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A new month. Family updates:

Next week, the Fischer family will be joining the wider Fischer family in Hilton Head for the weekend. We can't wait!

Julia's mom, Linda, will be here from June 20-27.

Gabriel is enjoying the end of his first of two weeks of vacation before summer school starts.

Julia is finishing up her second (of five) week of summer classes.

My sister Catherine got a internship/job in South Carolina (outside Columbia), where she will be moving to at the beginning of August.

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A new month = 10 new selections for Charles' 200 Essential American Films (1912-2012)

For those of you who are behind on earlier entries, here they are:

About a Boy
Airplane!
All About Eve
American Beauty
Annie Hall
Bambi
Big Night
Boogie Nights
Chinatown
The Cider House Rules
Citizen Kane
City Lights
Clue
E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial
Fargo
The French Connection
Holiday
The Hurt Locker
The Hustler
The Incredibles
Inglourious Basterds
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Jaws
L.A. Confidential
Lost in Translation
Make Way For Tomorrow
Match Point
Million Dollar Baby
Nashville
North by Northwest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Only Angels Have Wings
On the Waterfront
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Raging Bull
Rear Window
Reds
Schindler's List
The Searchers
Short Cuts
Sideways
The Social Network
Strangers on a Train
Taxi Driver
Toy Story trilogy (1-3)
Unforgiven
Up
Wonder Boys

As you can see, I'm being slightly - but not too - flexible with the concept of 'American ' film. Basically, if it's commonly thought of as an American film - made by an American-born filmmaker or starring American actors or produced and financed by an American film studio or something about it bespeaks of something intrinsically American- then it's eligible for my list.

That said, here's the June entries:

Aliens (1986; directed by James Cameron)
- Much more exciting than the original. James Cameron's sequel is not for the squeamish or the frightened; it's unbelievably intense, fast-paced and suspenseful, a model of the genre. Movies just don't get any more exciting. Cameron gives us aliens and aliens and more aliens - toothy, lethal, flexible, non-stop killing machines. Fighting them is Sigourney Weaver (in a climax that is a well-staged metaphor for protective motherhood) as the great kick-ass heroine Ellen Ripley.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967; directed by Arthur Penn)
- Sometimes "groundbreaking" films don't age particularly well. That's not the case with this violent, explosive tale about the most fabled, alluring pair of bank robbers (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, dripping with eager, ferocious sensuality) to ever tramp through the south. Cinema had never quite granted access into the minds of such rotten anti-heroes, nor lingered so shockingly, perversely on their violent deaths. Gene Hackman and Estelle Parsons (in an Oscar-winning role) add great support as, respectively, Buck Barrow (Clyde's brother) and his wife.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935; directed by James Whale)
- The first Frankenstein is memorable, of course, with indelible images, but the second one has a cheeky irreverence, is faster-paced, more creative and funny, with a goofy prologue involving Mary Shelley, the great addition of Elsa Lanchester as the Bride, and in one of the maddest, most unhinged turns in horror history, Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Pretorious.

Do the Right Thing (1989; Spike Lee)
   - The only Spike Lee film that I enjoy from beginning to end: a controversial, funny, often profound look at the things that both bring together (pizza, for starters) and pull apart (racism, for starters) a Brooklyn neighborhood. A fresh, vibrant, rudely funny, catching film of ideas, brilliantly shot and scored, with a jazzy, in-your-face force, with the underrated Danny Aiello a tower of strength as the film's conscience.

The 40-Year Old Virgin (2005; directed by Judd Apatow)
   - The Academy doesn't appreciate good masturbatory jokes, but I do. I laughed and laughed and laughed at this one... and that was the third time I saw it! Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Jane Lynch, Seth Rogen, Catherine Kenner, Romany Malco, Leslie Mann, Elizabeth Banks, Jonah Hill, Mindy Kaling - what more could you ask for? There's a sweetness to it all (as opposed to a mean-spiritedness), a genuine character-study-like affection for the uncool.

Ghostbusters (1984; directed by Ivan Reitman)
- A rare thing for its time: a genuinely funny special effects blockbuster with a fresh story and accommodations for different types of unique funny men and women: deadpan (Bill Murray), smartly-vampy (Annie Potts), goofball (Rick Moranis), nerdy (Harold Ramis), etc. There is a memorable scene or line of dialogue every five minutes or so.

The Godfather (1972; directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
- A marvelous entertainment, an overwhelming dramatic experience. There's many a reason why Francis Ford Coppola's layered, iconic, enduring adaptation of the Mario Puzo novel is one of the most watched, beloved films of each successive generation. Perfectly acted, beautifully directed, with one of the greatest montages (the baptism/clean-up murders) ever put on film. Actually, you could make a case that the ending too, with Michael shutting the door on Diane Keaton's Kay, is the best ever put on film.

Modern Times (1936; directed by Charlie Chaplin)
- In which we find our Tramp struggling - with grand, clowning ineptness - to fit into an industrial world. Great poignancy and satire, memorable physical gags - especially one involving Charlie going nuts on the assembly line that still makes me smile fifteen years after seeing the film.

Top Hat (1935; directed by Mark Sandrich)
- I suppose we need to include a spot for a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical, and this is the best one I've ever seen (although the next year's Swing Time is glorious too), with great routines and songs ("Cheek to Cheek") and one-of-a-kind chemistry between the stars.

The Wrestler (2008; directed by Darren Aronofsky)
- As a down-and-out, bruised, battered, short-of-hearing wrestler posed for one final comeback, Mickey Rourke delivers the performance of a lifetime, and one of the greatest ever committed to celluloid.

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