A senseless and vicious crime is investigated.

Interviews: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Kyōko Kagawa, Tatsuya Mihashi, Kenjiro Ishiyama, Isao Kimura, Takeshi Katō, Yutaka Sada, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Takashi Shimura

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"I'm not interested in self-analysis. I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, high up there. That's how I began to hate you" – Ginjirô Takeuchi, medical intern

Why watch this? Crime doesn't just exist in America. This is an education on Japanese police work.

Plot Summary: This story centers on a wealthy industrialist whose plans to take over his company are jeopardized when a man calls claiming to have kidnapped his son. The situation takes a dramatic turn when it is revealed that the kidnapper has mistakenly abducted the chauffeur's child instead. The film then becomes a gripping police procedural as authorities work to locate the perpetrator and bring the child home safely.

Kurosawa Films, Toho

You'd better be shockproof before you dare find out!

Starring: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, Wesley Addy, Julie Allred, Anne Barton, Marjorie Bennett, Bert Freed, Anna Lee, Maidie Norman, Dave Willock

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"You know, we're right back where we started. When I was on the stage you had to depend on me for everything. Even the food you ate came from me. Now you have to depend on me for your food again. So, you see, we're right back where we started." - "Baby" Jane Hudson

Why watch this? Davis' portrayal of Baby Jane is monstrous.

Plot Summary: This psychological horror thriller centers on two aging sisters, Jane and Blanche Hudson, both former Hollywood stars, who live as recluses in their decaying mansion. Jane, a former child star clinging to the past, resents Blanche, whose film career overshadowed her own before a mysterious accident left Blanche paralyzed. As Jane's jealousy and unstable mental state escalate, she subjects Blanche to increasing psychological torment and isolation.

Seven Arts Productions;
Warner Bros. Pictures

Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now, he's writing to stay alive.

Starring: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Frances Sternhagen, Richard Farnsworth, Lauren Bacall, Graham Jarvis, Jerry Potter

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"I thought you were good Paul...but you're not good. You're just another lying ol' dirty birdy." – Annie Wilkes

Why watch this? ... so that you will always be on the lookout for crazy fans.

Plot Summary: Famous author, Paul Sheldon, after finishing his latest book, crashes his car in a blizzard. He's rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who claims to be his "number one fan". However, Paul soon discovers Annie's obsession takes a dark turn, and he becomes her prisoner in her secluded home. Annie forces Paul to write a new novel, dictating the story to suit her desires, while Paul desperately attempts to escape his captivity.

Castle Rock Entertainment, Nelson Ent.;
Columbia Pictures

Put on a happy face.

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"For my whole life, I didn't know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice." – Arthur Fleck

Why watch this? Could Joaquin Phoenix possibly top Heath Ledger? Well, it's pretty darn close.

Plot Summary: This film tells the story of Arthur Fleck, a struggling comedian and clown-for-hire living in a gritty Gotham City during the early 1980s. Battling mental illness, poverty, and isolation, Arthur's grip on reality slowly unravels as society continuously rejects and demeans him. His descent into madness culminates in a series of violent acts, transforming him into a notorious figure who unwittingly ignites an uprising against the city's corrupt and indifferent elite.

DC Films, Village Roadshow Pictures,
Bron Creative, Joint Effort; Warner Bros.

The terror starts the moment he stops.

Starring: Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John M. Jackson, Billy Greenbush, Jack Thibeau

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"I want you to stop me." - John Ryder

Why watch this? It's as dreadfully suspenseful as a movie can get.

Plot Summary: Driving a car across country, young Jim Halsey picks up a hitchhiker who reveals himself to be a dangerous serial killer. After Jim narrowly escapes, the relentless hitchhiker proceeds to stalk him, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake and framing Jim for his crimes. Now pursued by the police and the killer, Jim's only hope for survival and clearing his name lies in the aid of a truck stop waitress named Nash.

HBO Pictures, Silver Screen Prod.;
TriStar Pictures

April 1945, a nation awaits its... downfall

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Corinna Harfouch, Juliane Köhler, Heino Ferch, Christian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Kretschmann, Michael Mendl

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"Who do you think you are to dare disobey an order I give? So this is what it has come to! The military has been lying to me. Everybody has been lying to me, even the SS! Our generals are just a bunch of contemptible, disloyal cowards" - Adolf Hitler

Why watch this? This is an excellent deep-dive into Adolph Hitler.

Plot Summary: This story depicts the final, frantic days of the Third Reich from inside Adolf Hitler's Berlin bunker in April 1945 as Soviet forces close in. Told partly through the eyes of his secretary, Traudl Junge, the film portrays a delusional Hitler commanding non-existent armies while his inner circle begins to unravel.

Bernd Eichinger; Constantin Film,
Momentum Pictures

I just want to be perfect.

Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey, Benjamin Millepied, Ksenia Solo, Kristina Anapau, Janet Montgomery, Sebastian Stan

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"Perfection is not just about control. It's also about letting go. Surprise yourself so you can surprise the audience. Transcendence! Very few have it in them." - Thomas Leroy

Why watch this? It is a psychological ballet mind-bender that's both complex and gripping.

