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Along with STAGECOACH, this is one of my favorite Westerns and one of my favorite films. For people who shy away from Westerns, you should give the better ones a chance. I’ve found that Hollywood used the Western at times to talk about sensitive topics with a bit of distance like Hollywood does with Sci-Fi nowadays.

The story is simple, Will Kane (Gary Cooper, MEET JOHN DOE) sent Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald, JOHNNY GUITAR) up for murder, but Miller gets out on parole and comes gunning for Kane. It’s Kane’s wedding day to a Quaker named Amy (Grace Kelly, REAR WINDOW, TO CATCH A THIEF) and she wants to run, but Will knows the killers will just hunt him down and he’ll live in fear until that day. Will tries to round up a posse, but for various reasons everyone backs away.

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Many people have attempted mock documentaries; or mockumentaries; but no one has done it better than the talents behind this film and two other classics, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and BEST IN SHOW. Rob Reiner, playing a fictitious doc maker, follows fake metal band Spinal Tap during their tour to promote their new album, “Smell the Glove.” The film works more as a low-key satire than a laugh-a-minute comedy fest. The film deftly skewers bad rock lyrics, pompous star attitudes, rotating band members, kitschy style changes, and feuding bandmates.

Spinal Tap is made up of lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean, BEST IN SHOW), guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest, THE PRINCESS BRIDE), bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer, TV’s THE SIMPSONS) and a rotating drummer, a position plagued by freakish accidents. Over the years, there has been a professional rivalry between David and Nigel, an unspoken tension on who is the true artistic center of the group. Derek is content to just bask in their genius. However, the long simmering tensions come to a head when David’s girlfriend Jeanine Pettibone (June Chadwick, TV’s V) bring her astrology into band decisions, which pushes the band’s manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra, JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH) to the brink.

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Cameron Crowe has not made a bad film. He’s written everything he’s directed and those films consist of SINGLES, JERRY MAGUIRE, ALMOST FAMOUS and VANILLA SKY. However, his first film, SAY ANYTHING…, may be his best and is definitely my personal favorite. The film is hands down one of the best movies ever set in high school. Teen comedy/dramas can only aspire to be as good as this film.

The story follows Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack, HIGH FIDELITY) as he tries to form a relationship with the beautiful valedictorian, Diane Cort (Ione Sky, DREAM OF AN INSOMNIAC). He invites her to a graduation party and she reluctantly comes with him. But as the movie’s tag line says, “To know Lloyd Dobler is to love Lloyd Dobler.”

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This film is one the subtlest satires that I’ve ever seen. The poignant and funny comedy comes from a very simple premise, one that director Hal Ashby handles with great precision. Too broad it would have been a disaster. This is why star Peter Sellers is such a key to the films success. He plays his character straight without a hint of irony, making him all the more successful and funny.

Adapted from his own novel by Jerzy Kosinski, the story follows simpleminded gardener, Chance (Sellers, DR. STRANGELOVE), who has never left his place of employment since he was a boy, learning all socialization from what he has seen on TV. His employer (the old man) dies and he’s kicked out of the only home he has ever known into a world in which he doesn’t understand. Through a mistake, he is believed to be a rich businessman and taken in by a very wealthy and influential dying man named Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas, HUD). Chance’s simple statements about gardening are mistaken as profound statements about the government and economy. Eventually, he begins to consult the President (Jack Warden, THE VERDICT). Because of his relationship with Chance, Rand feels better about dying, because his wife Eve (Shirley MacLaine, THE APARTMENT) likes the gardener and will have someone to be with after he passes.

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