The Best Films of Our Years is an affectionate and witty traversal of the history of the movies year-by-year by an author whose style has been called "finely crafted" (America), "highly readable" (Choice), and "often irreverently amusing" (Opera News). In the 1970s, when he was lecturing on film, Father Owen Lee was able to speak with and learn from such movie people as Pauline Kael, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, and Roberto Rossellini. In this book he provides thumbnail reviews of ten -- arguably the best ten -- movies of each year from 1935 (when he began his movie going) to the present. There is a preliminary section commenting on fifty important films that preceded 1935. And there is a closing section with longer chapters on "the ten best films of all our years", among them Grand Illusion, Rashomon, and Lawrence of Arabia. The book's title rings a change on William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999—“a terrifically fun snapshot of American film culture on the brink of the Millennium….An absolute must for any movie-lover or pop-culture nut” (Gillian Flynn). In 1999, Hollywood as we know it exploded: Fight Club. The Matrix. Office Space. Election. The Blair Witch Project. The Sixth Sense. Being John Malkovich. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. American Beauty. The Virgin Suicides. Boys Don’t Cry. The Best Man. Three Kings. Magnolia. Those are just some of the landmark titles released in a dizzying movie year, one in which a group of daring filmmakers and performers pushed cinema to new limits—and took audiences along for the ride. Freed from the restraints of budget, technology, or even taste, they produced a slew of classics that took on every topic imaginable, from sex to violence to the end of the world. The result was a highly unruly, deeply influential set of films that would not only change filmmaking, but also give us our first glimpse of the coming twenty-first century. It was a watershed moment that also produced The Sopranos; Apple’s AirPort; Wi-Fi; and Netflix’s unlimited DVD rentals. “A spirited celebration of the year’s movies” (Kirkus Reviews), Best. Movie. Year. Ever. is the story of not just how these movies were made, but how they re-made our own vision of the world. It features more than 130 new and exclusive interviews with such directors and actors as Reese Witherspoon, Edward Norton, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Nia Long, Matthew Broderick, Taye Diggs, M. Night Shyamalan, David O. Russell, James Van Der Beek, Kirsten Dunst, the Blair Witch kids, the Office Space dudes, the guy who played Jar-Jar Binks, and dozens more. It’s “the complete portrait of what it was like to spend a year inside a movie theater at the best possible moment in time” (Chuck Klosterman).

The arts.

During the 1990s, Austin achieved "overnight" success and celebrity as a vital place for independent filmmaking. Directors Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez proved that locally made films with regional themes such as Slacker and El Mariachi could capture a national audience. Their success helped transform Austin's homegrown film community into a professional film industry staffed with talented, experienced filmmakers and equipped with state-of-the art-production facilities. Today, Austin struggles to balance the growth and expansion of its film community with an ongoing commitment to nurture the next generation of independent filmmakers. Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids chronicles the evolution of this struggle by re-creating Austin's colorful movie history. Based on revealing interviews with Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge, Quentin Tarantino, Matthew McConaughey, George Lucas, and more than one hundred other players in the local and national film industries, Alison Macor explores how Austin has become a proving ground for contemporary independent cinema. She begins in the early 1970s with Tobe Hooper's horror classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and follows the development of the Austin film scene through 2001 with the production and release of Rodriguez's $100-million blockbuster, Spy Kids. Each chapter explores the behind-the-scenes story of a specific movie, such as Linklater's Dazed and Confused and Judge's Office Space, against the backdrop of Austin's ever-expanding film community.

Barry Norman is Britain's best known film critic. This is his personal choice of the ' best ever' films. This is a new revised edition Barry Norman's personal selection of his best 100 films of the century. As he says in his intro ' There is 1 thing of which I am quite sure: you will not agree with all o it. You will agree with some of it; there are films included which would undoubtedly be on everybody's list but equally there are several, maybe many, which would appeae on any but mine...' Each of his hundred films are reviewed in his inimitable style: Witty, incisive, controversial. Accompanying the reviews are the main film credits, running times, Oscar nominations and awards, and video availability. In addition to his selection, Barry Norman has written a perceptive brief history of the cinema: My purpose being to pick out the most sinificant developments and thereby give some kind of context to my choice of the best 100 films of this century. This new hardback edition has been completely updated and revised with colour photographs, where appropriate , throughout.

From Hallingdal to Houston -- Hollywood on the Colorado -- Breaking away -- Highway to the danger zone -- Hollywood gothic -- One hit after another -- Batmania -- The man Hollywood trusts -- Conclusion

A lavishly illustrated, fact-filled celebration of the 101 movies that have changed our lives.

Your source for cinebriation - this compilation combines more than 60 reviews from Alcohollywood's written film review columns Fresh Pour and Rare & Vintage from 2013 into a single volume. - Since 2011, Jared and Clint of the Alcohollywood podcast made new drinking games for movies each week - new or old, good or bad, they toasted to it all. In 2013, they added two new columns to supplement their award-nominated podcast, adding even more acerbic wit and in-depth analysis to the world of online film criticism. Every witticism and criticism is included in this single-volume compendium of more than 60 reviews form 2013's output of Alcohollywood's two written columns - Fresh Pour, Clint's weekly review of two new releases, and Rare & Vintage, Jared's archaeological foray into lost forgotten filmic gems. If you're searching for your perfect source for cinebriation, look no further.

William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) tells the story of three veterans returning from World War II and adjusting to civilian life in a manner unusual for classical Hollywood cinema, with melodrama leavened by authentic detail, personal memories and a fierce desire to capture its historical moment. Sarah Kozloff's illuminating study of the film traces the contribution of Wyler (himself injured while serving in the US Air Force), Robert Sherwood's screenplay, Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography, Hugo Friedhofer's award-winning score, and the ensemble cast of Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright and Harold Russell. The film's poignant message spoke to American audiences reeling from the end of the conflict and the bumpy transition to peace: producer Samuel Goldwyn received hundreds of letters from ex-servicemen about how accurately his production had captured their experiences. Despite winning nine Academy Awards, Best Years was soon engulfed in political conflict from both the right and the left. Disagreements about the film's politics foreshadowed HUAC's anti-Communist investigations and the fracturing of the Hollywood community that culminated in the collapse of the studio system. Sarah Kozloff's discussion of the film's development, production and reception history draws on archival research to shed new light on our understanding of this much-loved movie, and to bring The Best Years of Our Lives back where it belongs: in our collections, in our libraries, and in our hearts.