I’m watching Dear Frankie on TV. Although it is a late night Saturday TV movie I rated it 9 on IMDB when I saw it in 2004. It stars Gerard Butler and Emily Mortimer and tells the story of a woman who fakes a sea-faring father for her son and then eventually has to produce him. The director Shona Auerbach seems to have never worked again. Butler is so good that I have been constantly disappointed by his choices since because he can really act.
It is a really charming movie and the Variety review seems about right to me.
My first reaction was My Life Without Me. I really dig that movie, but it seems to have gotten over 10,000 ratings on imdb so I’m guessing that means it’s pretty well known. Replacing one Sarah Polley movie with another, I’ll go with The Secret Life of Words. Note: Sarah Polley movies are frequently major downers, and these two are no exception.
Zerophilia was light and fun and pretty good overall. (Or I could just be beguiled by Rebecca Mozo.)
Imagine Me & You was a sweet (if formulaic) romantic comedy, notable for featuring a lesbian couple as the leads. Probably more well known than you’re looking for.
Good Dick was weirdly captivating. As in it was really weird but I couldn’t stop watching. I’m pretty sure I liked it, but not quite positive.
Spiral was a little slow but otherwise an interesting suspense/thriller. It’s kinda sorta almost a horror movie, but not quite.
Sleepwalking had a better cast than script, but it was worth watching. Kinda bleak.
I really liked Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel in All the Real Girls. They both played awkward to perfection. Not to be confused with the other Paul Schneider film of almost the same name, Lars and the Real Girl.
OK, I’m gong to recommend one that almost no one will have seen. It’s based on a manga series, which was released as a 12-episode anime OVA early in August 2008. But I’m talking about the live action movie released just 15 days later: Detroit Metal City. It’s about a young man who loves to sing sweet ballads, but who finds himself as the lead singer in a death metal band, with a violent on-stage persona that he turns out to be very good at, but which the sweet young girl that he’s in love with hates. Of course, only a few people know the connection between the on-stage and off-stage personas. I found it very funny, even if the humour is broad at times, but it’s really about this young man’s struggle to find his real identity.
I just clicked your link and realized that the movie in the OP has around 10,000 ratings, many more than the ones I linked. That opens up a wider selection. The following films are more widely known but also better quality. Though I do like the ones I recommended above, they have a very “independent” (read as: low budget) feel. These retain the independent spirit while having an actual budget.
Thumbsucker
Coming of age drama that gets extra points from me for featuring Kelli Garner. Even more bonus points for casting A-list stars in minor supporting roles.
The Chumscrubber
Skewering suburbia, one of my favorite genres.
And to go even further mainstream, on the off chance you haven’t seen any of the following, here are some SDMB favorites, fantastic movies all:
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Detective caper with Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer. This was Michelle Monaghan’s breakout role.
In Bruges
Crime caper with Colin Farrell. You’ll either love it or hate it; most people love it.
Brick
Offbeat look into teenage organized crime. This works much better if you think of it as being set in an alternate universe where teenagers think like, act like, and have the freedom of adults.
Stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers planning a robbery of their parents’ jewelry shop. Things don’t exactly go as planned.
I think this is a very good movie that got overlooked. I had not even heard of it until I saw it on Showtime. It’s also directed by the great Sidney Lumet.
My vote is for Lars and the Real Girl, about a painfully shy man who sends away for an inflatable woman, and the reactions of his family and the townspeople. I won’t spoil it except to say that it’s not what you might expect.
*À la folie… pas du tout *(English title: He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not)
A French film starring Audrey Tautou wherein she plays a woman in love with a doctor, and their relationship to one another.
Not to be a jerk, but I finally saw that a couple weeks ago after hearing how great it was for years, and it seemed like nothing more than a late-night Showtime or Cinemax movie in Spanish to me.
A cyber-goth rock opera set in a future where an epidemic of organ failures has left most of the population addicted to surgery or pain killers, or both. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line for a new organ from GeneCo, but if you fall behind on your payments they send the Repo Man after you… and then your time is up.
Nathan Wallace (Anthony Stewart Head, best known as Giles from Buffy) is a loving but overprotective father to his daughter Shilo (Alexa Vega from the *Spy Kids *movies), whose mysterious illness has forced her to be an invalid in their home her entire life. But Nathan is also hiding dark secrets from Shilo, concerning his real involvement with Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the powerful founder and owner of GeneCo. Shilo’s quest for independence puts her at odds with her father and leads her into the clutches of Rotti and his three spoiled, degenerate children (played by Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, and Ogre from Skinny Puppy).
Alien Raiders was clearly made on a limited budget and some (most) of the plot twists are pretty predictable, but I thought it was a fresh, entertaining and overall well acted take on the “aliens taking over human bodies” theme.
I really don’t know how popular District 9 is, but again a well done sci-fi movie on a limited budget (probably a lot more than Alien Raiders’ though), with an interesting premise, good acting by the protagonist, and pretty entertaining.
Movies about human nature are always of interest to me. It’s the appeal of films like Unforgiven, which most people think is a western, rather than a character study.