List of lists — metaphors, bad dates, movies about movies, writers, and insurance adjusters

Mental Floss has a very intriguing list of 8 movie metaphors worth puzzling over. Yes, there’s the knight playing chess with Death in “The Seventh Seal” in the intro, but the list also has some unexpected and thought-provoking items, including the dying fish in Badlands and the pudding in Punch-Drunk Love. The list is rich and rewarding, with some marvelous clips, some thoughtful comments, and a wonderfully insightful quote from Roger Ebert about a dancing chicken.

And from the sublime to the (intentionally) ridiculous: Cinematical’s list of the worst first dates on film, from the funny (“License to Drive”) to the horrifying (“Hard Candy” and “Taxi Driver”). I’d add Ben and Elaine’s first date in “The Graduate,” the awkward but heart-warming date in “Marty,” and, of course, “Sixteen Candles.”

Entertainment Weekly has a great list in honor of next week’s “Be Kind Rewind” — movies about making movies. You can’t do better than Singin’ in the Rain and Sullivan’s Travels, two of the greatest films ever made. I was glad to see the list include neglected gems Living in Oblivion and The Big Picture. Movie fans have spent hours speculating on the inspirations for some of the characters and situations satirized in those films. Francois Truffaut’s lovely film Day for Night is another great choice. I would add to EW’s list the David Mamet film State and Main and the movie about the making of “Citizen Kane,” RKO 281 – The Battle Over Citizen Kane.

They also salute the end of the writer’s strike with a list of movies about writers. It’s hard to make a compelling film about someone staring at a blank page and pounding on a typewriter, but movies are, after all, written by writers, and writers love to write about what they know best. So, there are a lot of movies about writing movies and the people who write them. The list includes In a Lonely Place with Humphrey Bogart, “The Muse” with Albert Brooks and Sharon Stone, and Nicolas Cage as twin brothers with very different approaches to writing in Adaptation.

The Insurance Information Institute has issued its list of the best movies featuring insurance agents and adjusters. They’ve got classics like Double Indemnity and Memento, but what about The Incredibles? Who can forget Mr. Incredible’s ignoring the rules to help a client get her claim paid?