding gold, but bandits, the elements, and most especially greed threaten to turn their success into disaster.

1950s

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Directors: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly

Screenwriters: Betty Comden, Adolph Green

Producer: Arthur Freed

Cast: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, Cyd Charisse

Synopsis: In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina’s latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs, but Lina—well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden, an aspiring actress, is brought in, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her. Will Kathy continue to “aspire” or will she get the break she deserves?

On the Waterfront (1954)

Director: Elia Kazan

Screenwriter: Budd Schulberg

Producer: Sam Spiegel

Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb

Synopsis: Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize-fighter while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny’s thugs and later meets the dead man’s sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.

Rear Window (1954)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter: John Michael Hayes

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr

Synopsis: Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that the man in the apartment opposite his may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his society model girlfriend Lisa Fremont and his nurse Stella to investigate.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Screenwriter: Reginald Rose

Producers: Henry Fonda, Reginald Rose

Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

Synopsis: The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open-and-shut case of murder soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the juror’s prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriters: Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

Synopsis: John “Scottie” Ferguson is a retired San Francisco police detective who suffers from acrophobia, and Madeleine is the lady who leads him to high places. A wealthy shipbuilder who is an acquaintance from college days approaches Scottie and asks him to follow his beautiful wife, Madeleine. He fears she is going insane, maybe even contemplating suicide, because she believes she is possessed by a dead ancestor. Scottie is skeptical, but agrees after he sees the beautiful Madeleine.

North by Northwest (1959)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter: Ernest Lehman

Producers: Alfred Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman

Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau

Synopsis: New York advertising executive Roger Thornhill is kidnapped by a gang of spies led by Philip Vandamm, which believes Thornhill is CIA agent George Kaplan. Thornhill escapes, but must find Kaplan in order to clear himself of a murder it is believed he committed. Following Kaplan to Chicago as a fugitive from justice, Thornhill is helped by beautiful Eve Kendall. In Chicago, she delivers a message to Kaplan that almost costs Thornhill his life when he is chased across a cornfield by a crop-dusting plane.

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Director: Billy Wilder

Screenwriters: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond

Producer: Billy Wilder

Cast: Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe

Synopsis: Two struggling musicians witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and try to find a way out of the city before they are found and killed by the mob. The only job that will pay their way is an all-girl band, so the two dress up as women. In addition to hiding, each has his own problems. One falls for another band member, but can’t tell her his gender; the other has a rich suitor who will not take no for an answer.

1960s

The Apartment (1960)

Director: Billy Wilder

Screenwriters: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond

Producer: Billy Wilder

Cast: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Jack Kruschen

Synopsis: Insurance statistician C.C. “Bud” Baxter advances his career by making his Manhattan apartment available to executives in his company for their extramarital affairs. His boss, Jeff D. Sheldrake, finds out and promotes Bud in return for the exclusive use of the apartment for his own affair. When Sheldrake’s girlfriend turns out to be Fran Kubelik, a pretty elevator operator Bud likes, he is heartbroken, but accepts the arrangement.

Psycho (1960)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter: Joseph Stefano

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Synopsis: Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday, Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel. The Motel is managed by a quiet young man named Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Director: Robert Mulligan

Screenwriter: Horton Foote

Producer: Alan J. Pakula

Cast: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Robert Duvall, John Megna, Frank Overton, Brock Peters

Synopsis: Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of 1960. Atticus Finch is a lawyer in a racially divided Alabama town in the 1930s. He agrees to defend a young black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Many of the townspeople try to get Atticus to pull out of the trial, but he decides to go ahead. How will the trial turn out and will it change any of the racial tension in the town?

The Birds (1963)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter: Evan Hunter

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright

Synopsis: Spoiled socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister’s birthday. He recognizes Melanie, but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get him back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.

My Fair Lady (1964)

Director: George Cukor

Screenwriter: Alan Jay Lerner

Producer: Jack Warner

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway, Jeremy Brett

Synopsis: Henry Higgins is a professor of languages and a rather snobbish and arrogant man. A visiting colleague, Colonel Pickering, makes him a bet that he can’t take a “commoner” and turn her into someone who would not be completely out of place in the social circles of upper-class English society.

