Quirky and underappreciated films
Here is a place to list movies that you feel are quirky or underrated.
If a movie gets a bunch of Academy Awards I usually don't bother to watch it. I've never seen ET, and only recently watched Close Encounters. I tend to prefer the low-key sort of movies to the big block-busters.
I could probably list 10 titles without too much thought, but I think each film deserves it's own post. I'll keep the description short, but with a link to IMDB.
The Linguini Incident - a comedy with Rosanna Arquette as an aspiring escape artist and David Bowie as an illegal immigrant
I'd give it about a 7.2 out of 10.
The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray
Buck
A really sweet documentary on Buck Brannaman - a true life horse whisperer. Its out on DVD now I think.
Buck
A really sweet documentary on Buck Brannaman - a true life horse whisperer. Its out on DVD now I think.
And it's available for streaming on Netflix!
Local Hero
That sounds a little like
The Coca Cola Kid.
Oh good one!
Great thread. There are so many underrated movies, and so many I hadn't even heard of, so this thread gives me ideas of movies to see. I need to start a list.
The L-shaped Room will always be my favorite "no one has ever heard of it" movie. Caught it on cable, one lazy afternoon years ago, quite by accident, and fell in love with the "quirky and underrated" genre.
HLJ, awards don't impress me either, but there have been some movies worthy of the oscar.
Didn't see ET? I couldn't wait for my HS boyfriend to get home from vacation so we could see it together!
A car chase or something blowing up usually turns me right off even considering seeing a movie, though there have admittedly been good ones in the blowing up genre.
And I love a scary movie, if it really scares me.
The Last House on the Left is a quirkster.
The Life Aquatic with Bill Murray
Local Hero
That sounds a little like The Coca Cola Kid.
Comfort and Joy
Pieces of April
sidebar: Patricia Clarkson is an underrated actress, but she sure does work a lot! She's my idol!
This remarkable, one-of-a-kind actress has, since the early 1990s, intrigued film and TV audiences with her glowing, yet careworn eccentricity and old world-styled glamour. Very much in demand these days as a character player, Patricia Clarkson nevertheless continues to avoid the temptation of money-making mainstream filming while reaping kudos and acting awards in out-of-the-way projects.
Kind of how Depp used to be.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0165101/bio That's a good movie. Fucked up family.
I just found this quote.
Joy Burns: I don't know why I'm so hard on you Beth, when you've always been the daughter of my dreams. We're almost the same person, except I don't have your weight problems and you're making the same mistakes I did and I wish you would make your own.
(Joy, played by Clarkson, is the mother of the family, she has terminal cancer. She's a nut. She's GREAT!)
Joy Burns: I keep waiting for a good time to tell you, but there's really no good time. I need everyone to listen.
[pause]
Joy Burns: I don't know how to say this.
[pause]
Joy Burns: We need to discuss how each of you, Oh God...
Jim Burns: It's OK, sweetie.
[everyone assumes that Joy is trying to discuss her imminent death from cancer]
Joy Burns: How each of you is going to handle
[pause]
Joy Burns: discarding food without letting our hostess know.
[starts laughing]
And:
Joy Burns: [Joy is smoking marijuana in a convenience store bathroom] Honey, roll it tighter next time.
Timmy Burns: Sorry, mom
I've added five films to this thread.
And written about them in such glowing terms, you'd all have borrowed, bought or stolen them.
I've lacked the courage of my convictions and deleted all posts.
In truth I'm worried that they are not quirky enough or under-appreciated enough and I might suffer scoffage. Films have to be well distributed to catch my attention.
And then once they are, they are hardly underappreciated. They tend to have a cult following.
I think I know what you mean. I put Local Hero up there, but it's one I know pretty well, and I've known other people who know it well, so it's not really unknown. But I figure a lot of people have never heard of it.
I encourage you to post yours. Either I know of them or I don't, and if I know of some of them, then that's even a bonus, because it helps me see what your taste is.
Unfortunately, a lot of the good ones are not available for streaming from Netflix.
Sundae, at least post one.
Pieces of April
sidebar: Patricia Clarkson is an underrated actress, but she sure does work a lot!
I like her too. She was also in
The Station Agent, which I will add to the quirky unappreciated film list. It stars Peter Dinklage who is great in everything he does. In the movie, he just wants to be left alone after suffering a loss, but draws a crowd anyway.
Manon de Source
The follow up to Jean de Florette.
It's not quirky as such, and the pace is gentle (I could sum it up in three sentences).
But it is devastating.
Moulin Rouge made you cry?
Ah chick you have no idea.
