Movies

John and I love movies. We rarely get to see them in the theaters anymore, but when we do, we try to go see something at an arthouse venue. An independent or international film. They're our favorites. (Plus cheesy sci-fi, of course.)

On friday night, we had family in town and they kicked us out of our house. For the whole night. We had a leisurely dinner with no kids yelling or running around. Then we went to see Slumdog Millionare . This was the best movie we've seen in a while. Afterward, we found the hotel, umm... did some stuff, and then took some Unisom for the best sleep we've had in ages. Thanks Grandma J and Mo!

A conversation I had with my brother on the way to the theater made me want to share some of our favorite movies that you've probably never heard of. In no particular order:

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring - This is our favorite movie. Really. Our absolute favorite. You have to watch it with no distractions. Soak it in. The use of silence is breathtaking. And the scenery... you just have to watch it.

Absolute Giganten - Unfortunately this isn't available in the US. We caught it at Sundance way back when. (If you live in UT and aren't taking advantage of Sundance, you are missing out.) BUT, you can watch the fooseball scene. You'll never see fooseball played like this again.

Quitting - Another Sundance find. This is a true story about a Chinese actor quitting drugs. All of his family, friends, and fellow rehabbers joined in to reenact his recovery. We own this one if you live close enough to borrow it.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not - A love story... sort of. I'm not going to say any more than that.

The Emperor's New Clothes - What if Napoleon only faked his death on Elba? And tried to go back and return to power. Serious and funny.

Delicatessen - A dark comedy in a post-apocalyptic world. The entire movie is set within an apartment building that has a delicatessen on the ground floor. We love the Caro/Jeunet directing team and their bizarre ideas. You will either love or hate this movie. We love it.

The City of Lost Children - Another Caro/Jeunet masterpiece, and this time with an actor we love, Ron Perlman. This is even stranger than Delicatessen, so we only recommend it if you're up for something dark and bizarre.

Spirited Away - This is a Hayao Miyazaki. If you don't know his work, you need to. We particularly like this one.

The Station Agent - A beautiful finish for this list. Quiet, powerful, funny, poignant. Peter Dinklage is wonderful. Oh man. I'm moving this the top of our Netflix queue. It's been too long.