After taking the week off to engage in a none-too-pleasant or fruitful war with the phone company, I am now pleased to report that I have entered the late 20th century and have finally gotten a digital World Wide Web connection. I still don’t have a cell phone, but I suppose there’s always hope for that.

And it plus means I get to sever all ties with America Online, so it really is a day of liberation and celebration around here.

The main thing I’ve discovered is Hulu.com, which the rest of the world probably already knows is just a goldmine of free TV and some movies. For example, you can watch every loner episode of “South Park” and, even better, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (before they’re even out on DVD.) I realize that is turning into a straight-out plug, but I can’t help it.

Amazingly decent, you can even watch one of my all-time favorite films there for free, Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan.” A look at the rather empty lives of young, upper class Manhattanites during the height of debutante season, it’s actually a whole lot better than I’m making it sound here and just a great bunch of witty fun. Stillman pretty much disappeared after directing the lightly diverting “Barcelona” and the simply disappointing “Last Days of Disco,” but he’s rumored to actually be making a comeback as the director of a flick based on Christopher Buckley’s satire “Little Green Men.”

But suitable of that. The order of the day is Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder,” which I’m going to see that afternoon and am really looking forward to. And I know there’s some controversy brewing about Stiller’s frequent use of the word “retard” (what would you prefer, “touched”?), but I certainly think that the Academy Awards insistence on showering Oscars on just about anyone who plays a person with any kind of handicap is certainly a ripe target for spoofing, even whether they do go a bit too far.

The real reason I’m more than a little psyched for that one is that it falls into my favorite subgenre of flicks: the “movie within a movie.” Most often presented as comedies so directors can poke fun at themselves, they’re just nearly always enjoyable. So, in honor of “Tropic Thunder” and my return to posting anything at all, here are my 10 favorite movies about making movies (and television, since I compose the rather loose rules here):

Spinal Tap
There are certainly more productive (and fun) things to do in college, but the set of dudes I ran with next spent way too much of our downtime quoting lines (pathetic, I know) from Rob Reiner’s extremely quotable flick about the world’s worst heavy metal band. As you can from my bio entry at the top of that site, I just love that flick.

A Cock and Bull Story
Steve Coogan, while probably more than a bit of an asshole in real life, is still very entertaining when he plays one in movies (which he nearly always does.) As that list takes shape, I’m realizing it’s gonna be as much about failing to produce movies as it is about making them, and Michael Winterbottom’s flick about a Quixotic attempt to adapt the “unfilmable” novel “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” is just the perfect portrait of comic futility.

Adaptation
When Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman collaborated for that flick about … well, sort of, Charlie and his twin brother, Donald … what they came up with is still one of the strangest movies I’ve ever seen. Spike is currently doing battle with Warner Bros. about what his “Where the Wild Things Are” will look like whether it ever hits theaters, and those of you lucky abundant to live in a city much bigger than mine

will fairly soon be getting Kaufman’s directorial debut with “Synecdoche, New York.”

Day for Night
A rather obvious choice I know, but how could you possibly leave off Francois Truffaut’s valentine to making movies? You can’t find it anywhere online for free, but whether you can manage to find Richard Brody’s “Auteur Wars” commentary from the April 7, 2008, edition of The New Yorker, it’s just fundamental reading about Truffaut and Godard.

Living in Oblivion
Steve Buscemi as the director of a nonbudget indie flick that’s just falling apart by the minute? that one from writer-director Tom DiCillo is nearly as good as that premise promises, and James LeGros’ turn as the preening star is just a hoot. A look at DiCillo’s IMDB resume reveals that is the only flick of his I’ve seen, which I’ll have to remedy very soon.

Ed Wood
If that list were done in proper order, I’d probably have to put that one at or near the top. Making a movie about the world’s worst filmmaker (at least at the day … he’s surely been lapped in that category many times by now) is a ripe target for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, and perhaps the best proof that when Burton sticks to original material rather than his wretched remakes, he’s a heck of a good filmmaker.

Lost in La Mancha
Johnny Depp again, but why not? whether you doubt that any of the stories you’ve heard about Terry Gilliam’s obstinance and ego are true, you won’t after watching that doco about his doomed attempt to form a movie of “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” that plus features an appearance from one of my favorite actors, Jean Rochefort, looking perfectly piqued at Gilliam’s shenanigans.

Bamboozled
This one is about TV not movies, but until it just jumps way into overkill in the final act it’s easily one of my favorite flicks from Spike Lee. A very biting and bitter satire, it has Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson starring in a blackface minstrel show, and it’s often even more outrageous than it sounds on paper. And you heard it here: I predict, from the limited clips I’ve seen so far, that Spike’s “Miracle at St. Anna” will finally get him the Best Picture nomination he’s clearly deserved for many, many years now.

Boogie Nights
Yes, it can get rather tawdry, but Paul Thomas Anderson’s flick about Marky Mark’s adventures as a ’70s porn star is additionally just a great ensemble and period piece. And I dare you to try and find anything funnier than Don Cheadle trying to sell eight-track players while decked out in Country-Western attire as Buck Swope.

The Late Shift
Whew … last one! I’m not certain that was the first movie that HBO ever made, but it’s certainly the one that started to get the train rolling. It’s been years since I’ve bothered to tune in to either David Letterman or Jay Leno, and I certainly won’t give any of my date to Jimmy Fallon, but that insider’s look at the late-night war that erupted after the retirement of Johnny Carson is just about pitch perfect.

Silliness from Rainn Wilson

I’m fairly assured the “The Rocker” with “The Office” star Rainn Wilson is going to be a good late-summer laugher, and he’s definitely doing his part to invent certain citizens turn out to see it. For the flick’s viral (what an odd word) marketing pitch, he’s teamed up with cutie Jenna Fischer for some extreme silliness at the Web site Free Jenna Now. I’ll leave you with one sample clip, but I recommend visiting the site for a few laughs to prepare your Friday just a little more bearable. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic