#54: Ratatouiile

#53: Synecdoche, NY

#52: Hello, Dolly

yay for Wall-E reminding me of this great old musical!

#51: Outsourced (2006)

When his department is outsourced to India, customer call center manager Todd Anderson (Josh Hamilton) heads to Mumbai to train his successor (Asif Basra). Amusing culture clashes soon ensue as Anderson tries to explain American business practices to the befuddled new employees -- and in the process learns some important lessons about globalization … and life. Director John Jeffcoat's delightful comedy also stars Ayesha Dharker and Matt Smith.

lovely. Recommended for an easy afternoon viewing.

#50: The Puffy Chair

When Josh (Mark Duplass, whose brother Jay directs) finds the perfect birthday present for his father, he decides to deliver it in person. But with his high-maintenance girlfriend Emily (Kathryn Aselton) and granola brother Rhett (Rhett Wilkins) along for the ride, Josh's simple road trip turns into a much bigger journey than anyone anticipated. This indie romantic dramedy was an audience favorite at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

#49: Superbad (2007)

40-Year-Old Virgin veterans Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen team up again as producer and co-star/co-writer (respectively) of this high school comedy starring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as best buddies facing separation anxiety as they prepare to go off to college. Attempting to score alcohol for a party (believing that the babes will follow), the boys' evening quickly dissolves into chaos. Bill Hader ("Saturday Night Live") co-stars.

#48: Goldfish Memory (2003)

In this comedy set in contemporary Dublin, Clara (Fiona O'Shaughnessy) is stunned when she finds her boyfriend kissing someone else (Fiona Glascott), setting in motion a string of romantic mishaps for the heartbroken woman and several other lovelorn characters. Marriage, casual encounters and everything in between are explored by this group of relationship-challenged people who ultimately just want the same thing: someone to call their own.

I kept seeing this, but never picked it up. Mildly entertaining.

#47: Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009)

A new assignment hits home for grim reaper Georgia (Ellen Muth) when her latest reaping, Hudson Hart (Jordan Hudyma), turns out to be the secret love of her sister, Reggie (Britt McKillip). Meanwhile, Calvin Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) takes over as Head Reaper, but he's not highly regarded by his undead underlings Daisy (Sarah Wynter), Roxy (Jasmine Guy) and Mason (Callum Blue) in this feature follow-up to the short-lived Showtime cult hit.

enh - like a decent episode, really.

#46: Penelope (2006)

Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) is cursed, and the only way out of it is to fall in love with someone of suitable stock. But how can she possibly find her soul mate when she's sequestered inside her family's sprawling estate with only her parents (Catherine O'Hara and Richard E. Grant) to keep her company? Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon co-produced this unconventional fairy tale about a girl who bucks convention to make her own happy ending.

Kinda ok. Presumably set in England -- though accents were all over the place (I'm assuming they filmed in the UK, and just didn't bother establishing the location as a real place -- maybe for the fairy tale theme?)

#45: Happy Go Lucky

#44: Rachel Getting Married

When drama queen Kym (Anne Hathaway, in her first Oscar-nominated role), a former model who's been in and out of rehab for 10 years, returns to her parents' home just before the wedding of her sister, Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt), long-standing family conflicts begin to resurface. Directed by Jonathan Demme, this touching and humorous drama co-stars Debra Winger and was nominated for a Best Feature Independent Spirit Award, among others.

Debra Winger takes just one bite -- albeit a big one -- out of the scenery here. A lovely movie, really one of the best I've seen so far this year.

#43: What Just Happened (2008)

Harried film producer Ben (Robert De Niro) juggles a lunatic director, a temperamental actor (Bruce Willis) and an out-of-control production while courting a studio head (Catherine Keener) and dealing with his ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) in Barry Levinson's funny and poignant exploration of the movie business. The all-star comedy is based on the sharply observed novel by veteran Hollywood producer Art Linson.

#42: King Corn (2007)

In Aaron Woolf's thought-provoking documentary, friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis move back to America's Corn Belt to plant an acre of the nation's most-grown and most-subsidized grain in an attempt to follow their crop into the U.S. food supply. What they discover about genetically modified seeds, powerful herbicides and the realities of modern farming calls into question government subsidies, our fast-food lifestyle and the quality of our food.

90 minutes

#40: Flash of Genius (2008)

#39: Outing Riley

#38: Bottle Shock

France's position as the world's top wine producer was unchallenged until 1976, when the Montelena Winery put California wines permanently on the map. Director Randall Miller's film chronicles the heady early days of Napa Valley's rocket to success. Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, Eliza Dushku, Bill Pullman and Freddy Rodriguez star in this tale of dreamers who dared to challenge the establishment.

