Favorite Films

This is Oscar season, a time when more folks discuss their favorite movies, usually what they consider the best films of the previous year. In this NPR piece, the co-directors of the surprise hit, Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, join in with a list of their favorite DVDs (2/9/07 - 7:19).

Musings

• Little Miss Sunshine is itself a good example of a little-heralded film that people enjoy discovering for themselves and then recommending it to their friends--as compared to joining in with wide acclaim of well financed blockbuster like Dreamgirls. Discuss a favorite film of yours that you feel most of your friends have not seen or may not even have heard of.
  
  
• Look up reviews on any one of the films recommended by Dayton and Faris, and see how much agreement there is among the critics. The IMDb has long been the major repository of film information, although now there are many emerging hub sites collecting reviews like Metacritic.com.
  
  
• A personal favorite little-known film is Duel, a 1971, made-for-TV movie by then unknown director, Steven Spielberg. Reviews for such older films are much harder to find online, and are generally limited to the re-issue of the film on DVD.