Little Known Flicks We Should See?

[hangthadj]

Originally posted by Daksims
Swingers - Vince Vaughn & Jon Favreau

American History X - Edward Norton

SLC Punk - Matthew Lillard

Whoa, I never heard of these! Swingers, what's that?

There is a Japaneese thriller called Spiral that I saw the other night. A whole town becomes obsessed with the spiral or uzumakati (sp?) and a young girl and her boyfriend try to escape. Its really well done. Supposedly based on a comic book.

[Ghost]

I'm sure this film has been heard of by some but not by many others. Mabarosi is a terrific Japanese film about a woman dealing with the sudden death o fher husband under questionable, angering circumstances. It's slow, contemplative, and beautiful in its way. Lately I've noticed it showing up at a lot of Blockbusters, so it's relatively available, and wel worth it..

[CrewDust]

Rock and Roll High School.
Whipped.

[Daksims]

Originally posted by DoctorJones24


Not to be a crank, but in what universe are these "little known flicks?"
(They are both excellent, no doubt)

My bad. Both of these movies came out while I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I had heard nothing about these movies until a friend told me to watch them.

[Kenobi]

UHF. Weird Al Yankovic inherits a TV station and creates some ridiculous shows while fighting off competition from the local network. Michael Richards (pre-Kramer) stars as a janitor-turned kiddie-show host. The funniest part of it is, some of the shows Weird Al comes up with would probably be hailed as sheer genius by today's broadcasting execs.

[nicodemus]

Originally posted by DoctorJones24


Bummer, nicodemus. I just checked too, and neither Amazon.uk nor Netflix have it, so I'm at a loss. I remember when I saw the screening of it (part of a film series at UMich called "Bollywood and Beyond") that one of the producers was there, and he mentioned they had been having trouble getting a distributor. That was almost a year ago though, and I thought they would have secured something by now. I guess it's just a waiting game until it is finally released. Once that happens, I've found Netflix to be very useful in getting hard to find foreign films.

I've been down every amazon road whether .com .de. .uk .fr or .jp - I've checked netflix too. I even tried contacting someone directly on a website, but never received a response. I saw some great documentaries on him at a film festival at the University of Alabama at Birmingham called "Travelling Film South Asia." It was film fesitival package tour sponsored by HIMAL magazine, a great Nepalese magazine on south asian political & cultural affairs.

[El Toro]

Mindwalk with Liv Ullman, Sam Waterston and John Heard. A physicist, a politician and a poet walk around a French island (that one that you can walk to by land at low tide but I forget the name) and talk about everything. The movie is one big conversation.

Trees Lounge - Steve Buscemi's directorial debut. Not to sure if this rates as a 'little known flick' but I love giving it props whenever I can. About a thirtysomething loser and drunk on Long Island and his gradual awakening to life. No pat answers or plot resolutions.

[DoctorJones24]

Thought of another one that falls in this category:

LIMBO by John Sayles
Stars David Straitharn and Mary Elizabeth Mastroenio

Granted, this is probably well known to Sayles junkies, but I feel like it flies well below the radar of "Lone Star," "Matewan," and "Roan Inish." "Limbo" is very interesting little movie though; one of those genre bending films that refuses to be categorized: romantic drama? thriller?
Also features a truly surprising "twist" ending that will have you talking for a while...though perhaps out of frustration.

[JAnderson14]

Pi

Darren Aronofsky's first film (before Requiem for a Dream).

From IMDb:

In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he's had terrible headaches; plus, he can't abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he's obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen.

I would think many people posting in here know of this, but for some reason a lot of people haven't heard of or seen it. Personally, I thought it was excellent. Aronofsky made the film for almost nothing, but did a great job. Sean Gullette, who was the lead, also cowrote the film with Aronofsky.

[LomaB8]

Originally posted by JAnderson14
Pi

Darren Aronofsky's first film (before Requiem for a Dream).

From IMDb:

In Manhattan, behind six locks, lives Max Cohen, a mathematician and computer whiz. Since staring at the sun at age six, he's had terrible headaches; plus, he can't abide human contact except with an aging professor, and he's obsessed with finding numeric patterns. His current obsession is the stock market; his theories bring him to the attention of Wall Street traders. He also keeps running into Lenny, a fast-talking Hasidic who fronts for a cabal that wants to rediscover long-lost mathematical mysteries in the Torah. Neither group is benign, and they pursue Max as his hallucinations and headaches worsen.

