Obscure Little Movies That You Love

[goldenboy]

OK, this is not a new idea for a thread, but...whatcha guys got? Obscure films, cult films, indie pics? Something you love, that you latch onto for whatever weird reason. Maybe it tanked at the box office, maybe the critics savaged it...but you really like it.


Highway 61
A naive Canadian barber who knows US popular culture inside and out meets a flamboyant roadie who needs someone to drive her and her "brother's" corpse to New Orleans. Chaos ensues after the barber agrees to drive her, the corpse, and the drugs stashed within all the way. "”Amazon


Zero Effect
Zero Effect follows private investigator Daryl Zero and Steve Arlo, his reluctant representative, through one particularly tangled case involving blackmail, murder, revenge, and a set of lost keys. Zero is the world's best private investigator, suave and totally in control while on a case, but socially inept when off the job. The diversely talented and prolific Bill Pullman is excellently cast as Zero, switching seamlessly from one persona to the next, and the ever-charming Ben Stiller is his perfect sidekick... "”Amazon


Something Wild
Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels star in this quirky road movie from director Jonathan Demme. Charlie Driggs (Daniels) is a timid New York investment broker who lets himself be abducted during his lunch hour by an attractive nut named Lulu (Griffith). While drunk, she drives him to a New Jersey hotel for some kinky sex and petty thievery, and later convinces him to accompany her to Pennsylvania and pose as her husband at her high school reunion. More misadventures ensue, and Charlie gradually finds himself loosening up and falling in love, but then the film makes a sudden left turn with the appearance of Ray (Ray Liotta), Lulu's real husband--a violent ex-convict. As the film's tone oscillates from lightheartedness to darkness, Demme's affection for his characters never wavers... "”allmovieportal


The Opportunists
This thoughtful, accomplished debut from Irish writer/director Myles Connell boasts a quietly nuanced lead performance from Christopher Walken, a nicely realistic alternative to heist-flick bombast and a healthy dose of working-class dignity. Mixing low-key humor and even lower-key true crime details into his character study of an ex-con struggling to do the right thing for his family, Connell heightens the audience's emotional stakes by providing an all-too-realistic explanation of the tiny indignities that make crime seem like a viable alternative to the straight life. Walken invests Victor with equal amounts of hope and resignation, his idiosyncratic features for once employed not for their flamboyance but for their uncommon humanity... "”starpulse.com

 

[Wicked]

Taboo - Amber Benson as an alcoholic. Only 6 people in the whole movie. Its fantastic.

Horror in the Attic (think it was Attic Expeditions n America) - Seth Green in an Asylum. Really stupid, but a lot of fun.

Abandon - Katie Holmes as a college student who's boyfriend went missing. Cant stand her, but love the film.

New Bets Friend - One of my favourites. Poor girl who wants to go to law school ends up in the inner circle of 3 rich girls and ends up in a coma. Plus Mia Kirshner 😀

Nemesis Game - Riddles and murder. And Brendan Fehr.

Center Stage - Ballet movie. But amazing movie.

Movies by David DeCoteau. Possibly the worst movies ever made but I think thats what makes them so fun. I have all but 2. I think.

Theres more but these are the ones sitting in front of me right now. They may not be obscure in America but they certainly are here.

 

[goldenboy]

Been meaning to check out that Amber Benson one, really curious...

For some reason, I like movies about characters on the edge of oblivion...with crime or drugs or whatever.

