The definitive American indie-lite film from '93, made by a pre-schmaltz Lasse Hallström and starring a young Leonardo DiCaprio, this has an affecting warmth and wit. Like an anti-David Lynch movie, it sells smalltown Americana, via Johnny Depp's harried protagonist, as a confused, idiosyncratic but always humane place. John C Reilly and Crispin Glover provide heavyweight back-up.
To explode a myth: in 1966 Antonioni's first English film was pitched not on the Italian director's vision or its meditations on the interface between reality and fantasy, but on its 'unflinching' portrayal of Swinging London—ie, much nudity. The original trailer, included here, makes that perfectly clear: it was popular because of breasts, not because it asked what 'meaning' meant.
And photographer David Hemmings' romps with models and Vanessa Redgrave remain icons of "yeeeah, baby" wish fulfilment for lensmen everywhere.
Sharon's cancer treatment underlies these episodes, producing scenes of poignancy and humour as the family come to terms with her illness. Obviously darker than its predecessor, this also sees a certain loss of naivety, with the Osbournes increasingly aware of good camera moments. The success of the first series has led the teenagers into extreme territory, with Jack, the "man-whore", heading off the rails while Kelly struggles with celebrity.
Dai Sijie's beguiling, semi-autobiographical movie is set during China's Cultural Revolution, when two reactionary city students are sent to the mountains to be re-educated in the ways of Chairman Mao. But their forbidden love for Western art, music and literature is soon infecting the locals, including the tailor's beautiful daughter. Lightweight, but gorgeous to look at.
Irrespective of the now infamous intra-generational doggie-doggie, this steely little tale concerning a granny (Anne Reid) and a horny builder (Daniel Craig) is a visceral attack from writer Hanif Kureishi on the hateful London middle classes. The merciless depiction of harsh money-grabbing sons and neurotic, self-obsessed daughters gives the flick its genuinely dark heart.
From Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon, a four-disc set of the only series (unscreened in the UK) of his "sci-fi western". Fans will relish the smart-ass jokes as a motley crew of screwed-up mercenaries do all the flawed, human things Star Trek didn't. There's more action and pyrotechnics than ideal, but it's a slow burner.
Recorded for MTV's acoustic strand in 1994, this catches the Mighty Zimm midway between the raw-boned graverobbing of World Gone Wrong and Time Out Of Mind's resurrection shuffle. A respectable, if slightly sterile flick through his back pages—"The Times They Are A-Changin'", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Like A Rolling Stone"—though he seems most fired up by newer material like "Shooting Star" and "Dignity". Not the stuff of legend, but not to be sniffed at.
Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1981 debut is a romantic thriller about a young opera fan who records a bootleg tape of his favourite opera singer. Since she's always refused to be recorded, the tape becomes almost priceless on the black market, with opera fans and gangsters chasing after it. Very French, very stylish, very '80s.
Arguably the Farrellys' best film, though already ageing badly. A bunch of set-pieces (Ben Stiller's zipper problems Cameron Diaz's innovative hair gel) linked by a ridiculous, overlong plot, it gets its big belly-laugh moments right and you tolerate the padding. Stiller's lack of vanity allows him to carry off sketches others would muff.
