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"Pickleball-Free American"
(set 2 days ago)
Location: St Simons Island, GA
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"Unsung"? "Sleepers"? Most of the suggestions offered here are the very antithesis of these descriptors. Many are iconic. Not judging, but many posters here seem to be offering their personal favorites, box office boffo or not.
Still enjoying the thread, though.
The movie "Sleepers" is a very good one about four boys who were sent to a reform school & what happened in their lives. I know you will enjoy watching it.
The movie "Sleepers" is a very good one about four boys who were sent to a reform school & what happened in their lives. I know you will enjoy watching it.
"Unsung"? "Sleepers"? Most of the suggestions offered here are the very antithesis of these descriptors. Many are iconic. Not judging, but many posters here seem to be offering their personal favorites, box office boffo or not.
Still enjoying the thread, though.
It is hard to define sleepers when you don't know what age group you are refering to. To me, my father recommending "Modern Times" with Charlie Chaplin or "Duck Soup" with the Marx Brothers -- iconic movies of their day but completely foreign to me and I have never had any interest in checking them out.
"Master and Commander" - Russell Crowe going to sea as "Lucky" Jack Aubrey, sailing in harm's way with his small frigate HMS Surprise against the much larger French privateer Acheron. With Paul Bettany as ship's surgeon Dr. Maturin, friend and fellow musician.
It takes place in the very small universe that is a 180-ft Napoleonic era man-o-war, there's exactly 2 battle scenes, yet - it's movie-making mastery.
On the surface, this is swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Incredibly well done, at that. I sail on square riggers, and this movie has every detail perfect. Scratch the surface, and it's about duty, pride, compassion, the willingness to sacrifice for a greater cause. Dig a little deeper, and it's about friendship, about respect for someone who sees the world differently, and about putting others before yourself.
The fact that the cinematography and sound design is about as good as it gets is just the icing on the cake. Sadly, it came out the same year as "Return of the King", so not a lot of awards. And a certain other set of high-seas movies - something with some pirates in the Caribbean - took the attention of the seagoing movie audience.
Go watch it. Then read the books. Or better, do as several shipmates of mine did: Decide that this is something worth experiencing, and find a tall ship to sail on.
Another Vote for Silkwood. Surprised, no academy awards for that one.
Quick Change - 1990 Bill Murray, Gena Davis, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards
A Scanner Darkly - 2006 Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Robert Downy Jr.
The World According to Garp - Robin Williams, John Lithgow, Glen Close
Stranger Than Fiction - 2006 Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhall, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman
SLC Punk - 1998 Matt Lillard, Michael Goorjian
Running With Scissors - 2006 Michael Cross, Annette Bening, Alec Baldwin, Brian Brown
Youth in Revolt - 2009 Michael Cerra, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Zach Galafanakis
I have 100, but I'll list just a few. For grittier suggestions in the psychological thriller realm, my faves are:
2006's Red Road, Lars Von Trier's movie about a Scottish CCTV operator who sees a man on camera behaving badly & her eerie connection to him. Plot I've never seen before with several surprising twists & turns. (In English but with subtitles for those who might have trouble with the thick dialect).
1998's arthouse film, High Art, with Radha Mitchell & Ali Sheedy & lots of unknown actors at the time who are now known, like Patricia Clarkson & Sarita Choudhury. Again, a bit gritty about an addict photographer & the turmoil that ensues when she runs into a magazine intern, who wants to revive her career.
It was Sheedy's comeback vehicle, at the time & a role that was the opposite of what she always played. She was criticized heavily at the time for losing a lot of weight to play an addict... the press kept accusing her of having an ED or glamorizing heroin chic (although, she's anything but chic in the role).
2005's very hard to find November with (of all people) Courtney Cox. I'm not a fan of her, her loud speaking voice & overdone sitcom acting but this is such a different role for her, you don't notice that it's the Friends' girl.
Cox is a photographer & teacher whose bf is killed in a robbery... so many plot twists it's great to just sit back & let it unfold. It's kinda like Momento (with Guy Pearce) meets Stay (another great physchological thriller with Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts & Ryan Gossling).
I agree that a lot of movies mentioned here were highly acclaimed successes at the time and are also often found on 'best movies' lists so they were both commercially and critically successful. Of course many of them might be unknown to younger people who are not really 'cinephiles', but that's like saying Ty Cobb is a forgotten 'sleeper' ballplayer because young people not interested in baseball wouldn't know him.
I would have to say two movies from the horror genre - I really liked the movie "Night House" that came out in 2021. It got mixed reviews and was a commercial non-event. I thought it was misunderstood by many in terms of what it was trying to do.
Similarly I think "A Dark Song" (2016) is great. Again a movie that is bound to be misunderstood by the horror community because it is neither going for jump scares nor gore nor a sense of outright terror. It's a psychological journey, which is horrific, but is also a parable for the human experience in general.
Both movies are really about the psychology of grief, guilt, and the attempt to cope and overcome, and they require the audience to understand that and engage with it on that level as otherwise you will not appreciate those movies.
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