The 25 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen

Written By Joal Ryan

Forget The Godfather. What we’ve got here are the overlooked greats, the hidden gems. From Jake Gyllenhaal in a bubble to a murderous Kate Winslet to a pair of violent, avenging Irish “angels” ? these are the box-office left-behinds

1. Falling Down

Michael Douglas is a mild-mannered guy with a screwed-on-tight haircut who’s had it with everybody – Latino gang members, an Asian shop owner, mighty-white golfers, even a surplus-store-owning Nazi. Crash would go on to win Oscar and Oprah acclaim for exploring the meaning of race, alienation and L.A. traffic, but remember: This 1993 movie, badly marketed as a mere serial-killer flick, expended its bullets first – and with better accuracy.

2. Igby Goes Down

Hey, here’s an original idea: An out-of-sorts teen comes of age in New York with the “help” of his dysfunctional family. Well, this 2002 comedy-drama feels anything but done to death. Kieran Culkin’s a find as the titular lost boy who finds his way with the ladies. Jeff Goldblum’s even better, and smarmier, as his godfather. Ryan Phillippe proved he actually could act as Culkin’s snot brother. Privileged white people have never been so pitiable.

3. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai

A 23-year-old cult cannot be wrong. Forget that the score to this 1984 sci-fi-something-or-other sounds like bad video-game music. Forget that star Peter Weller dresses suspiciously like Pee-Wee Herman. Forget that bad-guy John Lithgow deserves to go to acting jail on scenery-chewing charges. Just remember that people love this film, quote this film – and get Team Banzai references that you don’t. So, just give in, and watch the thing already. Weller is actually pretty cool. Even if his choice in neckwear sucks.

4. Bubble Boy

John Travolta may have played a Bubble Boy first, in a sappy TV movie about a kid who needs to be wrapped in plastic and protected from the elements. But Jake’s haircut tells the whole story here; there’s something a bit “off” about this surprisingly funny 2001 big-screen version, in which Jimmy builds himself a portable bubble to go after the gal he loves. Oh, sure, there are moments that challenge our dear boy. (Ever try to steal a can of beer while waddling around in a homemade germ-free sphere?) But nothing can keep Gyllenhaal’s love-struck Jimmy down for long. His heart – and the film’s heart – is that big.

5. Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane

The backstory on writer-director Joe Carnahan’s debut is worth the price of admission alone: 13 shooting days, $8,000 budget and one passport to a Hollywood career working with the likes of Ray Liotta, Tom Cruise (Narc, which Liotta starred in and Cruise produced), Jeremy Piven and Ben Affleck (Smokin’ Aces stars). As an actual movie, Blood, Guts is a high-energy romp about two used-car salesmen and one very special Pontiac LeMans convertible.

It’s so heavily Tarantino influenced you fully expect John Travolta

and Samuel L. Jackson to turn up at the car lot, but all you get is the

scrappy Carnahan and the equally unfamous Dan Leis – and, trust us,

it’s better that way.

6. The Hidden

Hollywood used to make sci-fi/buddy/cop/action flicks all the time, more or less. Then Spielberg and Lucas ruined everything with epic landscapes, big budgets and supercool special effects. By the time this popcorn throwback opened in 1987, the era of the sci-fi/buddy/cop/action flick was over – but not the genre’s charm. Kyle MacLachlan and Michael Nouri play two lawmen with nothing in common except a shared belief that an outer-space creature who sucks the life out of innocent civilians in order to further its own sick existence must be stopped. Take that, E.T.

7. Bully

Even if Columbine hadn’t made teen violence an uncomfortable subject for Hollywood and audiences, this lurid 2001 look at teen violence wouldn’t have packed multiplexes. Never to be confused with the Disney version, we get youth as a sweaty, icky, frequently shirtless thing. The real-life tale of a group of kids who decide to kill their alleged tormentor, the drama is hard to watch – but foolish to ignore. Brad Renfro and Nick Stahl (especially Nick Stahl) are great as the dysfunctional friends at the center of their screwed-up world. The best part of sticking with the movie to the end? You get to take a shower after.

