We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen (2005), Don't Come Back From the Moon (2017), Adventures in Wild California (2000), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Riding Giants (2004), East of Eden (1955), Boogie Nights (1997) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best California movies.
Storyline: Through interviews and archival footage, director Tim Irwin documents the history of the influential 1980s punk band the Minutemen. Surviving band members Mike Watt and George Hurley provide a firsthand look into the band's world, from their start in San Pedro to the 1985 death of D. Boon, the band's co-founding member. Numerous musicians, including Henry Rollins, Thurston Moore, and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, offer insight into the Minutemen's importance to the punk scene.
Plot Keywords: documentary, music, biography, independent film, american, 2000s, california ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In a dusty town at the edge of the world, the men of a small community begin to vanish one by one. Theories about their whereabouts swirl through the ether as their wives and teenage children wait for their return.
Plot Keywords: drama, family, coming of age, american, independent film, father-son relationship, disappearance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A virtual expedition that sends audiences careening down an icy, steep mountain face with snowboarders; twirling on thermals above the clouds with skysurfers; swimming through the oceans with otters and their surrogate human mother; excavating the very heart of a thirty-story tall Giant Sequoia with botanists and emerging from under the spray of one of California's biggest, surfable waves.
Plot Keywords: documentary, adventure, nature, wildlife, california, outdoor, exploration ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The intersecting life stories of Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday in early twentieth century California presents miner-turned-oilman Daniel Plainview, a driven man who will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. He works hard but also takes advantage of those around him at their expense if need be. His business partner/son (H.W.) is, in reality, an "acquired" child whose true biological single-parent father (working on one of Daniel's rigs) died in a workplace accident. Daniel is deeply protective of H.W. if only for what H.W. brings to the partnership. Eli Sunday is one in a pair of twins whose family farm Daniel purchases for the major oil deposit located on it. Eli, a local preacher and a self-proclaimed faith healer, wants the money from the sale of the property to finance his own church. The lives of the two competitive men often clash as Daniel pumps oil off the property and tries to acquire all the surrounding land at bargain prices to be able to build a pipeline to the ...
Plot Keywords: drama, history, usa, greed, power, religion, father-son relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The Joad clan, introduced to the world in John Steinbeck's iconic novel, is looking for a better life in California. After their drought-ridden farm is seized by the bank, the family -- led by just-paroled son Tom -- loads up a truck and heads West. On the road, beset by hardships, the Joads meet dozens of other families making the same trek and holding onto the same dream. Once in California, however, the Joads soon realize that the promised land isn't quite what they hoped.
Plot Keywords: poverty, social injustice, family struggle, american dream, class conflict, labor exploitation, resilience ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A semiserious, often rollicking, multigenerational insider's look at the origins of surfing, the colorful and subversive birth of surf culture, and the mythology and lure of the big wave. This passionate and fluid film is without question the first authentic history of surfing from its humble Hawaiian beginnings to the big business it became to the still-rebellious universe it inhabits today. Riding Giants is a study in individuality and freedom, the pursuit and techniques of pure kinetic pleasure, and the risk taking and attitudes that characterize its leading figures. For some viewers, this is perhaps more than they ever wanted to know. But Peralta's detailed knowledge of the surfing lifestyle, its icons and locations, its boom and exploitation by the media, and the fascination it has held for young men for more than five decades is unparalleled and fuels this expedition for the expert and initiate alike. Closely chronicling the sometimes-life-and-death drama that big-wave riding entails, Riding Giants is an often-mesmerizing visual thrill ride. But the most appealing aspect of this often revelatory documentary is the realization that the man versus nature dialectic never ends; the search for the ultimate wave and the spiritual pinnacle can only be pursued but never reached.—Sujit R. Varma
Plot Keywords: documentary, surfing, sports, adventure, extreme sports, ocean, california ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: In the Salinas Valley, in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother Aron for the love of their father Adam. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, to how to get ahead in business and in life, to how to relate to estranged mother.
