The best movie(s) I'd never heard about

[Pas]

I'd never heard about The Ballad of Jack and Rose and I liked it a lot. Blind buy for 5$.

Daniel Day Lewis is just wicked in it, as usual. There is a cliché about a "raw" performance but that's one.

Camilla Belle was pretty awful at first but she was okay after a while. Definitely the weakest link.

Highly recommended

[Reelist]

yeah, PTA had to pick up on the chemistry between DDL and Dano when he was casting for Eli and Paul. That movie lost me, I thought it would've been utterly forgettable if not for Day-Lewis's awesome performance.

[P Heat]

Black Moon. I was amazed how good it was. the HD release looks like it could of been shot this decade. Expertly shot

Its one of the best true surreal movies made, out of all the "surrealist" ones I've watched.

[wilder]

All Is Forgiven (2007)



A father and daughter are reunited some 11 years after the father's drug addiction tore the family apart.

IMDb

Someone else described this filmmaker as exceptionally emotionally sensitive, and I couldn't agree more. Something about the way she looks at people reminds me of Maurice Pialat, who is one of my favorite filmmakers. This director was born in '81, and actually has a new movie,
Goodbye First Love, coming out soon.

To my knowledge, it hasn't been released on DVD in the US or the UK, and you wouldn't happen to find it here, and the second set of links wouldn't happen to be working. Definitely not.

[tpfkabi]

This TV channel seems a 'goldmine' of obscure, weird movies I've never heard of. Sometimes they will even show classic foreign films.
The last one that seemed pretty interesting was:

Out Cold (1989)
with John Lithgow, Teri Garr, Randy Quaid and Bruce McGill
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098042/
(you may want to avoid paying attention to the Photo section as it gives some spoilers)

Unfortunately, it is of course edited and presented in Full Screen format. I have yet to see it beginning to end, but it seems interesting enough that I would like to see it in it's original form and in Widescreen. The only DVD I see seems to unfortunately Full Screen only.

There seems to be very little information on this film online.
Does anyone own the DVD/know more info on it?

Other strange movies/lost 80's/90's potential classics/B movie schlock I've seen on there:
Meet the Hollowheads
Cutter's Way
Deep Space (1988) - see the greatest bagpipe seduction scene ever...
The Census Taker (1984) - I may have mentioned this elsewhere when I first saw it. It has Garrett Morris from SNL fame. The weird soundtrack made by The Residents reminded me of the UK band, Clinic. Sure the execution of the dialog, acting, editing, etc. was off a lot, but I thought it was an interesting idea. Sometimes it reminded me of the fun trainwreck Troll 2, but then there were some nice sequences. Like Troll 2 this could probably be one of those midnight movie cult type films. If they set up some shows at arthouse theatres where The Residents made the soundtrack live it might generate a little buzz and get a Troll 2/The Room type following.

Some of these are hard to completely judge when they're edited for content, have commercial breaks, etc.. I would like a copy of all of these except Deep Space, though I may want the DVD so I can put the bagpipe seduction scene on YouTube.

[chere mill]

Black Moon.

i second that. absolutely fascinating film. louis malle at his most enigmatic.

also want to mention antonioni's identification of a woman. never heard of it until criterion recently put it out. not one of his greatest achievements, but well worth watching.

[BB]

Goodbye First Love

I actually happened to see this at TIFF. Pretty good. Very art house. Very franche.

I can see what you mean about her heightened emotional sensitivity. Small moments, just a glance type stuff. Stylistically kinda like the Dardenne brothers.

Oh, and the lead actress, who is quite the looker (and super young apparently), gets naked a few times.

[wilder]

The State I Am In (2000)




Clara and Hans are left-wing terrorists, who are chased by the police since almost fifteen years. The puberty of her increasingly rebellious daughter Jeanne imposes a threat on their security, when she falls in love with a boy, who she has met on the beach.

