the short list, to start things off

So, here's the short list of recommended films. Pick one. Take a risk. But don't come whining to me if it offends your delicate sensibilities. God knows I never had any....

28 days later - apocalyptic zombie movie
after dark, my sweet - ex-boxer gets conned
american beauty - finding your true self
amores perros - Love's a Bitch - 3 stories collide in a car crash
an american werewolf in london - classic, title is self-explanatory
arizona dream - surreal movie, great cast (watch for the pink caddie on the mirrored merry-go round and NXNW tributes)
badlands - classic - killing spree - based on true events - directed by Terrence Malick with sweeping landscapes and an amazing narration by Sissy Spacek
baraka - visually stunning - images and music - environmentally themed
bartleby - "I would prefer not to." Crispin Glover as Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener".
being john malkovich - "There's a tiny door in my office, Maxine. It's a portal and it takes you inside John Malkovich. You see the world through John Malkovich's eyes and then after about 15 minutes, you're spit out onto a ditch on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike."
bent - Clive Owen - gay love story set in a concentration camp. Most intense love scene without touching I've ever seen.
best years of our lives - 1946 - 3 vets come home from WWII - complex portrait of post-war America
betty blue - loving someone who's slowly falling deeper into insanity
brick - film noir for the new generation
bubble boy - swoosie kurtz and Fabio - what more does a film need?
candyman - gives me chills just thinking about it - smart horror film - Tony Todd as Candyman (love him)
carrie - misfit revenge
cat on a hot tin roof - southern family dysfunction ala Tennessee Williams - paul neuman, elizabeth taylor
cemetery man - cemetery caretaker rupert everett takes care of zombies (comedy)
city of god - Brazillian movie based on the true story of 2 boys who grew up in a favela in 1960s Rio de Janeiro
city of lost children - 2nd favorite film by Jeunet + Caro, surreal futuristic tale of a mad scientist who kidnaps children and steals their dreams - saturated with color
cleo from 5 to 7 - 1961 - we follow Cleo in real time as she waits for results from her doctor
cube - i enjoy the premise - plus it's got one of the most creative deaths I've seen
cujo - nostalgic favorite - would show it at all my slumber parties - "It's not a monster. It's just a doggy."
darkman - "if you're not going to kill me, i have things to do."
dead man - jim jarmusch western about an accountant named William Blake who meets a Native American named Nobody
deep blue sea - smart sharks. best surprise kill.
delicatessen - Apocalyptic love story set above a butcher shop. Favorite Jeunet + Caro film. Did I mention the butcher shop?
disco pigs - soul mates torn apart clockwork orange style
donnie darko - scary bunny, love the mirror scenes, love jake
double indemnity - 1944 - film noir - insurance rep and unhappy wife collude to make it appear her husband fell off a train - some of the best dialogue in any film to date
dude, where's my car? - just cracks me up - esp the part where they realize they got tattoos...
eating raoul - Tagline: "Meet the Blands! They're square... They're in LOVE... AND they kill people."
fallen angels - Killer for hire wants to quit...Wong Kar Wai is a genius.
fat girl - adolescent siblings attempting to negotiate sex and relationships, not for the faint of heart - banned by the Ontario film review board for years - i almost guarantee it will affect you, but not that you will "like" it.
fight club - so much fun - "People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden."
final destination - you can't cheat death... so inventive, suspenseful, wonderfully elaborate deaths - plus Tony Todd!
final destination 2 - may be better than the first. The opening sequence of the freeway pileup is phenomenal - still more elaborate deaths, still suspenseful - and Tony Todd again!
flesh and bone - family history catches up to dennis quaid & meg ryan - great west texas landscapes, slow and deliberate - "As for the blue chicken, I need a little help with that one."
frailty - bill paxton is amazing, excellent thriller - Only demons should fear me... and you're not a demon, are you?
freeway - little red riding hood retold - reese witherspoon is fantastic - "do you wanna get shot a whole buncha times?"
garden state - beautiful film - self discovery with some humor along the way. go Zach go.
happiness - one of those films that lives with you long after you've seen it.
heavy - a quiet film - worth watching, worth taking it slow, enjoying the moments and noticing what usually goes unnoticed
house of yes - i love parker posey in this - love her as jackie kennedy
i spit on your grave - cathartic revenge
in a lonely place - noir with bogart & gloria grahame - great dialogue
in the cut - this is where i fell for mark ruffalo, Meg and Jennifer Jason Leigh are great…
in the mood for love - the most beautifully filmed love story i have ever seen. If nothing else, watch it for Maggie Cheung's wardrobe - amazing.
insomnia (1997) - much more gritty than the american version - love stellan skarsgard
intimacy - tale of what happens when one person in a fling wants more than the other - to me this was a very powerful film
jaws - oh please, if you haven't seen this...
junebug - story about going home
kill bill 1 and 2 - slick, stylish tarantino - great cast, great fights, vivid color
killer's kiss - kubrick noir - some of the most incredible street shots
kiss meets the phantom of the park - "What do you compute Space Ace?"... "Insufficent data at the moment Starchild!"
