The 25 Best Movies Nobody's Seen
by emvan | created - 20 Dec 2013 | updated - 20 Dec 2013 | PublicBrilliant films, all with less than 9000 votes as of the end of 2013. Plus a handful of my favorites (else no one would ever see this!)
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1. O Lucky Man! (1973)
R | 178 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An ambitious coffee salesman has a series of improbable and ironic adventures that seem designed to challenge his naive idealism.
Director: Lindsay Anderson | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe
Votes: 8,790
One of my 10 faves of all time, a satirical mock-epic (based on Malcolm McDowell's own story idea) with great songs by the late Alan Price.
2. Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Passed | 83 min | Comedy, Crime, Romance
A gentleman thief and a lady pickpocket join forces to con a beautiful perfume company owner. Romantic entanglements and jealousies confuse the scheme.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall, Charles Ruggles
Votes: 16,153 | Gross: $1.04M
Without Lubitsch, no Billy Wilder. Everybody loves this.
3. Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Passed | 91 min | Drama, Romance
An elderly couple are forced to live hundreds of miles apart when they lose their house and none of their five children will take both parents in.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchell
Votes: 9,507
Revered by fellow filmmakers in its day, and still a marvel of entertainment and emotional wallop.
4. L'Atalante (1934)
Not Rated | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Newly married couple Juliette and a ship captain Jean struggle through marriage as they travel on the L'atalante along with the captain's first mate Le père Jules and a cabin boy.
Director: Jean Vigo | Stars: Dita Parlo, Jean Dasté, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefebvre
Votes: 17,468
Gorgeous and haunting romance is ranked #17 at TheyShootPictures.
5. Love Exposure (2008)
Unrated | 237 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
A bizarre love triangle forms between a young Catholic upskirt photographer, a misandric girl and a manipulative cultist.
Director: Sion Sono | Stars: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Andô, Yutaka Shimizu
Votes: 15,901
A future must-see cult classic; the four hours fly by with more plot than five ordinary films.
6. Upstream Color (2013)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Director: Shane Carruth | Stars: Amy Seimetz, Frank Mosley, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig
Votes: 34,962 | Gross: $0.44M
Not for all tastes, but if you love sf puzzle movies like Donnie Darko or The Prestige and/or art-house mesmerizers like The Tree of Life, See. This. Now. One of my top 5 faves.
7. Close-Up (1990)
Not Rated | 98 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Ahankhah, Mehrdad Ahankhah
Votes: 23,010 | Gross: $0.00M
Amazing mash-up of documentary and fiction, increasingly revered by critics.
8. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama
In medieval Japan, a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi | Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa, Eitarô Shindô
Votes: 18,224
The director's even better Ugetsu just misses my cutoff; see that first and you're sure to want to see this as well.
9. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Passed | 88 min | Comedy, Romance
A New York inventor needs cash to develop his big idea, so his adoring wife decides to raise it by divorcing him and marrying an eccentric Florida millionaire with a capricious high-society sister.
Director: Preston Sturges | Stars: Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 12,872 | Gross: $0.44M
The most radical and modern of the classic screwball romcoms (imagine if Christopher Nolan made one!).
10. Poetry (2010)
TV-PG | 139 min | Drama
A sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.
Director: Lee Chang-dong | Stars: Yun Jeong-hie, Lee Da-wit, Kim Hee-ra, Ahn Nae-sang
Votes: 13,536 | Gross: $0.36M
The second of five films released in the U.S. in 2011 on this list, featuring an astonishing performance from Korea's most legendary actress.
11. Gimme Shelter (1970)
GP | 91 min | Documentary, Music, Thriller
When three hundred thousand members of the Love Generation collided with a few dozen Hells Angels at San Francisco's Altamont Speedway, the bloody slash that transformed a decade's dreams into disillusionment was immortalized on this film.
Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin | Stars: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts
Votes: 12,885 | Gross: $0.25M
How does a combination Rolling Stones concert film and murder story garner just 6000+ votes?
12. Mysteries of Lisbon (2011–2020)
Not Rated | 317 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman, and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.
Stars: Adriano Luz, Maria João Bastos, Ricardo Pereira, João Arrais
Votes: 3,608 | Gross: $0.11M
The third 2011 neglected film is a rapturously beautiful epic of pure story. Read the review at dvdtalk.com for a sense of its utterly unique flavor.
13. A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Approved | 126 min | Drama, Music
A female radio reporter turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau
Votes: 17,093
Same screenwriter and director as On the Waterfront, and a prescient look at celebrity and power.
14. Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Approved | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A mysterious artifact is unearthed in London, and famous scientist Bernard Quatermass is called in to divine its origins and explain its strange effects on people.
Director: Roy Ward Baker | Stars: James Donald, Andrew Keir, Barbara Shelley, Julian Glover
Votes: 11,510
The most neglected of the last century's great sci-fi films, with a smartly-mixed in dose of horror.
