Favorites in bold, rewatches excepting.

GROUNDHOG DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!, 1993.  This is possibly my very favorite movie, its only competition being Philadelphia Story with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Katherine Hepburn.  Bill Murray plays a jerk of a reporter who finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. Eventually he learns to love and be lovely. 

Team America: World Police, 2004.  A parody of supermarionation action/spy series like Thunderbirds,  which simultaneously ridicules both post 9/11 jingoism and Hollywood liberals.  Unexpectedly obscene in parts.

5 Card Stud, 1968. A card cheat is lynched after being exposed at a poker game, and soon thereafter the men involved begin dying.  Completely by coincidence, a preacher dressed in black who decorates his church with a “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord; I shall Repay” sign appears.  Who could it possibly be?  Solid acting from Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum.

The Babe, 1992.   John Goodman plays Babe Ruth,  a little boy in a big man’s body, who loved partying and loved playing ball.  It’s fun, and is largely honest about Ruth’s hedonism, though when he arrives holding a baby for his wife to adopt, the film doesn’t mention that said baby was his from one of his other liaisons.

Cobb, 1994.    Tommy Lee Jones is wonderfully manic as Ty Cobb,  as defamatory as the movie is.  The facts of the movie are absolute trash, but  Jones is just hilarious driving through a blizzard chugging whisky and ramming the car in front of him, or going crazy at a casino because he spots the cigarette girl he was sweet on (well, randy for)  standing next to another man.  The drama of the movie is interesting –  TLJ-Cobb struggling with his inner doubts while preaching his greatness,   the libelous Al Stump  torn between hatred and grudging admiration.  When I go to Georgia to listen to Morgan Wade do an acoustic set in April, I plan on visiting Cobb’s museum to pay respects to the Georgia Peach.

Black Orpheus, 1959.   A woman arrives in Rio to celebrate Carnival, being stalked by someone who wants to murder her. She falls in love with a trolley driver/guitar player who promptly ditches his axe-crazy fiance to be with her, but then  – well, it’s based on a Greek tragedy, so use your imagination. Lots and lots and lots and lots of dancing. Seriously,  even more dancing than West Side Story. 

A Man Called Ove, 2016. A widower is intent on killing himself and rejoining his wife, but keeps being interrupted by the bloody neighbors who can’t back up a car properly, don’t know how to bleed a radiator, and  keep putting metal in the glass recycling bin. Idiots!  Heartwarming story that I’ve read the novel of (and watched the American adaptation of), about a man who manages to find meaning his life beyond mourning and self-absorption.   Although the American movie is easier to get into given the language barrier, I think Ove works much better as a drama – in part because it doesn’t assume the viewer is an idiot who needs every plot thing explained to them.

Bicycle Thieves, 1948.  A man struggling to keep his family fed just found a job that requires a bicycle. His bicycle is stolen. Pathos ensues. Wonderful acting, especially from his son. Set in postwar Italy. 

Kill Bill Vol 1, 2003. Uma Thurman kills over a hundred people in a quest to Kill Bill. She has not yet killed Bill.  Great music. Lots of cartoonish blood.  Interesting incorporation of Japanese animation to bridge scenes or explore backstory.  

Hoffa, 1992.  Jack Nicholson is Jimmy Hoffa,  the man who made the Teamsters union and who was ultimately undone by business dealings with the mob.  Great movie.   My favorite scene is Hoffa berating RFK, of course, but I also loved the shot of Hoffa being taken to jail,  the cop car threading its way through an unbroken tunnel of commercial trucks, their drivers cheering and lending moral to support to Jimmy. 

It appalls some of my friends that I have Hoffa’s tirade memorized. For the record, I’ve watched actual Hoffa-v-Bond Salesman footage, and it’s eerie how close Jack Nicholson got in the dramatization of this show. I love Pacino, but Nicholson was the perfect Hoffa, and even Jimmy’s son said so.

Coffy, 1973.  Pam Grier plays a nurse whose sister’s life has been destroyed by drugs  so she poses as a call girl to find the men who sold her said drug  – and murder them.  Tasteless in its gratuitous nudity and violence, but  entertaining.  One of the first ‘blaxploitation’ movies.

Coaine Cowboys Reloaded, 2006. A documentary about the rise of the Miami drug trade. Unexpectedly funny because of Trump and Steven Ogg’s doppelgangers. 

Fever Pitch, 2005. A man with a perfectly acceptable passion for the Red Sox has his commitment to the team challenged by Drew Barrymore, but she eventually sees reason. The curse of the Bambino is broken.

42, 2013. Biopic of Jackie Robinson, who was the first black man to play in the major leagues.  Human dignity, baseball, Harrison Ford– what’s not to love?  There’s even a train.

Fever Pitch, 1997. Colin Firth has an obsession with Arsenal FC that he only begins to realize might be filling the void that is an otherwise meaningless life after he gets entangled in the bedsheets (and a relationship) with a new coworker, played by Ruth Gemmell. This was a better movie than the American, even without the Red Sox, because the drama is more serious and intense. Jimmy Fallon is never believable as a fanboy who grows up, being Jimmy Fallon, whereas in Colin Firth’s arguments with his friend you can see he’s actually arguing with himself, trying to convince himself to sort out his priorities.

Raising Arizona, 1987. Nicholas Cage is a repeat-offender c-shop robber whose cop wife Ed can’t have a baby. So they steal one. There are complications.