8. Grace of My Heart

Reel life is so much better than real life. In real life, for instance, Phil Spector is an alleged homicidal menace. In reel life, however, he’s John Turturro, and so he’s merely lovably strange. There are all sorts of nifty real-life upgrades in this little-size, but big-feeling 1996 biopic about singer-songwriter Carole King ? oops, we mean, in this completely made-up story about singer-songwriter Denise Waverly (a winning Illeana Douglas). Watch Carole, oops, Denise lose her heart to tragic Brian Wilson, oops, Jay Phillips (a sweet Matt Dillon). Listen to Carole, oops, Denise find her voice by singing her own songs (written by ringers like Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach and Gerry Goffin,

King’s real-life ex). Oh, it’s too confusing to explain – just watch it.

9. The Black Cat

If you see only one Universal horror classic, you’re probably going to watchDracula. Or Frankenstein. But what you should watch, in the spirit of adventure, is this creepy, kinky 1934 tale with both those films’ stars, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. And yes, we said kinky. See, this was made after Hollywood’s self-imposed no-fun rule, the Hayes Code, was adopted but released just before it was strictly enforced. So, when a young couple (David Manners and Julie Bishop) seek refuge in Karloff’s house of horrors, they’re in store for an eyeful of S&M imagery and – woo-hoo! – devil worshipping!

10. Breakdown

It’s not Kurt Russell’s fault that he’s the king of the underrated movie. It’s not his fault that they don’t give Oscars to stuff like Big Trouble in Little China. And it’s not his fault that screen-wife Kathleen Quinlan takes a ride with an ill-advised stranger in this 1997 thriller. Well, actually, all right, that last one is his fault. If you can forgive that one lapse in judgment, this cautionary tale about the dangers of heading onto the highway minus an OnStar-equipped vehicle demands viewing. Think of it asDeliverance with trucks, instead of canoes.

11. Chopper

How boring was Ang Lee’s Hulk? So boring it made a dullard of Eric Bana. And if you know Bana from Chopper, his nonhyped pre-Hulk film, you know he’s capable of being explosive. And funny. And brutal. And funny again. Maybe the problem with the Hulk is that Mark “Chopper” Read, the real-life Aussie whom Bana plays in 2000′s Chopper, is just better source material. If you stabbed the Hulk in the stomach, for instance, the green guy would get all predictably wiggy. But if you stab Chopper in the stomach, the dude will surprise you. He takes those hits like the big, scary tattooed man he is.

12. Gojira

Note we did not say Godzilla. We said Gojira. What’s the difference? About an additional 20 minutes, for one thing. Three more things: no Raymond Burr, no dubbing and a coherent plot ruined when Hollywood recut the original Japanese monster movie into a yuckfest. Indeed, this original 1954 version – finally getting wide release in the United States, on DVD – is an ultra-sober nuclear-age drama that stands as understated testament to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Prepare to bow down before the giant rubber monster.

13. I Shot Andy Warhol

Shortly after starring in this strange-but-true 1996 drama, Lili Taylor started popping up in Hollywood fare like The Haunting and Ransom. But she never popped in the new roles, because she’s not Hollywood. She’s New York indie. She’s Valerie Jean Solanas, the unhinged real-life feminist who, well, shot pop-artist Andy Warhol. Lesser talents would have made Solanas seem nutty; Taylor makes her seem nutty and almost sympathetic. British actor Jared Harris gets points, too, for his spot-on Warhol. Soup, anyone?

14. Three O’Clock High

What exactly were Molly Ringwald’s problems anyway? That Michael Schoeffling might not notice her? That Andrew McCarthy might not take her to the prom? That Judd Nelson might kiss her? Well, boo-friggin’-hoo. Try being Casey Siemaszko in this stylish 1987 high school flick, released just as John Hughes had played out the high school flick. As good-guy Jerry Mitchell, Siemaszko’s got a big, bad problem that’s going to get him killed – perhaps literally – at the end of the school day. A little tougher than study hall huh, Molly?

15. Brannigan

It’s all over the Internet, so it must be true and/or utterly not: John Wayne passed on the chance to star in Dirty Harry. No matter, the important thing is Wayne didn’t star in Dirty Harry and thus had the time to star in this glorious 1975 cop flick. Wayne so rarely was photographed off the Old West range, it’s a treat to see him mingle with modern-day mortals and try out their peculiar polyester fashions. Brannigan gets the nod here over McQ, Wayne’s other foray into copland, because it takes place in London. It would have been nice if Wayne could’ve kicked some British butt before he got to be pushing 70, but better late than ever.