kiss or kill - like a cross between betty blue & badlands, but in Australia - with phenomenal editing that keeps the tension mounting
kissed - a sweet film about necrophilia
koyaanisqatsi - images and music - environmental, save the world intent
la femme nikita - has the best opening scene of any movie - thugs dragging a guy down a street - anne parillaud rocks. this is where i was introduced to jean-hugues anglade (mmmm)
lawn dogs - 10-year-old girl befriends the guy that mows their lawn. i can't explain why i like this film so much. Sam Rockwell is awesome.
ma vie en rose - finding your true self and letting it shine.
match point - i seem to only like woody allen films that he doesn't appear in. lovely twisted tale of climbing the social ladder
matilda - excellent adaptation - Mara wilson is just so cute
may - a film about beautiful parts - and putting them together
minus man - owen wilson as murderer, with Brian Cox
my life as a dog - Ingemar is sent to live with his uncle when he's 12 while his mom dies - very uplifting film (really!) endearing childhood adventures
network - "I'm mad as hell and i'm not going to take this anymore!"
night of the living dead - classic - "They're coming to get you, Barbara"
office killer - carol kane needs friends and folks seem to be disappearing from work... and ending up in her basement
ordinary people - this film still gets to me - donald sutherland, no words
pitch black - vin diesel before i knew who vin diesel was - this movie rocks - stranded on a planet - beware the dark
proof (1991) - my introduction to hugo weaving - blind man looking for someone he can trust
psycho - classic - the story, the music, the opening sequence, the shower, anthony perkins
punch-drunk love - one of my favorite love stories of the socially awkward - "I'd say 'that's that', Mattress Man."
ravenous - cannibalism in the old west. oh yeah.
red eye - exceptionally fun thriller from Wes Craven, though it might just be that i like looking at Cillian Murphy for 90 minutes...
requiem for a dream - what does constitute drug abuse and addiction?
rock star - love marky mark, makes me nostalgic for the hair bands
run lola run - lola has 20 minutes to get a large sum of money to save her boyfriend
rushmore - private school teenager finds himself on academic probation and befriends a lovely young teacher and bill murray - "These are O.R. scrubs." ... "Oh, are they?"
se7en - do you sin? this is all about kevin spacey, of course
secretary - mainstream S&M? Oh, also a good love story. love maggie gyllenhaal
shallow grave - i think this is my favorite film with ewan mcgregor - dialogue is snappy, music is great - pushes the film constantly forward, keeps the tension
shock corridor - journalist commits himself to a mental hospital - sam fuller
shopgirl - steve martin is amazing - writer, comedian, actor - young shopgirl meets older man, younger man - must negotiate which really fits her
silence of the lambs - again, if you haven't seen this film, i don't know what to tell you...
sin city - creative, great cast, images, movement
soft fruit - family dysfunction in Australia, siblings return home to care for their dying mother - quite funny & touching moments
spanking the monkey - would you rub lotion under your mom's leg cast?
strange love of martha ivers - great film noir – "The road curved, but I didn't."
sunset blvd. - noir - a kept man, an old hollywood actress and the director that loves her
suture - if the obvious disconnect doesn't bother you, then keep watching; if it does, then turn it off b/c it's never acknowledged - i love this film, love the use of Ring of Fire
sweet smell of success - powerful critic/journalist plays with people's lives - Burt Lancaster
swimming pool - which story are you watching unfold?
swimming with sharks - vicious hollywood satire - kevin spacey is superb
taxi driver - everyone should have seen this already....
thank you for smoking - hilarious satire revolving around a spin doctor for the tobacco industry
the barbarian invasions - powerful story about a family coming together a father's death
the big easy - dirty cops in New Orleans - the story's enjoyable, i just watch it for the young Dennis Quaid
the chumscrubber – Suburban dysfunction – Jamie Bell is fantastic
the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover – this film will make it on every 'must see' list I create if only for the use of color
the dinner game – while cruel, still highly enjoyable
the goonies – who doesn't want to find a pirate ship with treasure?
the king – a film that left me speechless – deliberate slowness of scenes – the last shot going into the house…
the lover – older man, young woman - based on the autobiographical novel by French author Margueite Duras
the night of the hunter – 1955 noir with Robert Mitchum – one of my favorites with him… love the tats
the reflecting skin – haunting story of a boy, his imagination, and the undeniable reality of his surroundings
the station agent – a tale of unlikely friends – I was smiling for days after watching this film
the swimmer – Burt Lancaster swims home, unraveling his life – based on the John Cheever short story
the unbearable lightness of being - Daniel Day and Juliette – while based on the book, the film stands apart as a work unto itself
the unsuspected – fabulous film noir starring the great Claude Rains .. who would you suspect?
the vanishing (1988) - one of the most terrifying films i've seen. would you agree to go thru what your loved one went thru just to know what happened to them?
the woman chaser - fantastic, absurd, inventive, ludicrous wonderfulness. If for no other reason, watch it to see Patrick Warburton dance ballet.
titus – Julie Taymor’s vision of the Shakespeare play is gargantuan in color and imagery
toto the hero – plotting revenge based on a lifetime of ‘unhappiness’
transporter – Jason Statham is fantastic – love his suit, his rules, his car
twin falls Idaho – conjoined twins exposing themselves to life
undertow – tragedy follows the arrival of Uncle Deel – Jamie Bell is fantastic
underworld - beautiful people in leather
vernon, florida – exploration of a small town by Errol Morris
waiting for guffman – a Christopher Guest masterpiece about small town oblivion
y tu mama tambien – loss of innocence tale
zoolander – “Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?”