"The Ice Storm" scrutinizes a suburban family's travails at the height of the 1970s in upper-middle-class Connecticut. Given the film's intense exploration of the period and the locale, it comes as a surprise that this poignantly accurate piece was directed by a native of Taiwan who only arrived in t

Beautiful , Domestic, Eclectic, Sensual, Serene

Fade in: a scorpion writhing in the dust. Its jagged red tail repeatedly plunges into its own body in a last-ditch effort at dignity and self-preservation. As the camera pulls back, we see children huddled over the desert insect, poking it with a stick and jeering at its hopeless state. This is j

Pathos, Physical force, Pioneering, Power, Violent, Witty

David Lynch has been charged with making incomprehensible films. In fact, they make perfect sense, but not necessarily to us. An exemplary scene in "Fire Walk with Me" (1992) shows this: Two investigators are to receive their assignment from a very odd-looking woman named Lil. What they receive from

Anxiety, Dreamy, Enigmatic, Hallucinatory, Perverse, Quirky, Surreal, Surrealist film

"To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about," flamboyant filmmaker John Waters has said. "If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation." Just check out the infamous scene in the cult classic "Pink Flamingos" (1972), in which a 300-pound transvestite cheerf

Gritty, Grotesque, In-your-face, Ironic