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.
Crash (1996)
6.4/10
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, Deborah Kara Unger
James Spader, Holly Hunter and Rosanna Arquette are a motley assortment of car crash survivors seeking more and more perverse thrills to communicate,... Read more
Beyond Rangoon (1995)
6.6/10
Director: John Boorman
Starring: Patricia Arquette, Frances McDormand, Spalding Gray
An extraordinary, brilliantly executed, not-to-be-missed story of a young American doctor who, tormented by her past, travels to Burma with her sister... Read more
The Usual Suspects (1995)
8.6/10
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Suzy Amis, Stephen Baldwin, Pete Postlethwaite, Kevin Spacey, Kevin Pollak, Gian...
Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak and Kevin Spacey star in this inventive, engrossing crime story as a bunch of guys brou... Read more
Natural Born Killers (1994)
7.3/10
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr, Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Sizemore
Dubbed 'A Clockwork Orange' of the 90s, this all-out audio-visual experience is something that comes along all too rarely. Oliver Stone has, with the... Read more
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
7.3/10
Director: Joel Coen
Starring: Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, Charles Durning, John Mahoney
The Coen Brothers' extravagant, dazzling comedy of invention features dynamite performances from Tim Robbins as the fall guy and Jennifer Jason Leigh... Read more
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
9.3/10
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Tim Robbins, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bello...
Director Frank Darabont's powerful adaptation of the novella by Stephen King stars Tim Robbins as a man serving two life sentences in New England's Sh... Read more
Accion Mutante (1993)
6.5/10
Director: Alex De La Iglesia
Starring: Antonio Resines, Frederique Feder, Alex Angulo
This outrageous twisted treat is set in the year 2012 where beauty and style reign supreme, imperfection and deformity are abhorred. Accion Mutante, a... Read more
Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
7.4/10
Director: Rolf de Heer
Starring: Claire Benito, Nicholas Hope, Ralph Cotterill, Carmel Johnson
Locked in his room for 35 years (no TV or Radio here) as not much more than a sex slave, Bubby's perception of the universe is not extensive. Through... Read more
Cabeza De Vaca (1993)
7/10
Director: Nicolas Echevarria
Starring: Juan Diego, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Roberto Sosa
A visually spellbinding biography of the Spanish explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the sole survivor of a 16th century Spanish shipwreck off the co... Read more
Fiorile (1993)
7/10
Director: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Starring: Claudio Bigagli, Galatea Ranzi, Michael Vartan
U.S. title; 'Wild Flower'. This film of immense elegance set in Tuscany focuses on the Benedetti family who preserve their time-honoured ways, includ... Read more