The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2008

This motion-picture really IS one definitive "what if" kind of story. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages in reverse and Cate Blanchett as the love interest throughout his life. The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2008, to positive reviews. The film went on to receive thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Supporting Actress for Taraji P. Henson. It won three Oscars, for Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects.

Stand By Me - 1986

A must-see for any boy between the age of five and sixteen. Stand by Me is a 1986 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film takes its title from the song of the same name by Ben E. King (which plays over the end credits). The film is narrated by an author, Gordie Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss), writing the memoir about his youth. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959 young Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing. He is rejected by his father, following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a jeep accident. Denny paid Gordie much more attention than his parents did. Gordie spends his time with three friends: Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he does not conform to the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family; Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) who is eccentric and physically scarred after his mentally unstable father held his ear to a cooktop; and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) who is overweight and timid and often picked on.

Cinema Paradiso - 1988

Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Italian pronunciation: New Paradise Cinema), internationally released as Cinema Paradiso, is a 1988 Italian drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. The film stars Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio; produced by Franco Cristaldi and Giovanna Romagnoli, and the music by Ennio Morricone along with his son, Andrea. It was originally released in Italy at 155 minutes, but poor box office performance in its native country led to it being shortened to 123 minutes for international release; it was an instant success. This international version won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2002, the director's cut 173-minute version was released (known in the U.S. as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version). Shot in director Tornatore's hometown Bagheria, Sicily, as well as Cefalù on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and told largely in flashback of a successful film director Salvatore to his childhood years, it also tells the story of the return to his native Sicilian village for the funeral of his old friend Alfredo, who was the projectionist at the local "Cinema Paradiso". Ultimately, Alfredo serves as a wise father figure to his young friend who only wishes the best to see him succeed, even if it means breaking his heart in the process. Seen as an example of "nostalgic postmodernism", the film intertwines sentimentality with comedy, and nostalgia with pragmaticism. It explores issues of youth, coming of age, and reflections (in adulthood) about the past. The imagery in each scene can be said to reflect Salvatore's idealised memories about his childhood. Cinema Paradiso is also a celebration of films; as a projectionist, young Salvatore (a.k.a Totò) develops the passion for films that shapes his life path in adulthood.

Swing Kids - 1993

The Swing Kids (German: Swingjugend) were a group of jazz and swing lovers in Germany in the 1930s, mainly in Hamburg (St. Pauli) and Berlin. They were composed of 14- to 18-year-old boys and girls in high school, most of them middle- or upper-class students, but some apprentice workers as well. They sought the British and American way of life, defining themselves in swing music and opposing the National-Socialist ideology, especially the Hitlerjugend.


The music and dance in this film is really wonderful. It's only when the real-life drama starts that one wishes they could dance and hear the music once again. GREAT movie!


Swing Kids, the film, was produced in 1993, directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Kenneth Branagh. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s. The soundtrack includes a combination of swing music and the film's score.

Boy A - 2007

A great film I had never heard of, this is a story about the past coming back to haunt.

After spending most of his life in prison for a murder he committed as a child, a young man (Andrew Garfield) is returned to society, where a dedicated caseworker (Peter Mullan) helps him start a new life under a new identity, Jack Burridge. When he lands a job and falls in love, things seem to be taking a positive turn for Jack. But his new existence hangs by a thread, as he discovers when one simple act threatens to expose him.

Told in flashback, the secrets of "Boy A" are revealed in bits and pieces. The reality of who Jack is becomes more powerful and painful as the film progresses. Garfield is so charismatic, and his Jack so incredibly sympathetic

Andrew Garfield can next be seen in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man as Peter Parker/Spider-man

Before Sunrise - 1995 & Before Sunset - 2004

Experience the most interesting double-feature with these two films.   Begin with Before Sunrise and be introduced to Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) who meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one romantic evening together in Vienna, Austria.   The dialogue is wonderful (it's before texting when you can actually see the emotions in people's faces).   Follow-up Before Sunrise with Before Sunset when the same couple meets almost ten years later.   One won't be sorry with these films...but be sure it is screened alone or with a 'special someone'.   You have to really listen to all of the fantastic words they share.   This is the ideal romantic drama.

Before Sunrise was inspired by a woman that the director, Richard Linklater, met in a toy shop in Philadelphia in 1989.  They walked around the city together, conversing deep into the night.  Originally, in the screenplay, who the two people were and the city they spend time in was vague.  Linklater realized that because the film is so much a dialogue between a man and a woman he knew that it was important to have a strong woman co-writer. He chose Kim Krizan, who had small roles in his two previous films Slacker and Dazed and Confused.  According to Linklater, he "loved the way her mind worked" - a constant stream of confident and intelligent ideas.

In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Peter Rainer wrote, "It's an attempt to make a mainstream youth movie with a bit more feeling and mysteriousness than most, and, in this, it succeeds".