My 150 Favorite Films - #12

Lost in America (1985)

Written and directed by, and starring comedian and actor Albert Brooks, Lost in America is a satirical look at what happens to one  middle-class couple when they try to drop out of the rat race and explore America in a Winnebago, sort of an Easy Rider for the Yuppie set. Winner of the Best Screenplay award from the National Society of Film Critics, this sharply observed comedy follows the rapid descent of the couple's idyllic journey as it devolves into neurotic desperation. Without a doubt, this is Brooks's finest effort to date.

My 150 Favorite Films - #13

Rebecca (1940)

Based on the celebrated novel by Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first Hollywood-made film, and the only one that won the Best Picture Oscar. With a blue-chip, pedigreed cast, including Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson, Rebecca stays true to it's source material, with only minor changes. It's a film worth watching again and again, for the intelligence of the performances in addition to the riveting mystery at the center of it all.