> How about a list of the all-time best movies about making movies? Does "The Aviator" make the cut?

It's a good movie, but probably not unless it was a pretty long list.

Some of the very best movies about movies, in alphabetical order:

- The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
- Barton Fink (1991)
- The Cameraman (1928)
- Cinema Paradiso (1989)
- Day For Night (1973)
- Ed Wood (1994)
- 8 1/2 (1963)
- Get Shorty (1995)
- The Majestic (2001)
- Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
- The Player (1992)
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
- Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
- Singin' In the Rain (1952)
- State and Main (2000)
- Sullivan's Travels (1941)
- Sunset Boulevard (1950)

I think the one in that list that could most benefit from recommendation -- that is, it's obscure, yet likely to have broad appeal and be entertaining for a wide audience -- is "State and Main." It's a recent movie, but done in the screwball comedy style of Preston Sturges, where there's a lot of rapid-fire witty dialogue, and *everything* imaginable goes wrong. It's absolutely hilarious. Basically, this film crew visits a small town to film a movie, and a lot of the humor comes from how completely the crew and the townsfolk do not understand each other. And it pretty wonderfully portrays just how crazy life on a movie set is.