Movies

JOAN'S ANNOTATED RECOMMENDED MOVIE LIST

AMERICAN BEAUTY -- My all-time favorite movie. Subtitled "Look Closer," this is a funny, serious, beautiful, brilliant, quirky, enlightening movie that contains a wealth of spiritual teaching without ever once mentioning the word. It reveals the miraculous in the mundane and how nothing is what it appears to be on the surface. Written by Alan Ball, directed by Sam Mendes, cinematography by Conrad L. Hall, starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher. I recommend it very highly. (Writer Alan Ball is the brilliant creator of the also highly recommended HBO television series Six Feet Under -- see below.)

SIX FEET UNDER -- This HBO television series created by Alan Ball centers around a Los Angeles family that runs a funeral home. It is a show about death, and about what it is to be alive. In typical Alan Ball fashion, it is at once funny, serious, profound, spiritual, political, heart-breaking, heart-opening, life-affirming, quirky, enlightening, hilarious, daring, over the edge, and beautiful as it investigates life and death, relationships and family (interracial, gay and straight all included), art and social issues. All five seasons are available on DVD. I strongly recommend starting at the beginning and watching it in chronological order as it develops and builds. The wonderful cast includes Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Rachel Griffiths, Lauren Ambrose, Mathew St. Patrick, Freddy Rodriguez, Patricia Clarkson, Jeremy Sisto, Richard Jenkins, Ben Foster, Lili Taylor, James Cromwell, Kathy Bates and Joanna Cassidy. Very highly recommended. The show originally aired on HBO from 2001 -- 2005. Top-notch. More here. (Caution: I'd advise you to see the entire series first before exploring the website, so as not to spoil the plot).

I HEART HUCKABEES -- This wonderful comedy written and directed by David O. Russell is a real Advaita / Zen movie. The magnificent cast includes Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Isabelle Huppert, Mark Wahlberg, and Naomi Watts, with music by Jon Brion. There's some great material in the special features as well, especially the "Detective Infomercial" with Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman, and physicist Joe Rudnick. Very highly recommended.

JOAN OF ARCADIA -- This CBS TV series created by Barbara Hall was unfortunately taken off the air after two seasons, but it is available on DVD. The show is about a teenage girl, Joan, who sees God, and God appears to her in the guise of various ordinary folks (janitors, homeless people, small children, old ladies, etc). The show revolves around her life with family and school friends, including her paraplegic brother, her father the cop, her mother the art teacher, and a zany ex-nun who has tattoos and wears leather. This show is funny, profound, touching, spiritually delightful, and an engaging drama. Wonderful music by Joan Osborne. The cast includes Amber Tamblyn, Mary Steenburgen, Joe Mantegna, Jason Ritter. Becky Walstrom, Michael Welch, and Constance Zimmer.

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG -- Based on a wonderful novel of the same name by Andre Dubus III, this movie (starring Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ron Eldard, and directed by Vadim Perelman) tells a remarkable story of clashing cultures in which things are not always as they appear. A depressed young woman is evicted from her house because of a bureaucratic error, and the house is sold at auction and bought by a once-wealthy but now-struggling Iranian family. A brilliant look at escalating conflict and addiction, and how ordinary people make perfectly understandable "choices" that lead them deeper and deeper into destruction.

THE BAND'S VISIT -- In this gentle Israeli film, an Egyptian police band arrives in Israel to play at the opening of an Arab arts center, but they are left stranded at the airport. They try to find their way to their destination by bus and end up in a desolate, almost forgotten, small Israeli town in the middle of the desert where they are taken in for the night by locals. The movie beautifully captures the poignancy of human life -- the constraints and losses that bind it, and the spirit that breaks through. The awkward silences in the conversations, the missed opportunities, and what doesn't happen is as important as what does in this lovely and sometimes very funny movie. Very highly recommended. More here.

THE VISITOR -- A lonely, middle-aged professor returns to his apartment in NYC to find a young immigrant couple living there, both Muslims. He befriends them and his life opens up as they all face the unhappy after-effects of 9/11 on immigrants. This is a heart-opening film about new possibilities, about lonliness and community, about finding your passion, about the horrors of post-9/11 America, and ultimately, about love. Directed by Thomas McCarthy and starring Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass, Haaz Sleiman, and Danai Gurira.

