Spirited Away (2001)

Plot: During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.

Although released on DVD through the Disney Corporation (those jerks have to control everything) this is a Japanese animation that is completely different from the usual  Disney pap.  There are no songs, no "message", and no talkative, unfunny sidekicks.  Instead, we get beautiful, extremely well done animation, unique, quirky, instantly lovable creatures, and a fast placed plot. The Heroine is plucky and brave without any of the "you go girl" nonsense that blights so many American movies.  Probably, the only drawbacks are the 2 hour length and the awful American dub.   I don't know why its so hard for American companies to dub Japanese films, no doubt Disney wanted to dumb it down and make it more 'murican.  Anyway, there's a Japanese version with subtitles, so its no big deal.

Summary:  This is not really a kids film but it is something you can take the whole family to. One of the most popular and highly rated Animated films of the last 40 years, with good reason.   Rating ****

Tortilla Flat (1942)

Plot: A poor Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.
Stars:  Spenser Tracy, Heddy Lamarr, John Garfield.

Based on the popular, but now almost forgotten, John Steinbeck novel, Tortilla Flat is one of those old-time 30s/40s  movies about racial minorities. The idea was to show them to be not the brightest bulbs in the world, but so gosh-darn-lovable that you're proud they're Americans.  The novel - and film - are set in post WWI California and reflected Steinbeck's experiences with the local Mexican-Americans. To a large extent Steinbeck's 1930s career was based on stories about the lower edges of society - and from a very romantic angle -and Tortilla Flat is  no exception. To quote Wikipeda: "Tortilla Flat stands as the clearest example in American literature of the Mexican as jolly savage"

Unfortunately, in addition to the patronizing attitude toward Mexican-Americans, this movie has the worst casting ever.  Somebody in Hollywood seemed to think Jewish Actors Sheldon Leonard & John Garfield, and  European actors  Lamarr and Akim Tamiroff  were believable as Mexican-Americans.  And then there's Spenser Tracy who's about as Mexican as a Tortilla filled with  Irish Potatoes.  However, Frank Morgan as a tramp is excellent.  But otherwise, there's nothing in the story that makes up for the awful casting.  Not recommended.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Delightful Japanese animation about two young daughters (Satsuki and Mei) of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The plot is slow paced and low-key but interesting. The animation is beautiful and the "Wood Spirits" are cute and beguiling.  Some of the American critics, found it too slow and not Hollywood enough.  Well thank God for that. How nice to watch an animated movie without some "message" being rammed down your throat, or everyone bursting into some godawful "Broadway Show-tune". As expected, the American dub is horrible - but who cares? The Japanese soundtrack is available.

They live By Night (1949)

Plot: An escaped convict, injured during a robbery, falls in love with the woman who nurses him back to health, but their relationship seems doomed from the beginning.
Stars: Farley Granger,  Cathy O'Donnell, Howard De Silva.

Highly respected Film-noir that left me cold.  The Cinemaphotography is very good and so is the direction/acting.  But I've never liked Farley Granger or Howard De Silva.  If you like 'em, you'll probably like the movie.  The movie would've been a lot better with Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan.  The other problem: the movie can't seem to decide what it is. Is it a romance, or a Film noir?

100 Most Enjoyable Movies

Movie	Year	Director
Safety Last	1922	Lloyd
City Lights	1931	Chaplin
Sons of the Desert	1932
Duck Soup	1934	McCarey
It's a Gift	1934	WC Fields
Triumph of the Will	1934	Riefenstahl
Scarlett Pimpernel	1935
Awful Truth	1936	McCarey
Adventures of Robin Hood	1938	Curtiz
Swing Time	1938
Bringing Up Baby	1938	Hawks
Gone with the Wind	1939	Fleming
Wizard of Oz	1939	Vidor
Mark of Zorro	1940	moulian
Fantasia	1940	Disney
The Bank Dick	1940	WC Fields
Shop around the Corner,	1940	Lubitsch
Road to Morocco	1941
Palm Beach Story	1941	Sturges
Sullivan's Travels	1942	Sturges
Casablanca	1942	Curtiz
Life and Death of Col Blimp	1943	Powell
Laura	1944	Preminger
Princess and the Pirate	1945
L'Enfant D'Paradise	1945	Cocteau
My Darling Clementine	1946	Ford
Life with Father	1947
Kind Hearts and Coronets	1948
Sands of Iwo Jima	1948
All About Eve	1950	Mankiewicz
Rio Grande	1950	Ford
Importance of Being Earnest	1952
Ikiru	1952	Kurosawa
Singin' in the Rain	1952	Donen
Quiet Man	1952	Ford
Mogambo	1953	Ford
Christmas Carol	1953
Tokyo Story	1953	ozu
M. Hulots Holiday	1953	Tati
Lavender Hill Mob	1953
Genevieve	1953
Stalag 17	1953	Wilder
Caine Mutiny	1954	Dmytryk
Lady and the Tramp	1955
Davey Crockett	1955
The Vikings	1957	Douglas
To Catch a Thief
Seventh Seal	1957	Bergman
Pillow Talk	1957
Journey To the Center of the Earth	1958	Disney
I'm all right jack	1958	Earling
Ben-Hur	1959	Wyler
Some Like It Hot	1959	Wilder
North by Northwest	1959	Hitchcock
101 Dalmatians	1961
The Hustler	1961	Rossen
Divorce - Italian Style	1961	Germi
Parent Trap	1962
8 1/2	1962	Fellini
The Music Man	1962
Ride the High Country	1962	Peckinpah
Goldfinger	1963	Ford
Donovan's Reef	1963	Kramer
It's a Mad Mad Mad World	1964
My Fair Lady	1964	Cukor
A Hard days Night	1964	Lester
Batman	1966
Good the Bad and the Ugly	1966	Leone
The Jungle Book	1967	Disney
How to Succeed in Business	1967	Swift
Winne the Pooh & the Blustery day	1968
Claire's Knee	1970	Rohmer
Godfather	1972	Coppola
Monty Python & Holy Grail	1973	Gilliam
American Graffiti	1973	Lucas
That's Entertainment I	1973
Godfather Part II	1974	Coppola
That's Entertainment II	1974
Love and Death	1975	Woody Allen
Life of Brian	1976	Gilliam
Star Wars	1977	Lucas
Manhattan	1979	Allen
Airplane	1980	Zuckerman
The Empire Strikes Back	1980	Kershner
After Hours	1982	Scorsese
Repo Man	1983
National Lampoon's Vacation	1985	Hughes
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles	1985	Hughes
Back to the Future	1985	Zemeckis
Top Secret	1986	Zuckerman
Fish Called Wanda	1988	Crichton
Naked Gun	1988	Zuckerman
Muppets take Manhattan	1989	Oz
Barcelona	1990	Stillman
Glenn Gary Glen Ross	1992	Mamet
Groundhog Day	1993	Ramis
Clerks	1994	Smith
L.A. Confidential	1997	Hanson
Big Lewbowski	1998	Coen