Overlooked Wonders. (20 titles)
Movies so great, why aren't they on everyone's list?
82.4% from 4 members
The Fisher King
Terry Gilliam's overlooked masterpiece: an epic story of despair and redemption that demonstrates how good Robin Williams could have been if he'd avoided the schmaltz of Patch Adams and it's ilk.
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The Fisher King
on DVD
(1991)
Starring: Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl
Director: Terry Gilliam
Certificate:
Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) a self-obsessed 'shock jock' who thinks he has it all, is about to hit rock bottom. The cult personality spends his time on the radio insulting and berating his listeners, but when one caller takes Jack's advice literally and opens fire on a New York City nightspot, Jack ..read more »
67%
from 6,860 members
Hedwig And The Angry Inch
A phenomenally successful off-Broadway show brought to the screen by it's creator, this movie shows how good musicals can actually be if the music doesn't suck, and is used in context rather than as a bizarre conceit with spontaneous outbursts of song from suddenly balletic fruit-stall vendors. An uncomfortable story for those intolerant of alternative sexualities, but incredibly moving and poignant for anyone who has questioned their choices while searching for love.
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Hedwig And The Angry Inch
on DVD
(2001)
Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Certificate:
John Cameron Mitchell is the creator of the off-Broadway hit HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, which he and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask have transformed into a funny, dramatic, and curiously poignant self-described "post-punk neo-glam musical" film, with extra songs and a new instrumental score. ..read more »
65%
from 3,301 members
Shortbus
The second film from the creator of Hedwig (above), this movie deals with the sex lives of New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9/11. Definitely not a film to watch with your parents, or any homophobes you might be unlucky enough to know, as it contains graphic sexual scenes, but a sexy, interesting and emotional film to watch with a broad-minded partner.
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Shortbus
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Certificate:
A group of New Yorkers caught up in their romantic-sexual milieu converge at an underground salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
57%
from 8,577 members
Wit
A virtuoso performance from Emma Thompson as a literature professor undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 metastatic ovarian cancer, musing upon the metaphysical poetry of John Donne which has been the basis for her academic career, and how Donne's insights into death and mortality equate with her own struggle. This appallingly turgid description does absolutely no justice to the wit, warmth and grace with which a beautiful and extraordinary woman faces her own death. Extraordinarily moving and beautiful, and bizarrely only available in region 1 format, it remains inarguably worth the effort of tracking it down.
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Wit
(2001)
Starring: Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins
Director: Mike Nichols
Certificate:
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
78%
from 81 members
Bound
Proof that the Wachowski Brothers aren't one-trick bullet-time ponies, this great little film noir brings a little smoulder back to the screen, with Jennifer Tilly proving that a silly voice does not a lousy actress make. Nice to see Joe Pantaliano getting out of the background too...
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Bound
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano
Director: The Wachowski Brothers
Certificate:
The Wachowskis' ultra-modern update of classic film noir stars Jennifer Tilly as Violet, the voluptuously alluring and well-pampered mistress of mob man Ceasar (Joe Pantoliano). Violet is the kind of woman who can catch any man's eye, but she's more interested in the tough, sexy, new handywoman ..read more »
64%
from 6,979 members
The Frighteners
Peter Jackson's transitional film, coming between his low-budget New Zealand career and his mega-budget Hollywood idiom, this horror comedy amply demonstrates Michael J. Fox's epic charm in a modern ghost story with both laughs aplenty and genuine chills. A natural progression for fans of Beetlejuice and Poltergeist, this shows how much talent Jackson has, even if a movie doesn't involve hairy feet and jaw-dropping vistas.