Jesus' Son "” Billy Crudup, Samantha Morton, Dennis Hopper, Holly Hunter, Jack Black. Really good character study, dramedy.
Plot Synopsis: A gentle and usually mellow young man, who sometimes knows things before they happen and gets vibes of premonition, tell us his story: how he met Michelle in Iowa in 1971, how he got the name F***head, how she introduced him to heroin and their falling in love, his thieving, his hospital work and their time in Chicago when she gets pregnant, detox, going to Phoenix to live, AA meetings and a dance, working at a care center where he learns to touch the residents, and modifying his daily schedule so that he passes a neighboring Mennonite household at the right time to hear the wife sing Gospel songs in the shower. Slowly, very slowly, FH lets his gifts emerge. "”Amazon


Also, The Station Agent "”Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson...
Plot Synopsis: When his only friend and co-worker dies, a young man born with dwarfism moves to an abandoned train depot in rural New Jersey. Though he tried to maintain a life of solitude, he is soon entangled with an artist who is struggling with a personal tragedy and an overly-friendly Cuban hot dog vendor. "”Amazon

 

[slayerpower]

Go
Described as Pulp Fiction for the MTV crowd, this is about one story through the point of view of many people. Unlike Pulp, it's hilarious. Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr as gay soap stars who are busted for drugs and go undercover to avoid charges. If that doesn't get you interested, I don't know what will.

La Femme Nikita
The basis for the tv show. A french movie about a cop killing girl who is trained to be an assassin. She is in love with her handler and must deal with all the pain and tragedy her job requires. Quite good.

 

[Wicked]

100 Girls - This sexy, teen-comedy is about a freshman, Matthew (played by Jonathan Tucker), at college who meets his dream girl in a dorm elevator during a blackout. He never sees her face, but instantly falls in love. In the morning, the power is restored, but the "dream girl" has vanished. All Matthew knows is that she lives in an all-girls dorm. He sets out on a semester-long journey to find his mystery girl amongst a hundred female suspects. Could it be Wendy (Larisa Oleynik)? Dora? Arlene? Patty (Emmanuelle Chriqui)? Cynthia? Or the 95 other girls, any of whom could have been in that elevator with Matthew

RSVP - A Hitchcockian black comedy in the spirit of 'Rope' and Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Indians' that begs the question can murder, if done well, be considered art? An art whose medium is one of flesh and bone. With Glenn Quinn, Jason Mewes and Majandra Delfino

200 Cigarettes - New Year's Eve, 1981, the Lower East Side. Monica's having a party, but as late as 9, no one's there. She stews (and drinks). Folks are on their way, all looking for love, sex, or both. En route, paths cross, gambits misfire: a performance artist, her boyfriend until today and his long-time pal Lucy, two Long Island high-school girls, two punk rockers, a bartender, a Scottish painter who's lousy in bed, a pretty face named Jack who runs when women say they love him, his cute but clumsy date Cindy, two trendy vamps, a loquacious cabby, the man-crazed Hillary, and Elvis Costello. Nearly everybody smokes, and nearly everybody scores. And all get who and what they deserve. With Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci and a million other people.

Love Song - Christian Kane as a blues singer.

Stark Raving Mad - A crook quietly plots his revenge against the boss who murdered his brother while working for him. With Seann William Scott

Rip Off (Beyond City Limits) - Three women outsmart unsavory men who try to cheat them out of their take in an almost-botched casino heist. With Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof

Desert Blue - An academic obsessed with "roadside attractions" and his tv-star daughter finally discover the world's largest ice cream cone, the centerpiece for an old gold-rush town struggling to stay on the map. They end up staying longer than expected because of an accident that spilled an unknown cola ingredient all over the highway. They spend the next few days with the various residents of the town which include a teenage girl who loves to blow things up and a boy trying to keep alive his fathers dream of building a beachside resort in the middle of the desert. With Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck and Christina Ricci

The Smokers - Looking back a few years later, Jefferson Roth tells the story of the last few weeks of her senior year at a Wisconsin boarding school when she and two girl friends, the naive Lisa and the outrageous Karen, use a pistol to turn the tables on men (boys, really) who make them feel weak, put upon, and desired only as sex objects. They stage a sexual assault on David, who's been hot and cold toward Lisa. Meanwhile, each of the three keeps trying to find love even while Karen wants to attack others: Jefferson falls for a cowboy singer, ignoring a boy she grew up with, Jeremy, who likes her; Lisa tries again to reach David; Karen puts herself at risk with an older man. Can it end well? With Dominique Swain, Thora Birch and Busy Phillips

