I just got talked into getting Netflix for at least one month. Got 5 new release movies in my queue, but I have a feeling I’ll rip through them fast. I worked in a movie theatre for 6 years, so I’ve seen a LOT of the more well-known films already, plus I am an avid moviegoer.
I’m looking for suggestions of obscure, little-known, foreign, or indy movies that I might not have seen but really should. I don’t know a lot about classic cinema, so I would maybe be interested in watching some older movies, but nothing that would come off as campy now. I have a pretty modern aesthetic and I’m a philistine about it, I admit.
I am particularly fond of a good, intelligent action movie, mystery, Western, or period piece. But I’ll pretty much watch anything if it’s good and it surprises me. I will be watching Oldboy tomorrow b/c it had the kind of plot that intrigues me, if that helps any.
The Man With a Movie Camera (1929), directed by Dziga Vertov, is one of the most amazing pieces of experimental filmmaking I’ve ever seen, and it is available on DVD from Netflix, with an equally brash music score by Alloy Orchestra.
The Innocents (1961) just came out on DVD. A psychological ghost story, with sexual undertones.
Disney reached an animation peak with Fantasia (1940) that has been equalled but never surpassed.
Speaking of music, the documentary feature Woodstock (1970) not only has a once-in-a-lifetime lineup of artists, but it’s an eye-opening record of a counterculture time and place.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) has two of the best performances ever recorded on film: Vivien Leigh as faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois, and Marlon Brando as her loutish brother-in-law.
I recently had success recommending *Blowup *to a friend with a new Netflix account. Not as much success recommending Black Narcissus.
You do realize that this is an almost impossible request? Thousands of titles spring immediately to mind.
Westerns? Favorites: *Rio Bravo; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; Once Upon a Time in the West; The Man from Laramie.
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I’m on something of a war-movie kick recently, specially movies made during WWII, and movies dealing with WWII’s immediate aftermath. Some favorites: The Best Years of Our Lives; Twelve O’Clock High; They Were Expendable; 30 Seconds Over Tokyo; This Land Is Mine; The Search; Germany Year Zero.
I’d share my ratings with you–almost 3,000 rated–but my account is dead for now; TiVo keeps me pretty busy.
Weekend - one of Godard’s weirder ones, kind of a 1960’s French version of The Big Lebowski - completely weird and hilarious
Kamikaze Girls - a fun, hilarious Japanese movie that came out last year, where the main character is into the Japanese “gothic lolita” subculture. Picture for Reference
Night of the Lepus - 1970’s B-movie featuring GIANT KILLER RABBITS. Unparallelled hilarity.
You’re not really giving us enough to work with. We could pretty much throw an IMDB link and call it a day.
When I first got Netflix, after catching up on the new releases I missed, I decided to go through the AFI Top 100 list and see those old movies I never got a chance to watch. Citizen Kane, Dr. Zhivago, Bridge Over The River Kwai, Close Enounters of the Third Kind and a dozen other “greats” that I’d somehow missed.
Thats as good a strategy as any. Also you could pick a director you especially enjoy and dig up all his earlier films. Do a Kubrick week and a Oliver Stone week.
Another fun strategy was picking a genre I liked and then going to Amazon and browsing the user favorites lists for that genre.
Keep in mind that if you visit the website and take some time to rate all the movies you’ve watched the website does a fair job of reccomending similar titles that suit your preferences.
Largely unknown gem. Although the release date says 1970 on the Netflix website, this film didn’t actually get a proper release until 1989, and appeared at Sundance in 1990.
It’s a real New York timepiece, and some of the scenes contain fascinating locations and activities.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest checking out El Mariachi, a story about a traveling musician who is mistaken for a gunman who has it out for the local druglord. It’s the first part of the El Mariachi Trilogy and is generally the least known of the three (Desperado and Once Upon a Time In Mexico are the second and fourth parts of the trilogy; the third part was never made). It features a much bleaker and spartan style than the later big-budget SFX fests of the trilogy. This was the first of Robert Rodriguez’s “Burrito Westerns”.
Stickmen is a movie from New Zealand about three friends who enter in an underground pool tournament run by “Daddy”, a local barber who more or less runs the entire city via his various business holdings. The movie’s got great style, awesome humor, and some great pool action.
Not sure if Equilibrium is obscure enough for your purposes, but if you haven’t seen it, check it out too. Imagine combining Farenheight 451 and 1984 with The Matrix. The people who made the movie even went so far as to invent a new movie martial art for it, the Gun Katas (designed to allow a person to successfully win a close-quarters gunfight against multiple enemies). This film should fit nicely into your intelligent action category.
Serenity is another great flick, though I’d recommend putting the TV series Firefly (which Serenity is based on) on your Netflix queue instead. Basically a sci-fi western about the crew of a smuggling ship whose lives are made very difficult when they take on two fugitives, a genius doctor and his sometimes insane sister.
I would recommend Le Samourai, a 1967 French movie about a contract killer. Quentin Tarantino has cited it as a major influence for Reservoir Dogs.
I would also recommend Fresh, about an inner city drug runner of about 13 who uses chess strategies he learned from his estranged father to outsmart the bad guys.
Roxanne with Steve Martin may be his finest film. Nobody but I saw it it I guess.
Years ago I saw a wonderful film called Sorcerer, based on a Conrad short story. I have never seen it anywhere since. I sometimes wonder if I imagined the whole thing.
The new Richard III ought to be the definitive version for a generation or so.
Have you ever sat down to really watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes? A remarkable film that nobody seems to take seriously.
Outland is an overlooked western-in-space. See how many nods to other films you can spot.
The (US) Civil War movie Gods and Generals and its companion Gettyburg got overshadowed unfairly by the less well-made Glory.
Finally, Soapdish is worth a look. It is about the soap-opera lives of a bunch of people in a soap opera cast.
A few weeks ago I saw Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession on cable. It’s a documentary about (arguably) the first independent film cable channel in the US. The movie was kinda interesting, but the reason I bring it up is because I found myself writing down the names of dozens of intriguing movies I’d never heard of or had forgotten. I think it is worth a look.
