They’re good movies, but I don’t think they fell through the cracks. They were very popular when they came out, especially the first one.
IMHO, “slipped through the cracks” means the films may have been successful at it’s time, but then fell off the radar. Or it was critically acclaimed, but didn’t reach a large audience. Or maybe it was overshadowed by other works at the time or by the same creative team.
For example, in the world of Wes Andersen films, I feel like Moonrise Kingdom sort of fell off the radar, along with The Darjeeling Limited. The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tannenbaums always gets the critical acclaim, Steve Zissou gets all the derision (unfairly IMHO) and everyone mentions Rushmore and Bottle Rocket as his early work.
Or with Terry Gilliam, 12 Monkeys plays like always. Every now and then Baron Munchausen or Brazil will be on some late Saturday afternoon. But I don’t think I’ve seen Time Bandits since I was a little kid.
I agree. Although I feel like Showtime is filling in those cracks by playing it 5 times a day.
Hundreds of movies are released every year. So even the most successful movies are going to fall off the radar after a year or two.
By this definition, there’s probably fewer than 100 films in the history of filmmaking that haven’t “slipped through the cracks.”
I continue to feel very strongly about Locke, which almost no one I know has ever seen. It was a gimmick that had no business working, but it did.
Looks like it’s available for streaming on Amazon. Thanks!
Report back, please!
I wouldn’t say that it’s a movie I adore, but I have been curious about the complete disappearance of The Man Who Knew Too Little, starring Bill Murray.
At a humor level, I wouldn’t say that it was any higher or lower than Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day had a more interesting conceit as a joke-engine, which forced it to tackle a few serious questions, so I would agree that it’s the better movie. Just, as said, the comedy is about even between the two movies.
And so far as the subject matter goes, I’ve seen The Man With One Red Shoe mentioned more often than The Man Who Knew Too Little, even though it’s a decade older and probably a worse film. People can at least remember that they’ve seen Red Shoe. But even with prodding, you can’t get people to even remember that there was a film with Bill Murray as a guy who got confused with a spy.
I find it to be a mystery.
Triangle would also be on my list. I caught it randomly expecting a typical horror film but the twists surprised me and I thought about it a lot afterwards. I wished I had seen it when it first came out so I could join in the thread discussion. It reminded me of Primer in some ways.
I just thought of one that should go in this thread: Clue. It did poorly in the box offices and you never hear anyone talk about it now (released in 1985). It really deserves more credit than it gets. Perhaps the problem is that people come in expecting 1) that a movie based on a board game will suck and 2) that it will be a mystery when it’s mostly a comedy.
The Hairy Bird, aka All I Wanna Do, aka Strike! Yeah! Power to the . . . rich, overprivileged schoolgirls!
Of course, I’ll watch anything with Kirsten Dunst in it.
Chemical Wedding, aka Crowley. Of course, a film centered on Aleister Crowley’s system of Western esotericism mixed up with SF is going to have limited market appeal anyway. But, boy, doesn’t Simon Callow as Haddon/Crowley just eat up the scenery! One bit is especially memorable: An Obvious Flaming Queer in a vivid purple suit minces down the street and goes into a public restroom. Haddon/Crowley follows him, and emerges a moment later wearing the purple suit, leaving the audience to wonder just what happened in there, whether he got the suit by seducing the man or murdering him – Crowley (as portrayed) would be morally capable of either. (That scene’s a triumph of writing/directing, of course, not of acting.)
Which is why these threads are basically just “naming movies I like”.
To me, “slipped through the cracks” means the movie never got much attention despite its positive qualities. A movie that slipped through the cracks isn’t one that was popular when it came out but doesn’t get much attention now, nor is it one that was originally unpopular but has gained a following over the years. On the other hand, it could be one that the critics liked but that never caught on with the public.
The Idiots is interesting. Possibly offensive, occasionally funny.
From wiki:
Edit: although I just remembered this thread is about movies you adore. I don’t adore this so maybe it doesn’t fit in this thread.
Man, that was kinda intense. Liked Locke. Thanks!
I agree that Locke was intense. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if the concrete pour would go off without a hitch.
Seriously, though, how many movies have a construction supervisor as the lead character?