Recently watched Shattered Glass, the story of journalist Stephen Glass and all the stories he made up while writing for The New Republic magazine. A very good movie, and damn if Hayden Christiansen (Glass) can’t act when you get him away from the all the light saber bullshit. Highly recommended.
I agree wholeheartedly. The pathologically insecure Glass character was well fleshed out and I found myself sympathizing with him. I don’t know if the movie can be spoiled since it’s based on a real person, but:
As his world began crumbling around him, and he knew he was busted, he could just not let go.
I watched the original The Ladykillers a few days ago. Not quite as small as some of the other movies mentioned here, I guess, but I think it fits. It has Alec Guinness AND Peter Sellers, although Sellers doesn’t get to do much. I watched it for Guinness, and he’s creepily terrific. Herbert Lom is also very good, and in general this blows the Coen Brothers’ version out of the water.
I saw Brick in theaters and also enjoyed it a lot.
One of my favorites – because how many movies have an editor as the heroic figure? 
The film is really well crafted. I liked the way the story started at the core, then peeled away the layers so you got a bit by bit reveal on just how far Glass’s deceptions went back. Artfully done. And I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who liked it. Points for PoorYorick and twickster!
And an unlikeable unpopular editor at that?
Excellent movie. I’d also recommend “The Lavender Hill Mob” also starring Alec Guinness.
I enjoyed “The World’s Fastest Indian” as well - it’s not an “A” movie but a really solid “B”, quite good.
Hm, I’ll throw “Prey For Rock And Roll” out there. It’s a little independent film starring Gina Gershon (yum) as the lead singer of an all-girl rock band. They’ve been doing their thing for years and are still playing crappy little bars. She’s approaching 40. Various characters and crises appear. It’s not a great film but I really dug it, and Gina gets into being a rock star (there’s a tiny moment where she’s up on stage belting out a tune and you can see spit and sweat flying off her and I thought “That is really what rock and roll looks like, somebody up there in leather giving it their all”). One of my coworkers here is in one of the bands that contributed some music to the movie.
I’ve been on a Guinness kick lately - I watched Bridge on the River Kwai recently, and Kind Hearts and Coronets a few months ago - so I’ll add this to my Netflix and watch it after I’m done with my Toshiro Mifune binge.
I watched that earlier today, only because you recommended it. Sometimes Diaz and MacLaine are overpowering, but they were both great in this movie. And believable. Loved it.
Am I shallow because I wanted Toni Collette to do something different with her hair on her wedding day? Pulling your hair off your face and making a bun is what you do when you have a floor to mop.
Or was that part of her character – not giving in to outward appearances?
The Quiet. An interesting little film, which has some “twists” in it, that show how they should be done if you’re going to use them. Not at all what I expected from the trailer.
Not all that recently: The Man in the Moon. Reese Witherspoon way before she got famous. The girl could act. She’s been doing lightweight stuff compared to this for the last decade.
The Well. Ambiguous relationship between an older farm woman and a young drifter. Slow, psychological buildup of the characters and resolution.
Older film, but watched recently: Yamakasi. Back before the recent Bond film was even conceived of, this film introduced Parkour to movie-goers. The plot is relatively thin, and though Luc Besson is connected to the film, it’s only tangentially, but the stunts and teamwork between the group members are the main feature here.
Not all that small, but you might not have seen it: Danny the Dog. I’m not sure how big the changes were to the US version compared to the one I watched. This film is way different from most martial arts films, and the opening sequence will hammer this fact home. Repeatedly. The protagonist is a severely flawed character and his development is actually the main point of the plot, though there are some incredible fight scenes.
Jet Li is great in just about anything he’s done. Even low-budget stuff gets full effort from him. I’ve become a fan of his in the last few years because even though he is in a lot of films that are “martial arts” films, he doesn’t seem to approach them as martial arts films, but as opportunities to act in between the action scenes.
Just watched an early Christopher Walken movie from 1972 called The Happiness Cage.
He plays an angry, violence-prone soldier with behavioral problems that gets sent to a clinic with other unruly participants.
The clinic is run by a doctor who experiments on their brains. This means creepy Frankenstein stuff like wires sticking out of their heads and whatnot. Doctor implants a device into Walken’s roommate (played by Ronny Cox) where he can activate a device that just by pushing a button can activate his pleasure center. Ronny gives himself orgasm after orgasm by pushing the button and only after three hours does Chris discover him, near death…
It only gets better from there. Good stuff. (The Doctor seems to have some self-perceived ethics issues going on, as well.)
