Here are some movies I’ve watched in recent weeks.

“Thunder Road” My friend Hanna has this dream of opening a moonshine bar in Asheville, N.C., and when I asked her whether she’d ever seen “Thunder Road,” the 1958 film starring Robert Mitchum as a moonshine runner, she was downright insulted. “You’re kidding, right?” she said. “It was filmed in Asheville, and is screened here almost every week.” Having just watched “Thunder Road,” I found it easy to understand why it would have a large cult following, especially in the south. A Korean war vet, Mitchum transports moonshine illegally for his father, but strives to keep his younger brother (played by Mitchum’s real-life younger brother, James Mitchum) from entering the family business. His troubles gradually mount, and soon the mob and the feds are after him. “Thunder Road” isn’t the greatest movie ever made — it drags in the middle, and the romantic subplot isn’t all that interesting — but it doesn’t matter, because any movie where Robert Mitchum plays a moonshine runner is bound to be worth watching. The moonshine business itself is pretty interesting; “Thunder Road” depicts it as both a doomed and somewhat noble way of life.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING:“The Night of the Hunter” This might be Mitchum’s best role. He plays an evil ex-con pretending to be a preacher, who has the words love and hate tattooed on his knuckles. When he gets out of prison, he tries to trick his dead cellmate’s widow into marrying him in the hopes that her children will tell her where her husband hid the money from his last robbery. The children soon flee on a small boat, with Mitchum in pursuit.

"Bottle Shock” My friend Hanna is also into wine, and she has described this 2008 film as “a sports movie for oenophiles.” But you don’t have to be an oenophile to enjoy “Bottle Shock,” which is a gem —a small, entertaining comedy/drama about a seminal event in the history of American wine-making: the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when a wine from Napa Valley won a blind taste test, beating out the French wines that had always been regarded as unbeatable. The film, which features Alan Rickman in a scene-stealing performance as a snobby British sommelier, is mostly set at the struggling California winery Chateau Montelena, where the owner and his hippie son are struggling to stave off foreclosure. The film makes wine making and blind taste tests seem downright exciting, and never loses sight of the characters who give this movie its heart.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: “Sideways” One of the best written movies of recent years, this 2004 film is about two friends who go on a wine tasting tour in Napa Valley. Watch it for Paul Giamatti’s great speech about the virtues of pinot noir.

“Mamma Mia!” My family loved this, so I guess I thought I should watch it, even though relentlessly upbeat musicals featuring lots of ABBA music are not really my thing. I almost shut the film off during the scene where all the young men run out on the pier in their scuba gear and sing “Dancing Queen,” but I managed to make it through to the end. And I know “Mamma Mia!” is a harmless fantasy, not meant to be taken at all seriously, but I have real problems with any film that presents stealing and reading someone else’s diary in a positive light. Anyway, “Mamma Mia!” made me feel like I was going insane. I like Meryl Streep and all, but really.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: “A Prairie Home Companion” If you want to see Meryl Streep sing, check out Robert Altman’s final film instead.

“Vanishing Point” This 1971 film is one of the great car chase movies. Actor Barry Newman works for a car delivery service, and for seemingly no reason at all bets that he can drive from Colorado to San Francisco in 15 hours. Of course, it isn’t long before the state troopers are setting up roadblocks and chasing him everywhere he goes. This being the early 1970s, Newman isn’t just a reckless driver — he’s an affront to authority, and the status quo, and must be stopped and beaten down by the establishment. The film doesn’t provide a lot of background information or character development, but it features a great rock soundtrack, a mysterious blind disc jockey who is apparently able to communicate with Newman through mental telepathy, stunning shots of the American southwest and some really memorable vignettes, such as the snake handler in the desert. “Vanishing Points” is similar to “Easy Rider,” but seems a little less dated. Though make no mistake: It is dated. But I really liked it anyway.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: “Two-Lane Blacktop” The other great existential car chase movie of the 1970s, starring Dennis Wilson from the Beach Boys, and James Taylor.

“Vagabond” In the opening scenes of this 1985 French film, a young woman is found dead in a ditch in rural France. The film then reconstructs the last days of her life, as she hitchhikes, pitches a dirty tent in the woods and in open fields, and spends time with drifters, immigrant laborers, a goat farmer and a middle-class woman who takes pity on her. “Vagabond” is a sad story about a person who has no aspirations or the ability to engage emotionally with the people she meets. Director Agnes Varda films the young woman’s steady decline with an almost journalistic attention to detail; at times, the film feels like a documentary. I’m not sure “Vagabond” quite makes my unofficial list of Films That Will Ruin Your Weekend, but it’s certainly a close call.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: “The Gleaners and I” Varda returned to the French countryside for this 2000 documentary, about the scavengers and recyclers who pick through fields and orchards for fruits and vegetables after the harvest.

“Kenny” This Australian mockumentary looks and feels like a documentary, but it isn’t. This wry and affectionate 2006 film depicts the everyday life of Kenny, a professional portable toiler installer who is proud of his work and enjoys his job, even though his father insists that he can do better and many of his clients refuse to shake his hand. Kenny (well played by actor Shane Jacobson) is a likable character, and although the movie has its share of scatological jokes, it isn’t quite the ribald yukfest I was expecting. Instead, it’s a sensitive portrait of a regular, working-class guy, who tries to be a decent father and works really hard at a thankless job. (“I’d love to be able to say ‘I plumb toilets’ and have someone say ‘Now that is something I’ve always wanted to do,’” Kenny tells the camera crew.) My one complaint is that the film could have used a little more dramatic heft. After a while, it starts to meander, and it ends rather abruptly. But the scenes of Kenny at a toilet convention in Nashville are really pretty great.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: “Waiting for Guffman” My favorite mockumentary, from the people responsible for “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind.”

Got a comment? E-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net