Tao of Steve (The) (2000)

Donal Logue plays a tubby, aging slacker who has cobbled together a philosophy of how men can attract women from random readings and lectures off the top of his head. (You're a "Steve" -- as in McQueen -- if you attract the ladies, or else you're a "Stu.") He finally meets a woman who makes him reconsider his manipulative, self-serving hooey because she's too smart to fall for it. The best line is hers: "Don Juan loved a thousand women because he was afraid he couldn't be loved by just one." The best song in the soundtrack is "(I Just Want To Be) Your Steve McQueen." Four stars.

Deyo (1897)

On a lark, I looked up my last name on the Internet Movie Database and discovered there was a dancer named (just) Deyo who made a movie named Deyo in 1897.

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

Tim Robbins doesn't know he's gone down the rabbit hole in Jacob's Ladder, a psychedelic mind bender of a movie that is memorable and truly scary at times. Five stars.

Altered States (1980)

Altered States was William Hurt's exceptional debut performance, and Time magazine called it the best movie of 1980. Its vivid if often psychotic imagery broke new ground in special effects that still haunts the mind. Five stars.

Quest for Fire (1981)

Anthony Burgess invented the Proto-Indo-European language spoken by the Neanderthal tribe that figures in the 1981 classic Quest for Fire. The production is cinematic genius, but I was pleased to be able to follow all the dialog in an invented language, from the opening scenes where a child gestures, saying, "Doh menye" ("Give me"). Four stars.

Sixth Sense (The) (1999)

Joel Haley Osment in The Sixth Sense delivers a fine performance as a troubled boy who seems unreachable by his mother and psychologist (also played understatedly by Bruce Willis), even though he seems to be doing the best he can, given his secret torment. Willis eventually wins enough trust for Osment to divulge his harrowing and chilling secret. ("I see dead people" has been schmaltzed in enough comedy sketches that I can reveal that much about it.) The whole movie for me has an evident accord with the truth and a motion forward toward the truth, which is ultimately revealed in a plot twist that caught me by surprise. Five stars.

Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)

In Fried Green Tomatoes, Kathy Bates’s character is experiencing angst and shouldering responsibility for her tepid marriage (attending seminars that fault women when her husband is almost completely ignoring her) but finds a renewed identity, purpose and motivation (empowerment) through the simple human connections of friendship and the stories told by Jessica Tandy. Five stars.

Killing Fields (The) (1984)

The Killing Fields is an exquisite film for its depiction of the professional dedication of journalists in a war zone, the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and warfare in general, and the hope, humanity and tenacity that survives like a flower in the midst of a vast killing field. Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor and John Malkovich are exemplars in this film, and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells-like music is chillingly memorable. Five stars.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962, 2005)

I saw An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge in grade school and it stuck with me ever since; my first published short story ("Time, How Elastic") won my high school literary contest and was based on a similar idea. (Curse you, William Gass.) In writing this snippet, I learned that it aired as the last episode of the original Twilight Zone series, won both an Oscar and an Emmy, and is now a remake, supposedly for release later this year. Three stars.

Never Cry Wolf (1983)

Farley Mowat wrote the book--and interestingly, the movie Never Cry Wolf is full of completely different stories, all told with the same understated wit. This is a loving paean to the spirit of the wilderness--and like Charles Martin Smith's character, I have known such peace in facing self and nature in the wild, that I don't want to go back to what is mistakenly called "civilization." Five stars.

Contact (1997)

Contact simultaneously evinces a deep reverence for the life of science and the life of faith, exemplified in the characters played by Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. Carl Sagan, the novelist, implies that they are two sides of the same coin when Foster says her scientific integrity will not let her believe without evidence or disavow her experience, and McConaughey says he would not want to live in a world without God. In the end, Foster's scientific faith leads her through the rabbit hole into a spiritual epiphany, as McConaughey realizes they are now on the same path and vows his support--despite government machinations to paint her testimony as fraudulent. Five stars.

Grand Canyon (1991)

My favorite movies tend to carry some higher sense of destiny, providence or purpose. Danny Glover is a towtruck driver who saves Kevin Kline's lost and broken-down bacon in the wrong side of L.A., telling the gang leader, "It's not supposed to be this way..." Mary McDonnell speaks the best lines to Kevin Kline in Grand Canyon when she says, "How do you know he won't be your best friend until the day you die? These are miracles, Max." Steve Martin does a haunting bit as a boorish splatterfilm director who says, after he's made his wife cry, "While we have a moment..." Five stars.