16. The Ringer

You cannot make a movie about a guy who pretends to be mentally challenged in order to compete in the Special Olympics. You cannot do that. Except, the Farrelly Brothers did. And they did so spectacularly. (Not that many people noticed.) Their 2005 comedy (they produced) is funny in a way that neither makes you feel bad for laughing nor makes you feel sorry for anybody. As an added bonus, Johnny Knoxville as the titular ringer is actually kinda touching.

17. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones

By the time this 2004 doc made its way into a handful of theaters, Joey Ramone was dead, Dee Dee Ramone was dead, and Johnny Ramone was dying. Their premature demises make a poignant tale of dreams not fully realized all the more so. The crux of the Ramones’ tale is that while you can’t go to a sports stadium without bopping your head to one of their 120-second punk classics (“Blitzkreig Bop,” “I Wanna Be Sedated,” etc.), you can’t go through the charts and find any smash-hit records, either. They played, they toured, but they never broke big. At least not while three-quarters of them were still alive.

18. Real Life

We’ll let others debate whether Albert Brooks is a genius. But we’ll just flat-out say the man is a prophet. Exhibit A: This oft-forgotten 1979 comedy about a filmmaker, played by Brooks, who sets out to document a suburban family but ends up goosing the drama whenever real life gets too boring for his taste. True, Brooks wasn’t so much foretelling the reality-TV era as spoofing the pioneering PBS documentary series An American Family, but when you’re right, you’re right.

19. Time After Time

You either have a thing for time-travel movies or you don’t. Unless you’re one of those wet blankets who insists time-travel movies never make sense, you have to see this 1979 gem about famed author H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) pursuing infamous serial-killer Jack the Ripper (David Warner) into 1970s San Francisco. Put your sense of time and space on hold, and let a smart, classy adventure remind you that smart, classy adventures used to get made.

20. Idiocracy

Why did Fox dump this 2006 Mike Judge comedy in fewer than 150 theaters last September? Is it because it’s not clever? Um, no. Is it because it’s not funny? Wrong again. Is it because it’s such a dead-on take on our push-button, pro-wrestling-loving world that the studio feared either nobody would get it or, worse, somebody would get it? We may have a winner! Luke Wilson stars as a regular Joe who wakes up in the year 2505 as the smartest person on Earth on account of everyone else is such a dumbass. Come for the premise, stay for the new-age Carl’s Jr. slogan, “F— you, I’m eating.”

21. Girl 6

What do you call a movie where Naomi Campbell is surrounded by telephones and proceeds without assaulting anyone? Where Madonna is given lines and uses them to her advantage? Where Spike Lee resists his usual jazz urge and calls on Prince to supply the bouncy soundtrack? A flat-out miracle. Lee’s made so many movies that some of them, like this 1996 comedy, get lost. So, go find Girl 6already. For all of the above reasons, and for this one: Theresa Randle turns in what should have been a star-making performance as a struggling actress who gives good voice at the world’s nicest-looking phone-sex bank.

22. Female Trouble

Don’t let Hairspray, the Tony-winning Broadway hit, or the upcoming John Travolta movie, fool you. Mainstream acceptance or no, auteur John Waters has seriously bad taste. Nowhere is it badder (or greater) than in this 1974 flick, somehow nowhere as notorious as Pink Flamingos, that gleefully trashes family, Christmas and spaghetti. Longtime Waters muse Divine is in rare form – and apparently an old Susan Hayward plot – as a driven, doomed gal. If only she’d gotten those cha-cha heels ?

23. Kurt & Courtney

This 1998 documentary didn’t come close to earning even $1 million in theaters. But it’s sure got a million-dollar tale to tell: Filmmaker Nick Broomfield explores the conspiracy theory that says Nirvana god Kurt Cobain was killed by someone other than himself. Broomfield’s a camera hog, and his pursuit of the widow Cobain, Courtney Love, is sheer stunt, but the movie’s undeniably compelling as a portrait of the fame-game’s bit players. It’s not every day you get to hear a guy growl andclaim that Love offered him $50,000 to “whack” her husband.

