Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Not RecommendedUSA/Germany/HungaryFeature FilmDirector: Guillermo del ToroWriters: Guillermo del Toro, Mike MignolaCinematographer: Guillermo NavarroComposer: Danny ElfmanCast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey TamborAfter thousands of years of peace, an Elf prince becomes determined to wage war against the human race; but Hellboy, now living in domestic bliss with Liz, certainly isn't about to...

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Hellboy (2004)

Cautiously RecommendedUSA/Czech RepublicFeature FilmDirector: Guillermo del ToroWriters: Guillermo del Toro, Peter Briggs, Mike MignolaCinematographer: Guillermo NavarroComposer: Marco BeltramiCast: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, David Hyde PierceHellboy, a large red demon raised by an American scientist at the The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, finds that he must save the...

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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

RecommendedUSA/UK/CanadaFeature FilmDirector: Edgar WrightWriters: Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright, Bryan Lee O'MalleyCinematographer: Bill PopeComposer: Nigel GodrichCast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Mark Webber, Alison Pill, Ellen Wong, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny SimmonsWhen 22-year-old Torontan slacker Scott Pilgrim starts dating the pink-haired New Yorker Romona Flowers, he discovers that he must fight and defeat – in comic...

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Hairspray (2007)

RecommendedUSA/UKFeature FilmDirector: Adam ShankmanWriters: Leslie Dixon, John Waters, Thomas Meehan, Mark O'DonnellCinematographer: Bojan BazelliComposer: Marc ShaimanCast: Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Queen Latifah, James MarsdenBased on Meehan and O'Donnell’s Broadway musical, which itself was based on John Waters’s 1988 film, Adam Shankman’s ebullient,...

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Tulpan (2008)

RecommendedKazakhstan/Germany/Italy/Poland/Switzerland/RussiaFeature FilmDirector: Sergei DvortsevoyWriters: Sergei Dvortsevoy, Gennadi OstrovskyCinematographer: Jolanta DylewskaCast: Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Samal Yeslyamova, Ondasyn Besikbasov, Tulepbergen Baisakalov, Bereke Turganbayev, Nurzhigit Zhapabayev, Mahabbat TurganbayevaRecently demobbed from the Russian navy, Asa returns to the Kazakh Steppe to live and work with his sister and her nomadic...

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The Social Network (2010)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: David FincherWriters: Aaron Sorkin, Ben MezrichCinematographer: Jeff CronenwethComposers: Trent Reznor, Atticus RossCast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Rashida JonesFiltered through a pair of multi-million dollar lawsuits, Fincher’s slickly entertaining film details the birth of social networking website Facebook, following the ups and...

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Jeanne Dielman (1975)

Essential ViewingBelgium/FranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 BruxellesWriter/Director: Chantal AkermanCinematographer: Babette MangolteCast: Delphine Seyrig, Jan DecorteAkerman’s exquisitely composed minimalist exploration of female bourgeois desperation powerfully depicts three days in the life of a widowed Brussels housewife, who sexually services a middle-aged gentleman or two each afternoon in order to...

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Alexandra (2007)

RecommendedRussia/FranceFeature FilmOriginal Title: АлександраWriter/Director: Aleksandr SokurovCinematographer: Aleksandr BurovComposer: Andrey SigleCast: Galina Vishnevskaya, Vasily Shevtsov, Raisa GichaevaA lonely, elderly woman travels to occupied Chechnya to visit her army officer grandson who is stationed there; and with a great sense of self-determined curiosity, she explores the base and local town, asking straight questions to any and everybody,...

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Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)

Highly RecommendedCanadaFeature FilmWriter/Director/Cinematographer: Guy MaddinCast: Darcy Fehr, Melissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Tara Birtwhistle, Louis Negin, Mike Bell, David Stuart EvansGuy Maddin, star of the Winnipeg Maroons ice hockey team, begins to murderously lose control of his fingers when he becomes mistakenly convinced that he has had the blue hands of the sexy and mysterious Meta’s dead father surgically attached by the aged Dr. Fusi,...

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Floating Clouds (1955)

Highly RecommendedJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 浮雲Director: Naruse MikioWriters: Mizuki Yōko, Hayashi FumikoCinematographer: Tamai MasaoComposer: Saitō IchirōCast: Takamine Hideko, Mori Masayuki, Okada Mariko, Yamagata Isao, Nakakita Chieko, Katō DaisukeA woman (Takamine, outstanding) suffers years of pain and humiliation when she reignites, upon her repatriation to Tokyo, an affair that had begun during the war in French Indochina with a married,...

