“21 Great Films to Put the Recession in Perspective”

h/t to Jeff Messerman for sending me the link to “Hey, Things Could Be Worse: 21 Great Films to Put the Recession in Perspective” at AV Club.com. Here are the movies:

1. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

2. Umberto D. (1952)

3. Land Without Bread (1932)

4. Los Olvidados (1950)

5. I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)

6. King Of The Hill (1993)

7. Nobody Knows (2004)

8. Stroszek (1977)

9. Workingman’s Death (2005)

10. Rosetta (2002)

11. Dark Days (2000)

12. The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)

13. Withnail & I (1987)

14. Killer Of Sheep (1977)

15. Pather Panchali (1955)

16. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976)

17. Dogville (2003)

18. Grave Of The Fireflies (1988)

19. Push: Based On The Novel By Sapphire (2009)

20. Man’s Castle (1933)

21. Mad Max (1979)

Some really interesting titles here and there are several I haven’t seen. But let me pimp three of them.

Harlan County U.S.A. is one of the best documentaries ever (it won an Academy Award in 1977). Here’s a great interview with one of my favorite writer-directors John Sayles talking about the documentary as it relates to the movie he made Matewan (1987).

One of my all-time favorite ‘small’ movies is Withnail and I which oddly enough came out the same year (1987) as Matewan — hard to imagine two more different films. Withnail is absolutely hysterical (I already featured the movie here). Interesting to note that ex-Beatle George Harrison is listed as an Executive Producer because of the involvement of his movie production company Handmade Films, also connected with the movies Time Bandits, Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (not a bad line-up of films). Here are 10 of the best moments in Withnail & I per a fan in the U.K.:

Finally there’s King of the Hill (1994) for which my friend Gary Frutkoff did the production design. The movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is a little gem. Interesting to note that it features a very young Katherine Heigl in a small role.

What movies from this list would you recommend?