Nicholson is brilliant in his portrayal of not much of a guy Warren Schmidt and his not much of a life. Recurring images of cattle in opposition to desperate lip-service to an adventuresome take-charge spirit reveal a life of (nearly) absolute fecklessness. One of the best endings ever.

Broad picture of America in the early 1900s, with its burgeoning cult of celebrity and its rampant rascism. James Cagney's last movie.

Ben Kingsley was born to play Gandhi. This film is grand in the strict narrative sense, but does not give short shrift to Gandhi's all-important ideas. An amazing performance in an amazing movie about an amazing man.

Suburban gothic that never panders. Features the incomparable Joan Allen.

Max Fischer is a great character, sort of a demented teen Don Quixote, and Bill Murray was robbed of the Academy Award for his performance in Rushmore, as far as I'm concerned. Great soundtrack.

"Part Jack-the-Ripper and part Winnie-the-Pooh" is how Bob Hoskins described the serial killer Hillditch he portrays in Felicia's Journey. There's one dream sequence that only someone with a heart of stone wouldn't be moved by. My favorite Atom Egoyan movie.

"They'll never catch me. Because I'm f***ing innocent." That line is profoundly insightful into the character of Dignan. A great love story coupled with a dire, wickedly funny attempt at life as a desperado. As usual, Anderson's selection of soundtrack music is impeccable.

Altman's Brewster McCloud is more ambitious and quirky than most directors working today on their BEST day. It's not the best movie ever made, but it's pretty darn good, and a serious lapse is that this can't be had on DVD.

People you should be thankful not to know behaving terribly.