Strike - It's 1963, and the pupils at Miss Godard's School for Girls are dismayed when they find out they're merging with a boy's school. Imaginations run wild as the girls start a campaign against the motion. With Monica Keena, Racheal Leigh Cook, Vincent Kartheiser and Kirsten Dunst

Stonebrook - A Seth Green movie

Airborne - Mitchell Goosen (Shane McDermott) is sixteen/seventeen year old kid from California who loves to surf and rollerblade. Yet, his parents, who are two zoologists were given a grant to work in Australia. The only problem was: Mitchell couldn't go with them. So, he gets sent to stay with his aunt, uncle, and cousin in Cincinnati, Ohio. Which is far from the beach. When he arrives, he meets his cousin who is also his new roommate for the next three months: Wiley (Seth Green). Mitchell then goes to school and gets on the bad side of the big guys on campus aka the high school hockey players. Mitchell and Wiley end up enduring weeks of torture from the guys. Then, the big guys and Mitchell and Wiley have to learn to get along to try to beat the Central High School rivals in a competition down Devil's Backbone.

Satans School For Girls - Beth, under an alias, enrolls at Fallbridge College for Girls to probe the apparent suicide of her younger sister who attended school there, and soon battles against a secret group called "The Five" who are in fact a Satanic cult of witches and have chosen Beth, a natural witch herself, to join the cult as the fifth member to consolidate it's power for world domination. With Shannen Docherty and Julie Benz

On The Edge of Innocence - Teenage Zoe Tyler suffers from manic-depression. With a musician father who is never around life seems hard. Zoe eventually lands up in a psychiatric ward for treatment. There she meets Jake, an unstable teenager with an anger problem. They fall in love and are soon separated by their doctors, psychiatrists and parents. Fuming, Jake suddenly sees a chance for escape and takes Zoe with him, along with a few other patients. After a trip around the country, Jake and Zoe must face up to their illness and their crime. With James Marsden and Kellie Martin

 

[goldenboy]

House of Games
David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut was this mesmerizing study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist, and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for con men to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. "”Amazon


Vincent Gallo has come to annoy the crap out of me, but this is a really good, compelling movie. Imagine if Cameron Crowe and David Lynch made a film together...
Buffalo 66
It's winter and Billy (Vincent Gallo) has just been released after a five year prison stint into the bleak landscape of an industrial area outside of Buffalo. He heads home to his parents' house who don't know where he's been for the last five years. But he wants to return as the prodigal son who's been off on secret missions rather than the ex-con he is. And he wants to return with a beautiful wife, so he abducts a young tap dancer (Christina Ricci) and forces her to play that wife. A powerful drama of modern alienation, Buffalo 66 propels Gallo into the front ranks of independent filmmaking "”tribute.ca


Dogfight
Director Nancy Savoca tackles tough material in the battle of the sexes, late-teen division, and makes it bitterly moving. River Phoenix plays one of a group of youngish marines on the verge of shipping out to Southeast Asia in 1963 San Francisco. On their last night in port, they decide to hold a "dogfight": a contest to see who can get the ugliest girl to go out with him. Phoenix winds up with a pudgy waitress (Lili Taylor), who has dreams of being like her hero, Joan Baez. As he draws her out, he finds himself intrigued by the self-contained world she has created for herself and by the time he gets her to the dance he is regretting his decision--but is too macho to pull out. Barely released, the film features touching performances by both the late Phoenix and the always fascinating Taylor, who gives this character great dignity. "”Amazon

 

[Mulder22]

Road House

Point Break

American History X


Yes they arent' too obsure, but they didn't get that much critical acclaim. I love them anyways.

 

[Old Master 3.0]

I love quite a few obscure gems, one of them being The Idolmaker (1982).

I truly don't comprehend why this movie was never a big hit in theaters, as it's quite engrossing and entertaining. .

The film is set in the late '50's-early '60's, and stars the late Ray Sharkey as Vincent Vaccari, a struggling but driven singer/songwriter trying to catch a break.

