Just watched Chumscrubber. Had never heard of it before so had no expectations. Absolutely loved it. Don't let the cast fool you: Glen Close, Ralph Fiennes, Carrie-Ann Moss, Rita Wilson, Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot all grown up and looking delicious). This is one wonderful dark comedy. Glen Close's silent scream - pure cinema magic.

Maybe I was taking too much for granted.

Anyone who is not familiar with Netflix should read about Netflix:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix
http://www.hackingnetflix.com/

I think you might like

The Visitor
(same director as "The Station Agent")

and

Sideways
and I am recommending Sideways for you before the following.

The following are from my Netflix four star ratings (carefully culled for you), and I think you might also like them.

The Boat is Full
Campfire
Cautiva
The Counterfeiters
Duma
Eight Below
Four Sheets to the Wind
Happy Endings
I Have Never Forgotten You
In the Land of Women
The Insider
Invincible
The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe
The Lives of Others
A Love Song For Bobby Long
Madison
The Magdalene Sisters
March of the Penguins
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Memories of a Geisha
October Sky
Off The Black
Oliver Twist (Roman Polanski's version)
Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea
Travellers And Magicians
Vitus
The World's Fastest Indian
Zathura (scifi)
Zelary

Upon further review (NFL terminology) I have decided to give five Netflix stars instead of four to

Lost In Translation (the version with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson)

which satisfies your original criteria.

If you like Scarlett Johansson and sci-fi (sci-fi demands special effects), then I highly recommend

The Island

Mostly Martha
My So-Called Life (TV series)
My Summer of Love
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Sweetland
Walk The Line

The above are alphabetical from my Netflix five star ratings, but given your original criteria, they are coincidentally arranged in order.

Your later refinements of your criteria make choices more difficult, but my above recommendations stand either way. There would have been a couple more in the above list either way, but people already mentioned them.

wingme - from your taste I have to ask if you have ever seen "Feeling Minnesota". It's a bizarre film - but I love it.

Other Top Faves:
"Once" (absolute favorite for 3 years running)
"Desk Set" (Hepburn/Tracy - love this one!)
"Whale Rider" (culturally captivating)
"OSS 117" (french James Bond spoof - hilarious!)
"Into the Wild" (inspiring and tear-jerking)

Try The Search for one-eyed Jimmy. Where else could you find Anne Meara, Jennifer Beals, Samuel L Jackson, Steve Buscemi and Ray Mancini and the entire Turturro family in the same flick? My husband rented it once and it was definitely twisted!!

Another favorite is the 1950's Importance of Being Earnest with Michael Redgrave and Joan Plowright..the remake sucked, but this was one witty movie.

"The Best of Youth" - orginally an award-winning miniseries in Italy - is one of my favorites, and you can get it from the library. It's a family saga, focusing on the lives of two (hot Italian) brothers through several decades. It's a combination of family love and conflict, politics, romance, gorgeous scenery, history - all in one vastly entertaining package.

Traci--oops! You're right!
Forgot Amelie, and she's in L'Auberge Espagnole as well.

ask and ye shall receive! BTW, violence is ok when not gratuitous (being without apparent reason, cause or justification)

If you can make it to Slumdog Millionaire before it's done at the Harvard Exit you should! Our audience gave it a standing ovation, it's perfect.

My other favorite Danny Boyle movies are Millions (It's full of gratuitous wonderfulness), A life Less Ordinary... It's filled with gratuitous Ewan McGregor - can't go wrong there! Ok and The Beach. Maybe all of his movies to be honest.

If you liked Amelie, you must see A Very Long Engagement.

Also, Half Nelson never fails me when I feel like a good downer.

PS. I second Volver, gorgeous movie.

Here come our top ten:
Tied for first place
1)L'Auberge Espagnole (college students and their woes in Barcelona...French and Spanish and English)
1)Mifune (Danish--a love story, family story: cool and funny and great)
2)All About my Mother (Spanish--Almodóvar)
3)Butterfly (Spanish; loss of innocence outbreak of Span. Civil War...not gross like Pan's Labyrinth, but poignant!)
4) Motorcycle Diaries (Span./life of Che when he was Ernesto Guevara on a road trip thru South America)
5)Chocolate (Juliette Binoche in English)
6)In July (German--like road trips? This is amazing, from Germany to Turkey, bizarrely)
7) Volver (Another Almodóvar/Span.)
8)Step Into Liquid (Wondrous surf film)
9)Cold Comfort Farm (British countryside craziness)

Thanks JT, that is on my flix list. :-)

Wingme - for a laugh I also love "Saving Grace" and "Hot Fuzz" - both British comedies. "Saving Mum" is also fun & witty! Not much gratuitous sex though!

pigeonmom, if born into brothels is your type of movie, you might enjoy Rabbit-proof fence. Although enjoy isn't really an appropriate adjective.

In no particular order.... some of
my faves with some docs thrown in...
-----------------------------------
Nueve reinas (nine queens)
Everything is Illuminated
Being John Malkovich
Borat
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Royal Tennenbaums
Elling
The Family Guy: Blue Harvest
Genghis Blues
Born Into Brothels
Water
Der Letzte Mann (The Last Laugh)
L'Atalante

The new "Burn After Reading" is good, and a Coen Bros film (with all that means). It has violence, but the same as Fargo in that one takes as cartoonish, though I will never look at woodchipper the same again.

I've always liked "One False Move" despite it's association with an ex-girlfriend...It is a flick with unexpected turns, though there is violence at the start that is tough, but which sets up the later part of the movie. Of course, one of the faves is "My Favorite Year" or "The Stuntman"...

try "clay pigeons" jaquin phoneix,vince vaughn,janeane garoffalo...quirky,funny who dunnit.... or "kiss kiss bang bang" rob. downey jr. val kilmer...quirky funny detective...

Mellaw...I make an exception for gratuitous sex.

Adding: "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and "Transsiberia". Both outstanding, smart, unsettling.

PS Don't take any of my recommendations if Disney, Spider Man, and Harry Potter are your thang. I hate wholesome. ;-)

OMG, JT--checked out the trailer and laughed. Put it on my Netflix just now. :-)

1. The Hammer - Adam Carolla's movie about a 40 yo boxer trying to get to the Olympics. Funny, sweet, not violent.
2. Idiocracy - Dark comedy about America's future and a comentary on anti-intellectualism.
3. Six-String Samurai
4. Mystery Train
5. Akira

Kayleigh, I loved Station Agent. Did you happen to see Death at a Funeral? Also staring Peter Dinklage. Hysterical.

Two recent French movies I liked, both I saw On Demand: "Cortex", thriller/mystery about a retired cop with dementia. "UV", suspense/drama, beautiful setting and beautiful people but dark storyline.

Going back a ways for dark, quirky and indie ones: "The Doom Generation", "Buffalo 66", "Trees Lounge", "The House of Yes" or "Candy" (the last one features a young Heath Ledger).

Going back for smart and indie but not dark: "The Shipping News" or "The Station Agent."

ETA: "The Doom Generation" could be considered gratutiously violent.

Guess my stash of lesbian porn would be too gratuitous - darn!

Help!!! Due to a recent and extended bout of cabin fever, I'm nearing the end of my "must see" movies list. Favorite genre: quirky-edgy-funny-deep i.e. Coen brothers, Gus Van Sant, etc. Sub-titles ok, but can't handle gratuitous anything...blood and guts, violence, special effects, whatever. Much obliged.