What Top 5  (or 3) Movies do you wish more people would see and talk about?

Could be old.. could be new....

1.  Recently out on DVD.  Sidnely Lumet's    Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

A really well done melodramatic crime thriller with some superb acting from Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marissa Tomei (sp?) and Ethan Hawke.   A knock-out that should given Lumet, Hoffman, Tomei and particularly Lumet OSCARS last year, but did not.  One of the very best from 2007 that I hope a lot more people see. (definitely rated R).

2. Short Cuts

Robert Altman's masterpiece.   Still controversial, and unique.  Very influential work.  Hope a lot more people see it and talk about it.

3. The King of Comedy

Scorsese's black comic Taxi Driver with DeNiro superb but surprisingly so is Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhardt.   It's ultimately a tragic sad tale and you probably have to watch it a few times to really appreciate what a masterpiece it truly is.

4.  O Lucky Man

One of the great 70s films that had been difficult to see for several years but is now out on DVD.  It's a follow-up to IF with Malcolm McDowell reprising his role.  Now out of boarding schools he joins the corporate world and goes on a serious of adventures and mis-adventures in this rule breaking, ambitious, sometimes expiremental film.  Great soundtrack by Alan Price that is integrated into the film ingeniously.  Don't miss it.

5.  Edmond

Stuart Gordon filmed one of David Mamet's early plays. It is not politically correct and is very talky and full of characters you won't like.   William H. Macy and everone else gives superb performances.  Unique, different, daring, controversial and definitely a film not made to be loved by a wide audience.  Check it out.

Also: Two Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter, King of Hearts, Harold and Maude, Where's Poppa, Mean Streets, Husbands, Contempt, L'Adventurra, Satyricon, The Stunt Man, Long Good Friday, Long Goodbye, Jason and the Argonauts, Fall of the Roman Empire.

In no particular order, here are some great movies that I'd like to see again if they just happened to be on TV:

Sleeper (the Woody Allen film)
Dances With Wolves
What's Up Doc? (with Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand)
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Groundhog Day
Rear Window (Grace Kelly is gorgeous!)

--Bob

ChrisJarmick said…

2. Short Cuts

Robert Altman's masterpiece.   Still controversial, and unique.  Very influential work.  Hope a lot more people see it and talk about it.
 

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ChrisJarmick said…

What Top 5  (or 3) Movies do you wish more people would see and talk about?

Could be old.. could be new....

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Great suggestion Kevin.  Yes, very popular, well regarded trio of foreign films. 

However still not widely seen and I'll bet not a real popular rental title either. It takes many many reminders and suggestions before people go ahead and take a chance and rent a foriegn movie.. especially a trilogy of foreign films....  some people will never ever watch it because they insist they can not or will not read subtitles and so... if it is not in english.. either originally made in english or poorly dubbed in english they will ignore the existence of other films .

ah welll...... 

Lots of foreign films just never get much in the way of promotion here, either. I finally got around to seeing Almodovar's Volver and Talk to Her early this year, and was blown away. As a huge fan of the director, I knew he'd made some great films, but these two just blew all of his previous work out of the water.

Sadly, a lot of people who never see foreign movies never really get to sppreciate some fine actors. In America, Antonion Bandaras is sort of a joke. He's, at best, known for Zorro. In Spanish movies (especially Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down), he's a brilliant actor with enormous range.

At the top of my list is Gone Baby Gone, which a lot of people haven't given a chance, but which should have had more notice at Oscar time.  Then there is Once Upon a Time in the West, which seems to have gotten lost in the "old western" genre, but which is arguably the best western of all.  Finally, if you are up for a scare, I really liked Premonition, a Japanese film, which hasn't been translated to American Cinema just yet.

ChrisJarmick said…
some people will never ever watch it because they insist they can not or will not read subtitles and so...

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Gone Baby Gone was one I couldn't quite bring myself to see in theaters and was slightly surprised how it became a different kind of film then the one that was marketed.  Good performances, very well directed, enjoyed it.   It did well and there was some oscar buzz on it.  Definitely worth seeing.

Course the oscars are a skewed  affair... first you have to be a member of one of the branches of the accademy... committees whittle down nominations and in only a few categories does the entire membership get to vote and then they vote for what is nominated... so it depends on whose a member, which films and people get through the nominating process and then how many people are actually voting.

Some people who vote have agendas, preferences and what have you.  So it is a skewed contest and there's a lot of support and money coming from the studios and a combination of old Hollywood and hungrier New Hollywood types.  

I'm amazed that quite a few good films actually get nominated at all.  I don't expect the very best ones to actually get noticed and nominated, let alone win and a lot of times this is the case.