Wonder Boys

Curtis Hanson directed this 2000 film starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr, Katie Holmes, and Rip Torn.

Michael Douglas is an stressed, stoned English Professor who has had a successful first novel but has been working on his second for a long time...seven years. And his agent is coming to see him. And his wife is leaving him. And his affair with his boss the dean of the college is not going so well. And to top it all off, one his his students is a brilliant writer.

Quirky, funny, and it has some depth and feeling to it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185014/

Raising Arizona

Ok, is this one of the funniest movies ever?

Coen Brothers film from 1987 stars Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, Trey Wilson, John Goodman.

Loser and his police officer wife use twisted logic to justify stealing one baby out of a set of quintuplets ("They have more than they can handle..."). The police are after them, so is a bounty hunter (Tex Cobb).

Movie is twisted and wicked funny with great cast, acting, camera work. Wonderful scenes abound, from life in prison to a hunt for Huggies during a convenience store robbery.

A must see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/

Blood Simple

Love Coen Brothers movies. From Raising Arizona and O Brother Where Art Thou to The Big Liebowski.

Almost all of their films seem to be about crimes gone wrong. But each is instilled with its own unique personality and great characters. And Bllod Simple was the start of it all.

Made in 1984 by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya (remember him as Nick Tortelli on Cheers?), John Getz, and M. Emmet Walsh, Blood Simple is a modern day film noir.

Bar owner husband is being cheated on and hires someone to kill his wife and her lover. But that's only the beginning. The plot twists and turns keeping us in suspense and, at the same time, laughing at the twisted humor.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086979/