“American History X”
Ed Norton stars as a paroled killer and reformed neo-Nazi who desperately tries to prevent his younger brother (Edward Furlong) from going down the same path.
“Borat”
The funniest and saddest part about Sacha Baron Cohen’s satire is that the ignorance, sexism and bigotry he encounters across America are all very much real.
“Dances With Wolves”
Kevin Costner directed and starred in the Oscar-winning period epic about a Union soldier who moves out West, befriends wolves and eventually sheds his military uniform and embraces the ways and culture of the Lakota Indian tribe.
“The Deer Hunter”
Michael Cimino’s magnum opus stars Christopher Walken and Robert DeNiro as two kids from a steel town in Pennsylvania who are shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Though some characters do survive the war, they come home incomplete and irrevocably altered.
“Dick”
The Nixon administration suffered many disgraces, but perhaps none quite as humiliating as this fictional account of Watergate that sees the president of the United States taken down by a couple of ditzy, starstruck teenagers.
“Fahrenheit 9/11”
Taking a critical look at one of the most patriotic times in U.S. history, Michael Moore takes to task the Bush presidency, their push for the War on Terror and its portrayal in the media.
“Falling Down”
Out of work, divorced and fed up with the American Dream in general and 405 traffic in specific, Michael Douglas goes on a violent rampage across Los Angeles.
“Fruitvale Station”
Michael B. Jordan real-life victim Oscar Grant, an unarmed young black man who was shot and killed by Bay Area transit police in front of dozens of witnesses in 2009.
“The Great Gatsby”
All the versions of this F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation, including the latest starring Leonardo DiCaprio, revel in the empty excess and soullessness of wealth and success.
“The Ides of March”
Director George Clooney made some changes from the play on which his movie is based, “Farragut North,” to portray a bleaker and more corrupt political system in which cynicism and ruthlessness wins all.
“In the Loop”
It’s not a surprise that Armando Iannucci went on to do “Veep” after this dark but hilarious political satire, about the complete incompetence of government on both sides of the pond.
“Joe”
John Avildsen’s strange vigilante film stars Peter Boyle as the titular angry, racist, violent and thoroughly cynical bastardization of the American everyman.
“Love Actually”
In a rare glimpse of how other countries see America, this British rom-com skewers the fictional president, played by Billy Bob Thornton, as a sleazy predator — and America itself as not so much a partner but a bully to England.
“The Manchurian Candidate”
John Frankenheimer’s 1962 thriller and Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake both feature prisoners of war who are hailed as heroes when they return home, but are actually revealed to be brainwashed assassins.
“Wag the Dog”
Robert DeNiro is a political tactician who tries to start a war with Albania to draw attention away from a presidential sex scandal.
