10 Great Movies That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Sight and Sound’s recent list of the greatest movies of all time was basically a re-jigging of the same old classics which critics and audiences always cite as ‘the greatest’. There’s nothing wrong with those lists. Just how many times do we need to hear that Vertigo, Citizen Kane and The Godfather are pretty great and you should check them out? Here is a list – in no particular order – of my favourite movies that don’t get all the attention – some that a lot of people have never even heard of.

Hopefully you will hear and see these ‘10 Great Movies That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of’.

• Shattered Glass (Dir.: Billy Ray, 2003) 

Billy Ray’s astonishing true-story drama centred on a journalist writing fictitious stories may not seem like seem like a particularly riveting experience but terrific performances and Ray’s assured direction make this a compelling film.

Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) is a young twenty-something reporter for prestigious American magazine The New Republic. Glass is affable, funny and beloved by his co-workers. When Glass writes a too-good-to-be-true article about a teenage hacker, online reporters (Steve Zahn and Rosario Dawson) reveal that it really is.

Hayden Christensen gives the performance of his career in this film. Those who wrote the young Canadian Darth Vader off on the basis of his performances in the Star Wars prequels and in Jumper, need to simply watch this performance to be convinced of his talent. Christensen’s Glass is a manipulative Machiavelli – the movie nearly goes as far as portraying Glass as a sociopath. Glass is conniving, dedicated and fascinating. His crimes are essentially victimless but the fascination lies with a character who convincingly manipulates everyone around him. Peter Sarsgaard gives a wonderful counter-performance as the young editor who exposes the truth despite his vilification from his staff, particularly Caitlin (Chloë Sevigny).

Ray’s real achievement is his refusal to sensationalise the real-life events or delve into Glass’s background. His actions are presented and the consequences are dealt with. This is effectively a two character piece between Christensen and Sarsgaard where the latter must see past Glass’s manipulations to uncover the truth and maintain the integrity of his magazine.

Shattered Glass may not seem like particularly thrilling stuff but Ray delivers a fascinating look into the world of journalism and into the machinations of a manipulative sociopath.

• Your Friends & Neighbours (Dir. Neil LaBute, 1998)

Neil LaBute’s follow up to the acerbic In the Company of Men is a similarly vicious look at relationship politics and the murky depravity of misogynistic ineffective men. There is also great dialogue delivered by a great cast giving sublime performances.

The plot is essentially revolved around three friends: Barry (Aaron Eckhart), Jerry (Ben Stiller) and Cary (Jason Patric). They meet for drinks and workout together and share their warped experiences and expectations of sexual politics. Barry and Jerry are in relationships where the spark has been long extinguished and Cary drifts between vapid one night stand after the other. The trio’s friendship (more acquaintance as the men are completely emotionally bankrupt) comes under strain when Jerry begins an affair with Barry’s wife Mary (Amy Brenneman) while Jerry’s girlfriend Terri (Catherine Keener) starts a relationship with an attractive art gallery worker (Nastassja Kinski).

Your Friends & Neighbors has six actors who are all giving sterling work. From the female angle, Keener and Brenneman give emotive intelligent performances as women who cannot find satisfaction or depth with the men in their lives. Brenneman gives a melancholy performance where she repeatedly asks “to be held” and not to be seen as a “giant vagina” to Eckhart’s “giant penis”. Keener quite literally gives up on men and embarks a lesbian relationship with Kinski. But the film is all about the men and their nefariousness. Eckhart is almost unrecognisable as the affable but self-involved and dim-witted Barry. Ben Stiller, in an unusually straight dramatic role, also gives a great turn. The film however, belongs to Jason Patric - in one of his finest roles – plays one of cinema’s greatest assholes. He is an extremely shallow misogynist who admits, amongst other things, to having “revenge” sex with a co-worker who undermined him at work and concocting a fictitious HIV report for a former lover. He is slimy, narcissistic and completely engrossing. It’s a performance of fearlessness particularly in a scene where Cary recounts his best sexual encounter – a jaw dropper that is worth the price of admission alone.

 

LaBute is less interested in the soap opera relationship squabbles and more interested in the motivations and behaviours of the six morally questionable characters. Cary’s and Jerry’s actions and behaviour is entirely depraved and morally bankrupt but they are not snarling villains. These are very real people doing nasty things that happen every day. LaBute reminds us these warped characters are among us in everyday life. They are indeed our friends and neighbours.

• The Trigger Effect (Dir.: David Koepp, 1993)

David Koepp, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds, has made a handful of features as a director (including this month’s Premium Rush). In 1993, Koepp wrote and directed a fascinating take on the disaster/apocalypse genre with The Trigger Effect.

Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Elizabeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney and Michael Rooker, the plot is centred on a massive blackout that causes havoc, paranoia and isolation in Los Angeles. Matthew and Annie are a married couple with many problems. Annie sees her husband as weak and cowardly – established at the beginning of the movie when Annie is verbally berated by a rude cinema patron while her husband watches on. Mulroney’s Joe is a friend of the couple and former lover of Annie’s who comes to stay after a massive blackout leaves the city (and possibly the entire country – it is never fully revealed) in darkness and without any electricity.

 

Koepp later explores the same themes and highlights the dangers of a society thrown into uncertainty and chaos in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds but this is not invading hostile Martians – this is thrusting an over dependent society into the primitive ages.

The film has outstanding performances particularly from MacLachlan and Mulroney. In the case of the former, the Blue Velvet star is presented as an effeminate passive husband to Elizabeth Shue – who has little or no respect for her spouse. His slow progression as a rational thoughtful man applying logic and calm to a pandemic situation is a strong anchor for the film. MacLachlan’s Matthew doesn’t display traditional leading man characteristics in this type of movie. There are no sweeping gestures of violence or heroics – he is simply keeping his nerve and his guile in an impossible time. Mulroney’s Joe too is presented as a counterpoint to Matthew – he is Stanley Kowalski-like in his masculinity. He has brawn and potent sexuality that creates a love triangle between the three lead actors.

Like War of the Worlds, Koepp harrowingly demonstrates the real fears of society is not invading Martians or in this case, a massive blackout, but how people can turn into Darwinian primitives when the layers of civilisation begin to unravel. A terrific thriller!

• Rodger Dodger (Dir.: Dylan Kidd, 2002)

Campbell Scott plays an acerbic misogynistic yuppie ad man (before it was cool). He has a reputation as a ladies man but the only action we see him get is with his boss who is dumping him for the next, younger office toy boy. Roger spends his time attempting to seduce women by pithy analysis and draconian observation.

Roger is caught off guard when his 15 year old nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) arrives in Manhattan to learn how to pick up women. Roger leads his unsuspecting nephew on an odyssey of predatorily chauvinism which includes: an attempt to seduce the sophisticated Andrea and Sophie (Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Berkley), taking advantage of Roger’s drunken co-worker, and using the “fail-safe” – reserved for when Nick is desperate to lose his virginity.

Writer-Director Dylan Kidd presents an attractive New York with a seedy and tawdry underbelly. The dialogue is acidic and punchy and is delivered with charm and gusto by its impressively talented cast. Jesse Eisenberg in his first leading role, shows the awkward charm and engaging presence that has led him to Oscar nominated success (for his role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network). Rossellini, Berkley, and Beals all deliver fine supporting performances and give their characters weight and depth. The real standout performance is Campbell Scott. The son of legendary Oscar winner George C. Scott, Campbell’s Roger is a man facing extinction as his chain smoking, hard-drinking chauvinism is confronted with a world of women in charge. His electrifying monologues tutoring Nick about the world of sex are wonderfully reigned in by his slow realisation that he is completely alone in the world.

Roger Dodger is a fine example of small American independent cinema that deserved a wide audience. It has laughs, charm and a real emotional core beneath its tough, cool and calm surface – much like its title character.

• Buffalo Soldiers (Dir.: Gregor Jordan, 2003)

Nietzsche: “Where there is peace, the war-like man attacks himself.”

Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix): “War is hell. But peace is fucking boring”

Gregor Jordan’s scintillating black comedy shows how a war movie without a war can be just as nihilist and exhilarating than the storming of Normandy beaches. Buffalo Soldiers is a rapid fire roller coaster ride of a movie with action, thrills, romance and black comedy.

Ray Elwood is a constant grafter. Much like Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption, Ray runs his military camp in Germany in everything but title. He rip’s off his own military’s weapons to sell on the black market and engineers a massive drug deal to nefarious locals. His ease to swindle and conduct his business is mainly appropriated to the ineptitude of commanding officer Colonel Berman (a loveable but incompetent Ed Harris). However, Elwood’s illegitimate dealings come under threat when a new commander Robert E. Lee (a fierce Scott Glenn) is put in charge determined to clear up the camp.

Phoenix, who has always been the under-appreciated actor of his generation, is simply wonderful in the film. His moral bankruptcy is countered by his wonderful charm and rebellious streak. When he embarks upon courting Lee’s daughter (an enchanting Anna Paquin) – the audience is complicit in a romantic relationship founded upon getting back at your boss. Paquin too has an axe to grind with her father and doesn’t care about being used. The romantic subplot is wonderfully balanced against Elwood’s dodgy dealings.