The Sound of Music (1965)

Director: Robert Wise

Screenwriter: Ernest Lehman

Producer: Robert Wise

Cast: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, Heather Menzies, Nicholas Hammond, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, Kym Karath, Daniel Truhitte

Synopsis: Maria is a failure as a nun. The Mother Superior sends her off in answer to a letter from a retired naval captain for a governess for his seven children. She goes to their house and finds that she is the latest in a long line of governesses run off by the children. She teaches the children to sing, and that becomes their bonding force, leading her to fall in love with their father and marrying him. As this is happening, Austria votes to be assumed by Germany on the eve of World War II.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Director: Mike Nichols

Screenwriter: Ernest Lehman

Producer: Ernest Lehman

Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis

Synopsis: George and Martha are a middle-aged married couple whose charged relationship is defined by vitriolic verbal battles, which underlies what seems like an emotional dependence upon each other. This verbal abuse is fueled by an excessive consumption of alcohol. George—being an associate history professor in a New Carthage university where Martha’s father is the president—adds an extra dimension to their relationship. Late one Sunday evening after a faculty mixer, Martha invites Nick and Honey, an ambitious young biology professor new to the university and his mousy wife, over for a nightcap. As the evening progresses, Nick and Honey, plied with more alcohol, get caught up in George’s and Martha’s games of needing to hurt each other and everyone around them. The ultimate abuse comes in the form of talk of George’s and Martha’s unseen 16-year-old son, whose birthday is tomorrow.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Director: George Roy Hill

Screenwriter: William Goldman

Producer: John Foreman

Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Cloris Leachman

Synopsis: Butch and Sundance are the two leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Butch is all ideas, Sundance is all action and skill. The west is becoming civilized, and when Butch and Sundance rob a train once too often, a special posse begins trailing them no matter where they run. Over rock, through towns, across rivers, the group is always just behind them. When they finally escape through sheer luck, Butch has another idea: “Let’s go to Bolivia.” Based on the exploits of the historical characters.

1970s

Cabaret (1972)

Director: Bob Fosse

Screenwriter: Jay Presson Allen

Producer: Cy Feuer

Cast: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Helmut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Berenson

Synopsis: A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.

American Graffiti (1973)

Director: George Lucas

Screenwriters: George Lucas, Gloria Katz, Willard Huyck

Producer: Francis Ford Coppola

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Wolfman Jack, Bo Hopkins, Harrison Ford

Synopsis: Curt and Steve have gotten into a prestigious college, but Curt is having second thoughts on the night before they’re going to leave for school. That night, Curt searches relentlessly for a spellbinding woman in a white T-Bird while Steve tries to patch things up with his girlfriend after suggesting they date other people while he’s away. Their two other friends, John and Terry, also have a wild night: John when he’s forced to chauffeur a little girl and Terry when he borrows Steve’s car and picks up a girl, but then has trouble living up to the expectations set by the car.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Screenwriters: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Producers: Mark Forstater, Terry Jones, Michael White (VI)

Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Synopsis: This classic Monty Python comedy, directed by Python’s Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, is a hilarious send-up of the grim circumstances of the Middle Ages as told through the story of King Arthur and framed by a modern-day murder investigation. When the mythical king of the Britons leads his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, they face a wide array of horrors, including a persistent Black Knight, a three-headed giant, a cadre of shrubbery-challenged knights, the perilous Castle Anthrax, a killer rabbit, a house of virgins, and a handful of rude Frenchmen.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Screenwriters: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Herr

Producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Kim Aubry

Cast: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford

Synopsis: Vietnam, 1969. Burnt-out Special Forces officer Captain Willard is sent into the jungle with top-secret orders to find and kill renegade Colonel Kurtz, who has set up his own army within the jungle. As Willard descends into the jungle, he is slowly overtaken by the jungle’s mesmerizing powers and battles the insanity that surrounds him. His boat crew succumbs to drugs and is slowly killed off one by one. As Willard continues his journey, he becomes more and more like the man he was sent to kill.

1980s

Airplane! (1980)

Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

Screenwriters: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker

Producers: Jon Davison, Howard W. Koch

Cast: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lorna Patterson, Stephen Stucker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Synopsis: This is a spoof of the airport disaster movies. When the crew of an airplane is struck by some form of virus, the fate of the passengers depends on an ex-war pilot who is the only one able to land the plane safely. The passengers represent a selection of interesting, wacky characters who seem to take every word for its literal meaning.

Raging Bull (1980)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Screenwriters: Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin

Producers: Robert Chartoff, Irwin Winkler

Cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto

Synopsis: Based on the life and career of boxer Jake LaMotta, Raging Bull focuses on Jake’s rage and violence that makes him virtually unstoppable in the ring. The same anger also drives Jake to beat his wife and his brother Joey, and sends Jake down a self-destructive spiral of paranoia and rage.