Directed by Christian Petzold
IMDB

[Reinhold]

I just saw this list on twitter and thought it might interest some folks here:

http://www.criterion.com/lists/48458-my-top-ten-discoveries

From the site:

"One of the best and most daunting things about being a cinephile is that there will never be a dearth of films in your back catalog. (The only thing more terrifying than my never-diminishing Netflix and Hulu queues is the thought of all the unknown-to-me important/brilliant/provocative films I have yet to add to my lists.) And one of the most gratifying things about working at Criterion has been the number of discoveries I’ve had: films I’d always intended to see, or in some cases hadn’t even heard of before, but which have profoundly affected me."

[tpfkabi]

House and Symbio...have both been shown on TCM Underground fairly recently. That is a pretty good place to check in on for rare and unusual films.

[Reelist]

 Starts around 2 a.m. on Fridays, I think? I can never stay up late enough for it, but I finally got cable back in my room, so I'm excited to watch it tonight. A couple weeks ago I caught some of 'The Town the Dreaded Sundown' a 70's slasher I'd only heard in passing when Dewey mentions it in Scream. I liked the parts I saw, but couldn't finish it. Made me wish I had DVR.

I broke my 'House' cherry over the weekend. Liked it, what else can I say? It was great. Any other scary movies by that dude I should check out? 70's Japanese horror in general?

[tpfkabi]

Yeah, I have several movies from Underground on my DVR I still haven't got around to watching yet. If they sound interesting I may just record them on a DVD-R.

[wilder]

Richard Loncraine's The Haunting of Julia aka Full Circle (1977)





After the death of her daughter, Julia Lofting, a wealthy housewife, moves to London to re-start her life. All seems well until she is haunted by the sadness of losing her own child and the ghosts of other children.


Jeremy Richey made a post over at his blog The Moon in the Gutter about Full Cricle back in 2007, and more recently posted screencaps comparing the various transfers of the film -- including the most recent HD version, which I've copied a few of below. Up until recently (the past few months) the film was only available via VHS copies and an equally muddy widescreen print.







(click HD cap for full size)

The movie is now streaming on Netflix in HD.

Here's a quote regarding the score from this interview with the film's composer, Colin Towns, which also describes a certain depressive tone the film has that makes it especially unique:

Like Nicolas Roeg’s moody grief-horror film of a few years earlier Don’t Look Now, what pervades Full Circle is the dread of disassociation, of dis-integration. The grieving parents of both films see ghosts they want to see, ghosts they hope can absolve them of guilt. And in both films, that elusive miniature presence that they follow and chase is not a friendly one. Towns’ music underscores that beckoning mystery with a sad, suicidal anxiety that is not easily shaken off.

Here's the title theme:

[wilder]

Jeff Lieberman's Remote Control (1988)



A video store clerk stumbles onto an alien plot to take over earth by brainwashing people with a bad '50s science fiction movie. He and his friends race to stop the aliens before the tapes can be distributed world-wide.

I bought this blind the other week and really enjoyed it. Check out restored clips from the movie in the first 45 seconds of this video embedded over on Process Blue's website (the same restoration facility that works on titles for Vinegar Syndrome). On a visual level it's a total time capsule, the ultimate 80s flashback (in a good way) but I was surprised by how great the actors were, especially Deborah Goodrich, who I wish would have continued to have an acting career.

The blu-ray is limited to 1,000 copies, and can only be ordered directly from Jeff Lieberman's website.

I love the overall look of the movie. Some resized caps from the blu-ray (not mine):

[jenkins]

i love that you love the look. great 80s

in los angeles phil blankenship programs fun movies that most people haven't heard about. he's good at it too, he always wins me. this is his favorite and related to this topic and related to great 80s

edit -- new page edit, more info on previous page

Jeff Lieberman's Remote Control (1988)



A video store clerk stumbles onto an alien plot to take over earth by brainwashing people with a bad '50s science fiction movie. He and his friends race to stop the aliens before the tapes can be distributed world-wide.

I love the overall look of the movie. Some resized caps from the blu-ray (not mine):