Despite this being peacetime, Jordan relishes in showing the futility of war. The soldiers with the camp turn on each other over the control of the heroin trade. One scene has two soldiers repeatedly stabbing each other over and over – cementing Jordan’s Nietzschean view of the “war-like man”. A hilarious movie from start to finish, Buffalo Soldiers shows how war (or lack thereof) can be an awful lot of fun.

• Thief (Dir.: Michael Mann, 1981)

Michael Mann’s directorial debut is a stylish engrossing crime thriller. James Caan gives a wonderful performance as a career criminal who tries to turn straight but is inevitably drawn back into the underworld. The premise is nothing new but Mann delivers an ultra-violent neo-noir that has certainly influenced Mann’s own Miami Vice and most recently, Drive.

Frank (Caan) and his partner (James Belushi) agree to do a heist for the Chicago mafia which is head up by Leo (Robert Prosky). Frank is eager to do one last score and settle down with his girlfriend (Tuesday Weld) and start a family. The caper is a $4 million diamond heist which Frank wishes to be his last and walk away from the underworld for good. However Leo and the Outfit have other ideas.

The cast of Thief is excellent – a blend of movie stars giving career best work and wonderful character actors. Robert Prosky, for instance is a character actor known mainly for his mentor roles plays the sadistic villain who at first is a father figure to Frank. Prosky’s warmth and charm is plausibly magnetic which makes his metamorphosis into malevolence all the more electrifying. Speaking of “against type”, Willie Nelson (yes that Willie Nelson) gives a scintillating cameo as an old friend of Frank’s languishing in prison who gives a moving performance in his limited screen time. Caan too gives one of the performances of his career. Frank is a not an invincible tough guy or a character that relishes violence (like Caan’s most famous role in The Godfather) but a man grown weary of crime. He wants to reject his illegitimate skills and make it as an honest citizen. Mann propagates the idea that the violent world is impossible to escape and that the American Dream is not open to everyone.

Mann along with his producer Jerry Bruckheimer (also an earlier film for the mega mogul) creates a stylish neon lit world where the American Dream is flashed on every corner. Frank’s eagerness to settle into a normal crime-free life is ultimately what draws him deeper into the world of violence. The violence is swift and shocking particularly in an exhilarating climactic showdown that is among Mann’s finest action scenes.

• You Can Count on Me (Dir.: Kenneth Lonergan, 2000)

You Can Count on Me is a simple movie with a simple story but is acted beautifully and has such charm and warmth that normalcy is welcomed with embracing arms.

Samantha (Laura Linney in an Oscar nominated role) is a single mother to her ten year old son Rudy (Rory Culkin). Her life becomes complicated when she gets a new boss at her bank (played with slimy glee by Matthew Broderick) and her wayward drifter brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) arrives in town. Sammy has a boyfriend who is a decent man but she refuses to marry him just because he’s there. She also ends up having a dysfunctional affair with her married boss Brian (Broderick) despite the obvious self-destruction involved.

Terry is drifting aimlessly through life. He’s a handy man and an odd-jobber who has no plans or no dreams. The dichotomy set up between the siblings is wonderful. Sammy chastises terry for his aimlessness and for his lack of faith when her behaviour is far from rebuke.

The Oscar nominated script is full of such wonderful and realistic dialogue that simply hanging out with the characters is a joy. When Terry takes Rudy to a bar to play a high stakes pool game, you’ll find yourself jumping for joy which is indicative of Lonergan’s writing which has made you completely fall in love with the characters.

The title of the film is actually never spoken. It is hinted as “something [they] used to say to each other as kids” but this is the overall message of the movie. Having loved ones – family and friends – in one’s life is of paramount importance. The bonds that are shared are unbreakable and no matter how much Terry and Sammy squabble with each other their love and trust in each other carries them through. It almost seems like an insult labelling this movie a “feel-good” movie but in essence that’s exactly what it does. The message is so pure and positive it will simply leave the audience feeling just that.

• The Crossing Guard (Dir.: Sean Penn, 1995)

Written and directed by Sean Penn, this emotional gut-wrencher explores the notions of grief and vengeance which features superb performances.

After spending five years in jail for the drunk hit and run of a young girl John Booth (David Morse) is released from prison. He is still racked and tormented with guilt and tries to get on with his life. He meets JoJo (Robin Wright, Penn’s wife at the time) and begins a romance with her but is still haunted by the girl’s death. Freddy (Jack Nicholson), the girl’s father hears Booth is released and vows to murder him in revenge.

Morse a wonderful character actor who has appeared in the likes of The Rock and The Negotiator gets a rare lead role where he demonstrates what an undervalued actor he is. Morse’s Booth is a man so broken with guilt and remorse he waits patiently and acceptingly for Freddy to kill him. His scenes with Robin Wright are heartfelt and pure. The relationship between Nicholson’s and Angelica Huston’s characters is so intense and their shared history is palpable (helped no doubt by their real-life relationship of nearly 15 years). A scene where the estranged couple attempt to reconcile is an acting master class that perfectly encapsulates their relationship – tenderness and love that shattered by rage and tragedy.