MONSTER -- This movie, written and directed by Patty Jenkins, is based on the true story of Aileen (Lee) Wuornos, a prostitute who murdered a number of her clients, and who was executed by the state of Florida in 2002. There are many versions of this woman's story (Lee herself kept changing it), but the version that Patty Jenkins tells is both moving and insightful, taking us inside Lee's life, showing us how an essentially good-hearted woman ended up being executed as a serial killer. Charlize Theron gives a brilliant, Oscar-winning performance as Lee, along with Christina Ricci as Lee's lover. (For more on Lee Wuornos, see the Nick Broomfield documentaries).

NORMAL -- Written and directed by Jane Anderson, this is a love story about a man (Tom Wilkinson) living in rural Illinois who announces to his wife (Jessica Lange) after their 25th wedding anniversary that he intends to have a sex change. How will she and their children and the community respond as the man they have known as Roy slowly metamorphosizes into Ruth?

CRASH -- Paul Haggis wrote and directed this gritty, insightful, and compassionate look at how different social classes and cultures collide in post-9/11 Los Angeles during an ordinary 36-hour period. The movie does a beautiful job of revealing how commonplace prejudices and stereotypes prevent people from seeing each other clearly and accurately, and also how some of these ugly prejudices take root in otherwise "good" folks in the first place. This is a movie with surprising twists and turns, and some truly lovely moments. Just when you think you know somebody, you suddenly get to see them from a different angle, and your perspective shifts. Although the subject matter is often dark and brutal, the eye that sees it all is clear, there is (in my opinion) no gratuitous violence, and the movie has a strong redemptive quality to it. I came away uplifted. Very powerful, and beautifully filmed. The excellent cast includes Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Thandie Newton, Sandra Bullock, and Brendan Fraser. The movie won several well-deserved Oscars including Best Picture.

ABSOLUTE WILSON -- This documentary by Katharina Otto-Bernstein is about theater artist Robert Wilson (avant-garde performer, dancer, director, choreographer, designer). Wilson grew up in Waco, Texas, where, as a child, he stuttered, had a learning disability, and felt out of place. He ended up in New York City and became one of the major figures of avant-garde theater there and in Europe. Along the way, he worked with people who had severe disabilities, many of them in iron lungs, and with children who were brain-damaged, hyper-active or autistic. Instead of trying to make these people like everyone else, Wilson found a way to allow their unique way of seeing and communicating to blossom and flourish, and his own art was greatly influenced by working with them. Wilson collaborated and performed for many years with a young man who had brain damage, and he also adopted an African-American boy who was deaf. The documentary includes interviews with family, friends, and people in the arts who worked with Wilson including Susan Sontag, Philip Glass, Jessye Norman, and Tom Waits. Wilson has a remarkable gift for turning everything upside down, opening things up, and making you see anew. Watching this movie is like attending the best satsang you can imagine. More on Robert Wilson here.

BABETTE'S FEAST -- Based on a story by Isak Dinesen, this lovely film by Gabriel Axel tells the story of what happens when some very austere and pious followers of a puritanical brand of Christianity living on the desolate coast of Denmark meet up with a French woman who turns out to be an artist of sensual, earthly delights. It has much to say about spirit and flesh, heart and soul, art and true love.

