Babette's Feast

Though Babette's Feast starts out slow and seemingly dry, the pace of the movie's plot is necessary to effectively lead to a tender and meaningful climax - The Feast. 

Babette's Feast is a 1987 Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel. The film's screenplay was written by Gabriel Axel based on the story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who also wrote the story which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film Out of Africa. Produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen, and Benni Korzen with funding from the Danish Film Institute, Babette's Feast was the first Danish cinema film of a Blixen story. It was also the first Danish film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1] The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[2]

This true-life drama tells the poignant tale of Los Angeles newspaper reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), who discovers brilliant street musician Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), and the unique friendship that transforms both their lives. In helping his new friend deal with his demons, Steve ends up battling with his own. Joe Wright directs this inspiring drama based on the bestselling book by the real Lopez.

Get at Netflix.

Spiritual Cinema Circle

When I first discovered NetFlix I thought I discovered 7th Heaven. Now that I've found Spiritual Cinema Circle, I know I have.

From the SCC folks:
Spiritual Cinema Circle is the home of entertaining films that inspire love and compassion, films that connect us with the world around us. Now in our sixth year, Spiritual Cinema Circle is home for a community of conscious filmmakers and film-lovers in more than 80 countries. We're proud to have brought the work of more than 100 exciting, new independent filmmakers to the homes of tens of thousands of people around the world.

The movies you get are full-length features, both dramas and comedies, short films, and documentaries on mind-opening subjects. The movies are about many different subjects, but they all share common elements: All our movies are carefully-chosen to provide genuine nourishment for the heart and soul, a much-needed nutrient at a time when more and more Hollywood movies are violent, profane and devoid of meaning. Our movies inspire wonder, insight, deep feeling and transcendence. Above all, they make you feel better about being a human being.

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I just started my free trial...I'll let you know what I think in a month or so...

Angels in America (I & II)

Tony Kushner's groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play (the basis for this 6-hour HBO dramatic miniseries) took more than 10 years to make it to the small screen. Starring Al Pacino (as real-life legal counsel Roy Cohn) and Meryl Streep, Angels is at once heartbreaking and funny as it examines the first few years (the mid-1980s) of the AIDS epidemic against the moral absolutism and unresponsive backdrop of the Reagan Administration.

This film(s) is NOT appropriate for children.

Antonia's Line

Winner of the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and many other prestigious international honors, Antonio's Line is the remarkable story of a woman who builds a new life with her daughter in a quiet Dutch village after World War II. Earthy, sexy, romantic and filled with laughter and warmth, it's a joyous, multi-generational celebration of simple pleasures and enduring passions.

Radio

A small-town high school football coach (Ed Harris) befriends an illiterate, developmentally disabled man (Cuba Gooding Jr.) nicknamed "Radio," who has always been the target of jokes and teasing. Although their friendship raises eyebrows at first, Radio's growth under the coach's guidance ultimately inspires the local townsfolk. Based on the true story of the life of James Robert Kennedy.

For more information on James Robert Kennedy & Coach Harold Jones: Chasingthefrog.com

A Beautiful Mind

John Forbes Nash Jr. (Russell Crowe) was a brilliant economist -- when his mind was clear. But life changed forever with the revelation that he was a schizophrenic. Nash's brilliance persisted amidst the anguish his mental illness caused for him and his wife (Jennifer Connolly), and 40 years after his diagnosis, he won the Nobel Prize for economics. Connolly's acting and Ron Howard's direction won Oscars, and the film was named Best Picture.

This film also received significant criticism for distorting the life of John F. Nash. For those interested in Nash's background from Nash's perspective, he's written his own biography which is available via the Nobel Website and was originally published in Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures.

Mr. Nash's faculty page at Princeton also provides a glimpse into his work on Economics.

Following Sean

In 1969, writer-director Ralph Arlyck filmed an intimate conversation with 4-year-old Sean Farrell -- the son of free-spirited parents living in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district -- who talked openly about smoking marijuana and walking among speed freaks. Revisiting his subject 30 years later, Arlyck finds a much-changed man with thoughtful reflections about his childhood, his parents and the contradictions of the 1960s.

I found this movie through Netflix.

Spring on the Rogue...

Emily and I created a video documentary. This is our first collaborative project and we think we did an exceedingly fine job of it...The title of this mini documentary is Spring on the Rogue (View video here).

Greenfingers

Greenfingers (2000)

This is a hilarious flick elevated not only by Clive Owens' great acting demeanor and excellent good looks but even more so by the phenomenal theatrical dexterity of David Kelly (Waking Ned Devine). Helen Mirren plays a fantastic early English version of Martha Stewart, but with spicey attitude.

Netflix Review:
"A (green) thumbs-up for this affecting true-life tale about hardened con Colin Briggs (Clive Owen), who gets a new lease on life -- behind prison bars -- as an award winning gardener. Wonderful in support are David Kelly as a prisoner chum of Briggs' who coaches him out of his shell and Helen Mirren as a world class gardener who fears for her daughter when she falls for Briggs." (R)

Kinky Boots

Kinky Boots (2005)

I've been engrossed in the idea of product innovation lately and came across this gem of a flick about the efforts of a shoe factory to survive after four generations of operation:

"After inheriting a shoe factory, Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) aims to take the fashion world by storm with help from a cabaret dancer in htis whimsical comedy. Charlie risks it al when he hires sassy Lolo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help design a facy line of women's styled boots for cross dressing men. But on the eve of the Milan Shoe Fair, just as he's about to introduce the world to his signature shoes, everything falls apart. Sarah Jane Potts and Jemima Rooper co-star." Rated - PG 13

Reviews & Flick Info (Here)