# Name a little-known movie that deserves more recognition **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 18, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922 "2022-08-18T23:52:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/141 "2022-08-19T21:35:02Z")
**The Ice Harvest** , with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. I enjoyed it a lot, but I don’t think it got much attention. Supporting roles for Randy Quaid and Oliver Platt. A pretty dark comedy about a heist. “As Wichita falls, so falls Wichita Falls”. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/142 "2022-08-19T21:39:03Z")
My wife loves The Station Agent and I’ve grown to love it too (I’ve probably seen it at least a dozen times). One nitpick: Peter worked at a hobby train store and that store owner gave the station to Peter via his will after he dies. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/143 "2022-08-19T21:43:36Z")
The French film _À la folie… pas du tout_ (in English, _He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not_, starring Audrie Tatou of _Amélie_ fame) is very enjoyable and well-done if you like plot twists/directorial misdirection a la _The Sixth Sense_. _Lars and the Real Girl_ starring Ryan Gosling didn’t get much box office attention but is a nice little story. IMO, _The Emperor’s Club_, starring Kevin Kline, was much better, and had a much better message, than that other, better-known movie about a teacher at an all-boys private school who inspires his students, _Dead Poets Society_. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/144 "2022-08-19T21:48:59Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > And somewhat in that vein, is [Babette’s Feast](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092603/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5). Get the subtitled one, NOT the dubbed one. Excellent film. Some more costume dramas: [Impromptu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impromptu_(1991_film)). A group of artists and poets get together and drive each other nuts. [Ridicule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridicule_(film)). An 18th-Century French aristocrat learns why people hated 18th-Century French aristocrats. [Tous les Matins du Monde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tous_les_Matins_du_Monde). Two musicians in the 17th Century. [Queen Margot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Reine_Margot_(1994_film)). Based on an Alexandre Dumas novel about the French royal family, a couple of generations before _The Three Musketeers_. Intrigue and treachery, plotting and poisoning. It’s fun! ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/145 "2022-08-19T21:50:08Z")
That is a lovely film. Wonder how much of it is actually true! ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/146 "2022-08-19T21:52:56Z")
I thoroughly enjoyed Earth to Echo. It reminded me of E.T. [Earth to Echo (2014) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2183034/) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/147 "2022-08-19T22:45:48Z")
It’s one of my favorite Christmas movies. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/148 "2022-08-19T23:09:27Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > **Le Placard** (_The Closet_), a charmingly daffy French comedy Got that on disc. Daffy doesn’t _begin_ to cover it. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > [Babette’s Feast](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092603/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_5) Got that, too. It’s part of my Women Chefs Trilogy along with _Tampopo_ and _Chocolat_. Okay, the last one is stretching ‘chef’ a bit – work with me here. ---
**Author:** ![cieskokid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cieskokid/32/5374_2.png) [@cieskokid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cieskokid)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/149 "2022-08-19T23:21:58Z")
You Can Count On Me, a fabulous character driven film w/ Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick & Mark Ruffalo in his 1st film role. A perfectly paced and performed movie, and the one I came to mention! ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2022, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/150 "2022-08-19T23:26:58Z")
Reaching back: **My Life Without Me** (A movie to be watched once) **The Princess and the Warrior** (the follow-up by the director and star of Run Lola Run) Recent gems I think have been ignored **Petite Maman** **Settlers** **Tigers Are Not Afraid** ---
**Author:** ![tripthicket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripthicket/32/297_2.png) [@tripthicket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tripthicket)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/151 "2022-08-20T01:24:28Z")
My entries: [Hero At Large](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080863/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), a light comedy from 1980 starring John Ritter. He stops a robbery in a superhero suit he wore to an audition. Reputation grows, he gets into it and tries to be a vigilante for real. Marketing guy for the mayor finds him, persuades him to star in staged appearances. Of course, it ends badly, but then Ritter…saves the day. [The Incident](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061814/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), 1967. Okay, this one won 4 awards, but I think is rarely seen today. Two toughs looking for kicks terrorize a subway car of folks. Starts out slow, introducing all the various characters, but when it gets to the subway car, the atmosphere tightens to almost claustrophobic levels. The toughs work separately on each group of (usually) 2 characters, such as a husband and wife, playing mind games and even getting physical, all while the rest of the car watches, no one wanting to get involved…and then their turn comes. Maybe hard to watch for some, and maybe having seen it once, you wouldn’t want to again. Great for what it is, but if someone tried to make it again today, they’d focus on all the wrong things, adamant to ‘update’ it for modern sensibilities. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/152 "2022-08-20T01:36:34Z")