24. The Boondock Saints

Made for a reported $6 million, writer-director Troy Duffy’s first and so-far only movie “grossed” about $30,000 on its way to serving as fodder for the 2003 crash-and-burn Hollywood doc Overnight. The weird thing is, it’s hard to figure out what Duffy did wrong. He told an original story about two Irish fraternal twins in South Boston who are considered heroes for accidentally killing a bunch of Russian mafiosos – so they go out on a mission from God to violently snuff out the rest. And no one, not even detective Willem Dafoe, thinks their gruesome quest is wrong.

25. Heavenly Creatures

Why is it that one movie, say, Peter Jackson’s too-long King Kong, makes hundreds of millions of dollars, while another movie, say, Jackson’s mesmerizingHeavenly Creatures, makes nothing much but art-house buzz? The answer lies with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which came in between the other two projects and made Jackson a star. Heavenly Creatures, released in 1994, stands on its own as an accounting of a real-life 1954 New Zealand murder hatched by two schoolgirls, played by Melanie Lynskey, on her way to Two and a Half Men, and Kate Winslet, on her way to Titanic and a slew of Oscar nominations.

It’s the stuff reputations are built on.

The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen

 The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen

Having opened this year’s summer blockbuster season with the worst blockbusters of all time (the vilest cinematic offal to make more than $100 million), we thought it only appropriate to wind up the summer with our list of the best obscure films that languished in theatres — often too briefly — while people were paying 10 bucks a head to submit to the pummeling of the Michael Bays and Stephen Sommers of the world. The challenge posed to our critics was to write about our favorite flicks that, for various reasons, had never garnered the audiences they deserved. The criteria were as follows: The movie must have made less than $2.5 million domestically and, to keep the list somewhat current, we limited our timeline to anything released within the lifetime of Emma Roberts (1991-present). To make it more difficult, we also disqualified foreign-language films*, documentaries, and movies that made little money in their theatrical releases but found cult followings on DVD, such as bottle Rocket ($1.04 million at the box office) and Donnie Darko ($1.27 million). Finally, we did our best to pick films that not only performed poorly but were actually pretty damn entertaining — none of those films you Netflix because you think you should see them but that then wind up sitting on top of your DVD player for six weeks.

And before our more literal-minded readers start ALL-CAPPING us to death in our comments section, we aren’t suggesting that the films we chose are so obscure that none of you have ever seen any of them. In fact, to make this a bit more fun, let’s play a little game: If you’ve seen seven or more of the films in our list, you can consider yourself a regular ol’ cinephile and wonder to yourself (silently) why the hell you aren’t writing for a review website (and c’mon, admit it: you’re probably a little pretentious, too). If you’ve seen four to six of the films, consider yourself quite the film fanatic — you’re probably a helluva “Scene It” player. If you’ve seen one to three of the following films, well, that’s not bad. It shows effort at least, but you’re probably gonna want to load up your Netflix queue. And if you’ve never seen any of the films, well, we won’t make any judgments, but we’re glad that Adam Sandler and Cameron Diaz do it for you.

Finally, if you feel we’ve committed a huge injustice by leaving off a film that absolutely, positively warranted inclusion, try not to get your drawers in a bunch. We’re big fans of recommendations, so make use of the comments section below (and you can check the box-office grosses at Box Office Mojo). — Dustin Rowles

Zero Effect (1998) ($2.08 million) —

I have no freakin’ idea why Zero Effect never found an audience, either in theaters or even on home video. It’s a brilliantly updated Sherlock Holmes mystery, though you may not realize the Arthur Conan Doyle connection until the second or third viewing. Bill Pullman is Daryl Zero, the world’s greatest private detective. He’s a recluse with absolutely no social skills, basically incapable of living in the real world, which is OK because he’s able to solve crimes with his exceptional powers of deduction from the Hughesian fortress where he hermits himself away. Steve Arlo is his Watson, played by Ben Stiller in his last performance before There’s Something About Mary ruined his “Ben Stiller Show” and Reality Bites credibility. The mystery itself is so good that I’m able to watch it every other year or so and never remember the twist. But the real joy of Zero Effectis the Daryl Zero character, a bizarre, wackjob genius who kind of puts Tony Shalhoub’s “Monk” to shame. Coincidently, then-22-year-old director Jake Kasdan (son of Lawrence) did try to get Zero Effect made into a television series, but it wasn’t picked up by NBC. However, Kasdan’s experience has formed the basis for a David Duchovny film, The TV Set, which Kasdan also wrote and directed, due for release next April. So, though no one ever saw Zero Effect, its influence does still live on. — DR