Cult films I stumbled over and felt like I was falling downstairs (in a good way)
(Derek Jarman's) Edward II
The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
The Hairdresser's Husband
ETA
The City of Lost Children (La cité des enfants perdus)
Manon de Source
The follow up to Jean de Florette.
It's not quirky as such, and the pace is gentle (I could sum it up in three sentences).
But it is devastating.
Moulin Rouge made you cry?
Ah chick you have no idea.
Cult films I stumbled over and felt like I was falling downstairs (in a good way)
(Derek Jarman's) Edward II
The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
The Hairdresser's Husband [COLOR=deepskyblue](Le Mari de la coiffeuse)[/COLOR]
ETA
The City of Lost Children (La cité des enfants perdus)
Noticing a theme here anyone ( hint in blue). French cinema definitely takes a different slant on things.
I'll throw in
Delicatessen one of the same directors and City of Lost Children and equally out there.
My film is indeed quirky and totally under-appreciated... because it is so bad.
It has to be one of the worst westerns ever made.
Look out for that rock behind you, and stop falling...
[YOUTUBE]4a_7Of6u3IU[/YOUTUBE]
I thought that actually looked kind of interesting.
Castle Freak
It's one of the Full Moon stable of schlock horrors from the late 80s/early 90s. On the face of it it's a fairly standard if somewhat gothic tale, with an American family inheriting, by some mad line of descent, a castle in Europe. Italy I think it was. The castle is 'haunted' by a twisted remnant of humanity (the Freak) who lives down in the cellars.
The freak is the result of a hideous act of abuse. A child kept in a dungeon and raised like an animal, horribly scarred and without the power of speech. Oh, and a taste for human flesh. His mother ( I seem to recall) was the relative from whom the family have inherited the castle, and nobody else ever knew of the existence of the child. All that is known of the horrors of the castle is that it is 'haunted'.
So far so fun, and typically horror. But the film surprises with a really intriguing character study of the family. They themselves are broken people and the family has already been shattered. The father is a recovering alcoholic dealing with the guilt of having crashed their car whilst drunk, killing their youngest child and blinding the surviving daughter. Though still married, the wife will not let him near her, or allow him to share her bed. She cannot forgive him any more than he can forgive himself.
It's one of my favourite movies. Despite the cheesiness in places (goes with the territory), the acting from the leads is excellent, particularly the couple. Jeffrey Combs is a fantastic character actor and this is one of those rare films where he is playing an ordinarily flawed human rather than the quirkier Re-animator type role.
Some of the smaller roles aren't played as well ( standard Italian horror film cop for instance) but some of them are awesome. There's an old woman who works as a housekeeper at the castle and she's just brilliant. I imagine she's probably a really well known actor over there.
It's packed with little moments that still play in my head now and then.
One of the things I like about it is that it leans more to Frankenstein's Monster than it does to a ghost story. The freak is a threat but he's also a tragic figure.
Loved
Thank You For Smoking - It was pretty quirky even if it is more well known.
I thought Aaron Eckhart was great. Rob Lowe also had a small but pretty funny part.
J keeps telling me to watch that film. I really must some time.
I started to watch
Machete Maidens Unleashed last night but haven't finished it. It's a documentary about film makers in the Philippines in the 1970s and 80s. I normally don't watch documentaries, but this one is interesting. Here's a description from IMDB:
Karate-kicking midgets! Paper-mache monsters! Busty babes with blades! Filipino genre films of the '70s and '80s had it all. Boasting cheap labour, exotic scenery and non-existent health and safety regulations, the Philippines was a dreamland for exploitation filmmakers whose renegade productions were soon engulfing drive-in screens around the globe like a tidal schlock-wave!
Oh, then You'll love Sanchez Meets the Libido Sisters
I also thought
The Matador was pretty funny - Pierce Brosnan was surprisingly funny - I think he actually outdid Greg Kinear in this one.
[youtube]cClpPW1nyTw[/youtube]
Oh, then You'll love Sanchez Meets the Libido Sisters
I did a search for
Sanchez Meets the Libido Sisters and this post was the #1 hit.
I like the cut of your jib, Hung.
The L-shaped Room will always be my favorite "no one has ever heard of it" movie. Caught it on cable, one lazy afternoon years ago, quite by accident, and fell in love with the "quirky and underrated" genre.
I love Leslie Caron in anything, but
L-shaped Room was her best, I thought. The subject was probably very risque at the the time.
Two other flicks I adore:
Big Night and
In Bruges.In Bruges was great. Another charmer.
I had free tickets to see In Bruges.
What started as a minor headache earlier in the day began to affect my vision by the time I got into the cinema.
I had to walk out and go to bed.
