In other words: What’s a hidden gem I probably haven’t seen but totally should? And why is it a must-watch?
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Rubber.
Jacob’s Ladder.
A largely forgotten psychological horror film from 1990 with Tim Robbins and Macaulay Culkin.
Saw it on TV once by chance and loved it ever since.
I’d say it’s must-watch for being influential despite its moderate success and being incredibly gripping as you try to get your head around what’s actually going on.
Upgrade (Cyberpunk movie from Australia)
I was about to say this, that movie is such a gem. Saw it in theater without knowing what it would be.
It weirdly felt like a Venom movie, and what made it even more weird - it came out around the same time as the actual Venom movie, and even the main hero looked somewhat like a discount version of Tom Hardy😅
Is it about the pimp from Idiocracy?
The Nice Guys
This movie drove me crazy
spoiler
Everyone they are supposed to help and save, gets killed, but they play it off like a victory
A decent number of folks have still never seen “Primer”, since it was kind of an indie classic before it got a cult following.
It’s a a must watch because:
A. It’s just really well made. B. It’s delightfully mind bending.
Repo: A Genetic Opera
I own Repo on disk and watch a few times a year ❤️
Known to horror aficionados, but not to general movie watchers: Lake Mungo (2008)
I highly recommend you don’t read up on it. Besides the fact that the film just works so much better when you come to it fresh, most reviews - both in print and YouTube videos - spoil pivotal scenes, including in the artwork they choose to use as a thumbnail/heading. Just watch it. Even if the horror doesn’t work for you (many people report being bored by the film), it’s still a great film with surprising depth and heart. It’s worth checking off your list for sure.
The basics: It’s a mockumentary set in Australia, made by a director/writer who hasn’t done anything before or since, featuring actors who probably aren’t known to you, even if you’re an Aussie. Much of the dialogue is improvised, so it feels very real and natural.
Try to watch it alone, in the dark, with no distractions (turn off your phone). This will help maximise your chances of being one of the lucky people the film has managed to scare in a profound way. I’m one of those lucky people, I’m happy to say!
These are some of my favourite, in no particular order:
The Phantasm series
Dale and Tucker Fight Evil
Cabin in the woods
Snowpiercer
Equilibrium
A bitter sweet life
The man from nowhere
I saw the Devil (you may not want to watch this one)
Train to Busan (1 and 2)
Lady Vengence/Sympathy for Lady vengence
Sympathy for Mr Vengence
OldBoy (the Korean version - you may also not want to watch this)
Wrath of man
The Family (DeNiro and Pheiffer)
Keeping up with the Joneses
Gran Torino
Boondock Saints
Layer Cake
RocknRolla
Operation Fortune
Lucky Number Slevin
A man called Otto
Stand up guys
King of New York
The Dead Zone
7 Psychopaths
Biloxi Blues
In Bruges
The Matador
From Paris with loveRocknrolla but not Snatch or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels!? It’s been a very long time but I distinctly remember being disappointed in rocknrolla when compared to the other two I mentioned.
Love Guy Ritchie!
Same! I think the only one I didn’t really care for was Covenant, I felt it wasn’t paced the same as his other movies, but I’d still watch it again if it was streaming.
In regards to Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, also two of my favorite movies, thanks for pointing them out, defintely a fun time!
+1 for In Bruges. Love Martin McDonagh’s films and this one might be my favorite. At first glance, it looks like a kinda generic action movie, but that’s not the case at all.
Snowpiercer looked like such a dumb action movie, but I read so many good reviews of it that I decided to try it. Was not disappointed at all!
Agreed! I honestly not sure which was the most messed up of all the revelations
I quote In Bruges anytime I get angry at an inanimate object lol
There is a Train to Busan sequel?!?!?
That infromation just made my day, loved the first one.
There is! Peninsula IMHO it wasn’t better/as good/worse than the first, it was just different
In no particular order (and yes some are more well known in film circles, maybe I should’ve ommited them, but you never know what the reader hasn’t seen):
Jojo Rabbit, 2019 - a comedic coming of age in Nazi Germany. Jojo and his imaginary friend, Hitler, face a complicated and rapidly changing world.
The Mitchells versus the Machines, 2021 - animated family adventure for fun with the whole family.
Rise of Leslie Vernon, 2006 - mocumentary following slasher killer Leslie Vernon.
Bunny and the Bull, 2009 - an, in my opinion, gorgeously set film about two friends on a road trip in Spain.
Parallel Mothers (Madras Paralelas), 2021 - not a hidden gem if you know anything about Spanish cinema, but maybe you don’t. Penolpe Cruz is a new mother whose life becomes intertwined with another women’s when they give birth in the same hospital.
Hero (英雄), 2002 - again, if you know Wuxia film then this isn’t a hidden gem. A pinnacle of the genre, a Chinese Rashomon with wire fights.
Blow Up, 1966 - British New Wave classic. A photographer used to a free and casual 60s life becomes certain he has accidentally photographed evidence of a murder.
Berberian Sound Studio, 2012 - exploration of sound and feeling. A mild mannered amateurish British sound technician gets a big job working on the sound effects for a giallo film in Italy.
Martyrs, 2008 - the pinnacle of French New Extreme movement. It made a big name for itself at the time for being the sort of torture porn film that really gave it a point beyond vouyerism. Not for the faint of heart.
Rye Lane, 2023 - a romcom love letter to London.
The Day Shall Come, 2019 - an eccentric black preacher gets caught up in a web of madness that runs deep.
Flight of the Navigator
Cashback I feel is pretty unknown. Maybe not but still very good. Also Gentleman Broncos is fantastic if you’re into the napoleon dynamite style of comedy, same creators.
I want to say Kin-Dza-Dza. It’s a very silly and memorable work of Soviet science fiction.
Yessss this one is so fun
My favorite: Stranger than Fiction
Also, Fandango, Passengers, Life or Something Like it, Birdy, Home Office
Some can be hard to find.
Wong Kar-Wai’s films, particularly his 90s Hong Kong vibes of Chungking Express and its spiritual counterpart Fallen Angels.
The question was about “lesser-known movies”, but Wong Kar-Wai and his movies are (for obvious reasons) very well-known.
I saw Snowpiercer on another comment so I assumed we were scraping the surface lol
Fantastic! If that’s the level for lesser known then you’re perfectly right, most of the world’s most celebrated, successful and influential filmmakers then certainly count as lesser known.
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em is a 1988 Australian short feature about an underground party held in post-apocalyptic Melbourne. The film is a product of nuclear anxiety at the height of the Cold War.
Director: Ray Boseley. Cast: Rob Howard, Nique Needles, Polly Croke, Daniel Lillford, Fred Dugina, Maddog Bott, George Huxley, Chris Windmill, Ian ‘Quinsy’ Maclean, Lindsay Brundson, Clayton Jacobson, Adam Learner, Myrtle Woods, Bill Johnston, Smiley Rowe, John F. Howard, Claire Bordas, John Flaus, Wayne ullman, Dennis Tupicoff, Peter Lane, Wain Fimo, Bruce Barnes, Angus Algie, Loretta Bell, Grant Barling, Claire Boseley, Julian Faull, Zlatko Kasumovic, Anthony Kay, Ollie Martin, Penny McKimm, Dennis Prosser, Adrian Scully, Aleksi Vellis.
