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.

And it's available for streaming on Netflix!

Local Hero

That sounds a little like The Coca Cola Kid.

Harold and Maude

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.

Comfort and Joy

Pieces of April

sidebar: Patricia Clarkson is an underrated actress, but she sure does work a lot! She's my idol!

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.

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)

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.

Children of Men

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...

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:

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.

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.

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/

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.

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:

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."

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.

Great film. Might be my favorite.

Yes, it was. But then I have a fondness for the word "Fuck".

Here's a deleted scene from In Bruges. Starring the current Doctor, Matt Smith. A flashback scene.

nsfw

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.

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LRIypcaIX4

Greaser's Palace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVNPyv2QME0

The Straight Story.

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.

From the beginning of the concert until they leave Fhloston Paradise is maybe the best half hour of cinema evah!