Shallow Grave (1994) ($2.07 million) —  

Grave was the freshman film offering of the writer (John Hodge) and director (Danny Boyle) who would next bring us the more well-known Trainspotting, and both films share the same star (a fresh-on-the-scene Ewan McGregor). Shallow Grave is a bit more straightforward and standard affair than its follow-up, introducing us to three Scottish flatmates (McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox) who find themselves with a nice chunk of coin thanks to an unexpected happenstance. The money doesn’t come without a price, however, and this embroils the trio in a rather sticky crime-type situation, which is closely tied to the titular furrow. Like Trainspotting, it’s a character study, letting us watch the trio (d)evolve as they try to figure out what to do with the money and with each other, and things become more and more grim as they begin to (rightfully) trust each other less and less. Each heads down his own dark path, and right up until the end it’s unclear whether there can be redemption for any of the lot (particularly poor, crazy David [Eccleston], who takes the biggest psychological beating). In the wrong hands, the film could have been a poorly executed and rather bleak affair. However, it’s kept afloat with biting comedy that helps you enjoy watching people who you might otherwise find entirely selfish, morally bankrupt, and utterly despicable. And its gore, creepiness, and dark humor would make an excellent first half to a Shallow Grave/Trainspotting double feature. — Seth Freilich

We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004) ($2.04 million) —

 For a happily married guy like myself, an obsession with adultery flicks might sound a little bewildering to some (not least my wife). But in this instance, the genre label belies the true meaning. Indeed, a good infidelity movie doubles as cautionary tale, providing fair warning to anyone who might foolishly believe that loopholes exist. Their message is clear: If you fuck someone who is not your spouse, you also fuck up your life. No exceptions. James Cain, of course, is responsible for the two best adultery films of all time: Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. And while We Don’t Live Here, based Andre Dubus’ short story (he also wrote “In the Bedroom”), lacks the narrative intrigue of Cain’s films, it’s more emotionally wrenching, examining marriage (as director Larry Gross writes) not as a means to living happily ever after but “as the beginning and discovery of emotional conflict, rather than its resolution.” The film revolves around two couples whose members resort to affairs to liven up their dreary, dying marriages. Much of the emotional conflict is sparked by the churning monotony in their marriages and the exploration of the choices between the outright lie of adultery and the careful selectivity that comes when there are things that two people can no longer talk about. And the ensemble cast (Mark Ruffalo, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts, and Laura Dern) provides breathtaking performances that, in the end, makes We Don’t Live Anymore the perfect movie for anyone considering cheating on their spouse. — DR

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1991) ($739,104) — 1990’s 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a brilliant little piece of existential pie. Adapted for the screen from the play of the same name (and written and directed by that play’s author, the well-known-in-some-circles Tom Stoppard), the plot is ostensibly focused on two of the lesser characters from some play called Hamlet. Most of the film’s action actually takes place off the Hamlet stage, however, where R & G entertain themselves and the viewer with word games, philosophical discussions and attempts to discern which is actually Rosencrantz and which is Guildenstern. While Tim Roth pulls off Guildenstern quite well, and Richard Dreyfuss puts on a fine performance as The Player (the head of the theatre troupe hired by Hamlet), it’s Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz who really steals the show. As with most of his performances, Oldman puts on a virtual acting clinic, deftly walking the fine line between idiot and idiot savant. For example, in the opening scenes, Rosencrantz is repeatedly flipping a coin, and Oldman seamlessly translates it from an act of mindless entertainment to a study of the apparent broken laws of probability. His idiot clown similarly jumps from discovering basic laws of physics to being suddenly and easily distracted by something like a naked bottom. A familiarity with the intricacies of “Hamlet” isn’t necessary for you to be entertained and amused by the flick, though it does allow for some extra enjoyment. An appreciation for the smart and the absurd, however, is necessary. — SF