Plot Keywords: drama, family, romance, coming of age, father-son relationship, brotherhood, adaptation ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Adult film director Jack Horner is always on the lookout for new talent and it's only by chance that he meets Eddie Adams who is working as a busboy in a restaurant. Eddie is young, good looking and plenty of libido to spare. Using the screen name Dirk Diggler, he quickly rises to the top of his industry winning awards year after year. Drugs and ego however come between Dirk and those around him and he soon finds that fame is fleeting.
Plot Keywords: 1970s, california, rise to fame, downfall, drug abuse, greed, sexuality ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Pinky is an awkward adolescent who starts work at a spa in the California desert. She becomes overly attached to fellow spa attendant, Millie when she becomes Millie's room-mate. Millie is a lonely outcast who desperately tries to win attention with constant up-beat chatter. They hang out at a bar owned by a strange pregnant artist and her has-been cowboy husband. After two emotional crises, the three women steal and trade personalities until they settle into a new family unit that seems to give each woman what she was searching for.
Plot Keywords: psychological thriller, drama, mystery, female protagonist, identity crisis, surrealism, dreamlike ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After a gentle alien becomes stranded on Earth, the being is discovered and befriended by a young boy named Elliott. Bringing the extraterrestrial into his suburban California house, Elliott introduces E.T., as the alien is dubbed, to his brother and his little sister, Gertie, and the children decide to keep its existence a secret. Soon, however, E.T. falls ill, resulting in government intervention and a dire situation for both Elliott and the alien.
Plot Keywords: sci-fi, family, adventure, friendship, alien, childhood, fantasy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Sub-titled "The Birth of Extreme", this documetary takes a look at the transformation of skateboarding from its former image as a land-bound pastime for surfers to its status today as an extreme and acrobatic sport in its own right. Starting from the California surf community of Dogtown, the film follows the evolution of modern skateboarding through it's 70's heyday, its decline during the 80's, and its eventual (and highly lucrative) return in the 90's.—Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>
Plot Keywords: documentary, extreme sports, culture, history, usa, california, street culture ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Forced to give up his dreams of art school, Zach spends his days working a dead-end job and helping his needy sister care for her son. In his free time he surfs, draws and hangs out with his best friend, Gabe, who lives on the wealthy side of town. When Gabe's older brother, Shaun, returns home, he is drawn to Zach's selflessness and talent. Zach falls in love with Shaun while struggling to reconcile his own desires with the needs of his family.
Plot Keywords: romance, homosexual, drama, american, indie film, youth, coming of age ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Around 1820 the son of a California nobleman comes home from Spain to find his native land under a villainous dictatorship. On the one hand he plays the useless fop, while on the other he is the masked avenger Zorro.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Plot Keywords: adventure, action, swashbuckler, romance, drama, historical, hero ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A week before his friend Jack is to be married, best man Miles and the prospective groom head off to wine country for a week of fun, relaxation and - of course - wine drinking. Miles is the oenophile and does his best to teach Jack a bit about the art of appreciating great wine. All Jack cares about is drinking and carousing, something he accomplishes when he meets the attractive Stephanie at one of the vineyards. Miles is something of a sad sack, a high school English teacher who is a failed writer at heart. He has yet to get over the fact that his wife has divorced him and that she has remarried and he now faces that nerve racking wait for word from a prospective publisher. Miles has an opportunity to start anew when he meets Stephanie's friend Maya but when he let's slip that Jack is about to be married any hope of a relationship seems to be lost.
Plot Keywords: comedy, drama, romance, midlife crisis, road movie, friendship, american film ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: The men who run a pet cemetery, and the men and women who bury their pets, become the subject of this documentary. We first meet Floyd McClure, a paraplegic with a dream to create a pet cemetery. One inspiration is the death of his collie years before; and the other is the local rendering plant, which turns animals into glue. He realizes his dream, only to see it fail. Then we visit a successful pet cemetery, run by a father and his two sons. One is a frustrated musician, nursing a broken heart. The other is joining the family business after selling insurance in Salt Lake City. Throughout, we also meet the people who have buried their pets.—J. Spurlin
Plot Keywords: documentary, true story, death, grief, family, faith, business ...
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