Some other favorites: Frida; The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Bagdad Cafe; Nowhere in Africa; Far from Heaven; Kinsey; The Color of Paradise; The Buena Vista Social Club; Bukowski: Born Into This; Magnolia; A Beautiful Mind; The Matrix; Thelma & Louise; Harold & Maude; The Elephant Man; The Piano; Look Both Ways; Lost in Translation; Grand Canyon; The Hours; Leaving Las Vegas; Wit; The Vertical Ray of the Sun; The English Patient; The Safety of Objects; The Deep End; The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill; The Big Chill; The End of the Affair; Vera Drake; Apollo 13; Rivers and Tides; Zorba the Greek; Forest Gump; Before Night Falls; Boys Don't Cry; Southern Comfort; Transgeneration; Fried Green Tomatoes; Schindler's List; The Pianist; Sophie's Choice; Shoah; Forgiving Dr. Mengele; Paragraph 175; Bent; The Year of Living Dangerously; Dead Man Walking; Monster's Ball; The Sea Inside; Million Dollar Baby; The Upside of Anger; The Road to Perdition; A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman's); The Truman Show; Born on the 4th of July; Blue; White; Red; Living Out Loud, Billy Elliot; Transamerica; Brokeback Mountain; Memento; Ray; Sideways; Hotel Rwanda; The Notebook; Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her; All About My Mother; Live Flesh; Talk to Her; 13 Conversations About One Thing; Winged Migration; Desert Bloom; Paradise Now; The War Within; Adaptation; Shower; Enlightenment Guaranteed; North Country; Capote; What the Bleep Do We Know?; Pieces of April; The Barbarian Invasions; King of Hearts; Last Tango in Paris; In America; Bowling for Columbine; Fahrenheit 9/11; Bush's Brain; The Corporation; A Crude Awakening; The Oil Factor; Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism; Bill Maher: I'm Swiss; Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times; The Party's Over; An Inconveniant Truth; Maxed Out; The Million Dollar Hotel; Walkabout; The Last Wave; Witness; Bound; If These Walls Could Talk 2; The Station Agent; Dirty Pretty Things; The Closet; Angels in America; Waking Life; The Legend of Bagger Vance; Dances with Wolves; Field of Dreams; Blue Velvet; Being John Malkovich; Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; Nashville; Short Cuts; The Constant Gardener; Walk the Line; Good Night, and Good Luck; Munich; Match Point; Moonlight Mile; The Straight Story; Thumbsucker; My Left Foot; Ram Dass: Fierce Grace; Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man; Junebug; The Girl in the Cafe; The Chumscrubber; Boston Legal (the TV show); Little Miss Sunshine; Me and You and Everyone We Know; The Squid and the Whale; Flags of Our Fathers; Babel; Half Nelson; Sunshine; Jesus Camp; The Ground Truth; Peaceful Warrior; The Departed; Fire; Water; Blood Diamond; Shattered Glass; The Good Shepard; Volver; The Battle of Algiers (be sure to see the bonus disc, too); Notes on a Scandal; The Last King of Scotland; The Queen; All the King's Men; Breach; Cache; Il Postino; Schultz Gets the Blues; The Mahabharata (Peter Brook's production); Zodiac; Freedom Writers; The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair; Sliding Door; Ushpizzin; 51 Birch Street; Aurora Borealis; The Lives of Others; Amargosa; Blow-Up; The Crying Game; The Good German; Aimee and Jaguar; Tipping the Velvet; Strangers in Good Company; Everything Is Illuminated; The War (Ken Burns); L.A. Confidential; A Mighty Heart; The Hoax; Puccini for Beginners, Sicko; Venus; Into Great Silence; The Accused; The Contender; Imaginary Heroes; Cinderella Man; Together; Away from Her; Rear Window; The Future We Will Create: Inside the World of TED (be sure to watch the entire presentation by Sir Ken Robinson); God Grew Tired of Us; Emmanuel's Gift; Citizen King: American Experience; The Brave One; The Devil's Advocate; In the Shadow of the Moon; Michael Clayton; American Gangster; No Country for Old Men; Shine; Atonement; The Kite Runner; Cider House Rules; Keeping Mum; Primary Colors; There Will Be Blood; Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; The Savages; Talk to Me; How to Cook Your Life; The Walker; Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train; Starting Out in the Evening; Anyone and Everyone; As Good As It Gets; Play It Forward; Love in the Time of Cholera; I'm Not There; Lars and the Real Girl; The Bird Cage; A Good Woman; Juno; The U.S. vs John Lennon; The Air I Breathe; Moonstruck; Poor Boy's Game; Weeds (the TV Show); Flawless; The Illusionist; Before Sunrise; Before Sunset; Henry & June; The Doctor; Then She Found Me; The Road to Guantanamo; Taxi to the Dark Side; Rendition; In the Valley of Elah; The Namesake; Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains; The Bucket List; Nina's Heavenly Delights; Stealing America Vote by Vote; Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.