Kicking and Screaming (1995) ($718,490) —  

“What I used to able to pass off as a bad summer could now potentially turn into a bad life.” It’s a rare, honest film that strikes you as deeply disturbing and charmingly hilarious at the same time — exactly the kind of mixed feelings that make up the intellectual ennui in Kicking and Screaming and most of the criminally underrated Noah Baumbach’s films. That special kind of ennui percolates here among four post-grads who move in together, hardly a block from their alma mater, and try feebly to cling to their college years via high-minded chitchat and self-deception. This is the movie that should’ve encapsulated Generation X, which,, in fact,, best illustrates the double edge of bourgeois pretence — the literary wit and infomania that so often creates people who can talk about everything while doing absolutely nothing. But if the subject is somber, it’s possible that you’ll laugh hard enough not to notice. Baumbach made Kicking and Screaming the perfect comedy or the perfect drama; sometimes I have trouble deciding which. But by the end, the characters we watch waxing about culture and art while their painfully boring lives stutter and stall become more than the sum of their witticisms — they become the embodiment of an incredibly smart and incredibly paralyzed youth culture. — Phillip Stephens

All the Real Girls (2003) ($549,666) — David Gordon Green burst onto the indie scene with 2000’s George Washington, but it was 2003’s All the Real Girls that cemented the writer-director’s visual style and willingness to wear his heart right on the sleeve of his pearl-snap shirt. All the Real Girls is ostensibly about a commitment-phobic young man getting his heart broken by his friend’s sister, but it’s really about the ardors of twentysomething life and the unavoidable pains of slowly growing up. Starring Green’s friend/muse Paul Schneider, the film presents an elegiac look at small-town life and the characters that inhabit it. A Southern man himself, Green’s humour is character-based but never malicious; there’s a profound joy in watching the protagonist drive his mom’s minivan around a local demolition derby track or when one of his friends shouts things like, “Let’s dip our nuts in whiskey and get the girls drunk!” Green’s open framing of a group of friends hanging out and his almost willful insistence in overlapping the mumbled dialogue give the film a realistic, almost documentary feel, but it’s his heartbreaking images of factories, dirt roads, and three-legged dogs that manage to evoke the unnamable emotions his characters are facing: the pain of love, the aimlessness of rural existence, and the sense that sometimes there’s nothing to do with life but wait. — Daniel Carlson

Citizen Ruth (1996) ($285,112) —  Before he gave us a Machiavellian Reese Witherspoon in Election or a naked Kathy Bates in About Schmidt, writer/director Alexander Payne gave us Laura Dern as pregnant, solvent-huffing Ruth Stoops inCitizen Ruth. A longtime indigent and occasional prostitute, Ruth approaches her aerosol-shopping with a connoisseur’s finicky palate, then merrily inhales her way to oblivion, mindless of the embryo growing inside her. When a concerned judge offers her a reduced sentence if she’ll have an abortion rather than give birth to yet another child she can’t support, Ruth accidentally winds up a trophy fought over by self-righteous militants from both the pro-choice and pro-life camps. A skilled manipulator but none too bright, her alignments shift constantly depending upon who makes her a better offer. Though Payne’s own ideological leanings are clear, he skewers the excesses of both sides of the argument, helped tremendously by the deadpan performances of a brilliant supporting cast that includes Swoosie Kurtz, Kelly Preston, Mary Kay Place, and a pre-“That ’70s Show” Kurtwood Smith.

Movies about stupid people are usually as tiresome as they are condescending, but Dern gives willful, mercurial Ruth a tarnished dignity that endures throughout all her debasements. As funny as it is bleak, with real Midwestern locations that ground its satire in the horrific reality of middle-class, middle-American esthetics, Citizen Ruth is a sunny black comedy that maintains its good cheer regardless of its controversial subject matter. This is the movie Strangers with Candy should have been. — Jeremy C. Fox

Suture (1993) ($102,780) —

The plot of Suture will either reel you in or soundly put you off: Two long-lost “twins” reunite after years of severance. The suave, rich Vincent then attempts to murder the poor, humble Clay in an effort to fake his own death. Clay lives through the attempt and is assumed to be Vincent anyway and, since the assault left him with amnesia, doesn’t know the difference anyhow. Clay has his doubts about his identity, though everyone around him assures him that he is Vincent. Vague regressions finally give way to epiphany toward the film’s close, just as the real Vincent returns to finish the job. Which one makes it out alive? becomes the question at hand, especially given that Clay is played by the hulking, black Dennis Haysbert, and Vincent is played by gaunt, white Michael Harris — a distinction no character in the film calls attention to. It isn’t the most subtle or original grand conceit to drive a film, but it does make for fascinating viewing. Filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel made Suture a smartly artistic film with noir pretensions that presents provocative ideas about contemporary culture, identity, and race while explaining nothing and wrapping it all in a sharply panoramic, black-and-white (Ha!) suspense-thriller. The irony and portentousness may make the film irritating to many, but as a cinematic experience it’s highly thought-provoking, not to mention entertaining. — PS

