[Film stats: Earned $6.1M domestically. Got 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and 89% on Flixster.]
Hello, all!
Since we’re about to have the chance to see something that we’ve never seen before [again], I thought it apropos to start up another self-indulgent film recommendation “series.” This time, it’s going to be the best films you [probably] haven’t seen.
Such a theme is fairly on the nose, given how we haven’t yet seen what Heupel can do for the good guys, but if Hollyweird can get away with doing it, here’s hoping that I can, as well.
Anyway, a few quick qualifications. In compiling this list, I tried to go with flicks that aren’t just arthouse fodder, and I also tried to stay away from foreign films. The films that made the cut here had fairly paltry returns at the box office but still were rated at least fairly highly by critics and audiences [I’ll be sharing each film’s score on Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster to indicate those two categories, respectively, as you can see above]. Lastly, I made sure that I only used films that managed to make their way into my collection.
With that, we’ll start off with a classic from the Coen Brothers, BARTON FINK.
From the IMDB, the plot is: “A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.”
A staple in many of the Coen Brothers’ films, John Turturro shines here as the titular Barton Fink. Honestly, every character is pitch perfect, regardless of how peculiar they may be. The early work by Joel and Ethan Coen was almost like a surrealist painting by Magritte; it worked within established reality, but deliberately strained the limits. The performances in BARTON FINK are like that. One need look no further than Steve Buscemi’s limited screen time as “Chet!” to understand how so. For those of you who were first exposed to the Coen Brothers through films like THE BIG LEBOWSKI or FARGO, those efforts represent somewhat more restrained directing. In their earlier films, they turned things up to eleven… but, happily, it works.
In case you want to check out a trailer for the film, I’ve embedded one below:
“What’s in the box?!?”
This is a really solid film, but one that’s filled with eccentricities. If that’s not your thing, so be it, but to skip this one would be missing out on a gem of a flick – there’s a reason it was the first one listed, after all.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out NAKED LUNCH and BAGHDAD CAFÉ.
Hello, all!
Since we’re about to have the chance to see something that we’ve never seen before [again], I thought it apropos to start up another self-indulgent film recommendation “series.” This time, it’s going to be the best films you [probably] haven’t seen.
Such a theme is fairly on the nose, given how we haven’t yet seen what Heupel can do for the good guys, but if Hollyweird can get away with doing it, here’s hoping that I can, as well.
Anyway, a few quick qualifications. In compiling this list, I tried to go with flicks that aren’t just arthouse fodder, and I also tried to stay away from foreign films. The films that made the cut here had fairly paltry returns at the box office but still were rated at least fairly highly by critics and audiences [I’ll be sharing each film’s score on Rotten Tomatoes and Flixster to indicate those two categories, respectively, as you can see above]. Lastly, I made sure that I only used films that managed to make their way into my collection.
With that, we’ll start off with a classic from the Coen Brothers, BARTON FINK.
From the IMDB, the plot is: “A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.”
A staple in many of the Coen Brothers’ films, John Turturro shines here as the titular Barton Fink. Honestly, every character is pitch perfect, regardless of how peculiar they may be. The early work by Joel and Ethan Coen was almost like a surrealist painting by Magritte; it worked within established reality, but deliberately strained the limits. The performances in BARTON FINK are like that. One need look no further than Steve Buscemi’s limited screen time as “Chet!” to understand how so. For those of you who were first exposed to the Coen Brothers through films like THE BIG LEBOWSKI or FARGO, those efforts represent somewhat more restrained directing. In their earlier films, they turned things up to eleven… but, happily, it works.
In case you want to check out a trailer for the film, I’ve embedded one below:
“What’s in the box?!?”
This is a really solid film, but one that’s filled with eccentricities. If that’s not your thing, so be it, but to skip this one would be missing out on a gem of a flick – there’s a reason it was the first one listed, after all.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out NAKED LUNCH and BAGHDAD CAFÉ.
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