He realizes that he lacks the right "look" to be a performer, so he settles on becoming a manager, looking for the right talent to perform his music and push into stardom.

He plucks a younger, better-looking singer out of a New Jersey nightclub band and molds him into a singing sensation....the teen idol Vincent dubs "Tommy Dee".

Vaccari later works his magic again when he finds a young man working as a bus boy in a local Italian restaraunt, dubbing him "Ceasare" (played by a very young Peter Gallagher), and turns him into an even bigger star.

Everyone is on top of the world. However, Vinnie Vaccari's obsession with stardom begins taking it's toll on him, and eventually leads to his own downfall, as his manic preoccupation turns him into an egomaniacal, selfish, unreasonable, and at times irrational taskmaster....pushing friendships and everybody else to their breaking point, eventually causing the disintegration of everything he's worked for.

The acting in this film is top notch all around, including a fine performance by a young Joe Pantoliano in a supporting role as Viccari's best friend and co-songwriter.

Moving the story along is the excellent soundtrack...a slew of bright and bouncy, original tunes. The only slight problem I have with this movie is that, while the music is toe-tappingly good.....it doesn't actually SOUND like fifties and sixties music. It sounds more like 1980's COVERS of music from those times....not evocative AT ALL of that era.
However, this is only a minor beef, the music is quite good in spite of it all. Great film. Should've been a hit.

 

[goldenboy]

Ray Sharkey
Lead and character player who began his career on TV in the 1970s and acheived his movie breakthrough in "The Idolmaker" (1982), Taylor Hackford's stinging look at exploitation in the music business. Sharkey appeared in several Paul Mazursky films, notably as Phil D'Amico in the engaging "Willie and Phil" (1980). He also excelled in tough, urban roles like his turn as mob boss Sonny Steelgrave in the popular CBS TV series, "Wiseguy".

Getting a little OT, but I can remember loving the old show Wiseguy! Mostly cos of Kevin Spacey and Joan Severance...

After the intense "Sonny Steelgrave" arc of first-season episodes, the producers of Wiseguy faced the challenge of topping themselves, and they did it by casting a relatively unknown New York stage actor named Kevin Spacey, who proceeded to chew up the scenery as only a future Oscar®-winner could. But Spacey's not the only reason for the giddy success of the "Mel Profitt" arc, which finds OCB agent Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl) teaming up with sociopathic assassin Roger Lococco (William Russ) in an effort to infiltrate the global drugs-and-guns empire of the Proffitt siblings Mel (Spacey), a "manic-depressive genius with acute paranoia," and his codependent sister Susan (Joan Severance), who keeps her incestuously devoted brother happy by injecting home-brewed narcotics between his toes (hence giving Spacey his trademark line, "Only the toes knows!").

TV audiences in 1988 had never seen such a twisted sibling relationship, and there's plenty of eccentric chemistry between Spacey and then-newcomer Severance, who later developed a loyal male following as a B-movie sexpot. Completing their triangle of terror is Russ, playing Lococco as a tormented Vietnam vet with a massive chip on his shoulder, luring Vinnie into a life of luxury and lethal behavior, thus complicating matters considerably for Vinnie's covert handlers McPike (Jonathan Banks) and Lifeguard (Jim Byrnes), who grow increasingly worried as Vinnie gains Mel Profitt's hard-won trust. The quality of these 12 episodes remains consistently high as the Profitts reach "psychotic critical mass," leading to Mafia connections and a new direction for Vinnie's loving mother (well-played by Elsa Raven). Through it all, Wahl (who proves himself a man of few words in a sparse one-episode commentary) maintains his strong presence as a leading man, generously allowing Spacey's rising star to shine. Wiseguy still had some highlights in its future, but the "Mel Profitt" arc represents the series at its best.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._1_2/103-9341792-1011004?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130

 

[BillieHunter]

Its not really THAT obscure but Thirteen (2003)...i really liked this movie and really hated it at the same time...by the end you want to kinda punch the girl in the face...but i think it has a really good point...its really true in that alot of kids are exposed to that as young as they are in that movie...

