“Forget the Superbowl - I instead introduced some friends to David Wain's 2001 comedy cult classic, a truly hilarious, laugh-out-loud movie; as much of a hipster as it makes me, I will say I totally saw it at Sundance in 2001 before everyone else.”

“Spanning decades of investigation and obsession over Northern California's Zodiac Killer, David Fincher's 2007 film is part police drama, part thriller, part mystery, all under a genuinely spooky pall of dark, rain-soaked atmosphere.”

“David Cronenberg's latest is a 2011 drama about the relationship between Freud and Jung is not only about psychoanalysis but seems to encourage us to psychoanalyze its characters to understand their unstated motivation and weaknesses.”

“This ham-handed 2008 film is an self-serious melodrama masquerading as a teen thriller about a teacher's week-long experiment in recreating Third Reich-style fascism amongst his classroom. Naturally, this is a German film.”

“Industrial design is central to this 2009 documentary, a sequel of sorts to the 2007 typeface documentary "Helvetica"; here, designers speak to modern mass production and the increasing urgency for sustainability's role in consumer goods design.”

“This extraordinary 2011 documentary utilizes footage shot by Swedish journalists throughout the late '60s and early '70s to tell the story of the Black Power movement in the U.S.; the history is as remarkable as it is dire.”

“Roman Polanski's 2010 film is only mildly a thriller in the vein of Hitchcock and much more a political film driven by a thinly-veiled caricature of Tony Blair as well as Iraq War-era U.S. and U.K. relations. Acceptable but unremarkable.”

“A revelatory 2009 documentary on the powerful convergence of media and government as Silvio Berlusconi, owner of 80% of Italy's media, presides over a society driven to intellectual bankruptcy by a narcissistic lust for fame.”

“A 2011 documentary on supposed radicalism within the environmentalist movement in modern American politics, represented by the Earth Liberation Front, and an exploration of what exactly is "eco-terrorism".”

“This 2004 documentary chronicles the reassessment of the death penalty in Illinois as a wave of exonerated men forces the outgoing governor to ultimately commute the sentences of all 167 of Illinois' death row inmates.”

“The only film ever directed by preeminent graphic designer, title designer and corporate identity designer Saul Bass, this truly weird 1974 scifi film is strikingly visual, making use of color and geometric shapes in footage of the macro and micro.”

“There's nothing erotic about Steve McQueen's NC-17 chronicle of one man's life of sexual addiction; instead, it's an upsetting look at compulsive self-destruction, the echoes of abuse and the danger of emotional isolation.”

“Michel Hazanavicius' love letter to cinema really is one of the best films of 2011; genuinely funny, clever, creative and moving, Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo and, of course, Uggie, make a tremendous on-screen trio.”

“Amicus' weird 1971 retelling of Jekyll & Hyde (changed here to Marlowe & Blake) tosses in Freudian psychoanalysis along with stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. There's nothing particularly unique about it save for the trashy print quality.”

“This 2008 documentary is a series of conversations with 8 influential philosophers about their respective fields of study, their modern application and the role of philosophy and critical thinking in everyday life.”