15. My Winnipeg (2007)
Not Rated | 80 min | Documentary, Comedy, Drama
Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin's home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Director: Guy Maddin | Stars: Darcy Fehr, Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Amy Stewart
Votes: 5,630 | Gross: $0.16M
It shouldn't even be possible to combine documentary with fantasy, should it? The most personal film from cult director Maddin is also his best.
16. The Frisco Kid (1979)
PG | 119 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A Polish rabbi wanders through the Old West on his way to lead a synagogue in San Francisco. On the way, he is nearly burned at the stake by Native Americans and almost killed by outlaws.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Gene Wilder, Harrison Ford, Ramon Bieri, Val Bisoglio
Votes: 11,497 | Gross: $9.35M
The most underrated film of all time; see my review. Perhaps Gene Wilder's best performance, too.
17. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Not Rated | 163 min | Drama, Romance, War
From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.
Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Stars: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, James McKechnie
Votes: 16,348
Powell and Pressburger's reputation continues to grow; after The Red Shoes, try this.
18. Real Life (1979)
PG | 99 min | Comedy
A film crew sets out to record a year in the life of an average family, but things quickly start going wrong.
Director: Albert Brooks | Stars: Dick Haynes, Albert Brooks, Matthew Tobin, J.A. Preston
Votes: 3,816
Cringe comedy so severe it makes The Office look like Mary Poppins, and a brutal early take-down of reality TV.
19. Pina (2011)
PG | 103 min | Documentary, Music
A tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.
Director: Wim Wenders | Stars: Pina Bausch, Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante
Votes: 15,947 | Gross: $3.52M
My fourth film from 2011 was so transfixing in 3D that it remains my principle motivation to someday own a TV that can play it properly.
20. Brewster McCloud (1970)
R | 105 min | Comedy, Crime, Fantasy
An introverted loner living in the bowels of the Astrodome plots to develop - with the aid of a mysterious guardian angel - a pair of wings that will help him fly.
Director: Robert Altman | Stars: Bud Cort, Shelley Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy
Votes: 5,607 | Gross: $1.05M
I had the pleasure of talking to Atlman's widow Kathryn after a special screening of this in Boston, and she said it was "one of Bob's favorites."
21. Margaret (I) (2011)
R | 150 min | Drama, Mystery
A young woman witnesses a bus accident, and is caught up in the aftermath, where the question of whether or not it was intentional affects many people's lives.
Director: Kenneth Lonergan | Stars: Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Mark Ruffalo, J. Smith-Cameron
Votes: 18,344 | Gross: $0.05M
My fifth film from 2011 is almost an empathy test, and clearly many viewers can't stomach Anna Paquin's character, but if you can ... this is brilliant and heartending.
22. Insomnia (1997)
Not Rated | 96 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
In a Norwegian city with a 24-hour daylight cycle a Swedish murder investigator has been brought in on a special case. Sleep deprived, he makes a horrible mistake which is discovered by the killer he has been hunting.
Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg | Stars: Stellan Skarsgård, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Maria Mathiesen, Gisken Armand
Votes: 15,584 | Gross: $0.22M
The original is actually far more Christopher Nolan-esque than Nolan's own remake.
23. The Stunt Man (1980)
R | 131 min | Action, Comedy, Drama
A fugitive stumbles onto a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out and falls for the leading lady while facing off with his manipulative director.
Director: Richard Rush | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Steve Railsback, Barbara Hershey, Allen Garfield
Votes: 10,455 | Gross: $7.06M
The favorite all-time film of the greatest all-time science fiction book editor (David G. Hartwell) is not sci-fi, but toys with your brain like the best of the genre.
24. A World Apart (1988)
PG | 113 min | Drama
1963. Thirteen year old Molly Roth, the eldest of three offspring of Gus and Diana Roth, lives a carefree life as part of the affluent white minority in South Africa. Race is a non-issue ... See full summary »
Director: Chris Menges | Stars: Barbara Hershey, David Suchet, Jodhi May, Jeroen Krabbé
Votes: 1,800 | Gross: $2.33M
Stunning drama with a great Hans Zimmer score.
25. The Stepfather (1987)
R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller
After murdering his entire family, a man marries a widow with a teenage daughter in another town and prepares to do it all over again.
Director: Joseph Ruben | Stars: Terry O'Quinn, Jill Schoelen, Shelley Hack, Charles Lanyer
Votes: 18,188 | Gross: $2.49M
One of the most believable psycho killers on film.
26. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
PG-13 | 201 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,978,868 | Gross: $377.85M
My favorite films of all time; maybe this list will get some views from that page!
27. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 849,948 | Gross: $1.48M
My second favorite film; there are a lot of "If you like DD, you'll like ..." films on this list.
28. Inception (2010)
PG-13 | 148 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
A thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe
Votes: 2,550,368 | Gross: $292.58M
Which is to say, a lot of films that Nolan fans will enjoy.
29. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,919 | Gross: $1.02M
Folks who love this (i.e., everyone) are likely to love a bunch of these.
30. Vertigo (1958)
PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller
A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore
Votes: 426,841 | Gross: $3.20M
A much-seen classic that presages Nolan and Richard Kelly, and the last of my craven attempts to get this list seen more widely!
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