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Day of the Outlaw (1959)

RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: André De TothWriters: Philip Yordan, Lee E. WellsCinematographer: Russell HarlanComposer: Alexander CourageCast: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal, Venetia Stevenson, David Nelson, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack LambertA ruthless cowboy, forsaken by the town that he helped to build, puts his grievances to one side when a band of outlaws, which is being chased across Wyoming’s snow-covered landscape by the...

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Bitter Victory (1957)

Cautiously RecommendedUSA/FranceFeature FilmDirector: Nicholas RayWriters: René Hardy, Gavin Lambert, Nicholas Ray, Paul GallicoCinematographer: Michel KelberComposer: Maurice Le RouxCast: Richard Burton, Curd Jürgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin, Anthony Bushell, Alfred Burke, Sean KellyIn Ray’s well acted and crafted though somewhat uninspired Second World War pic, a daring but stuttering raid on Rommel’s desert headquarters becomes complicated...

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Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

RecommendedMexico/USAFeature FilmOriginal Title: Y tu mamá tambiénDirector: Alfonso CuarónWriters: Alfonso Cuarón, Carlos CuarónCinematographer: Emmanuel LubezkiNarrator: Daniel Giménez CachoCast: Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Maribel VerdúIn the summer before they are due to start at university, two friends – one from a wealthy, powerful family and the other from more humble origins – take a road trip with a sexy twenty-something Spanish woman,...

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Bewitched (2005)

Not RecommendedUSAFeature FilmDirector: Nora EphronWriters: Delia Ephron, Nora Ephron, Sol SaksCinematographer: John LindleyComposer: George FentonCast: Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Jason Schwartzman, Kristin Chenoweth, Heather BurnsA witch who has recently shunned her heritage for a life ordinariness (and possibly love) finds herself cast opposite a fading movie star in the retooling of ‘60s favourite Bewitched (1964-1972),...

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Late Autumn (1960)

Highly RecommendedJapanFeature FilmOriginal Title: 秋日和Director: Ozu YasujirōWriters: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō, Satomi TonCinematographer: Atsuta YūharuComposer: Saitō KojunCast: Hara Setsuko, Tsukasa Yōko, Okada Mariko, Sada Keiji, Kuwano Miyuki, Mikami Shinichirō, Saburi Shin, Ryū ChishūWith gorgeously expressive mise en scène and some delightful performances, Ozu’s gently funny film follows the progress of three middle-aged friends as they conspire...

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CFB's Top 5 Obscure Films of 1924 (2010)

L’Inhumaine (1924)Help! (1924)Life Caught Unawares (1924)Crossing the Great Sagrada (1924)Trip to Mars (19...

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CFB's Top 20 Films of 1924 (2010)

The Last Laugh (1924)Sherlock Jr. (1924)The Navigator (1924)Greed (1924)The Thief of Bagdad (1924) Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)Girl Shy (1924)Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge (1924)The Marriage Circle (1924)He Who Gets Slapped (1924)Entr’acte (1924)Michael (1924)Waxworks (1924)Aeita: Queen of Mars (1924)The Iron Horse (1924)The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)Peter Pan (1924)Hot Water (1924)The Saga...

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Michael (1924)

Not RecommendedGermanyFeature FilmDirector: Carl Th. DreyerWriters: Carl Th. Dreyer, Thea von Harbou, Herman BangCinematographers: Karl Freund, Rudolph MatéComposer: Pierre Oser (1993)Cast: Benjamin Christensen, Walter Slezak, Nora Gregor, Robert Garrison, Max AuzingerA near destitute Russian countess comes between a renowned middle-aged painter and his muse, the eponymous aspiring artist, when she persuades the old master to paint her portrait,...

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The L-Shaped Room (1962)

RecommendedUKFeature FilmDirector: Bryan ForbesWriters: Bryan Forbes, Lynne Reid BanksCinematographer: Douglas SlocombeCast: Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneidge, Avis Bunnage, Patricia Phoenix, Gerald Sim, Emlyn WilliamsAn unmarried pregnant 27-year-old French woman, who has yet to decide whether to keep her baby or not, moves into a crumbling boarding house, filled with fellow misfits and outcasts, and forms a number of friendships,...