My housemate at the time enjoyed it though.
Fantastic Pic:
Everything is Illuminated
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404030/Fantastic Pic:
Everything is Illuminated
I certainly agree...
I loved his dog Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.
The House of Yes
Parker Posey is a mentally ill young lady, and when her beloved brother brings home his new fiancee to meet the family, she is not amused. A very, very dark comedy. And Tori Spelling is in it too! Originally a play, so the pacing is very long scenes with fantastic back-and-forth dialogue. One of my very favorite movies of all time.
Note: don't read too much on the IMDB page, there are spoilers in the Quotes section. Trust me, just watch the movie.
I like Parker Posey too.
She was hilarious in Best in Show, which might be too well known to be in this thread but I think it's one of the best comedies around.
The House of Yes is available for streaming from Netflix. I've added it to my queue.
Kung Fu Hustle is one of the cleverest chop socky movies I've seen. (and far superior to Shao-Lin Soccer, incidentally)
The Machinist - Christian Bale, super creepy, you don't know where it's going until it gets there.
The Machinist - Christian Bale, super creepy, you don't know where it's going until it gets there.
Ditto. A must see nonetheless.
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist is a movie I had to watch twice before I really appreciated it.
Here's the description from Netflix:
When a highly skilled martial artist known as "the chosen one" sets out to avenge his family's death, he faces his greatest challenges yet: a cow with a deadly udder and a warlord who insists everyone call him "Betty."
Writer-director-actor Steve Oedekerk inserts himself into old chop-socky film footage and redubs the result into a parody of those 1970s Hong Kong classics, where everybody was kung fu fightin'!
This movie has a lot of quotable lines.
I always thought Gattaca got a rough go.
Of course, in my mind, with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Jude Law... it had me at hello!
But I really like the film.
21 Grams
Again, it had me at hello with Naomi Watts and Benecio Del Toro. And Sean Penn isn't too shabby either.
Brain Candy by the Kids in the Hall was pretty funny. But, of course, I was high when I saw it.
The Girl Most Likely To with Stockard Channing was funny.
Ohohohohoh...I love Stockard Channing!
You can watch the entire movie on youtube!! LOL!!! I just checked it out.
She's really great in it and it's so funny.
Cool. I must make a note to watch it this weekend. :)
Better Off Dead, Scott Pilgrim VS The World, The Fifth Element, Harold And Maude
Adventures in Babysitting.
"No one gets out of this place without singin' the blues."
[YOUTUBE]nDZADefOABs[/YOUTUBE]
My problem with this kind of thread/question is this: I have watched hundreds of wonderful films, some well-known, some obscure, but the moment I start trying to remember them for the purposes of a thread like this they fly out of my head.
There's a film I am trying to remember the title of which just refuses to come out of hiding...an Aussie film I think ( I think...forgive me it was ages ago, it might have been a Kiwi film...). A very strange, funny, but truly macabre horror flick. Set in the middle of nowhere, with a family of in-bred odd balls, the children of which took great delight in hunting down animals and humans and getting high on their adrenal glands.
I've only ever seen it mentioned on serious horror-geek sites. But it's a classic to my mind.
Anyways, here's one that I love and which doesn't seem to be that well known. Certainly not as well-known as it deserves to be imo:
Love and a .45
I wasn't really expecting much from it to be honest. I only watched it because at the time (mid to late 90s) I was attempting to acquire every film on Jeffrey Combs's filmography...what can I say...I was unemployed at the time, and y'know...ya gotta have goals right?
Most of the films were actually pretty shit. Combs, like the stand-up character actor that he is usually provided a small, but entertaining interlude between much larger segments of shit in some shitty low budget flick. ('Dead Man Walking' is a good example of that...and no, not that Dead Man Walking...the other one). But Love and a .45 was kind of joyful.
I always thought Gattaca got a rough go.
Of course, in my mind, with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Jude Law... it had me at hello!
But I really like the film.
Great film. Might be my favorite.
In Bruges was great. Another charmer.
Yes, it was. But then I have a fondness for the word "Fuck".
[YOUTUBE]jDyEbUUpiLc[/YOUTUBE]
Here's a deleted scene from In Bruges. Starring the current Doctor, Matt Smith. A flashback scene.
nsfw
[YOUTUBE]rANwBGXt7v8[/YOUTUBE]
deleted, no doubt, because of a deficiency of fuck, with just one utterance in nearly two minutes. That slows the pacing too much, too much.
I like that in the middle of all the fucking there is a shortarse.
, The Fifth Element,
One of my favorites, a movie I can watch again even though I only saw it recently, or start half way through if it comes up on TV.