Plot Summary: Young NYC ballet dancer, Nina Sayers, earns the coveted dual lead role in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. She's a natural as the innocent Odette, but struggles as the dark and carnal Black Swan. She gives it everything, both to please her over-critical mother and demanding director, Thomas Leroy. Nina also feels pressures from another dancer, Lily, who is more sexually uninhibited and appears to also want the lead role.

Cross Creek Pic., Protozoa Pic., Phoenix Pics,
Dune Ent.; Fox Searchlight Pictures

Are you ready to play?

Starring: Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn, Deborah Kara Unger, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker, Amin Mueller-Stahl

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"Discovering the object of the game is the object of the game." – Daniel Schorr

Why watch this? ... to see the look on your face when you realize what is really going on.

Plot Summary: Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy and reclusive San Francisco investment banker, receives an unusual birthday gift from his estranged younger brother, Conrad. This gift is an opportunity to participate in a mysterious, customized game provided by a company called Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). As Nicholas enters the game, the lines between reality and the staged events blur, leading to a series of increasingly intense and dangerous occurrences that challenge his carefully constructed life and understanding of what's truly happening around him.
 

Dad's Preview: I rented this and could not believe that there wasn't more buzz about it. It is a hell of a tense film with a brilliant plot. You will have to watch it more than once to catch everything. It serves as a cautionary tale for the modern day corporate executive - those who live their lives solely to serve the "company", at the expense of living their life and spending time with loved ones. Michael Douglas delivers another strong performance, but I was drawn to the mysterious Deborah Unger.

Propaganda Films; PolyGram Films

American Beauty (1999), Director: Sam Mendes, rated R strong sexuality, nudity, language, violence

... look closer

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Chris Cooper

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up." – Lester Burnham

Why watch this? It's such a uniquely American tragedy, both beautiful and brutally painful.

Plot Summary: Lester Burnham is a man slogging through a suburban marriage, and a midlife crisis, who becomes infatuated with his daughter's best friend. This sexual obsession leads him to question and significantly change his life, including his career and his relationships. These changes are a bit too radical for his wife to handle.

Jinks/Cohen Co.; DreamWorks Pictures

He Saw The World In A Way No One Could Have Imagined.

Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Christopher Plummer, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Judd Hirsch

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?" – Dr. Rosen

Why watch this? What is the difference between genius and insanity? A mere thread.

Plot Summary: Mathematician John Nash started college as a brilliant young student, making a revolutionary discovery. Then he had to face profound mental challenges.

DreamWorks Pictures, Imagine Ent.;
Universal Pictures

A couple alone at sea. When a stranger called for help, they made a fatal mistake... they answered.

Starring: Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane
 

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"Please don't shout. That's always been one of my problems. I can never tell people's real motives until it's too late." - Hughie Warriner

Why watch this? A tense sea tale about rescuing the wrong survivor.

Plot Summary: A young couple, John and Rae. after a life tragedy, seek solace on a yacht. John, after all, is an Austrailian Navy captain, so it should be smooth sailing. Their isolation is shattered when they rescue a lone survivor from a sinking ship, only to discover his chilling secret. The encounter sets off a terrifying ordeal at sea where they both must fight for survival.

Kennedy Miller; Warner Bros.

In deadly danger...because they saw too much!

Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr, Judith Evelyn, Frank Cady, Georgine Darcy, Ross Bagdasarian

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"People do a lot of things in private they couldn't possibly explain in public." Lt. Doyle

Why watch this? Nobody did it like Hitchcock. This one drips constant suspense.

Plot Summary: Confined to his apartment with a broken leg, a photographer named L.B. Jeffries spends his days observing his neighbors through his rear window. His casual pastime takes a dark turn when he becomes convinced that one of his neighbors, a traveling salesman named Lars Thorwald, has murdered his wife. Despite skepticism from his girlfriend Lisa and his nurse Stella, Jeffries enlists their help in a perilous amateur investigation.

Patron Incorporated; Paramount Pictures

Free your mind

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Juian Arahanga

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #19 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Matrix

"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure." - Agent Smith to Morpheus, as he interrogates him

Why watch this? Conceptually, visually, creatively - this film set a new action sci-fi standard.

Plot Summary: A computer programmer named Thomas Anderson, known in the hacking underworld as Neo, feels that something is fundamentally wrong with his reality. He is contacted by the enigmatic Morpheus and Trinity, who offer him the chance to discover a shocking truth: that his world is actually a computer-generated simulation. Upon swallowing a red pill, Neo awakens in the desolate real world and begins a journey to free humanity from the machines that have enslaved them.

Village Roadshow Pictures, Grouch II Film
Partnership, Silver Pictures; Warner Bros.

There is no such thing as a simple miracle.

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Robin Williams, Penelope A. Miller, Julie Kavner, John Heard, Max Von Sydow, Vincent Pastore, Ruth Nelson

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ - near perfect

"Hello. My name is Leonard Lowe. It has been explained to me that I've been away for quite some time. I'm... back." - Leonard Lowe

Why watch this? It was an unlikely pairing of stars, but they make the most of it.

