I dunno how much it’s fallen through the cracks.
Around here, you can probably get into a bigger debate about this movie than almost any other - people either love it or hate it, and either way, feel pretty strongly about it.
Yeah, I’m among the haters.
There are movies I love because they’re soooo soooo bad. Independence Day is one, though it’s hardly fallen through the cracks. It’s on so often it seem to practically have its own channel.
But one even more horrible move has fallen through, or perhaps been pounded down through the cracks – The Wicker Man remake with Nick Cage. It is the most hilariously awful movie I’ve ever seen, and I never see it anymore. Maybe Nick Cage is paying stations not to air it?
Hmmm…DeNiro’s in them you say?
I was going to mention Near Dark, but see it’s already been mentioned, so I’ll bring up a similar, fantastic, even more original horror movie.
Wolfen.
Just as Near Dark was a vampire movie where the word vampire is never used, Wolfen is a werewolf movie where the word werewolf is never used and just as 28 Days Later is a zombie movie without any zombies, Wolfen is a werewolf movie without any werewolves.
Just recalled another little gem that’s all about the characters and dialog –The Station Agent. Peter Dinklage plays a withdrawn trainspotter who’s unable to stop some other oddball characters from hanging out with him.
52 Pick-up, '86 filmed version of a 1974 Elmore Leonard novel, directed by John Frankenheimer. Roy Scheider and Ann-Margret are a well-off LA couple blackmailed by three inept, utter sleazebags, memorably played by John Glover, Clarence Williams III and Robert Trebor. Oh, and you get to see…really quite a lot of Vanity at her most stunning. The ending doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the rest is a thick slice of grittiness, with some great lines and performances.
The thread title had me immediately think of Wristcutters: A Love Story, but darn if it didn’t already get mentioned on page 2. (I just love that in the suicide afterlife, nobody can physically smile.)
So I stopped to think of another and came up with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but geez, that was mentioned in post 11.
Wracking my brain for a third choice, I’ll say Triangle. Love love love this movie. So much so that I even created a thread about it.
It lives on in selected Youtube clips. Not the Beees! 
Despite a rather downer topic, it’s really a very sweet and sincere movie. I’ve mentioned it on the site a few times, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else post to say they’ve seen it.
Good call. I love My Life Without Me, but then I’m a huge Sarah Polley fan. A bunch of her movies would fit this thread for me just because I dig her so much. (Going all the way back to Baron Munchausen.)
Guinevere
Go
The Weight of Water
No Such Thing
My Life Without Me
The I Inside
The Secret Life of Words
I enjoyed that one! Great film, but too-little remembered.
My offering: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? On its face, it’s the story of a 1930s dance marathon and the contestants; but underneath, it reveals the contestants’ motivations, the promoter’s not-always-legit efforts to draw admission-paying crowds, and the ultimate futility of participating. It is a fascinating character study, and was much talked-about back in 1969, when it was released; today, it seems to have been forgotten.
It’s not entirely forgotten. It was the movie that proved Jane Fonda could handle heavy drama and Gig Young won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as the MC. However, it is probably one of the most depressing movies released that’s not in Swedish or German. If Prozac had been around in 1969, they would have sold it at the theaters where this movie was playing instead of popcorn.
Some of my favorites that have not been mentioned:
Incident at Loch Ness – comedy featuring Werner Herzog at his acting best
Quills – Geoffrey Rush portraying the Marquis de Sade
Box of Moonlight – Sam Rockwell’s best bit of weirdness
Dead Man – Mitchum’s last role, in a Jim Jarmusch movie featuring Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer
A Life Less Ordinary – a flawed but entertaining Danny Boyle comedy
I’ll Do Anything – excellent bit of sentimental absurdity about Hollywood types
In & Out – I’m not gay
Hero – fantastic and funny exploration of what happens when a heroic person is not the kind of person the media wants to portray (Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia)
Rancho Deluxe – Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterson show us real life in '70s Montana
Äppelkriget (The Apple War) – just plain silliness from early '70s Sweden (where I have heard it is still quite a popular movie)
Independent video stores were common in the early 80s and then all but disappeared. One of the last ones around anywhere a decade ago was in Bowling Green, Ohio. Walking into the Video Spectrum was like passing through a time portal, and they specialized in the weird and unusual and out-of-the-way. (“Estonian movies? Right between Egyptian and Ethiopian.”) Bubba Ho-Tep is a good example of the cool things you’d stumble on there.
I’ve come to like movies that are a bit different because I feel like I’ve seen the same thing over and over and over again. Two relatively recent films which seemed different enough are Bernie and Moonrise Kingdom. I don’t know if movies that were up for Independent Spirit Awards can be said to have slipped through the cracks, though.
BTW, I saw The Station Agent in an old single-screen theater and two others in attendance were the town’s two little people. They said it was spot on.
Late to the thread, but I am thrilled that you championed this. There weren’t many people in the theater I watched this in, which was just as well because I was blubbering at the end.
Snowpiercer. I usually hate action movies but I love this film. It’s based on a french graphic novel. Because of quarreling between Harvey Finestein and the director, there was a very limited release. There’s lots of plot twists. It’s just an amazing movie.
Two films come to mind.
From 1993 there’s Twenty Bucks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Bucks it features an ensemble cast (Linda Hunt, Brendan Fraser, Gladys Knight, Elisabeth Shue, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy,etc…) and follows the “life” of a twenty dollar bill. The odd thing about this film was the screenplay was written in the 1930’s and was edited and modernized to make 60 years later.
The other is perhaps one of the hardest films to actually sit through and watch, from 1998 Happiness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_(1998_film)
It’s called a comedy-drama written & directed by Todd Solondz. It’s humor is very dark and isn’t for everyone and features an ensemble cast and a lot of weird odd things that happen.
Just remembered another one that never got the attention is deserved: Amazing Grace and Chuck
Wow. I saw Happiness, but can’t say I adored it.