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The Frighteners
(3 discs)
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Jeffrey Combs
Director: Peter Jackson
Certificate:
When his hometown is struck by a series of mysterious deaths that appears to be the work of a malicious supernatural killer, a psychic private investigator (Michael J. Fox) who is able to communicate with the dead attempts to get to the bottom of things and put a stop to the murders. But even with ..read more »
67%
from 7,382 members
Bulworth
Who would have thought that Warren Beatty has talent? The Ambulatory Penis here writes, directs and stars in the most extraordinary political satire I've seen, as an incumbent Democratic Senator who lets the politics of politics fall aside during his last days before his self-contracted assassination. As he begins to tell the truth to the voters in the closing hours before the election, his rejuvination is both elating and hilarious, and leads to the most unprintable re-election slogans of all time! Stand-out support from Halle Berry helps complete a wonder of political commentary from a man who obviously loves the potential of politics, but despairs of the spin and rhetoric that dominate it's practice. Fascinating to watch in the aftermath of Obama's election too...
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Bulworth
on DVD
(1998)
Starring: Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle
Director: Warren Beatty
Certificate:
A surprisingly entertaining political comedy that features a funny and magnetic Beatty as the discouraged politician Bulworth, who has organized his own assassination but, after a three day bender of not sleeping, decides that he wants to live after all. He begins to tell the complete truth at all ..read more »
56%
from 1,561 member
Death To Smoochy
The third in Robin Williams' 'dark trilogy' along with Insomnia and One Hour Photo, this film slipped under the radar here in the UK. A scathing indictment of the money-gruubing children's entertainment industry, with an unexpectedly light touch from the normally intense and brooding Edward Norton as the well-intentioned creator of the eponymous Smoochy, as he tries to protect his ideals from the cynical producers and mafia-like children's charities who want to exploit his creation. Very dark, and very funny.
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Death To Smoochy
on DVD
(2002)
Starring: Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Tim MacMenamin
Director: Danny De Vito
Certificate:
Robin Williams goes berserk as Rainbow Randolph, the disgraced host of a children's television show, in director Danny DeVito's fast-paced satire, DEATH TO SMOOCHY. Busted by the Feds for accepting a bribe to get a child on his show, Randolph gets booted from his network, Kidnet, and is replaced by ..read more »
57%
from 3,017 members
Igby Goes Down
Final proof that the Culkin brothers weren't the final trumpet before the cinematic apocalypse of saccharine John Hughes-style pap wiped out forever the magic of cinema, this little indie character study was, in my head, pitched as "what would happen if Ferris Bueller became obsessed with The Catcher in the Rye", and that will serve as well as anything as a synopsis. A nuanced performance from the younger Culkin stands out from a stellar supporting cast of extraordinary dysfunction and oddity.
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Igby Goes Down
on DVD
(2002)
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Kieran Culkin, Jeff Goldblum
Director: Burr Steers
Certificate:
Seventeen-year-old Igby Slocumb (Kieran Culkin) comes from a wealthy but dysfunctional family. His mother (Susan Sarandon) is a pill-popping lunatic, his brother (Ryan Phillipe) is a collegiate, money-obsessed snob, and his father (Bill Pullman) is a hospitalized schizophrenic. After Igby is ..read more »
58%
from 8,072 members
Funny Bones
The blackest comedy of all time, with an extraordinary performance from Lee Evans as the 'laugh-child' of Jerry Lewis, languishing in borderline psychosis in Blackpool where he is found by his half-brother Oliver Platt, who is searching for his own comedic redemption. Some of the best physical comedy on celluloid since the Marx Brothers offers light relief from the darkness concealed in the hearts of the films protagonists. A clearer expression of the 'only laughing on the outside' philosophy has never been filmed. Simply awesome.
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Funny Bones
on DVD
(1995)
Starring: Jerry Lewis, Oliver Platt, Lee Evans
Director: Peter Chelsom
Certificate:
A young comic actor returns to his home town when his act bombs in Las Vegas. He meets up with the seemingly dim Jack Parker who helps him uncover some family secrets to form the basis of a new comedy routine.
65%
from 646 members
Average rating for this collection:
82.4% from 4 members
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