Though I wanted to love this film, all I can muster is appreciation that I read the book, and disappointment that the film didn't fully respect it. Just go read the book (Judgment of Paris): it's more educational and entertaining.

#37: The Order of Myths

Dating back to the 1700s, Mobile, Alabama's Mardi Gras celebration is the oldest in the country -- and it's still going strong today. With the annual event as its focus, this documentary explores the city, its mystical societies and race relations. Tens of thousands of enthusiastic revelers descend upon downtown Mobile each year to take part in a variety of colorful parades, balls and festivities. Margaret Brown's work was nominated for Best Documentary for the Independent Spirit Awards.

I've really never been to the south, other than some very short work trips. But I am interested in learning more about the details of life in these old Southern cities. The film's opening tells us that Mobile had the country's first Mardi Gras, 15 years before New Orleans was founded as a city.

It's a city with roots, and plenty of issues. Not more than a few minutes in, it's clear that drawing a picture of White Mobile and Black Mobile is one of the themes here. And the deep, deep family histories associated with the history of Mobile. "My people were on her people's ship," one of the Mardi Gras queens tells us, referring to the white Mardi Gras committee's queen, whose family brought the last slave ship into the U.S., in Mobile. It's more than a little uncomfortable watching the lead-up to the festivities, with no prior understanding of this culture. Two parallel systems in place, but not equal by any stretch. Men in hoods and masks, girls dressed up like dolls. Uneasy detente.

#35: 2 Days in Paris (2007)

#32: Bigger, Stronger, Faster (2008)

In sports, winning is everything, and the pressure to succeed can drive some athletes to start taking banned substances. Filmmaker Chris Bell points the camera at his brothers and himself, all users of steroids. By exploring the reasons behind and effects of steroid use within his family, Bell calls into question the win-at-all-cost attitude so prevalent within American society.

Interesting, really really interesting. Surprising. Though I shouldn't be surprised. Demonize the drug, make lots of after-school specials about it, ban the use of enhancements in professional sports -- all to keep the game smaller (to some degree). You can get strong without steroids; you just can't be the strongest, the biggest.

The aesthetic doesn't appeal to me, nor does the need to be bigger/stronger/faster; but clearly it appeals to a lot of other people. It seems like the behavior -- getting that big -- is what society objects to (at least at some level), and yet it's the drug that we focus on, just the drug. We want the biggest/strongest/fastest, but we want to make it fair, or not about who has the most money (?) Or maybe most guys don't really want to see guys who look like that playing our sports -- seeing their physique moves the upper bar, making us all feel further away from "best". People who don't take the drug, don't have the pressure chamber at home, they feel like they've been cheated, that there's a way around the rules that they didn't have access to. But it seems like everyone's looking to get to the best in pro sports, everyone's trying to get as close to the line as they can without having it ruled as cheating. We want it, but we say we don't -- hey, it really is the all-American drug! Let's put out a million messages and images in advertisements and other entertainment media that communicate just how great it is to be big and cut and unrealistically perfect -- but then demonize the supplements, the steroids, or else pathologize the body dysmorphia, the anorexia and bulimia. The comment about ours being the only country where direct advertisement to the public is allowed is a solid hit. We live in a terribly screwed-up culture.

#31: Strange Culture (2007)

On the eve of his new exhibit, artist and professor Steve Kurtz was shocked by the news that his wife had died of heart failure. The medics on the scene became suspicious of Kurtz's artistic media, which includes genetically modified foods, and the FBI accused him of bioterrorism. This disquieting true story is brought to life by actors Tilda Swinton, Josh Kornbluth and Peter Coyote in Lynn Herschman Leeson's chilling dramatic documentary.

Chilling and terrifying and almost too much to watch and take in. The technique of reenacting some scenes in the documentary is interesting -- and works, completely. Interviews with the actors, film running while they talk about the real people they're playing, all contribute to the large mosaic they're building about the artist and this case.

As the opening line reads:

"Steve Kurtz is unable to comment on events that occurred immediately prior to his arrest. Actors have interpreted his story."

Hence the reenactions. Because he has a story, and has told it at various points (and others have pieces of the story to tell, as well), but while he can give interviews on events occurring after the arrest, he can't tell the substantive part of the story on camera.

This easily surpasses "Jesus Camp" as the most terrifying movie I've seen in the last year.