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Pyaasa (1957)

Essential ViewingIndiaFeature FilmOriginal Title: प्यासाDirector: Guru DuttWriter: Abrar AlviCinematographer: V.K.MurthyComposers: S.D. Burman, Sahir LudhianviCast: Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, Johnny Walker, Kum Kum, Leela MisraVijay, a down-on-his-luck poet, struggles vainly to get his compositions published, but is met with nothing but hostility from all – including his uncaring elder brothers and, particularly, the vengeful...

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Pripyat (1999)

Highly RecommendedAustriaFeature DocumentaryDirector/Cinematographer: Nikolaus GeyrhalterWriters: Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Wolfgang WiderhoferDocumentarian Nikolaus Geyrhalter travels to Pripyat, the town in which the workers of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant lived prior to the disaster of 1986, examining with striking black and white photography the decaying remnants of the abandoned environment, meeting with those who make their living in the area...

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Total Sci-Fi Online: The 100 Greatest Horror Movies (2009)

The Shining (1980) Rosemary's Baby (1968) The Wicker Man (1973) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Psycho (1960) Alien (1979) Night of the Living Dead (1968) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Halloween (1978) Jaws (1975) Nosferatu (1922) Suspiria (1977) Don't Look Now (1973) Dracula (1958) An American Werewolf in London (1981) The Haunting (1963) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The Wolf Man...

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Total Film: The 50 Greatest Horror Movies of All Time (2005)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Halloween (1978) Suspiria (1977) Dawn of the Dead (1978) The Shining (1980) Psycho (1960) The Wicker Man (1973) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Don't Look Now (1973) Cannibal Holocaust (1980) The Thing (1982) Carrie (1976) The Exorcist (1973) The Blair Witch Project (1999) Witchfinder General (1968) The Haunting (1963) The Evil Dead (1981) Peeping Tom (1960) Alien (1979)...

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Time Out's 50 Greatest Animated Films

My Neighbour Totoro (1988) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979) Fantasia (1940) Toy Story (1995) Spirited Away (2001) Yellow Submarine (1968) Belleville Rendez-Vous (2003) South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999) Robin Hood (1973) Bambi (1942) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Dumbo (1941) Gandahar (1988) The Iron Giant (1999) Akira (1988) The Brave Little Toaster...

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Time Out's 100 to Watch (2006)

After Life (1998) L'Age d'Or (1930) Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) Alphaville (1965) L'Atalante (1934) An Autumn Afternoon (1962) L'Avventura (1960) Beau Travail (1999) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) La Bête Humaine (1938) Bicycle Thieves (1948) Branded to Kill (1967) Cat People (1942) Le Cercle Rouge (1970) Chinatown (1974) Citizen Kane (1941) Come and See (1985) The Conversation (1974) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Days of Being Wild (1990) The Deer Hunter (1978) Dr. Strangelove...

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Time Out: The 50 Greatest World War II Movies

Come and See (1985) The Thin Red Line (1998) Das Boot (1981) The Big Red One (1980) Went the Day Well? (1942) Kanal (1957) Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Cross of Iron (1977) Rome, Open City (1945) A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Hell in the Pacific (1968) The Dirty Dozen (1967) To Be or Not to Be (1942) Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Shoah (1985) Listen to Britain (1942) Fires Were...

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Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Best Films

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) Aparajito (1956) The Awful Truth (1937) Baby Face (1933) Bande à Part (1964) Barry Lyndon (1975) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) Blade Runner (1982) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Brazil (1985) Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Build My Gallows High (1947) Camille (1936) Casablanca (1942) Charade (1963) Chinatown (1974) Chungking Express (1994) Citizen Kane (1941) City Lights (1931) City of God (2002) Closely Observed Trains (1966) The Crime of Monsieur...

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The Royal Film Archive of Belgium: Most Important and Misappreciated American Films Since the Beginning of Cinema: A Revaluation

Citizen Kane (1941) Sunrise (1927) Greed (1924) Intolerance (1916) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Singin' in the Rain (1952) Nanook of the North (1922) The General (1927) The Gold Rush (1925) The Crowd (1928) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) The Searchers (1956) Modern Times (1936) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Scarface (1932) Trouble in Paradise (1932) Sunset Boulevard (1950) Vertigo (1958)...

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