Back to the Future (Complete Trilogy) (1985, 1989, 1990)

Directors: (I) Robert Zemeckis, Frank Marshall; (II, III) Robert Zemeckis, Max Kleven

Screenwriters: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale

Producers: Bob Gale, Neil Canton

Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Jeffrey Weissman, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Steenburgen

Synopsis: (I) Marty McFly, a typical American teenager of the ’80s, is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean time machine invented by a slightly mad scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown. During his often hysterical, always amazing trip back in time, Marty must make certain his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love—so he can get back to the future.

(II) Marty McFly has only just got back from the past when he is once again picked up by Dr. Emmett Brown and sent through time to the future. Marty’s job in the future is to pose as his son to prevent him being thrown in prison. Unfortunately, things get worse when the future changes the present.

(III) Stranded in 1955, Marty McFly receives written word from his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown, as to where the DeLorean time machine can be found. However, an unfortunate discovery prompts Marty to go to his friend’s aid. Using the time machine, Marty travels to the old west where his friend has run afoul of a gang of thugs and has fallen in love with a local schoolteacher. Using the technology from the time, Marty and Emmett devise one last chance to send the two of them back to the future.

Spaceballs (1987)

Director: Mel Brooks

Screenwriters: Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan, Ronny Graham

Producer: Mel Brooks

Cast: Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, John Candy, Daphne Zuniga, George Wyner, Joan Rivers, Dick Van Patten

Synopsis: Planet Spaceball’s President Scroob sends Lord Dark Helmet to steal Planet Druidia’s abundant supply of air to replenish their own, and only Lone Starr can stop them.

1990s

Toy Story (Complete Trilogy) (1995, 1999, 2010)

Directors: (I, II) John Lasseter, (III) Lee Unkrich

Screenwriters: (I) John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow; (II) John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Ash Brannon, Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, Chris Webb; (III) John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Michael Arndt

Producers: (I) Bonnie Arnold, Ralph Guggenheim; (II) Karen Robert Jackson, Helene Plotkin; (III) Darla K. Anderson

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Kelsey Grammer, Ned Beatty, Annie Potts, John Morris, Erik von Detten, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Keaton, Estelle Harris, Jodi Benson, Blake Clark, Javier Fernandez Pena, Timothy Dalton, Wayne Knight

Synopsis: (I) Toy Story is about the secret life of toys when people are not around. When Buzz Lightyear, a space ranger, takes Woody’s place as Andy’s favorite toy, Woody doesn’t like the situation and gets into a fight with Buzz. Buzz accidentally falls out the window and Woody is accused by all the other toys of killing him. Woody has to go out of the house to look for Buzz so they can both return to Andy’s room. But while on the outside, they get into all kinds of trouble while trying to get home.

(II) While Andy is away at summer camp, Woody has been toynapped by Al McWiggin, a greedy collector and proprietor of Al’s Toy Barn. In this all-out rescue mission, Buzz and his friends Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, Rex, and Hamm spring into action to rescue Woody from winding up as a museum piece. They must find a way to save him before he gets sold in Japan forever and they’ll never see him again.

(III) Woody, Buzz, and the whole gang are back. As their owner Andy prepares to depart for college, his loyal toys find themselves in daycare, where untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice. So, it’s all for one and one for all as they join Barbie’s counterpart Ken, a thespian hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear to plan their great escape.

Wag the Dog (1997)

Director: Barry Levinson

Screenwriters: Hilary Henkin, David Mamet

Producers: Robert De Niro, Barry Levinson, Jane Rosenthal

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, Woody Harrelson

Synopsis: After being caught in a scandalous situation days before the election, the president does not seem to have much of a chance of being re-elected. One of his advisers contacts a top Hollywood producer in order to manufacture a war in Albania that the president can heroically end, all through mass media.

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Director: John Madden

Screenwriters: Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard

Producers: Donna Gigliotti, Marc Norman, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick

Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, Ben Affleck

Synopsis: A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Director: Spike Jonze

Screenwriter: Charlie Kaufman

Producers: Sandy Stern, Michael Stipe, Steve Golin, Vincent Landay

Cast: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich

Synopsis: A puppeteer discovers a door in his office that allows him to enter the mind and life of John Malkovich for fifteen minutes. The puppeteer then tries to turn the portal into a small business.