Plot Summary: Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a neurologist who specializes on patients in a catatonic state due to a rare disease. He believes the drug L-DOPA, used for Parkinson's disease, can help "awaken" them. Sayer begins a trial with Leonard Lowe, one of his patients, and it leads to remarkable results for Leonard and a chance to help other patients.

Lasker/Parkes Prod.; Columbia Pictures

It's his most nerve-stretching thriller!

Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Joan Chandler, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Kenneth Lawrence, Edith Evanson

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 100 #94 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of Rope

"I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create." - Brandon Shaw

Why watch this? This is my favorite Hitchcock film. It's lean and twisted.

Plot Summary: Two intellectual young men, Brandon and Phillip, murder a former classmate as an act to prove their supposed superiority. They then host a dinner party, with the victim's body hidden in a chest within the same room, serving as a macabre challenge to mental acuity. As the evening unfolds, their former professor, Rupert, becomes increasingly suspicious at their odd behavior.

Transatlantic Pictures; Warner Bros.

Notorious Woman of many Desires! Fateful Fascination! Bold Intrigue!

Starring: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schunzel, Moroni Olsen

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"Every time you look at me, I can see it running over its slogans: "Once a crook, always a crook", "Once a tramp, always a tramp". Go on. You can hold my hand. I won't blackmail you for it afterwards." – Alicia Huberman

Why watch this? The building suspense within this film is quietly palpable.

Plot Summary: U.S. agent Devlin recruits Alicia Huberman, the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, to infiltrate a group of Nazis hiding in Rio de Janeiro. Alicia agrees, but her mission becomes complicated when she falls in love with Devlin while being tasked with seducing a prominent Nazi named Alexander Sebastian, who was previously infatuated with her. This arrangement forces her into a difficult position, testing her loyalties and potentially putting her life in danger.

Vanguard Films; RKO Radio Pictures

Why So Serious?

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #20 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Dark Knight

"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." – Alfred

Why watch this? This Nolan effort set a new, grittier standard for comic book films.

Plot Summary: Following the events of Batman Begins (2005), the emergence of a criminal mastermind known as the Joker throws Gotham City into a state of chaos and anarchy. Batman, along with Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, try to combat the escalating threat, but the Joker's unpredictable nature challenges their methods and forces Batman to confront his own beliefs. The film explores the fine line between hero and vigilante as Batman faces his most personal and challenging struggle yet.

Legendary Pictures, Syncopy;
Warner Bros. Pictures

Some memories are best forgotten

Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Russ Fega, Jorja Fox, Stephen Tobolowsky

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are. I'm no different." – Leonard Shelby

Why watch this? Creative film storytelling 101. Its unorthodoxy is its strength.

Plot Summary: Leonard Shelby is a former insurance investigator who suffers from a rare form of short-term memory loss. Following an assault that resulted in his wife's murder, he can remember events from his past but cannot form new memories. Leonard uses a system of Polaroids, notes, and tattoos to track information as he relentlessly seeks to avenge his wife's death.

Summit Entertainment, Team Todd;
Newmarket

If he's crazy, what does that make you?

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Michael Berryman, Scatman Crothers, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Sydney Lassick, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot! The next woman takes me on is gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!" - McMurphy

Why watch this? To remind you do everything possible to avoid a mental institute.

Plot Summary: Randle P. McMurphy is a rebellious and boisterous convict who feigns mental illness to avoid hard labor and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. There, he clashes with the authoritarian head nurse, Nurse Ratched, who rules the ward with strict control and manipulative tactics. McMurphy attempts to disrupt the oppressive routines and inspire the other patients to regain their sense of individuality and freedom.

Fantasy Films; United Artists

To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman.

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald, Brooke Smith, Diane Baker, Kasi Lemmons, Charles Napier

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

DML Top 50 #13 - Dad's Full (Spoiler) Review and Deep Dive of The Silence of the Lambs

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. You fly back to school now, little Starling." – Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Why watch this? ... it's a lethal combination of everything important to great filmmaking.

Plot Summary: A young FBI trainee, Clarice Starling, must interview an incarcerated, manipulative cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, to gain insight into capturing another active serial killer known as "Buffalo Bill". With the help of Lecter's psychological profiles and cryptic clues, Starling works against time to uncover the identity of the killer and save his latest victim. As she delves deeper into the case and the mind of Lecter, she also confronts the psychological challenges of a male-dominated field and her own personal past traumas.

Strong Heart Productions; Orion Pictures

The World is Watching

Starring: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Ed Harris

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ - perfect

"We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented, it's as simple as that." - Christof

Why watch this? This is a masterpiece for director Peter Weir and star Jim Carrey.

Plot Summary: Truman Burbank is an average man who lives a seemingly normal life in a picturesque town. Unknown to him, his entire world is a meticulously constructed set, and everyone he knows – his family, friends, and neighbors – are actors in a globally-televised reality show called The Truman Show. As strange occurrences begin to disrupt his routine, Truman slowly starts to question the reality of his existence and seeks to discover the truth about his life.

Scott Rudin Prod.; Paramount Pictures