Two Days in Paris - Julie Delpy (2007)

If films like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are far from your idea of a romantic comedy, then this one is recommended. It takes a great deal of inspiration from Woody Allen and there's a bit of Godard, too, but then adds some 21st century originality to this combination of neurosis and wit. There is enough crudeness and political incorrectness in the film to make it funny and savoury-sweet in a very European way. Interestingly, Julie Delpy did not just act in, but was a co-writer of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, so this film seems her way of getting the American films out of her system.

Stephen Holden's review from the NY Times

Winter's Bone (2010) - Debra Granik

This is just the kind of depressing piece of Americana that I love to watch on the indie film circuit. Everything in the film - from the faces of the actors, the winter landscape, the rare but pithy dialogue, the amount of things left unsaid and the underlying horror and beauty of life - is perfect. Highly recommended to people who hate 'movies' but love cinema, who hate Hollywood but love Russell Banks's America.

Sideways (2004) - Alexander Payne

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/

I have a horror of Americans talking about food and wine. However, this turned out to be a delightful film. If you like Woody Allen, Paul Giamatti will probably grow on you.

Quotes: 
If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot! 


Jack: Pinot noir?
Miles: Mmm-hmm.
Jack: Then how come it's white? 

Did you drink and dial?

No Country for Old Men (2007) - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

The kind of film only Americans can make. A nice blend of bleak irony, wry humour and southern warmth; some great dialogue (thanks to Cormac McCarthy, of course) in the midst of epic Western visuals. The golden Western of bygone days made modern. Fal...ls a fair bit short becoming a modern classic, though.

Sheriff Bell: I always figured when I got older, God would sorta come inta my life somehow. And he didn't. I don't blame him. If I was him I would have the same opinion of me that he does.

Carla Jean Moss: I got a bad feeling, Llewelyn.
Llewelyn Moss: Well I got a good feeling, so that should even out.

Loretta Bell: Be careful.
Sheriff Bell: I always am.
Loretta Bell: Don't get hurt.
Sheriff Bell: I never do.
Loretta Bell: Don't hurt no one.
Sheriff Bell: [smiles] Well. If you say so.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest (1975) - Miloš Forman

Quotes from the film:

Jesus, I must be crazy to be in a loony-bin like this.
You're no crazier than the average asshole out walking around on the streets and that's it!
Which one of you nuts has got any guts?

Why Forman likes this film:
"It was that final scene because that was the dream of anybody living in communist times, to pick up something and throw it through the bars."

Other quotes from Forman:
Why do political leaders and producers want films which are sentimental?
They don't want life. They want fairy tales. They think that people don't need the truth, that they, the people, need leaders. So, they want to portray life not the way it is, but the way they think it should be, and give the audience some role models to follow.

The protagonists in your films, with few exceptions, are people who are on the fringe, underdogs. Do you have a sympathy for the underdog?
Who doesn't have a sympathy for the underdog? Of course, I do. We create institutions, governments and schools to help us live, but every institution has a tendency, after a while, to behave not as if they should be serving you, but that you should be serving them. That's when the individual gets in conflict, because we are paying these institutions with our taxes, we are paying them to serve us and help us live, and not to tell us how to live and dominate us. I wouldn't say it's the underdog but it's always the conflict within the individual and the institutions. Instead of underdogs, let's talk about dogs. If you corner a dog, he's ready to bite you. That's the reality. Otherwise he's a loveable, wonderful creature. If you corner him, he can behave abominably. And so does a human being. When an individual is cornered by society or an institution, well, he can behave abominably and I can't really hide it or glorify it. Neither. It's just a fact of life.

Interview