Little Known Movies

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:37pm

One of my favorites is "The Flim Flam Man " with George C Scott

He gives a very good performance in this little gem of a movie

Updated On: 7/15/06 at 12:37 PM

[Incognito]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:45pm

Avalon - Directed by Barry Levinson. I thought this was a wonderful film. It made more of a splash in America than it did here in the UK. I've never seen a reference to it since release.

A Russian Jewish family comes to the USA at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. There, the family and their children try to make themselves a better future in the so-called promised land.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:46pm

I remember Avalon & I really enjoyed it

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:53pm

You'll Like My Mother w/ a pregnant Patty Duke being menaced by the family of her late husband during a blizzard.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 12:55pm

Yes, Mr. Midwest. Now that IS a little-known movie. Creepy one too.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 1:09pm

True Love. A little Nancy Savoca movie with a young Anabella Sciorra and Ron Eldard--about a young Italian couple in the Bronx before their wedding. I love it.

29th Street, with Anthony LaPaglia, Lanie Kazan and Danny Aiello (Danny Aiello is fantastic in this...especially with his "patch of grass" diatribe). I was so excited when this FINALLY came out on DVD!

I think The Purple Rose of Cairo is one of the most beautiful movies Woody Allen ever made.

And my favorite TV movie of all time, The Girl Most Likely To (starring Stockard Channing). The fact that it's completely over-the-top only makes it more fabulous. A great former ugly-duckling-gets-revenge pic. No one EVER knows what the hell I'm talking about when I mention this.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 1:11pm

SCHIZOPOLIS. An extremely bizarre and hilarious experimental film that Steven Soderbergh made before OUT OF SIGHT. Soderbergh himself gives a hilarious comic performance as a man working for a Scientology-like cult called Eventualism and it makes you wish he would act more.

This is actually a movie that Soderbergh attributes to his recent string of artistic triumphs, eventually leading to his much deserved Best Director win for Traffic.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 1:20pm

SOLDIER OF ORANGE (1977) Fantastic Dutch film starring Rutger Hauer and directed by Paul Verhoeven. It's a World War II espionage thriller. Awesome.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 1:31pm

WONDER BOYS with Tobey Maguire and Michael Douglas. #4 in my all time favorite movies.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 3:35pm

I love "Avalon" too, and I just got the DVD a couple of months ago. Re-watching it, I still loved it, but I can see why it didn't do that well, and was soon forgotten. The story is very depressing. This close knit family moves to America, so bonded together by their old world relationships, and as they become more "American" and modernized over the years, they all separate, break apart and become isolated. It's the systematic deconstruction of the "European family unit." I still love it, but I was very depressed by the end of the film. One of my favorite shots in the movie is when everyone gathers around the "new" TV set for dinner, and they show a shot of the empty dining table, with no one sitting at it and no one talking to each other anymore.

My own favorite little known movie is "Mr. North" with a fantastic cast led by Anthony Edwards. Also starring Tammy Grimes, Angelica Huston, Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum, Mary Stuart Masterson, Virginia Madsen, Harry Dean Stanton, Katharine Houghton, Mark Metcalf, Christopher Durang and David Warner. Stellar cast in a wonderful 1920s Gatsby-esque film, based on the story by Thornton Wilder. Danny Huston directed it, and it's such a little gem. I adore this movie!

Updated On: 7/15/06 at 03:35 PM

[pab]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 3:51pm

"The King of Comedy" is a movie that I own and have watched a number of times. It's one of the lesser knows films by Martin Scorsese with great performances by Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard and cameos by Liza Minnelli, Victor Borge and Fred De Cordova (actually he has a little more then a cameo). Of course Scorsese makes an appearance as the TV Director and Tony Randall plays himself as the guest host on the late night show (sort of a Tonight Show) after the host has been kidnapped by De Niro's 'Rupert Pupkin' and Bernhard's 'Masha'.

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 4:19pm

Series 7


a movie in the form of a TV Marathon, the show, a mix orf Survivor and The Running Man (yes the governator movie). Quite interesting. Stars Brooke Smith (the girl down in the hole in Silence of the Lambs, you know, the one that was gonna get the hose again if she didn't put the lotion on her skin).

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 4:27pm

A lot of my favorite little known movies are chessy classic musicals or Disney movies.