2000s

Chocolat (2000)

Director: Lasse Hallström

Screenwriter: Robert Nelson Jacobs

Producers: Alan C. Blomquist, David Brown, Kit Golden, Leslie Holleran

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp

Synopsis: When a single mother and her six-year-old daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop—with Sunday hours—across the street from the local church, they are met with some skepticism. But as soon as they coax the townspeople into enjoying their delicious products, they are warmly welcomed.

Frequency (2000)

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Screenwriter: Toby Emmerich

Producers: Bill Carraro, Toby Emmerich, Gregory Hoblit, Howard Koch, Howard “Hawk” Koch Jr.

Cast: Dennis Quaid, James Caviezel

Synopsis: A rare atmospheric phenomenon allows a New York City firefighter to communicate with his son thirty years in the future via short-wave radio. The son uses this opportunity to warn the father of his impending death in a warehouse fire and manages to save his life. However, what he does not realize is that changing history has triggered a new set of tragic events, including the murder of his mother. The two men must now work together, thirty years apart, to find the murderer before he strikes so that they can change history—again.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Screenwriters: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Producers: Tim Bevan, John Cameron, Ethan Coen, Eric Fellner

Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter

Synopsis: Three 1920s convicts escape from jail, intent on getting to the loot stashed away by one of them. As this is at his house—soon to be flooded by a new dam—speed is of the essence. They find themselves fast-talking their way out of one jam after another, and along the way they not only have to be wary of riverside sirens, but they even get to make a pretty good country record.

Gosford Park (2001)

Director: Robert Altman

Screenwriter: Julian Fellowes

Producers: Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, David Levy

Cast: Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Ryan Phillippe, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen

Synopsis: Set in the 1930s, the story takes place in an old-fashioned English country house where a family has invited many of its friends up for a weekend shooting party. The story centers around the McCordle family, particularly the man of the house, William McCordle. Getting on in years, William has become benefactor to many of his relatives and friends. As the weekend goes on and secrets are revealed, it seems everyone—above stairs and below—wants a piece of William and his money, but how far will they go to get it?

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Screenwriter: Ted Griffin

Producer: Jerry Weintraub

Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner, Shaobo Qin

Synopsis: A gangster by the name of Danny Ocean rounds up a gang of associates to stage heists of three major Las Vegas casinos (Bellagio, The Mirage, and the MGM Grand) simultaneously during a popular boxing event.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Screenwriters: Alfonso Cuarón, Carlos Cuarón

Producer: Jorge Vergara

Cast: Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Ana López Mercado

Synopsis: Abandoned by their girlfriends for the summer, teenagers Tenoch and Julio meet the older Luisa at a wedding. Trying to be impressive, the friends tell Luisa they are headed on a road trip to a beautiful, secret beach called Boca del Cielo. Intrigued with their story and desperate to escape, Luisa asks if she can join them on their trip. Soon, the three head out of Mexico City, making their way toward the fictional destination. Along the way, seduction, argument, and the contrast of the trio against the harsh realities of the surrounding poverty ensue.

Adaptation. (2002)

Director: Spike Jonze

Screenwriters: Charlie Kaufman, Donald Kaufman

Producers: Jonathan Demme, Vincent Landay, Edward Saxon

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper

Synopsis: An account of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s attempt to adapt Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, which is the story of John Laroche, a plant dealer who clones rare orchids, then sells them to collectors. We see the action of the book as we see Kaufman struggle to adapt it into a movie. This is presumably a somewhat-true story, as Charlie Kaufman is the real life screenwriter of Adaptation.

Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Director: Michael Moore

Screenwriter: Michael Moore

Producers: Charles Bishop, Charles Bishop (II), Jim Czarnecki, Michael Donovan, Kathleen Glynn, Michael Moore

Synopsis: The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment, and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America’s culture of fear, bigotry, and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

Director: Joel Zwick

Screenwriter: Nia Vardalos

Producer: Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson

Cast: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin, Louis Mandylor, Joey Fatone

Synopsis: Toula Portokalos is 30, Greek, and works in her family’s restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s, in Chicago. All her father Gus wants is for her to get married to a nice Greek boy. But Toula is looking for more in life. Her mother convinces Gus to let her take some computer classes at college (making him think it’s his idea). With those classes under her belt, she then takes over her aunt’s travel agency (again, making her father think it’s his idea). She meets Ian Miller, a high school English teacher, WASP, and dreamboat she had made a fool of herself over at the restaurant. They date secretly for a while before her family finds out. Her father is livid over her dating a non-Greek. He has to learn to accept Ian, Ian has to learn to accept Toula’s huge family, and Toula has to learn to accept herself.

