Dogville (2003)

Had I paid more attention, I would not have chased the weirdest David Lynch movie I've seen with a Lars von Trier piece. Still, this was one of those culturally significant pictures I'd been putting off for some time.

In what might be the '30s, a stranger named Grace (Nicole Kidman) comes to a remote Colorado town, planning to cross the nearby mountain until local would-be writer Tom (Paul Bettany) sees her and advises against it. Not knowing a better way to elude a gang looking for her, she begs sanctuary. Tom talks all his skeptical neighbors into keeping mum for a period and then deciding whether to send her away. Grace endears herself to them with chores, and for a while, she and the town brighten up each other. But when authorities under the gang's sway announce that she's wanted for crimes, although she couldn't possibly have committed them, the townsfolk become less content with lying to the law and subsequently make life increasingly hard for Grace.

Young Man with a Horn (1950)

It's a little late for me to be continuing my celebration of Kirk Douglas, but why not do it anyway? Other people must be doing it too, because several of the films I wanted to see have a wait on Netflix. I made a point not to get a western this time, because my last viewing of him came awfully close. It's also from relatively early in his career, when he was not quite my current age.

Adapted from a novel based loosely on the life of Bix Beiderbecke, it centers on Douglas as Rick Martin (no, nobody calls him Ricky), who starts trumpet lessons as a tween orphan thanks to jazz band leader Art Hazzard (Juano Hernandez). In adulthood, he makes the professional and friendly acquaintance of narrating pianist "Smoke" (Hoagy Carmichael) and singer Jo Jordan (Doris Day). At first his main problem is a tendency to deviate from the sheet music, which doesn't sit well with most employers of the era. A bigger problem arrives in the form of Jo's friend Amy (Lauren Bacall), who draws his attention away from his music....

Ernest & Celestine (2012)

No, it's not part of the Jim Varney collection; just look at the year. I'm talking about an Academy Best Animated Feature nominee that, being foreign, went up against movies from the following year. That's almost all I knew when I chose to check it out.

It hadn't been long since my last French animation from the 2010s with talking animals, but that's about where the similarity ends. Unlike The Rabbi's Cat, E&C is indeed family friendly, having a basis in children's books. Probably the only reason for the PG rating is a handful of lines about ways to die. A sufficiently young viewer might cry over them, but I figure that if I could watch An American Tail many times around age 5, it's not that big a risk.

So how does E&C fare for older viewers? Let me begin my answer with "I WANT A CELESTINE DOLL! SHE'S ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!" But since not everyone would decide on a movie for that reason alone, I'd better put more details below.