A Date With Judy- Starring the great Jane Powell as energetic 16-year-old Judy Foster who develops a crush an older man and suspects her father of having an affair with a Rumba instructress. Total innocent Post-WWII fluff, and I LOVE it! Also stars a very young Elizabeth Taylor as her bitchy best friend and Carmen Miranda as the dancer.

The Harvey Girls- A musical with Judy Garland as a mail-order bride on a train trip West, who, when she finds that her and her suitor are not right for each othe,r becomes a waitress at a "Harvey House" restuarant; one of several restaurants that was created with the intention to "civilize" the west with it's wholesome waitresses. The saloon across the street, however, sees the Harvey House as a threat, and the Harvey girls sooon become rivals with the saloon girls. Hilarious catfights ensue. also stars Angela Lansbury as a nasty, sultry saloon girl, and Cyd Charisse in her first speaking role.

The Great Mouse Detective- An animated mystery about a girl mouse who enlists the help of a Sherlock Holmes-like detective to find her kidnapped father. One of the better Disney movies from the 80's period before Little Mermaid. I loved it when Iw as little, and still do.

That's all I got for now

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 4:41pm

i love the great mouse detective

half light
it's pretty recent and has demi moore in it, i'm surprised it's not more well known.
a woman looses her son to a drowning accident and moves to scotland. while there she meets a man named angus who runs the lighthouse. she quickly finds out that the man is not who he says he is after going to a party and learning that the lighthouse keeper died 7 years ago. the whole town thinks she's going crazy. really good twist near the end.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 5:10pm

Secrets and Lies. Brenda Bleythen is nothing less than amazing in it.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 5:52pm

Oooh! Soldier of Orange is available on DVD! I need to go buy it. (I only have it on VHS)

Wasn't Secrets & Lies nominated for 5 Academy Awards? How is that a little-known movie? But yes, I love it, too.

I also love Avalon (I'm a big Aidan Quinn fan, anyway.) It's a wonderful film.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:01pm

I kind of agree Erika, many of these seem off-beat or not "commercial" but not necessarily little known.

My picks - Swimming to Cambodia, Mystic Pizza, and the Year of Living Dangerously.

I am not sure Mystic Pizza or Year of Living Dangerously are considered "little known" though.

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:03pm

Oooh, love Mystic Pizza!

[erikaamato]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:06pm

True, YWIW, but I think Swimming to Cambodia counts! I was sad but not terribly shocked when Spalding Gray committed suicide...he was such an odd, brilliant man.

Oh, and yeah, I love Mystic Pizza, too. Such a cute movie.

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:11pm

Secrets and Lies never recieved wide release. Even after the oscar noms. That is what I based it off of. Of course people here will be familiar with it - try asking over on My Space, and you will probably get a different view point.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:16pm

Spalding Gray was a brilliant, but troubled man.

Like you, I was not surprised, but saddened.

Mystic Pizza makes me think of the movie theater I worked at when I was in high school, and the group of friends (most of whom I am still friends with almost 20 years later!) that grew out of that job. It just makes me smile.

Talk Radio is another interseting film. Even though it is an Oliver Stone movie, I am not sure how well known it is.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:28pm

I love Talk Radio! I helped out on the crew of the play back in the 80's when my local theater put it on. Fell in love with the piece then, and really thought the film did a great job with the material.

cheezedoodle: OK, that's cool. But check imdb. The title officially is Secrets & Lies. With the ampersand. =)

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 6:44pm

Secrets & Lies has a couple of touching, yet hilarious scenes.

Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste are both almost perfect.

[Incognito]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 7:16pm

I've ordered Avalon, can't wait to see it again: - )

Secrets & Lies, is a favourite too. Blethyn, turned in a performance tour de force. The scene where she eventually met up with her illegitimate daughter, was priceless, comedic brilliance. One of the best British films of the nineties. Blethyn won the Palme d'Or for this Mike Leigh film (Abigail's Party) and it promptly disappeared from view...

Updated On: 7/16/06 at 07:16 PM

[DG]

Posted: 7/15/06 at 7:47pm

STRANGERS IN GOOD COMPANY.

A Canadian film, which was written using input from the actresses involved (it's an all-female cast.)

A group of women of wide-ranging ages and backgrounds gets stranded in the wilderness of Canada when their bus breaks down. They take refuge in an abandoned house (which one of the older women remembers is in the area because of childhood visits there,) and the movie quietly and beautifully explores how we COULD come to an understanding of our shared experiences - if only we open to the possibility.