The film is really shepherded by an acting tour de force from Nicholson. Like, The King of Marvin Gardens, or The Pledge (another under-appreciated collaboration with Sean Penn), or About Schmidt, Nicholson is most effective when he is not playing Jack Nicholson. The arched eyebrows, cheeky grin and maniacal laugh are nowhere to be found. Nicholson’s Freddy is on a path of self destruction caused by the grief of his daughter’s death. Nicholson is tragic, volatile, repugnant and heart-breaking. It is repeatedly over-looked in the legendary actor’s body of work which is near criminal.

Penn alludes to capital punishment (as does his performance in Dead Man Walking which was released the same year). Freddy’s vengeful quest is almost as destructive as the grief he feels. He knows the killing of Booth will give him no release or peace – yet it is consumed by it. However The Crossing Guard is not a message movie. The film is about very real human beings dealing with very real emotions and tragedies that exist in everyday life. Penn’s willingness to let the actors tell the story with truth and heart is what ultimately makes this film utterly gripping.

• American Movie (Dir.: Chris Smith, 1998)

As seen with Lost in La Mancha and Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the making of movies is as engrossing and enthralling as the finished product. In this case, this documentary is the making of a movie that is never realised and a desperately amateur horror short that makes The Evil Dead look like Avatar. Instead, we are given a touching portrait of a film fanatic who refuses to relinquish his dreams which is completely charming.

Mark Borchardt is a struggling film maker. The documentary begins with Borchardt desperately trying to get through pre-production of his debut feature film Northwestern. Interestingly, the film is a supposed look at Middle America and the inhabitants who are excluded from the American Dream and left in a decadent, indigent post-industrial wasteland. The film shows how the movie never progresses past a second pre-production meeting (where no one shows up) and Borchardt, undeterred decides to finish his three year in the making horror short entitled Coven.

The film could easily be a study of self-destructive hubris, yet director Chris Smith presents Borchardt as a down-on-his-luck dreamer who has never gotten a break. The would-be director and his cast and crew have delusions of grandeur and a lack of common sense which is awkwardly humorous. However we are given time to spend with the characters and effectively drink the ‘Kool-Aid’ and desperately root for them to finish the movie and accomplish their dreams.

Borchardt is by no means an infallible protagonist. He drinks too much, he takes advantage of his ailing uncle to procure funds for the film and constantly fights with his mother and the mother of his children. The documentary could easily verge into social realist drama territory but Borchardt really comes alive when he is plunged head first into making his warped masterpiece. In many ways American Movie embodies the ethos of Hollywood and America. Borchardt is a dreamer and despite his alack of experience, skill, funding and support he is relentless in the ‘pursuit of happiness’.

• The Wanderers (Dir.: Philip Kaufman, 1979)

Unfairly beaten to theatres by Walter Hill’s cult classic The Warriors, this second “gangs of New York” drama is more of a coming of age drama than an action thriller. Director Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) and writer Richard Price (adapted from his novel) assemble an impressive young cast, a terrific rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and stylish flare to make The Wanderers a bittersweet masterpiece.

‘The Wanderers’ are a gang among many in New York’s Bronx there’s also: ‘the Baldies’ (a bunch of violent skin heads), ‘the Wongs’ (Chinese martial-artists who all have the surname Wong), ‘the del Bombers’ (the Italian hating black group who are the Wanderers football rivals) and the psychotic ‘Ducky boys’. Led by Richie, the Wanderers are all about singing doo-wop music (their anthem and name is inspired by Dion’s song The Wanderer), combing their greasy pompadours and chasing ‘dames’. Richie however has his problems – he’s knocked up his girlfriend who is the daughter of local mob boss, he’s involved with snobby society girl (Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Karen Allen), he’s the captain of the football who are up against the Del Bombers in a championship match, and he faces brutality from any one of his gang rivals.

Kaufman has a wonderful blend of realist drama with surrealistic farce. The Wanderers are teenage boys on the verge of manhood with very traditional adolescent problems in an almost cartoonish world of gangs.

The toe-curling-ly 60’s soundtrack features The Shirelles, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Ben E. King and Dion who all add to the sense of abandon and joy of youth. The film is less about plot and more about sequences and spending time with the characters. There is certainly plenty of style on display but that does not detract away from the substance. The Wanderers is a charming and frank tale about the end of innocence which will have you reaching for the hair gel and change for the local juke box.

Have I missed a little known classic or your favourite under-appreciated gem? Please feel free to add comments and share.