I'd like to get some good mystery movie recommendations from the 80s on.
It's OK if they veer toward the thriller, like
Michael Clayton, ridiculous like
Ford Fairlaine, noirish like
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, or are a more standard outing with a strong, interesting, well developed detective lead like
Zero Effect. Drawing room mysteries totally A-OK too. Super bonus points if I can stream them now on Hulu plus or Netflix.
posted by jsturgill
on May 16, 2013 -
25 answers
I'm 30 years old and I just saw
Casablanca for the first time. All of a sudden I understand why so many people joke about "always having Paris." And all of those references to gin joints. Can you recommend some other movies to me that are equally important for understanding American pop culture?
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posted by colfax
on Apr 28, 2013 -
99 answers
I'd like to compile a list of sympathetic monsters/villains, portrayed in any medium--film, fiction, art, music, myth.
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posted by ifjuly
on Mar 18, 2013 -
43 answers
Here's one I've had no luck finding:
A) in the movies, is there a name for those films they used to project behind actors in a movie car to make it look like they were actually on the road? You know the ones: the slightly out of focus view out the rear window. Maybe a chase scene with the bad guy car in pursuit... Or just plain ol' traffic...
B) are any of these background films archived online? Tried Prelinger archives but no luck.
posted by ecorrocio
on Mar 14, 2013 -
8 answers
What are some of the most interesting theoretical models for understanding the plots and themes of movies that were not designed to generate them like Inception was?
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posted by Blasdelb
on Feb 16, 2013 -
33 answers
My friend is a fan of really crappy 80s and 90s movies. I want to buy him the rights to some piece of %$&^ film. Of course, I'd prefer it had some star quality (could just be John Belushi's brother or something). How much would something like this cost? How would I go about doing it? I don't suppose that there's an ebay style auction site where you could do something like that?
posted by matkline
on Dec 5, 2012 -
2 answers
What is this old (60s?) movie that I saw about 20 minutes of a couple of weeks ago on TV? Set in Italy, there's a gigolo and a couple of movie stars and a Hedda Hopper like character and a scene in a grotto type restaurant.
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posted by mygothlaundry
on Dec 2, 2012 -
2 answers
help me find movies depicting women in a healthy relationship, where her space, interest or financial independence are respected.
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posted by valdesm
on Nov 14, 2012 -
26 answers
I'm looking for examples of visual timelines in movies, video games, or fiction. Scenes where a span of time is represented metaphorically, preferably as a physical object, diagram, or action. A good example is
this scene from
Me and You and Everyone We Know in which two characters use a street as a visual metaphor for their potential relationship.
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posted by oulipian
on Nov 13, 2012 -
17 answers
Is there a full list of the Criterion movies available on Hulu? Hulu recently borked the searching on their website making it impossible to search on directors or genres (or almost anything). You can browse to the Criterion section of but there doesn't seem to be a "show me all the movies" subsection. Is there a 3rd party site actually that lists them all?
posted by octothorpe
on Oct 11, 2012 -
5 answers
Help me remember this artsy film about the American south. It came out within the last 5 years I think, I believe there was a number in the title and the theme was something like the modernization of the south. It had 'Koyaanisqatsi' - like composed shots and voice over by a man with a southern accent. I remember a shot of a canoe filled with books inside a flooded building.
posted by mattholomew
on Oct 2, 2012 -
3 answers
What was produced at the factory at the beginning of Michelangelo Antonioni's
Red Desert?
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posted by Egg Shen
on Sep 26, 2012 -
2 answers
I recently watched "Picnic at Hanging Rock," which was made in 1975. I loved that although the movie was set in 1900, the makeup and hair was
so 1970s - long straight middle-parted hair, cats-eye black eyeliner, frosty eyeshadow, an updo that could only have ever been constructed under one of those bubble hairdryers. What are some other "period" movies where the hair and makeup betray the era it was made in?
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posted by sestaaak
on Aug 13, 2012 -
71 answers
What are the realistic odds of a movie studio buying rights to fiction? What steps could one take to even attempt this?
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posted by anonymous
on Aug 6, 2012 -
21 answers
A researcher at my workplace has asked for help finding examples of his topic, early examples of "GIS (Geographic Information Systems) or GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technologies in film and TV", "examples of early precursors to map related technologies". I found someone else's Ask from earlier this year that hits on some likely ones, but he's on the lookout for older and more diverse instances if you can think of any. More details and examples below the fold!
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posted by theatro
on Jul 23, 2012 -
9 answers
To what extent do American Highschools resemble the stereotypical American Highschool seen in just about every movie and TV show ever, withever present competition for social status, rigidly defined cliques, omnipresent bullying, etc... etc?
posted by Artw
on Jul 18, 2012 -
86 answers
Japanese film...colored clouds of poison gas...a village of windmills...what movie am I half-remembering?
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posted by mediated self
on Jul 4, 2012 -
9 answers
My college's language lab has
a bunch of Spanish language movies that I can watch to fulfill my language lab requirement for my Spanish class. But I know very very little about Spanish language film. Which of these movies should I watch? For an added level of difficulty, assume I can only watch five films in a semester.
posted by ocherdraco
on May 16, 2012 -
32 answers
Please help me find the names of three vaguely recalled movies from my past: a teen flick from the 80s, a dubbed (possibly Italian) horror film from the 70s, and a scifi adventure from the 60s (maybe)?
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posted by coolxcool=rad
on Apr 29, 2012 -
13 answers
Name the movie: a teenage protagonist triumphs over the bad guy by offering his bodyguards a better deal than they're getting with their employer. I thought this was the conclusion of
Masterminds with Patrick Stewart, but according to internet plot summaries, apparently not. I do think the movie the scene is from could be of the same targeted-at-teenagers ilk, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?
posted by symbebekos
on Apr 22, 2012 -
4 answers
Avant-garde film filter: Looking for some direct influences of experimental film on mainstream/commercial movies (or ads, music videos, etc.)
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posted by Ms. Toad
on Apr 1, 2012 -
16 answers
Name that movie: I'm remembering an indie film from a few years ago. It featured men in suits in an office building, very atmospheric, and there was dance.
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posted by crookedneighbor
on Mar 28, 2012 -
3 answers
Can you recommend movies where the primary theme is a son or daughter realizing that their father is proud of them?
posted by roaring beast
on Mar 7, 2012 -
27 answers
Question about the crispness and decisiveness of characters' lives in movies.
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posted by jayder
on Feb 19, 2012 -
18 answers
Looking for good depictions of people or characters with truly foreign, alien, or mutually irreconcilable views of the world.
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posted by Bufo_periglenes
on Feb 14, 2012 -
29 answers
Can you recommend online videos or blogs which dissect, compare, and contrast different elements of filmmaking: camerawork, lighting, directing, editing, pacing, music, dialogue, color, etc? And if you went to film school or took classes, what were some lessons/first-hand experiments that really opened your eyes to the art and subjective nature of film?
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posted by TheSecretDecoderRing
on Jan 11, 2012 -
1 answer
What are some examples of movies, tv shows, or music videos that use the "high production value/low production value" trope like in this Coldplay video?
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posted by idledebonair
on Jan 4, 2012 -
7 answers
How can I write a film review for children? Which writing samples would be useful to emulate?
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posted by Knigel
on Dec 27, 2011 -
5 answers
You know how movie shorthand for obsession is often a collection of pictures and newspaper clippings on a wall? I need some examples!
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posted by Doug
on Nov 3, 2011 -
38 answers