Talk to Her (2002)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar

Producer: Agustin Almodóvar

Cast: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores

Synopsis: After a chance encounter at a theatre, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco’s girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions—past, present, and future—dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

21 Grams (2003)

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Screenwriter: Guillermo Arriaga

Producers: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Robert Salerno

Cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melissa Leo

Synopsis: College professor Paul Rivers and his wife Mary find their union precariously balanced between life and death. He is mortally ill and awaiting a heart transplant while she hopes to become pregnant with his child through artificial insemination. Cristina Peck, having matured since her reckless past, is a beloved older sister to Claudia, a good wife to Michael and loving mother to two little girls. Her family radiates hope and joy. Much further down the socioeconomic scale, ex-con Jack Jordan and his wife Marianne struggle to provide for their two children while Jack reaffirms his commitment to religion. A tragic accident that claims several lives places these couples in each other’s orbit. In the aftermath, Paul confronts his own mortality, Cristina takes action to come to terms with her present and, perhaps, her future, and Jack’s faith is put to the test. If spiritual equilibrium is to be regained by any one of them, it could come at great cost to the others. Yet the will to live and the instinct to reach out to another person for support remains ever present among them all.

Big Fish (2003)

Director: Tim Burton

Screenwriter: John August

Producers: Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Richard D. Zanuck

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito

Synopsis: The story revolves around a dying father and his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating his father’s elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to understand his father’s great feats and his great failings.

Dogville (2003)

Director: Lars von Trier

Screenwriter: Lars von Trier

Producers: Tomas Eskilsson, Turid Oversveen, Liisa Penttila, Vibeke Windelov

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, James Caan, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Chloë Sevigny

Synopsis: The beautiful fugitive, Grace, arrives in the isolated township of Dogville on the run from a team of gangsters. With some encouragement from Tom, the self-appointed town spokesman, the little community agrees to hide her, and in return, Grace agrees to work for them. However, when a search sets in, the people of Dogville demand a better deal in exchange for the risk of harboring poor Grace, and she learns the hard way that in this town, goodness is relative. But Grace has a secret, and it is a dangerous one. Dogville may regret it ever began to bare its teeth.

Finding Nemo (2003)

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich

Screenwriters: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds

Producer: Graham Walters

Cast: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Geoffrey Rush

Synopsis: Marlin (a clown fish) is a widower who only has his son Nemo left of his family after a predator attack. Years later, on Nemo’s first day of school, he’s captured by a scuba diver and taken to live in a dentist office’s fish tank. Marlin and his new absent-minded friend Dory set off across the ocean to find Nemo, while Nemo and his tankmates scheme on how to get out of the tank before he becomes the dentist’s niece’s new pet.

Matchstick Men (2003)

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriters: Nicholas Griffin, Ted Griffin

Producers: Sean Bailey, Ted Griffin (III), Jack Rapke, Ridley Scott, Steve Starkey

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman

Synopsis: Phobia-addled con artist Roy and his protégé Frank are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle, when the unexpected arrival of Roy’s teenage daughter Angela disrupts his carefully ordered life and jeopardizes his high-risk scam.

Crash (2004)

Director: Paul Haggis

Screenwriters: Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco

Producers: Don Cheadle, Paul Haggis, Mark R. Harris, Robert Moresco, Cathy Schulman, Bob Yari

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Dashon Howard, Ludacris, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate

Synopsis: Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters: a black police detective with a drugged-out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the distracted district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with a racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Director: Michel Gondry

Screenwriter: Charlie Kaufman

Producers: Anthony Bregman, Steve Golin

Cast: Jim Carey, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson

Synopsis: Joel is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contracts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak, to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as Joel’s memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew chase him through the maze of his memories, it’s clear that Joel just can’t get her out of his head.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

Director: David O. Russell

Screenwriters: David O. Russell, Jeff Baena

Producers: Gregory Goodman, Scott Rudin, David O. Russell

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert

Synopsis: This ensemble comedy is about a married couple, the Jaffes, who work as detectives, helping people solve existential crises in their lives. For those not familiar with the philosophy-based term of “existential crisis,” some examples of such a crisis would be a “mid-life crisis,” a “what am I doing with my life?” sort of hang up, “my life has been a mistake,” “my whole life is a joke,” etc. Their first client in this movie is Albert Markovski, who is experiencing angst because of his position at Huckabees, a popular chain of retail stores. Investigating his workplace, the Jaffes take on one of Albert’s coworkers, Brad Stand, as a client as well, which leads them to investigate his girlfriend, Dawn Campbell, who is the spokesmodel in the Huckabees TV commercials. Meanwhile, Albert teams up with an existential firefighter and a French radical out of frustration with the idea that the Jaffes are helping the very man who seems to be part of Albert’s existential crisis.

