Harry and Tonto
Buffalo '66
Mikey and Nicky
A Taste of Cherry
Johnny Got His Gun
What Happened Was…
Dodsworth
The Incident
Never On Sunday
Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner
Shadows In Paradise
Ladybug, Ladybug
La Tera Trema
Fists In Pocket
David and Lisa
Il Sorpasso
Whity
Two Is A Happy Number
Hombre
Il Tetto
The Blue Hotel
Zandy’s Bride
Little Fugitive
Lies My Father Told Me
The Working-Class Goes To Heaven
Joe (1970)
Come Back, Little Sheba
Home of the Brave
L’Argent
“The Sins of the Fleshapoids”
And its sequel, “The Ascension of the Demonoids”
Also, “Cobra Woman,” starring Maria Montez.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension
Juliet, Naked
Little Children (2006)
Force Majeure (2014)
The Red Violin (1998)
I feel like a huge list would overwhelm people, so I’ll just list two and say a little something.
Possession (1981)
I have said before that Hereditary(2018) was the only “horror” type movie that ever scared or truly unsettled me. I think Possession, which I saw this summer, is probably the second. The opening 25 minutes or so serve as a very good portrayal of a failing relationship. In fact, you could confuse the movie as a movie about relationships.
Once things get…well, weird, it turns into an unforgettable experience. I won’t spoil anything, but you will remember this movie and parts might even haunt you later. Worth it. Oh, Sam Neil’s earliest major role I’ve seen.
The Reflecting Skin - (1990)
This one is harder to explain. Some call this a horror movie, but I hardly think too much happens, though it does open with a scene of boys inflating a bullfrog(or toad maybe) through the anus and shooting it with a sling shot, causing it to explode on a lady. Nice practical joke.
After that, it really isn’t a disgusting gore movie at all. Viggo Moretensen is in it, by the way. It’s more about the types of trauma and things that happen out in the country.
Worth it.
I had the movie “Possession”, but needed room and had to delete it. But I just added it to my Watch-list. Thanks!
PM me or post here to let me know your thoughts!
The great B movie homage The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra from 2001.
Will do! I will try to expedite it, especially after I notice your passion for it, and wanting to know my thoughts (I’m the same way
Scarecrow (1973) – Gene Hackman and Al Pacino as a couple of hard-luck guys on the road. Not a “high concept” movie that can be described in terms of combining other movies, so many don’t bother with it. But it’s not only beautifully acted, directed, and written–it’s deeply moving.
In an entirely different category:
eXistenZ (1999) - David Cronenberg at his most Cronenbergian, but also a great mind-f**k (in a good way). Deeply weird–and embodying surprisingly-compelling commentary on the nature of reality. Note that Christopher (The Prestige) Priest wrote the tie-in novel, which should say something worth knowing about the film.
In the late '90s I was a regular on alt.pizza.delivery.drivers. The guy who wrote, directed, and starred in this movie came in and told us about it, and many of us bought a copy (on VHS at the time). I’m not sure why Wiki and IMDB list the movie as released in 2005, because I bought it in 1996 or 1997. DVD release maybe?
Anyway, if you’ve ever delivered pizza, you’ll think this movie is hilarious. If you haven’t, you’ll probably think it’s dumb.
I Hired A Contract Killer. I could have chosen other great films by Aki Kaurismäki, but this is the one of his films best balanced between comedy and tragedy, and it has Jean-Pierre Leaud in one of his best roles.
(or PLEASE watch The Man Without A Past. You’ll never see a more humane movie.)
Three of my top 10 favorite movies are relatively obscure. All are gentle stories about family and relationships:
Author! Author!
Big Eden
Safe Passage
The Manitou. It’s a cheesy horror movie from the Seventies about a sham mystic and a modern-day shaman battling a Native American medicine man from the 1600s being reborn on the back of a woman’s neck. It’s every bit as cuckoo-pants as it sounds, and I love every minute of it.
And one more: I don’t know how obscure it really is, but if you pointed a gun at me to name my favorite movie, I’d probably say: Night On Earth. Just love it, every episode of it.
Every movie and documentary by Kim Ki Duk, one of the most world’s most underrated, under appreciated directors
His work is largely ignored in his native South Korea (though loved at film festivals), especially since he was accused (but found not guilty) of sexual harassment and assault in 2018.
FYI, some of his films share the same universe, though except for Birdcage and Bad Guy, they’re not directly related . I highly recommend watching Birdcage Inn before Bad Guy. Or not as watching the earlier Birdcage takes away some of the mystery of Bad Guy
Warning You’ll feel like you need a shower after some of his films, particularly Moebius and Pieta because of their subject matter and endings. But they’re absolutely brilliant!
*Human, Space, Time and Human
The Net
Stop
One on One
Moebius
Venice 70: Future Reloaded(Documentary)
Pieta
Amen
Arirang(Documentary)
Dream
Breath
Time
The Bow
3-Iron
Samaritan Girl
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring
The Coast Guard
Bad Guy
Address Unknown
Real Fiction
The Isle
Birdcage Inn
Wild Animals
Crocodile
*
“In hah NECK???”
Rubber - best movie about a psychotic psychic car tire EVER
The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young - hardest footrace on the planet
Bad Taste - Aliens vs Derek & his brain
Santa Sangre - my introduction to Jodorowsky is still my favorite of his films
White of the Eye - incomparable thriller
The Twonky - Weird-ass SF movie isn’t at all what you think it’s going to be
Twice Upon A Time - I’ll keep wishing for the original dialogue track until the day I die, prolly
Immortal - Enki Bilal film that is the best Heavy Metal-ish movie of all time
Bunraku - stylish weirdness that works
———
I love this movie too; it makes a great double feature with Prophecy.
Man’s Favorite Sport? – Rock Hudson as a fishing expert who knows nothing about fishing and Paula Prentiss as a reporter who wants to write a story on him competing in a big tournament.
As an intro to Kim Ki Duk’s style, Kim Ki Duk lite, I recommend Godsend by Moon Si Hyun. Kim wrote the screenplay (he usually writes and improvises on the fly on his own films) and Moon was the Assistant Director on some of Kim’s films. The directing style and composition is so similar to Kim’s, I’m sure some of the scenes were done by him.
I also recommend the recent works by Hong Sang Soo
I’m not a great fan of his earlier work, but since he started featuring actress/lover Kim Min Hee since Right Now, Wrong Then (2015), his mixture of reality and fiction is brilliant.
Kim is an extremely talented actress best known outside Korea for her work in The Handmaiden (2016). But in 2016 rumors started that she was having an affair with married Hong after they met during filming of Right Then, Wrong Now.* In 2017, they admitted to the affair and Kim lost all her numerous endorsement deals and has been shunned by the Korean movie industry since.
However, Director Hong has been featuring her in his movies that deal with infidelity in one form or another, often (though he denies it) drawing upon events of his and Kim’s current lives.
*It will likely never be known if their affair really began during the filming of Right Now, Wrong Then, but the storyline has an eerie parallel to what happened in real life. The story is about a married director who meets a female fan (Kim) when he arrives in town for his most recent film’s screening. They fall in love and contemplate having an affair. The film is split into two parts, each a different play of how events may turn out.
Even more personal and my favorite Hong film so far is On the Beach at Night Alone. This time, Kim plays a woman who travels to Germany after her affair with a married director who promises he’ll follow her there and start a new life. Staying with her friend, she ponders the affair and wonders if he will really come.
*Hotel by the River
Grass
The Day After
Claire’s Camera
On the Beach at Night Alone
Yourself and Yours
Right Now, Wrong Then *