Paul's Favourites
The 7th Arts's highest level of achievement can be judged alongside great literature, great music, and great painting, with many filmmakers creating enduring masterpieces.
The list of film titles below may not all be enduring masterpieces, but I have however, fond lingering memories of all of them. They all fit the criteria of what I feel films can or should do, to not only be well crafted, but also to entertain, inform, enlighten and more often than not, take the viewer down roads less travelled...
Can only hope you also will discover or rediscover some viewing pleasures among my all-time favourites' listed below.
Network (1976)
8.1/10
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty
A savage satire written by Paddy Chayefsky, looking at the powers behind television programming. Even more compelling and relevant today than when it... Read more
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
7.8/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles D...
A wonderful, whimsical graft of Homer's "The Odyssey" telling the tale of three chain gang escapees in 1930s Mississippi. George Clooney is the slick... Read more
O Brother, Where Art Thou? ( Blu-ray ) (2000)
7.8/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: George Clooney, Charles Durning, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leig...
A wonderful, whimsical graft of Homer's "The Odyssey" telling the tale of three chain gang escapees in 1930s Mississippi. George Clooney is the slick... Read more
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
8.5/10
Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
A great Western by the great Sergio Leone. Henry Fonda is the ruthless psychopath, Jason Robards the half-breed falsely accused of a terrible slaughte... Read more
Osama (2003)
7.4/10
Director: Siddiq Barmak
Starring: Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar
The first feature film from post-Taliban Afghanistan, this award-winning drama is set during the radical Islamic regime's rule. With women forbidden t... Read more
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
7/10
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton
You want some fresh air? Here it is! Pee-wee Herman goes on an adventure to recover his most important possession - a bicycle stolen by some nasties.... Read more
Performance (1970)
7/10
Director: Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg
Starring: James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg
Mick Jagger is Turner, a burnt-out rock star, in this mind-boggling study of consciousness and identity where nothing is true and everything is permit... Read more
Pi - Faith in Chaos (1998)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis
This original work focuses on an obsessed math prodigy. A strange numeric pattern thrown up by the fluctuations of the stock market, which only he can... Read more
Re-Animator (1985)
7.2/10
Director: Stuart Gordon
Starring: Bruce Abbott, Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, David Gale, Robert Sampson
This stylishly grotesque and gory filming of H.P. Lovecraft's 'Herbert West, Re-Animator' hits the mark, as we follow a brilliant young medical studen... Read more
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
8.3/10
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn
As powerful an anti-drug statement as it is a drama, director Aronofsky's ('Pi') visually hypnotic film graphically tracks the downward spiral of four... Read more