I have two choices:
The Matador, starring Pierce Brosnan as the most un-James Bond-like character you can imagine.
The Lookout, starring the kid from 3rd Rock as a slightly brain-damaged young man who is taken advantage of by a gang of crooks because he is the night watchman at a bank.
I’ve seen this (but I’m a kiwi!) I liked it better on the big screen to be honest. But it has the late great Kevin Smith (swoon!)
Tapas is a Spanish film that, sort of like Love Actually, follows the stories of several characters and their intertwining relationships. It doesn’t try to have a message, it just chronicles the joys and sadnesses of life in a very gentle and loving way.
Nordwand (The North Face) – the true story of Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz, who try to climb the north face of the Eiger in 1936, either for personal ambition or for the glory of the Reich, I’m not really sure which. Anyway, it’s got a plucky girl, Nazis and some of the most harrowing mountaineering footage, ever.
I’ll add a big yessiree vote for Human Traffic. Surprisingly witty and hilarious.
Also, not sure if this is exclusive enough but I’d never heard of it so it caught me totally off guard: Wet Hot American Summer. David Hyde Pierce, Jeanne Garafalo and an assortment of lesser-knowns, this one is a must for nerdy comedy lovers (such as myself) :).
Accion Mutante
Wonderful black scifi comedy about a band of incompetent mutant terrorists who try to pull of a kidnapping in the name of the rights of ugly people.
The Maxx
From imdb
Maxx is a purple-clad superhero living in a cardboard box. His only friend is Julie Winters, a freelance social worker. Maxx often finds himself shifting back and forth between the “real” world and a more primitive outback world where he rules, and protects Julie. Mr. Gone, a self-proclaimed “student of the mystic arts” seems to know more about Maxx and Julie and their strange relationship than they could ever guess, but he’s not exactly telling all…not yet, anyway
Great movie, it’s a cartoon movie but it’s shot kind of like a comic book. Mostly still frames, very little movement (I think there’s some walking type shots). I have yet to find it on DVD, but I’ll buy it if I can.
Oh, another one. This isn’t “a film no one else has seen” but it’s a film not many people have seen. **Hedwig and the Angry Inch. **
Oh, and a BTW, for those who have seen The Maxx…I was in a pet store about a year ago. They had little white balls with feet for dog toys. Hmmm, I thought to myself, those look likes the iszs (ises? Isz? Izs? not sure how to spell it, but it’s pronounced like the plural of ‘is’). Upon closer inspection I noticed on their tag that they were called ‘cuzes’
http://www.petco.com/product/12355/JW-Pet-Good-Cuz-Hard-Rubber-Squeaky-Dog-Toy.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMShopzilla-_-Dog-_-JW%20Pet-_-934402&mr:referralID=99147dcd-403c-11de-9f5b-000423c27407
It’s been great fun reading thru these, especially since I own nearly 1/4 titles. I’m sure that will increase as I get to see more of these flicks.
You won’t be finding this on DVD anytime soon, not officially from MTV anyway. I got a great DVD from some guy on ebay for $6 a few years back tho. Excellent quality and he had done nice menus for main and scenes. And it was great fun seeing it again, all in order.
Oh, the little white guys are Isz. There are also black Isz. I think the plural is the same as the singular. I’ll dig out my comics and let ya know if I’m wrong (I have issue #1 signed by Sam Kieth, btw… eat yer heart out!)
A double-feature I once saw:
The Sins of the Fleshapoids (I love this title) and George Kuchar’s Ascension of the Demonoids.
Zeppelin—From 1971, with Michael York. A WWI commando thriller—almost steampunk-ish. It’s subtle, and I may be imagining it, or simply giving the movie more credit than it deserves (hey, it ain’t that great a flick. 
), but I always thought there was a quietly WWI/late 60s type vibe to the story, but without getting preachy or just depressing. Kinda like Snatch, with commandos.
Also has a nice soundtrack, especially the title theme. (Gotta love that engine drone.)
I came in just to mention He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, thinking I’d have to scroll through the thread just in case it was mentioned and there it is in the OP! One of my all-time favourites too - quirky, different and, as you say, extremely well done. Second and third watchings make it even better!
The musicals group will be tackling it on 6/15, if you’d like to join in that discussion.
I’m impressed, folks. Seems like previous to this, it’s a bunch of films I’ve seen. This time, unless I’m mistaken, I’ve seen none of them. They don’t ALL sound interesting to me, but there are some nice choices out there.
Thanks!
I never know how obscure my picks are. Maybe everyone has seen this. But, anyway, my recommendation is Cannibal: The Musical!, a musical comedy by Trey Parker and Matt Stone about…well…an accused cannibal. I quote from this movie constantly and nobody ever knows what the hell I’m talking about.
Shpedoinkal!
Yossi and Jaggeris a short (barely one hour long), low budget film, originally made for TV but released in theaters.
It’s about a love affair between the Captain and XO of an infantry company station in a mountain-top outpost. Besides being an interesting examination of the subject of gays in the military, it’s also a pitch-perfect depiction of daily army life - as well as a heart-rending love story.
This one may be fairly well-known since I caught it on the Sundance Channel, but La moustache was very enjoyable. A man shaves his mustache, only no one believes him (including his wife) when he insists he used to have a mustache!
I actually see a ton of interesting foreign movies on IFC and Sundance cable channels, which is nice since no movie theater by me seems to screen foreign films. How I miss New York City!
Also recommended (although not available in the U.S.) is Hombre mirando al sudeste. An inmate in an insane asylum insists he is an alien as his psychologist attempts to prove otherwise.
Ed Solomon’s Levity isn’t a bad way to spend an hour and a half, and no one I ever mention it to has heard of it, much less seen it.
Rock and Rule, an animated film (comparable to Heavy Metal) about an evil rock star named Mok with the voice of Lou Reed trying to use a girl with the voice of Debbie Harry to summon a monstrous demon.
I rented that last week. Pretty good, although “complex” is an understatement. You could probably watch the movie 5 times and still pick up more of the plot the next time through. There’s a flowchart floating around the internet somewhere that explains most of the story, and my head hurts just looking at it.
I’ve seen this! In the theater! I really enjoyed for the depictions you mention, but also because it does in a low key way, uneventful way.
My nomination is White Mischief. I know it really did get some buzz when it was released in 1988 but no one her ever comments on it either way when I mention it here.