Paper Clips (2004)

Directors: Elliot Berlin, Joe Fab

Screenwriter: Joe Fab

Producers: Joe Fab, Robert M. Johnson, Ari Daniel Pinchot

Cast: Tom Bosley, Linda Hooper, Sandra Roberts, Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand, Peter Schroeder, David Smith

Synopsis: Whitwell Middle School in rural Tennessee is the setting for this documentary about an extraordinary experiment in Holocaust education. Struggling to grasp the concept of six million Holocaust victims, the students decide to collect six million paper clips to better understand the extent of this crime against humanity. The film details how the students met Holocaust survivors from around the world and how the experience transformed them and their community.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Director: Mel Gibson

Screenwriters: Ben Fitzgerald, Mel Gibson, Benedict Fitzgerald

Producers: Bruce Davey, Mel Gibson, Stephen McEveety

Cast: James Caviezel, Monica Bellucci, Rosalinda Celentano, Sergio Rubini

Synopsis: This film tells the story of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The script is based upon several sources, including the diaries of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774 – 1824), as collected in the book The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ; The Mystical City of God by St. Mary of Agreda; and the New Testament books of John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew.

Match Point (2005)

Director: Woody Allen

Screenwriter: Woody Allen

Producers: Stephen Tenenbaum, Gareth Wiley

Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode

Synopsis: Chris Wilton is a former tennis pro, looking to find work as an instructor. He meets Tom Hewett, a well-off pretty boy. Tom’s sister Chloe falls in love with Chris, but Chris has his eyes on Tom’s fiancée, the luscious Nola. Both Chris and Nola know it’s wrong, but what could be more right than love? Chris tries to juggle both women, but at some point, he must choose between them.

Rent (2005)

Director: Chris Columbus

Screenwriter: Steve Chbosky

Producers: Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Robert De Niro, Mark Radcliffe, Jane Rosenthal

Cast: Rosario Dawson, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Tracie Thoms, Taye Diggs

Synopsis: This film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in modern-day East Village New York. The story centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a former tragedy has made Roger numb to life, Mark tries to capture it through his attempts to make a film. In the year that follows, the group deals with love, loss, AIDS, and modern-day life in one truly powerful story.

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Screenwriter: Noah Baumbach

Producers: Wes Anderson, Charlie Corwin, Clara Markowicz, Peter Newman

Cast: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin, Anna Paquin

Synopsis: The patriarch of an eccentric Brooklyn family claims to once have been a great novelist, but he has settled into a teaching job. When his wife discovers a writing talent of her own, jealousy divides the family, leaving two teenage sons to forge new relationships with their parents. The wife begins dating her younger son’s tennis coach. Meanwhile, the husband has an affair with the student his older son is pursuing.

Black Snake Moan (2006)

Director: Craig Brewer

Screenwriter: Craig Brewer

Producers: Ron Schmidt, John Singleton, Stephanie Allain

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha Merkerson, John Cothran Jr.

Synopsis: There was a time when Lazarus played the blues; a time he got Bojo’s Juke Joint shakin’ back in the day. Now he lives them. Bitter and broken from a cheating wife and a shattered marriage, Lazarus’s soul is lost in spent dreams and betrayal’s contempt—until Rae. Half naked and beaten unconscious, Rae is left for dead on the side of the road when Lazarus discovers her. The God-fearing, middle-aged black man quickly learns that the young white woman he’s nursing back to health is none other than the town tramp from the small Tennessee town where they live. Worse, she has a peculiar anxiety disorder. He realizes when the fever hits that Rae’s affliction has more to do with love lost than any found. Abused as a child and abandoned by her mother, Rae is used by just about every man in the phone book. She tethers her only hope to Ronnie, but escape to a better life is short-lived when Ronnie ships off for boot camp. Desperation kicks in as a drug-induced Rae reverts to surviving the only way she knows how: by giving any man what he wants—until Lazarus. Refusing to know her in the biblical sense, Lazarus decides to cure Rae of her wicked ways and vent some unresolved male vengeance of his own. He chains her to his radiator, justifying his unorthodox methods with quoted scripture. Preacher R.L. intervenes, but it is Lazarus and Rae who redeem themselves. Unleashing Rae emotionally, Lazarus unchains his heart, finding love again in Angela. By saving Rae, he frees himself.

