Ladykillers, The (1955)

Comedy Rated NR

Alec Guinness minces through The Ladykillers as if it were his own personal playground, as well it should be. As the toothy, grinning leader of a gang of bumbling crooks – he only looks like a half-wit because the rest of them have no wits at all – he’s a loony treat, a comic bright

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Drama Rated NC-17

Watching Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic drama now, it’s not the graphic sex scenes that startle – these days they would pass for R-rated material. Instead, the jarring intensity of Marlon Brando in full fury keeps you off-balance. His portrayal of Paul, a recent widower who tries to exorcise his rage by having callous sex in a

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Family Rated PG

“Pure, undiluted Steven Spielberg.”

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Thriller Rated NR

Another exercise in stoicism and crime from legendary French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samourai), in which hard men spend a lot of time giving each other hard stares. Over the course of 140 minutes, an escaped criminal (Gian Maria Volonte) and a newly released ex-con (Melville regular Alain Delon) fatefully meet, save each other’s life

Ratatouille (2007)

Family Rated G

“…Oswalt babbles away with the mania of a true obsessive. He’s like Julia Child after too much wine.

Magnificent Seven, The (1960)

Action/Adventure Rated PG

A remake of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, this plays like a Reader’s Digest version of that great epic, in which a small farming village terrorized by a pack of bandits seeks out seven hired killers for protection. The pleasure of the remake lies in the casting. Yul Brynner may make for a strange

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Drama Rated R

“…taps into an emotional vein that previous Kaufman larks were missing.”

Maltese Falcon, The (1941)

Drama Rated NR

Though Dashiell Hammett’s novel had already been filmed twice before, it is this 1941 version that many consider to be the first noir picture. Bogart defined the tough, fast-talking hero as Sam Spade; Mary Astor had three parts in one as the mysterious and alluring femme fatale; and director John Huston, making his debut, set

Finding Nemo (2003)

Family Rated G

In true Pixar fashion, Finding Nemo is at once a rousing adventure guaranteed to keep kids pinned in their seats, a gorgeously detailed display of computer animation and a comedy with more laughs per minute than your average live-action farce. Albert Brooks provides the voice of an overprotective clown fish in search of his lost

Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)

Thriller Rated NR

John Frankenheimer’s freaky and feverish political thriller, based on Richard Condon’s novel, must have seemed to have come from the future, what with its paranoid plot involving Communist infiltration, right-wing hysteria and political assassinations – all in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis and not long before John F. Kennedy’s murder. A sweaty Frank