Following (1998) ($48,482) — Writer/director Christopher Nolan’s 1998 feature debut Following is a low-budget masterpiece of independent filmmaking and a harrowing modern noir. The film was shot on weekends over the course of a year to accommodate the cast members’ regular jobs, and most of the production expenses went into the grainy 16mm Nolan used. Nolan has said that he wanted Following to focus on the noir aspect he enjoyed most, namely that “character is ultimately defined by action.” The film follows a young writer who, out of boredom, begins following random people on the street and winds up trailing a thief and being pulled into a life of crime. As he would do with his follow-up, 2000’s Memento, Nolan presents the scenes out of chronological order, often showing the second half of an event long before its build-up. He uses the device flawlessly, drawing the viewer into a deepening mystery that never fully reveals itself until the film’s final moments. It lacks the polish of Nolan’s later works, but it’s still an excellent, engaging film. Plus, a guy gets killed with a claw hammer. Really, how can you go wrong? — DC

Stander (2004) ($31,651) — 

This one I take personally. It was among the first films I reviewed — and raved about — though my review never even appeared in the local publication I wrote it for, since the movie’s Boston opening was cancelled. Its distributor released Stander in only seven theatres for a single week, despite generally positive reviews and inclusion on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List.” Whether they were scared off by the Afrikaner accents, the unironic use of the period setting, or its moral and political ambiguities, Newmarket Films carelessly dismissed my all-time favorite movie about a cop-turned-bank-robber in Apartheid-era South Africa.

OK, part of its appeal is that it’s the only movie I’ve yet come across about a cop-turned-bank-robber in Apartheid-era South Africa, so its novelty helps it stand out among so many cookie-cutter studio films. But the novelty would be useless if it were all Stander had to offer; instead, it just gets your attention long enough for you to notice how director Bronwen Hughes so thoroughly captures the look and feel of both the period and the place and how Thomas Jane gives a completely persuasive and often moving performance. Stander has every element it would need to appeal to the mass audience — sex, violence, guns, car chases — but in a world before The Interpreter and The Constant Gardener, no one knew how to market a film with African racial conflict as its backdrop, so the mass audience — hell, even the indie audience — never got a chance to see it in theatres. And that’s a real shame because, as enjoyable as it is on DVD — and it is enjoyable, and everyone reading this should rent/buy/Netflix it right away — the major action sequences lose a lot of their impact when seen on a tiny little TV screen. — JF

Correction: The fourth sentence in the opening paragraph of this article originally stated simply (and inaccurately) “foreign films” rather than “foreign-language films.”

