FYI – I finished The Road. wow. Thanks again.

And as for “. . . And God Created Woman,” well, one can hardly object to a 20-something Bardot in cinemascope.

I can analyze those for eternity, truly they are masterpieces.

Also, I <3 Vertigo, Frida, the Others, and Amelie. But you’ve seen those.

By the way, I also saw that you reviewed “Heaven” a month or so ago. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out Kieslowski’s work — “The Decalogue,” “The Double Life of Veronique,” and the Three Colors trilogy are all masterpieces of contemporary cinema.

Second, you need to catch up on the classics of cinema. Go to work on Renior, Welles, Hitchcock, Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Kubrick. If you want more of a challenge, see some Dreyer, Ozu, Antonioni, or Resnais. Do some French New Wave films — check out the first three Truffaut films, Godard’s “Breathless” and “Contempt ,” early Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. Oh, and Jean-Pierre Melville! And if classical Hollywood isn’t your cup of tea, definitely hit the highlights of the “New Hollywood era” of 1967 – 1982: Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, Cassavetes, Polanski, Malick, Bogdanovich.

Third, as a general rule of thumb, avoid tedium like the AFI lists or Best Picture Winners, or what Leonard Maltin thinks are good movies. Those lists are middle-of-the-road to a fault and, perhaps without coincidence, royally suck. The best list of film rankings I have seen is here: http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_rankingorder.htm

Finally, check out the Criterion Collection. It’s the perfect gateway into the classics of cinema.

I made a list just over 2 1/2 years ago of 101 films I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen. It’s a collection award winners, critically acclaimed films, ones that ‘you just have to see’ and films I really wanted to see.

I used a few other lists for inspiration:
IMDb Top 250
Genie Awards (Canadian Film Awards)
Academy Award Winners

I was originally inspired by this list over at Triplux that is a compilation of lists:
http://www.triplux.com/films/

And Blake, I’ve invited you to come to some historical films, but I guess they aren’t mainstream enough for you. Or artsy. Or they’re before 1990. I mean you have really limited yourself.