 

[PrincessZombie]

Siblings - I'm not really sure if this is really an obscure movie, but no one I know has ever heard of it. It's a black comedy about four siblings (with no blood relation to each other) with evil stepparents that die in a car crash.

 

[zombie.apparatus]

thirteen and 100 girls are pretty good.. i like them 🙂

 

[StuckinTraffic]

I don't know how obscure Rabbit Proof Fence is......good movie, tho. I was pleasantly surprised by Little Fish. Picked it up because I love Cate Blanchett, turned out pretty well, too!

 

[goldenboy]

Coffee and Cigarettes. I didn't think it held together very well as an actual movie, but Cate Blanchett's little dialogue with herself was beauteous, a thing to behold...

Now here is a movie that's practically perfect for DVD. Shot over many years with eccentric actors, Jim Jarmusch's collection of black-and-white vignettes is as uneven as a collection of music videos (without songs). Even with the dull spots and the drop-dead-hip ambiance, there's something touching about this parade of frazzled people holding on to their coffee and cigarettes like life rafts--especially in the final sequence with Taylor Mead. There are some severely misconceived pieces, but the best are a treat: Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan in a hilarious Hollywood encounter, Tom Waits and Iggy Pop getting off on the wrong foot in a funky diner, and Cate Blanchett doing a dual role as herself and a jealous cousin. Bill Murray can't save one underwritten piece, but Jack and Meg White are amusing in an absurdist blackout. Use the Scene Selection menu, and revel in the fetishizing of java and butts. "”Amazon

 

[polexia]

Strike: one of my all time favs!!! its so awesome!!!!

GO: man i love this movie.. when it came out (to the cinema) i couldn't get anyone to see it with me so i went alone.. good times LOL

three ninjas: there where three movies made with almost the same cast, then a forth.. which i haven't seen.. i loved these movies a s a kid.. no.2(three ninjas kick back was the best) i saw it 36 times in 12 days when i was like 14... LOL i had the bigest crush on one of the actors: max elliott slade. 😛 about three brothers who have a japanese grandpa, who teaches them karate and the art of the nija, while they stay with him during the summer. in the second one they go to japan and tey fight in a turnament... well they fight "bad people" with their marsialarts skills 😉

Safe passage with susan sorandon about this familywith 7 sons.. its so great!!!! total faily crazyness :biggrin: gotta love it well one of the sons is in the middleeast stationes there during the golfwar... (so this movie is from 91 i think)

Idle hands with devon sawa, jessica alba and seth green... so funny... this guy has an idle hand.. that he can't cotroll..

Porzac nation a norwegian director, movie with christina riccie... based on the book. a very good filmatisation if you ask me... cauptures depression very well.

the gathering also christina ricci.... about this girl, who sufferce from memory loss... who turns out to not be who we think she might be... and many strange things happens in the small uk town she stays in.

The majestic a jim carrey movie... set inn the 50s and during the mccarty era.

eternal sunshine on the spottless mind a jim carrey and kate winslet fim... surreal at times.. but so great

cheaters about 4 boys in high school who are what the title suggests.. its FUNNY! love it

cowboy bebop a japanese anime... about a bounty hunter and his team on mars, looking for a very bad man

Blue river movie with Nick stahl... about Stahls character and his family, pyromanic friend and his mothers boyf...

dogma OMG how i love this movie.. another movie i have watched countlessly during a short period of time.. man i even brought it with me on vacation.. LOl the memories dogma nad i have... 😉 i got drunk for the first time while wtahcing this on vacation in danmark...

finding forester and old grumpy man and a young kid.. the man is a writer and the kid wants to be, and he writes alot, the man becomes his unwilling guide... with sean connorey.

Lost souls with wynonna rider. great film! really great.. rider recives singns that the devil is about to be born.. and she tries to save the man who she thinks will be come the devil...

ooo and Donnie darko