The Fall (2006)

Director: Tarsem Singh

Screenwriters: Dan Gilroy, Nico Soultanakis, Tarsem Singh

Producer: Tarsem Singh

Cast: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell

Synopsis: In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastical story about five mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Producers: Jeff Skoll, Davis Guggenheim, Diane Weyermann

Cast: Al Gore

Synopsis: Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore’s personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way. “Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny, and engaging style, and by the end, has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message,” said Guggenheim. An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair, but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share. “It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely,” said Gore.

Once (2006)

Director: John Carney

Screenwriter: John Carney

Producer: Martina Niland

Cast: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Bill Hodnett, Danuse Ktrestova

Synopsis: Guy (unnamed) is a Dublin guitarist/singer/songwriter who makes a living by fixing vacuum cleaners in his dad’s Hoover repair shop by day and singing and playing for money on the Dublin streets by night. Girl (unnamed) is a Czech who plays piano when she gets a chance and does odd jobs by day and takes care of her mom and her daughter by night. Guy meets Girl and they get to know each other as Girl helps Guy put together a demo disc that he can take to London in hope of landing a music contract. During the same several day period, Guy and Girl work through their past loves and reveal their budding love for one another through their songs.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Screenwriter: Guillermo del Toro

Producers: Javier Mateos Morillo, Luis Maria Reyes, Belen Atienza

Cast: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones

Synopsis: Set in 1940s Spain against the postwar repression of Franco’s Spain, this is a fairy tale that centers on Ofelia, a lonely and dreamy child living with her mother and adoptive father, who is a military officer tasked with ridding the area of rebels. In her loneliness, Ofelia creates a world filled with fantastical creatures and secret destinies. With fascism at its height, Ofelia must come to terms with her world through a fable of her own creation.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Director: Marc Forster

Screenwriter: Zach Helm

Producer: Lindsay Doran

Cast: Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah

Synopsis: One morning, a seemingly average and generally solitary IRS agent named Harold Crick begins to hear a female voice narrating his every action, thought, and feeling in alarmingly precise detail. Harold’s carefully controlled life is turned upside down by this narration only he can hear, and when the voice declares that Harold Crick is facing imminent death, he realizes he must find out who is writing his story and persuade her to change the ending. The voice in Harold’s head turns out to be the once celebrated, but now nearly forgotten, novelist Karen “Kay” Eiffel, who is struggling to find an ending for what might be her best book. Her only remaining challenge is to figure out a way to kill her main character, but little does she know that Harold Crick is alive and well and inexplicably aware of her words and her plans for him.

Across the Universe (2007)

Director: Julie Taymor

Screenwriters: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Julie Taymor

Producers: Matt Gross, Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd

Cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther, T.V. Carpio

Synopsis: A dock worker, Jude, travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There, he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother Max is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism. The film title and main characters are named after various songs by The Beatles.

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Director: Stephen J. Anderson

Screenwriters: Michelle Bochner, Stephen J. Anderson

Producers: John Lasseter, Clark Spencer, William Joyce

Cast: Angela Bassett, Daniel Hansen, Jordan Fry, Stephen J. Anderson, Wesley Singerman, Matthew Josten, Laurie Metcalf

Synopsis: When Lewis meets a mysterious boy from the future named Wilbur Robinson, the two travel forward in time where Lewis discovers the amazing secret of the Robinson family. Lewis is a brilliant 12-year-old with a surprising number of clever inventions to his credit. His latest and most ambitious project is the Memory Scanner, which he hopes will retrieve early memories of his mother and maybe even reveal why she put him up for adoption. But before he can get his answer, his invention is stolen by the dastardly Bowler Hat Guy and his diabolical hat—and constant companion—Doris. Lewis has all but given up hope in his future when Wilbur whisks our bewildered hero away in a time machine and the two travel forward in time to spend a day with Wilbur’s eccentric family. In a world filled with flying cars and floating cities, they hunt down Bowler Hat Guy, save the future, and uncover the amazing secret of Lewis’s future family.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Director: Tim Burton

Screenwriter: John Logan

Producers: Laurie MacDonald, Walter F. Parkes, John Logan, Richard D. Zanuck

Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisener, Laura Michelle Kelly

Synopsis: Sweeney Todd, formerly Benjamin Barker, returns to London after being sent away by Judge Turpin. He opens a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s meat pie shop where she sells “the worst pies in London.” With the help of Mrs. Lovett, Todd rids the world of all the people who have ever done him wrong and hopes to be reunited with his daughter, Johanna, who is now Judge Turpin’s ward.