Hard to say if this is “little-known,” but it’s at least a bit obscure: _[The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097108)_ A delicious tale of revenge. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/153 "2022-08-20T07:51:20Z")
Being a Peter Greenaway fan, I’ve been waiting literally _years_ for Netflix to get the disc in on that. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/154 "2022-08-20T10:18:27Z")
_[Cosi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosi_(film))_ is a great little Australian film, with a bunch of actors who later went on to greater fame in Hollywood ( Ben Mendelsohn, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, David Wenham, Jacki Weaver) as well as musician Colin Hay (of Men at Work - and _Scrubs_) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/155 "2022-08-20T10:22:23Z")
A second for _Sorcerer._ If you like subtitles, then try _The King’s Choice._ It is a historical film concerning the opening days of the German invasion of Norway. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/156 "2022-08-20T11:08:03Z")
_The Man Who Fell To Earth_ doesn’t get nearly the amount of attention it deserves. It’s a sci-fi film from 1975 by Nicolas Roeg, starring David Bowie, in his film debut, as an alien who has been sent from a planet wracked by nuclear war and ecological catastrophe to find a way to save what remains of his species. He devises a plan to become a tech billionaire by “inventing” technologies that are commonplace among his people and using the proceeds to build a starship to rescue his people. He fails, because along the way he becomes enamored with the trappings of wealth and hedonism, becoming an alcoholic sex addict, and ultimately winding up in a government prison where he’s experimented on for decades, and by the time he’s let go, his people are all dead and he’s just a hopeless broken man who hasn’t aged a day even though all the people he’s come to know and love have grown old. It’s ostensibly adapted from the novel of the same name, but in a way it’s also an adaptation of _The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars_, and it’s overall a brilliant subversion of how you’d expect this kind of story to go. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/157 "2022-08-20T11:19:15Z")
> [@cieskokid](#): > > You Can Count On Me, a fabulous character driven film w/ Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick & Mark Ruffalo in his 1st film role. A perfectly paced and performed movie, and the one I came to mention! You’ve been beaten to the punch on this one. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/158 "2022-08-20T11:50:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > _The Man Who Fell To Earth_ doesn’t get nearly the amount of attention it deserves. That got somewhat more attention this year, as one of the premium cable channels ran a miniseries that was a sequel to the movie. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/159 "2022-08-20T12:54:38Z")
[Seven Psychopaths](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1931533/) doesn’t seem to get enough notice. I think people don’t give it a chance, not realizing the depth of the story that emerges over time. It’s got a ham studded cast and good storytelling about unexpected events. Worth the watch unless a little mindless murder bothers you. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922/160 "2022-08-20T15:25:00Z")
_[Moonlight Mile](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179098/)_. Great cast, lots of drama, some romance and a bit funny at times. All good. Here’s some of the cast: Jake Gyllenhaal Ellen Pompeo Dustin Hoffman Susan Sarandon Holly Hunter Dabney Coleman Roxanne Hart (Maybe not well know but one of my faves.) The best movie to watch if you want to see what Pompeo can do outside of _Grey’s Anatomy_. (Strangely, quite a few of the secondary characters appear on _GA_ in the early years. Including Hart. Outside of Pompeo there’s seemingly no reason for all these.) Gyllenhaal’s fiancé has died. Hoffman and Sarandon are her parents that he’s living with. Pompeo is the new person. All set in 1973, so good music. And the title Rolling Stone song was picked because … they could get the rights to it. 😉 The thing about the story (spoilers). The idea is loosely based on writer/director Brad Silberling’s experience coping with the murder of his girlfriend Rebecca Schaeffer (co-star of the sitcom _My Sister Sam_). Lots of interesting filming gotchas to look for. E.g., some scenes take place at a park bench near the sea. The shots from the front are done at a completely different location than the shots from the back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-a-little-known-movie-that-deserves-more-recognition/969922.md?page=9)