nobody could have made a baseball player out of Uncle Otto, and nobody can make anything but a baseball player out of me

This is the most interesting and unique group in a long time. Korean Buddhist tale, sordid Southern spectacle, sports biopic, and early detective yarn. Three yeas and a nay.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring  {봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄} (2003) - "A boy is raised by a Buddhist monk in an isolated floating temple where the years pass like seasons."

Source: streamed on Amazon Prime
I watched it because: Korean cinema is one of my interests
IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 94% Audience: 93%

notable quote: "Sometimes we have to let go of the things we like."
story: deceptively simple, yet powerful
visuals: spectacular. Everything is precise and exists for a reason, but there is zero pretense.
costumes, hair & makeup: just like the visuals, it's all purposeful but not showy
acting: outstanding from top to bottom - including the cat

intangibles: this caught me at the right time, in the right mood, to be totally receptive to its subtle message. I'm really glad that I caught it. 
overall: eagerly recommended

Black Snake Moan (2006) - "Backwoods bluntness fires Black Snake Moan like a blues lick that stands your hair on end. It's a steamy, searing saga of rigorous redemption confronting creepy Southern seediness."
Source: streamed on Amazon Prime
I watched it because: I'd wanted to see it when it came out but no one would go with me
IMDB: 6.9/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 66% Audience: 69%

notable quote: "You ain't got but one life; you ought to live it the way you want."
story: older black man, recently left by his stuck-up wife, finds a beaten white girl passed out in the road. He brings her back to his house to give first aid, one thing leads to another, and ...
visuals: lurid, visceral, and sexy
costumes, hair & makeup: uncomfortably perfect
acting: Samuel L. Jackson (Lazarus Redd) is extraordinary, commanding and hot and a little scary. Christina Ricci is wonderful as the screwy, foul-mouthed, funny terror, Rae Doole.

intangibles: this is a deeply fucked up movie that I found mesmerizing, cathartic, and spellbinding. And the soundtrack is phenomenal. (If you've seen the film already, Roger Ebert's review made me shriek with laughter and is absolutely worth reading.)
overall: super highly recommended

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) - "The story of the life and career of famed baseball player Lou Gehrig."
Source: streamed on Amazon Prime
I watched it because: I wanted to see The Natural, but it was not available on Prime and this was - and I realized there was another classic baseball movie I hadn't seen. Let's start the show!
IMDB: 7.7/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 93% Audience: 89%
AFI: 100 Years ... 100 Cheers (2006) #22

10 Top 10 (2008) Sports #3

notable quote: "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
story: a synopsis of the all-too-brief life and career of the great first baseman, the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig
costumes, hair & makeup: just right
acting: Gary Cooper (Lou Gehrig) is inspiring, funny, and heartrending. It must have been a rough role to accept—Gehrig died in 1941, after all, only a year before this was released—and Cooper was marvelous.

intangibles: I love sports films, and baseball in particular. This one is top-notch and definitely worth a view.
Academy Award winner:
• Best Film Editing
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Picture

• Best Actor--Cooper

• Best Actress--Teresa Wright (Eleanor Twitchell Gehrig)

• Best Writing, Original Story--Paul Gallico

• Best Writing, Screenplay

• Best Cinematography, B&W

• Best Art Direction--Interior Decoration, B&W

• Best Sound, Recording

• Best Effects, Special Effects

• Best Music, Score
overall: highly recommended

The Moonstone (2016) - "A diamond goes missing after a party at an English country house, and numerous suspects have a motive for its disappearance."
Source: streamed on Amazon Prime
I watched it because: it is based on a Wilkie Collins novel that is considered the first English language detective story
IMDB: 6.1/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: N/A%

notable quote: "I promise—on my life—I never will again."
visuals: elaborate, quaint and dramatic, but with excessive use of extreme close-ups. That gave a distractingly modern twist to the period piece, and also drew too much attention to the...
costumes, hair & makeup: fussy and distracting. The hair is especially terrible, all ringlets and pursed lips.
acting: no sympathetic characters, no warmth, and no one for whom to cheer

intangibles: SO dreadfully overlong. It could have been told in 45 minutes.
overall: not recommended

[the title quotation is from The Pride of the Yankees]