your big trouble, honey, is that you attack yourself from all sides, like Jersey mosquitoes

Four thumbs up! There's pretty much always got to be one that makes me shake my head - and this time it was the overwhelming Oscar winner. There's no accounting for taste....

Anastasia (1956) - "An opportunistic businessman tries to pass off a mysterious imposter as the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and she is so convincing that even the biggest skeptics believe her."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection
I watched it because: I like both Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner a lot
IMDB: 7.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 92% Audience: 78%

notable quote: "The poor have only one advantage; they know when they are loved for themselves."
story: the Romanovs were all executed in July 1918...right? Or did Anastasia escape? How, and why, would she prove she was really her?
visuals: lovely
costumes, hair & makeup: gorgeous
acting: Brynner (General Sergei Pavlovich Bounine) plays a devilish fellow, and Bergman's take on the title character is delicate and nuanced.

intangibles: I liked it much more than I'd anticipated. This is a very good film.
Academy Award winner: Best Actress—Bergman (Anna Koreff)
Academy Award nominee: Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture 
overall: highly recommended

American Beauty (1999) - "A sexually frustrated suburban father has a midlife crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend."
Source: streamed
I watched it because: curious
IMDB: 8.3/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 87% Audience: 93%

notable quote: "I think you just became my personal hero."
story: really nasty. Deeply disturbed.
visuals: beautifully filmed
costumes, hair & makeup: well done
acting: it's hard to praise something so revolting

intangibles: this is not "a bad movie." I just didn't like it at all. There are no redeeming characters, and none of the disgusting characters have redeeming qualities. It is a self-aggrandizing parade of messy degradation and open wounds, dressed up with clawfoot bathtubs, teenaged girls, red roses, and denial. I wouldn't watch this again at gunpoint.
Academy Award winner:
• Best Picture

• Best Actor—Kevin Spacey

• Best Director—Sam Mendes

• Best Writing, Screenplay written directly for the screen

• Best Cinematography
Academy Award nominee:
• Best Actress—Annette Bening

• Best Film Editing

• Best Music, Original score
overall: not recommended

The Big Heat (1953) - "Tough cop Dave Bannion takes on a politically powerful crime syndicate."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection
I watched it because: I have a crush on Glenn Ford
IMDB: 8.0/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 100% Audience: 90%

notable quote: "Oh, well you're about as romantic as a pair of handcuffs."
story: Bannion is a cop with good instincts. When he closes in on a criminal enterprise, though, the gang comes after him, hard. 
visuals: great for the genre
costumes, hair & makeup: wonderfully dated, and matched to each character's persona
acting: besides Ford (as Bannion), Jocelyn Brando (as Katie, Bannion's wife) and Gloria Grahame (as the deceptively loopy gangster's moll Debby Marsh) were terrific

intangibles: awesome film! Very engaging, suspenseful, and meaningful.
overall: highly recommended

Changing Lanes (2002) - "The story of what happens one day in New York City, when a young lawyer and a businessman share a small automobile accident on F.D.R. Drive, and their mutual road rage escalates into a feud."
Source: I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection
I watched it because: Samuel L. Jackson is one of my motherfuckin' favorites
IMDB: 6.5/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: Tomatometer: 77% Audience: 53%

notable quote: "You know, booze isn't really your drug of choice anyway. You're addicted to chaos. For some of us, it's coke. For some of us, it's bourbon. But you? You got hooked on disaster."
story: sleazy lawyer hits breaking-down insurance salesman in a minor car wreck. His fancy European car survives but the other man's is destroyed. This collision sets in motion a very bad day for each of them.
visuals: believably erratic, polarized, and gritty (with the exception of one incredibly random rainstorm)
acting: there are terrific moments for each of the lead actors, but they are swimming in a soup of testosterone, ego, and schmaltz 

intangibles: strangely similar to Bounce in theme and moralizing, this is a star vehicle for Ben Affleck that doesn't quite hit the mark. It is pleasant enough and the ending justifies the watching, but it's nowhere near the best either of them can do.
overall: marginally recommended

The Dandelion / Oduvanchik / Одуванчик (2011) - "Two of the most prosperous families in town—the Adrianovs and the Zeldovs—are preparing for the marriage of their children, which promises to benefit business interests. The day before the wedding, the groom (Rodian) meets a plain 'dandelion' girl Sonia, when the elevator in which they are riding suddenly breaks down."
Source: streamed on Amazon Prime (as much as I'd love to say I borrowed the DVD from my parents' collection)
I watched it because: the cover art caught my eye
IMDB: 6.4/10  -  Rotten Tomatoes: N/A%

story: at the 11th hour before his wedding, the groom meets the bride's "ugly" school friend, who is nicknamed Dandelion because she has curly blond hair and is artistic (she's an origami artist!) and flighty. The two are interested in each other, unlike the bride and groom who are matched only for family dynasty purposes. The wedding goes on but is not consummated. The bride leaves. The groom hooks back up with Dandelion, with intent to leave his wife for her. Alas, the wife is pregnant....

visuals: mindblowing. I'm starting to think I might really like Russia.
costumes, hair & makeup: lovely
acting: Sergey Derevyanko (Rodian Adrianov) is great as the uptight groom 

intangibles: the IMDB reviews whine about the subtitles, which are occasionally nonsensical and very quick to flash off the screen. (Valid.) However, this movie would absolutely work as a silent film, or without subtitles at all. Watch the characters' faces, see the way they interact, and there is not much that would be missed that's worth seeing anyway. This is a kitschy, adorable, thinky movie. I liked it very much.
overall: highly recommended

[the title quotation is from The Big Heat]