Movie/Music/Book Recommendations

Suggestions welcome

Movies

• Thoughtful comedies:
  • Being There (Peter Sellers)
  • Harold and Maude
  • Zelig (Woody Allen)
  • The Gods Must Be Crazy
  • When Harry Met Sally
  • Catch-22
• Disturbing science fiction thrillers:
  • Blade Runner (Harrison Ford)
  • Brazil (Original and Director's Cut)
  • Clockwork Orange
  • 1984
  • Rollerball
  • Solaris (The original, not the remake!)
  • The Matrix (Especially on DVD)
• Intellectual discussions:
  • My Dinner With Andre
  • Mindwalk
  • The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Lily Tomlin)
• "Confidence" movies:
  • The Sting (and The Sting II)
  • Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels (Steve Martin, Michael Caine)
  • House of Games (Wow)
  • The Spanish Prisoner (David Mamet directing Steve Martin)
  • Maverick
  • Big Hand for a Little Lady (My Father liked it)
  • Grifters (My friend Tim liked it)
• Musicals:
  • Man of La Mancha
  • Jesus Christ Superstar
  • The Wall
  • Amadeus (not a "musical" per se)
  • Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Not quite real-world adventures:
  • The Thirteenth Floor
  • The Usual Suspects (watch it twice!)
  • The Truman Show
  • Groundhog Day
• Other memorable goodies:
  • The Name of the Rose
  • The Professional
  • Oh Brother, Where Art Thou
• Movies you have to watch twice:
  • The Usual Suspects
  • Jacob's Ladder
  • The Sixth Sense (and anything else by M. Night Shamalayan)
  • La Riviere du Hibou (based on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge")
  • Psycho
  • The Others
  • The Game
  • Fight Club (so smart, so much better than its first impression)
  • Memento (the scenes are all shown in reverse time sequence)
  • Mulholland Drive
  • Donnie Darko
  • The Moderns (so I'm told)
  • Frailty (so I'm told)
  • Arlington Road (a "Conspiracy Theory" feel)
  • Zero Effect (so I'm told)
  • Perfect Blue (so I'm told)
  • The Last Time They Met (ok, it's a book)
  • Unbreakable
  • The Waking Life (so I'm told)
  • The Cube
  • The Village
  • Anything by Luis Bunuel? (so I'm told)
  • Skeleton Key
  • The Prestige (wow)
  • The Nines (wow)

Music

• Obscure albums (yes, they're still albums whether they're in LP format or CD format :-):
  • Songs that Made this Country Great - Stan Ridgway
  • The Future - Leonard Cohen
  • Flood - They Might Be Giants
  • An Evening Wasted With - Tom Lehrer
  • Animals - Pink Floyd
  • Vol. 1 (and the sequel, Vol. 3) - Traveling Wilburys
  • Tower of Song: the songs of Leonard Cohen - various (great) artists
  • Bad Love - Randy Newman

Books

• Read at 15; re-read at 40:
  • Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
  • Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
  • Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman
  • The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov