I'll try and give some recs. Not all of them will be immediately apparent why a Dissident might like them but I feel they all have value.

Edvard Munch: For me the quintessential profile of the artists passion. Directed by Peter Watkins a little known English director it's a portrait of Munch and his life. Watkins has an unusual and really unique style where the camera is present in a way that his characters are aware of. It's not intrusive though and though seemingly odd for a period piece -- he uses this technique in all his films including his film about Bonny Prince Charlie and the battle of Culloden -- it really adds a different dimension and gives the film almost a journalistic quality. His use of editing and switching between time periods at rapid pace makes the film at once a documentary that also feels like a personal tour of human memory. It's a mesmerizing film and Munch is a fascinating artist.

The Natural: Directed by Barry Levinson who always struck me as an extremely WASP-o-phile Jew -- if that's a term -- this is an American mythos of course centered around the quintessential game of America's golden age: Baseball. The shots are so beautiful -- Caleb Deschanel is a masterful talent -- and the story is uplifting. Redford is great. Film is lily white as well and the period is one I like. It's also a sharp departure from the original Malamud book as well which is very dark and bleak and much more unfulfilling. Top sports film.

The Aviator: Great recreation of the period. Again lily White and excellent performances especially from Blanchett and DiCaprio -- I'm sure everyone who's seen it enjoys that icy encounter between Hughes and the Hepburn family -- self described 'socialists who don't care about money'. Hughes is Faustian spirit personified and his descent into madness and paranoia is handled with nuance where much like in Shutter Island later on you can't quite tell at times whether he's just paranoid or is actually being menaced by forces seeking his downfall. As a fellow OCD sufferer I also recognized a lot of the problems Hughes faced. Great film.

Paris, Texas: Directed by Wim Wenders with a once in a lifetime soundtrack by Ry Cooder. It's difficult to describe but it's an amazing film. European take on the vast continent that is America. I guess one could read it as a comment on the American White -- it's not I just made that up -- but it's a beautiful film with or without a deeper reading.

The Talented Mr Ripley: Based on a novel by Highsmith who was a lesbian who had very honest opinions about homosexuals themselves this is one of the best looking, best sounding and best acted films in my lifetime. Hoffmann -- RIP -- as Freddy Miles the bullying and aggressive friend of Dickie Greenleaf is probably one of my favourite roles of all time. Again the film is lily White and he captures the Italy of the time -- good and bad -- perfectly. It's also a really quite scathing study of the homosexual type. Matt Damon's Ripley is violent, covetous, secretive, deceptive and totally at odds with the world around him. There's an earlier film based on the same novel called Purple Noon which I don't like as much with Alain Delon as Ripley. It's also worth looking at. Funnily enough Wenders who directed Paris, Texas also made a film based on a Highsmith novel that is essentially a follow up to this film with of all people Dennis Hopper as Ripley. That's really good as well.

The Guilty: More recent Danish (?) drama which is very compelling and centers around events concerning a call to emergency services. There's barely 3 or 4 characters in the entire thing and most of the shots are simple one camera focus shots on the dispatch operators face. That may sound unappealing or unexciting but boy do they squeeze a lot of drama and intrigue out of it.

The Hunt: Mads Mikkelsen plays a man accused of molesting the child of a close friend and the film centers around the towns reaction to him. It's a really fascinating study of a certain type of Scandinavian mindset which many on the DR will recognize. It's really nice to look at, the acting is great and I go back to it a lot and can't help but watch it imagining Mikkelsen's character has been accused of racism or being a 'Nazi'.

The Straight Story: I'd recommend most of Lynch's films but this one somewhat flew under the radar. It's a simple film really Richard Farnsworth learns his estranged brother played by Harry Dean Stanton -- Stanton is the lead in Paris, Texas and Farnsworth has a small and memorable role in The Natural so it's all coming together! -- is dying and needs to travel across country to see him. He doesn't have a car so he buys a ride on lawnmower to get there. I'm a sucker for pastoral shots and Lynch captures the American countryside in a lovely, Hopper-esque way. There's really great, life affirming and pro-social encounters along the way. It's a love letter to middle America. People think of Lynch and they think of him as this master of the dark, disturbing and evil spiritual underbelly we all face and they're right but what I think they often miss is that he doesn't actually like that stuff. It's a warning about the truth of the darker forces we all encounter. In the end I find his vision as wholesome as a nice cup of coffee and a slice of pie -- ha! -- and get the feeling that he'd like to live in the world Jeffrey Beaumont finds himself in at the end of Blue Velvet safe with the Robins and a lovely blonde GF.

Brawl On Cellblock 99: As well as Bone Tomahawk this is a great Zahler film. It's a good mash up of genres, great soundtrack and it's basically a film about a Southern White Christian with a shaved head and a talent for boxing beating the SHIT out of mainly Mexicans. Very entertaining and brutal.

Hell Or Highwater: One of the best films put out in the last decade and I was really glad to hear it had another big fan here on the DAR board. Two brothers need money if they're to stop the banks from foreclosing on their family farm so they turn to bank robbery and laundering through casinos. Again the Texas shots look magnificent and the acting is spot on. Jeff Bridges plays a sheriff tracking them with an Indian sidekick and their interactions are the highlights of the film. There's crotchety stuff where Bridges is complaining about his 'damn soccer' but there's also really profound interactions relating to what's happening in modern Texas -- it's NOT anti-White either. Pay special attention for one absolutely amazing discussion between Bridges and the Apache discussing the banks. We could have written it.

Richard Jewell: Clint Eastwood's take on the framing of the American everyman for the Atlanta Olympics bombing. It's very simple in style and really well acted. In fact the FBI agent played by the Mad Men Guy and the careerist sociopath journalist played by some broad were played so well that whenever I see those actors now I hate them. Most DR people will know the story but Eastwood is absolutely scathing about the press and the FBI and presents Jewell and his family with the utmost sympathy. No cheap anti-'hillbilly' nonsense. Let's hope one day that James Fields gets a film like this. (Amusing side note is I was reading the other day I think on Sailer's blog that the response to the actual call from the real bomber took much longer than it should have because of some stupid DMV style Shaniqua who couldn't even spell the name of the park the bomb was placed in and bring it up on her compootah.)

The Bonfire Of The Vanities: Based on Tom Wolfe's novel Tom Hanks plays a naive lawyer of Irish stock. Tired of having nothing but Brown people to convict a ruthless Jewish DA in NYC is looking for a 'great white defendant' and Tom Hanks is chosen. I'd recommend reading Radical Chic as a little primer if you're going to watch this. It makes a great appetizer. There's really astute observations about the NYC legal system and Wolfe just nails types and so does the film. There's a Sharpton type rabble rouser in the film that makes me laugh. Bruce Willis is great as the journalist as well. Don't know how they got away with that Jewish DA though.

There's so many more but I'll leave it at that for now.