I would think many people posting in here know of this, but for some reason a lot of people haven't heard of or seen it. Personally, I thought it was excellent. Aronofsky made the film for almost nothing, but did a great job. Sean Gullette, who was the lead, also cowrote the film with Aronofsky.

I saw it or atleast part of it. It was terrible.
Just my opinion, maybe a guy/girl split b/c the guy at the video store liked it and I think my BF watched it through.

[DoctorJones24]

Originally posted by LomaB8


I saw it or atleast part of it. It was terrible.
Just my opinion, maybe a guy/girl split b/c the guy at the video store liked it and I think my BF watched it through.

I also couldn't make it through the whole thing. Didn't think it was horrible, just not all that great. "Requiem" was wildly overrated as well, IMO.

[CG]

Living in Oblivion,Floundering(Steve Buscemi)

Romper Stomper(Russell Crowe)

Mifune( Iben Hjejle )

The Closet,The Return of Martin Guerre,A Pure Formality(Gerard Depardieu)


Twin Town(Rhys Ifans,Dougray Scott)


I'm surely leaving out many but this is what I can come up with off the top of my head.

[Ian McCracken]

"Johnny Stecchino" (starring Roberto Benigni)

It's in Italian, so those of you who don't speak the language will have to deal with subtitles. Still, though, it's perhaps the funniest movie I've ever seen.

[bungadiri]

Don't know if this qualifies as "little known" either, but "To Sleep with Anger" is a great "small" flick. Danny Glover stars as the old friend of an LA man who shows up one day and trouble starts. Is he practicing witchcraft or isn't he? A masterpiece of understatement.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by phats_away


damnit, i can't edit...

it's coven not craven

Just make sure you're pronouncing it "right." That's the important thing. (If you've seen American Movie -- and Phat's right, you should -- you'll know what I mean)

I'll just mention three I've seen in the past month that probably aren't at the local Googleplex. Unless you have a really cool one.

Since John Sayles has been mentioned, I'll recommend his newest, called Sunshine State. Great use of the "Greek Chorus" in the form of 4 rich guys golfing.

Also saw this weekend 13 Conversations About One Thing. A great slice of life film that has a beginning a middle, and an end, but not in that order.

And for a good indy date movie, The Bread, My Sweet made in Pittsburgh. It'll leave you asking the universal question, "damn, since when did Scott Baio know how to act?"

[evilcrossbar]

'Yojimbo' (don't know how well known this Kurosawa flick is, but its my current favorite).

'Tetsuo the Iron Man' - this is some crazy f***ing s**t.

'Fallen Angels' (great HK film and its not Kung Fu either).

Some of the Werner Herzog films are interesting - particularly those with Klaus Kinski (he was a crazy mother*****r):

'Aguirre, Wrath of God'

'Fitzcaraldo'

'Nosferatu'

'The Legend of Caspar Hauser'- not with Kinski

The Jacques Tati movies are all funny, particularly:

'Mon Oncle'

'Playtime'

[nicodemus]

Originally posted by evilcrossbar
'Yojimbo' (don't know how well known this Kurosawa flick is, but its my current favorite).


What a quality film this is. I thought the movie was pretty well known, but then again, I guess black and white Japanese cinema isn't exactly mainstream with most folks.

[bungadiri]

Originally posted by evilcrossbar

The Jacques Tati movies are all funny, particularly:

'Mon Oncle'

'Playtime'

Excellent call--Mon Oncle is especially terrific.

I was just watching "Last Man Standing" on TV and yearning for Yojimbo instead.

[Ghost]

Originally posted by evilcrossbar


Some of the Werner Herzog films are interesting - particularly those with Klaus Kinski (he was a crazy mother*****r):

'Aguirre, Wrath of God'

'Fitzcaraldo'

'Nosferatu'

'The Legend of Caspar Hauser'- not with Kinski



Heart of Glass is also a very fine film Aguirre is terrific. , one of my favortes.

I saw JOhn Cassavetes Shadows this weekend. it doesn't get much mroe slice of life. Somewhat like early Godard without the loopy intellectual moments and, well, generally the Frenchness.Quality film.

[evilcrossbar]

For those of you who like movies such as 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch' there is a UK film (Scottish) which might satify you (and no, its not Guy Ritchie).

Its called 'Orphans' and I liked it better than Snatch. The version I saw in the theatre actually had subtitles because the Scottish accents are so thick. Unlike, LSTSB, and Snatch I don't think it was ever intended for major release in the US. Anyone else seen this?

It may not be the best movie ever but I liked it nonetheless.