Doubt (2008)

Director: John Patrick Shanley

Screenwriter: John Patrick Shanley

Producers: Mark Roybal, Scott Rudin

Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis

Synopsis: It’s 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the school’s strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn that threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence.

In Bruges (2008)

Director: Martin McDonagh

Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Thekla Reuten

Synopsis: After an awry job in a London church, the Irish hitmen Ken and Ray are sent by the London mobster Harry Waters to the medieval Belgium city of Bruges during Christmas. While Ken enjoys the historic city, Ray feels completely bored and misses his home. Ray meets the small time drug-dealer and crook Chloë, who sells drugs to the cast and crew of a movie that is filmed in Bruges, and has an incident with a Canadian tourist and later with Chloë’s boyfriend. Meanwhile Harry, who has a stringent code of principles, gives Ken special orders.

WALL-E (2008)

Director: Andrew Stanton

Screenwriters: Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon

Producer: Jim Morris

Cast: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver

Synopsis: After hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named Eve. Eve comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future and races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home). Meanwhile, WALL-E chases Eve across the galaxy.

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Director: Marc Webb

Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber

Producers: Mason Novick, Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, Steven J. Wolfe

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend, Chloe Moretz, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg

Synopsis: Tom believes, even in this cynical, modern world, in the notion of a transforming, cosmically destined, lightning-strikes-once kind of love. Summer doesn’t. Not at all. But that doesn’t stop Tom from going after her, again and again, like a modern Don Quixote, with all his might and courage. Suddenly, Tom is in love, not just with a lovely, witty, intelligent woman, but with the very idea of Summer, the very idea of a love that still has the power to shock the heart and stop the world. The fuse is lit on Day 1 when Tom, a would-be architect turned sappy greeting card writer, encounters Summer, his boss’s breezy, beautiful new secretary, fresh off the plane from Michigan. Though seemingly out of his league, Tom soon discovers he shares plenty in common with Summer. By Day 31, things are moving ahead, albeit “casually.” By Day 32, Tom is irreparably smitten, living in a giddy, fantastical world of Summer on his mind. By Day 185, things are in serious limbo, but not without hope. And as the story winds backwards and forwards through Tom and Summer’s on-again, off-again, sometimes blissful, often tumultuous dalliance, all adds up to a kaleidoscopic portrait of why and how we still struggle so laughably, cringingly hard to make sense of love and to hopefully make it real.

2010s

Blue Valentine (2010)

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Screenwriters: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis

Producers: Lynette Howell, Alex Orlovsky, Jamie Patricof

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel, Ben Shenkman

Synopsis: The film centers on a contemporary married couple, charting its evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.

Inception (2010)

Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan

Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas

Synopsis: Dom Cobb is a skilled thief—the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction—stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now, Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back, but only if he can accomplish the impossible: inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse. Their task is not to steal an idea, but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move—an enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.

Waiting for “Superman” (2010)

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Screenwriters: Davis Guggenheim, Billy Kimball

Producers: Michael Birtel, Lesley Chilcott

Cast: Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, Bill Strickland, Randi Weingarten

Synopsis: Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of Waiting for “Superman”. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits—rather than encourages—academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.

Another Earth (2011)

Director: Mike Cahill

Screenwriters: Brit Marling, Mike Cahill

Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker

Cast: Brit Marling, William Mapother

Synopsis: Rhoda Williams, a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs, has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child with his loving wife. On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined. Estranged from the world and the selves they once knew, the two outsiders begin an unlikely love affair and reawaken to life. But when one is presented with the chance of a lifetime opportunity to travel to the other Earth and embrace an alternative reality, which new life will they choose?

Killer Joe (2012)

Director: William Friedkin

Screenwriter: Tracy Letts

Producers: Nicolas Chartier, Scott Einbinder

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon

Synopsis: When a debt puts a young man’s life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.

Les Misérables (2012)

Director: Tom Hooper

Screenwriter: William Nicholson

Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks

Synopsis: In 19th-century France, Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after he breaks parole, agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s daughter, Cosette. The fateful decision changes their lives forever.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Screenwriters: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder

Producers: Lynette Howell, Sidney Kimmel, Alex Orlovsky, Jamie Patricof

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Emory Cohen, Dane DeHaan

Synopsis: A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.