I thought Gattaca was great though have only seen it once , must try it agin to see if it has staying power.
I thought Gattaca was great though have only seen it once , must try it agin to see if it has staying power.
From the beginning of the concert until they leave Fhloston Paradise is maybe the best half hour of cinema evah!
Ooh ooh ooh oooooooh! I've just discovered this thread, and quirky/underrated films are one of my big passions in life! I have a particular findness for French and Scandinavian films (the Danes and Swedes do great crime and thrillers), followed by Spanish. Also many English speaking ones. Here are some of my underrated favourites:
Friendship's Death (have been trying to find this on DVD or anything else for over 10 years now...)
Themroc (superb!)
Didier
Black Sheep
Angel-A
A Town Called Panic (the movie, not the series)
13 Tzameti
Belleville Rendez-Vous (Also known as the Triplets of Belleville)
Bubble Boy
Buffalo '66
The Castle (this was pretty mainstream in Australia though)
And I'm going to have to be the pariah here and say that I thought Gattaca was very silly and didn't enjoy it much at all. DESPITE Uma Thurman!
Gotta go feed Lars the Lamb. More later! ooooooooooh exciting thread! am going to look up some of those others mentioned.
Must admit, I was really disappointed with Gattaca.
~chomp~
The Last House on the Left is a quirkster.
Great movie, but that sex scene goes on for way too long and made me feel really uncomfortable.
Aussie flick called, "Ned" written and produced by a youngster (Abe Forsythe) who was starring in a TV series called "Always Greener". Made even quirkier when the Ned Kelly story was also released the same year (starring Heath Ledger).
Children of Men
This is a really great movie. I'm surprised it never got more attention.
Must admit, I was really disappointed with Gattaca.
Me, too. And I watched it with a total Gattaca fan, so she wasn't so pleased with my reaction.
Does Muriel's Wedding count?
No. Too appreciated.
And too bloody painful for a comedy!
Netflix told us we would love a movie called The Station Agent. So we watched it on Friday, and they were right. It was quite good. It got a fair amount of critical acclaim when it came out, but I had never heard of it.
That the one with Peter Dinklage (?) in?
I have that queued up on my harddrive or watching. Loved him in Game of Thrones.
That was a good one. I think Netflix pointed us to it as well.
I feel I have to mention Blood on Satan's Claw.
American title The Blood on Satan's Claw.
But in truth I only came to it via The League of Gentlemen's excellent DVD commentary of the same, so it's cheating somewhat.
The more I watch it, the more I love it though. Have already inflicted it on Dani. And my current sig is from the film (note date of post - if you are reading this even a few weeks later it is almost definitely not) and it just makes me laugh from sheer familiarity with the dialogue. As well as the commentary. Sadly that just creates more in-jokes I can only share with myself. In fact the penultimate sentence was one from the series. Sigh.
While I'm on a tLoG bent, The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is another undervalued treasure. But I simply cannot judge it as a standalone film. I came to it as a super-fan of the series/ collective talents. And I admit I have now watched it with the commentary on far more than off. Reece saying, "Look at that cat" is really very funny to me. Sadly.
Tonight I have a far cheesier DVD to watch.
Really.
It's a work training DVD called Cheesemaking - Cheese Product Knowledge.
I am unlikely to be back in this thread tomorrow morning.
I've mentioned the western "South of Heaven, West of Hell" before.
Good movie, chock plumb full o' quirk.
Also, I just watched a submarine flick called "Phantom". Takes place on a sixties-era Soviet missile sub. The quirk in this film is that none of the actors, not one, uses/has a Russian accent. Ed Harris as a Soviet sub commander, speaking straight American-English.
I love submarine movies. I've watched the (extremely) long, German-language version of "Das Boot" three times.
that is one *seriously* claustrophobic movie.
aaauuugh!~!
I can't do with submarine films.
I'm not sure I am officially claustrophic, but I am terrified by spaces I cannot get out of easily. I watched a TV programme which challenged people to face their worst fear (in a nice English way, not a Japanese way) and although I also hate heights I would far rather have been the lady climbing the communications tower than the one who went caving.
She was told that the smallest gap she would have to make it through was 36 inches. She said, "But I am a 40DD!" (this may be incorrect but it gets the point across.)
Don't worry, said the caving expert, breasts can be squashed to fit through.
I was only watching it in my living room and I was nearly sick, because it wasn't just a little squeeze into a big cavern; she was going into a place which still required scooting along on her belly.
:worried: shudder big time.
I could do it of course. If'n my life depended on it and if I knew there was a way out. But more likely my mind would snap and my bones would stay undisturbed until the next caver with a small ribcage came to play.