I’ve been overdosing on independent / foreign films lately. The kinds of movies that I’d never heard of in any advertising, (as opposed to, say, In Her Shoes, which got an avalanche of press,) and SDMB searches turn up nada.
Buddy Boy was pretty good, if a touch batshit insane. Not like Pi crazy, but pretty crazy.
Brothers was fantastic. A subtitled foreign film, (Dutch, maybe?) about the good brother being lost to the Iraq war and the ne’er do well brother subsequently growing closer to the wife and kids left behind. Can’t say enough about how much I dug this one.
Winter Passing was an interesting dysfunctional family drama with Zooey Deschanel, Ed Harris, and Will Farrel. Zooey really shines in this one as a depressed loser, if that makes any sense.
A couple Robin Williams flicks were worth watching: The Night Listener (based on a true story) was okay, but much more interesting was The Final Cut. “Set in a world with memory implants, Robin Williams plays a cutter, someone with the power of final edit over people’s recorded histories.” Cutters assemble 90 minute movies to summarize a life, which get played at funeral services. Very cool idea, though the execution could have been a bit better. Still a good flick.
The best of the best I’ve seen recently, though, had to be the over-the-top campiness of Slither. Goofy and fun, with a perfect cast: Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks, with a cameo by Jenna Fischer. (This one has been mentioned here on the SDMB before, for obvious reasons.)
Oh, speaking of Jenna Fischer, she played a prostitute in a very fun little indy film called Employee of the Month. (Not the Jessica Simpson / Dane Cook movie of the same name.) Another strong cast, with Matt Dillon, Steve Zahn and Christina Applegate. I can’t say too much, as any discussion past the first 10 minutes would be a spoiler. Suffice it to say that Matt Dillon is a guy with a remarkably shitty life, and the movie takes place during one of his shittiest days ever. Steve Zahn is fucking awesome in this one.
Oh, one more I forgot: Heights, with Elizabeth Banks and Glenn Close. It’s pretty gay, but a well acted drama. Considering the main characters are supposed to be stage actors, it better be well acted. heh.
Speaking of gay movies, it wasn’t all that “little” but I see Roger Avary’s Rules of Attraction is back in rotation on cable. A bit forced at times, but the cast more than makes up for it. Definitely worth seeing once.
ETA: It was already mentioned, but I second PS. But then, I’m a big Laura Linney fan.
That reminds me of The Squid and the Whale, which was okay. Very reminiscent of The Ice Storm, if not as good.
Not exactly recent, but I enjoyed the documentary Born Rich (2003)-- a peek into the lives of the children of the ultra-wealthy. Eye-opening.
I watched I Like Killing Flies the other day, and I thought it was excellent. It’s a documentary about a restaurant owner in Greenwich Village who pontificates while cooking in a cramped kitchen. He has some interesting things to say, and his relationships with his customers are very amusing.
That’s the only good one I’ve seen lately. I loved Little Children, but I don’t really consider it “little” because I’ve seen previews for it.
Panic. A dream movie if you like character actors, and it features a child actor I don’t want to slap. William H. Macy plays a middle-aged man having a mid-life crisis; he’s lost his passion for his wife, he’s dissatisfied with his work with his job, and he gets a crush on a young woman. His job? Well, he sells mail order goods. And kills people for his dad.
I had forgotten about this movie completely. LOVED IT! William H. Macy is a god. Seriously.
Did you see Door-to-Door, the one where he plays a disabled door-to-door salesman? It’s great. I don’t personally know a lot of people who’ve seen it, so I’ll call it a “little” movie, though I think it was a Made For HBO production.
Angel-A, it was very big in France, but not so in the US. Luc Besson does an update of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, set in Paris with supermodel Rei Rasmussen as the Angel.
The film is sweet, sexy and kicks major ass.
Oh and Paris, je t’aime, which is a collection of short films, each set in a different neighborhood and each with the theme of ‘love’.
I’m pleased and a little relieved. I don’t know anyone else who’s seen it, and haven’t seen any reviews. I liked it, but I’ve learned that my tastes tend toward the middle-brow, so I wasn’t sure that it would appeal to others here.
I’m a guy. I didn’t notice her hairstlye, or anyone else’s, at any point in the film. Sorry.
Uh, yeah. That’s it.
Meh. I saw this in the theater a week or two ago, and didn’t like it. Sixteen little vignettes, each no more than five minutes long. There was nothing wrong with any of them: they were varied, making different points about different kinds of love. But less than halfway through I was looking at my watch wondering when it was going to be over. It just wasn’t satisfying, like trying to make a dinner out of hors d’oeuvres.