In Your Dreams

“Those who lack worldly assets even in their dreams and are denied entry into the path of attaining spiritual assets can eliminate their torments and pains by remembering Shri Rama’s holy name, says Tulsi.” (Dohavali, 17) svāratha sukha sapaneham̐u agama paramāratha na prabesa | rāma nāma sumirata miṭahiṃ tulasī kaṭhina kalesa || Being down on your luck is one thing, but actually being completely hopeless in all respects, both materially and spiritually, is completely different. The truly destitute are those who can’t even find relief from distress in their dreams, when the mind, one of the key elements of the subtle body, carries the individual far, far away to a distant land with different surroundings. “If I could only be king for a day” and “If I could only get away for a few moments” are the refrains of those desperately looking for peace, an escape from the calamitous condition they currently find themselves in. Yet for those who lack hope even in their dreams and have no chance at salvation in the afterlife, the regular cognizance of the Supreme Spirit brought on by recitation of a specific sound vibration can bring relief from every type of discomfort. The torment of the nightmare ends when the dream is over, but if the real life situation is just as unfortunate as the dreamt about condition, there isn’t even relief upon waking up. But the holy name of the sweet Lord, the ocean of mercy and the friend of the distressed, eliminates all pangs, as it brings transcendental enlightenment and undying pleasure at the same time. There are tradeoffs with any activity we take up. For instance, if we strive for success in running a business, the family life will suffer. The business owner thinks about profit, loss, productivity and maintaining a vibrant work force at all hours of the day. As such, the priority system within the mind places the interests of the business at the top, which means that any other entity, even close family members like the wife and children, will be assigned secondary importance. A lower standing in the priority system automatically carries some type of neglect, which in turn helps to sever even the strongest of bonds. “The soul can never be cut into pieces by any weapon, nor can he be burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.23) When activity in the human form of life is studied at an abstract level, it is seen that there are generally two paths that can be taken. One leads to liberation, or eternal spiritual life, and the other leads to further bondage. The spirit soul, the entity of identification within any form of life, exists perpetually, but its outer covering can constantly change. There is immortality in the sense that individual spirit never changes in properties. It can never be destroyed, slain, or altered in any way. When we think of living forever, the concept relates to remaining within a particular life form without change. This can only be facilitated in a spiritual land. The material world is an area existing separately from the imperishable land. Spirit is immutable and matter is ever-changing, but this doesn’t mean that matter is absent in the spiritual land. There is a higher nature, referred to as daivi-prakriti, which remains constantly tied to the liberated spirit soul. In the mundane world there is a difference between body and spirit, or the temporary covering and the identifiable agent residing within. But in the original, imperishable land, the outer covering and the master of the body are both of the same quality. The path to immortality can be found in the activities following a bona fide spiritual tradition. Association with the blunt senses, which act as the interactive agents of the body assumed at the time of birth, leads to a further attachment to objects of the mundane sphere. Therefore no amount of material activity can bring about liberation. There may be an overall adherence to piety and virtue which can lead to a higher birth in the next life, but as long as the desire to enter the imperishable sky ruled over by the Supreme Person is absent, the resulting body type will not exist perpetually. The concept of demigods is well known to followers of the Vedic tradition. As elevated living entities residing in the heavenly planets, the devas, also known as suras, can live for very long periods of time and display uncharacteristic levels of strength and activity. In other spiritual traditions there are similar heavenly figures, like angels and saints. Yet no matter the magnitude of material dexterity exhibited, either through outward activity or in the area of knowledge, no being can live forever when they are embodied. Generally the path towards liberation is viewed as being diametrically opposed to the path that leads to further involvement in reincarnation, or the changing of bodies. Therefore one who dedicates their life to following a particular roadmap is automatically denied the benefits of the other path. For instance, those who are overly sinful take to meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex. The sin tagged to these behaviors relates to the further separation in consciousness from the Supreme Spirit that results. The thoughts within the mind at the time of death determine the next type of body received. The living entity is known as a jiva, and it has a choice as to which realm to reside in. Being constitutionally spirit, the jiva’s original home is in the spiritual sky, but due to aversion to divine love, and even jealousy of the Supreme Being, the desire to lord over nature in a temporary realm lands the otherwise pure soul in a miserable place. Not surprisingly, the path that grants liberation requires abstention from sinful activities. On the most basic level, the liberated path calls for practices like adherence to rules and regulations of religious life, studying scriptures, teaching spiritual knowledge to others, performing sacrifices, and teaching others how to worship. The liberated path brings paramartha, or heavenly delights or spiritual profits. Paramartha can be equated to pious credits accumulated through adherence to the basic tenets of religion. If one is desperately seeking paramartha, then the worldly delights, which are known as svartha, are difficult to obtain. On the flip side, those who are wholly dedicated to sinful activity receive worldly pleasure in the form of sumptuous food, ample sex life and great wealth, while remaining shut out of spiritual assets. Then there are those who are completely destitute, not able to gain worldly or heavenly pleasures. These are the people addressed by Goswami Tulsidas in the very nice verse from the Dohavali quoted above. Indeed, Tulsidas addresses those who don’t even know worldly pleasures in their dreams. It is one thing to be poor and bereft of nice food and the association of beautiful partners of the opposite sex, but it requires descending to an even lower level of destitution to not even be able to imagine material pleasure in your dreams. After all, who can stop us from dreaming about wonderful things? Yet those who are destitute find themselves in so much distress that they can’t even imagine what pleasure is. The most unfortunate are also denied entry into the path that brings heavenly pleasures, as they haven’t had the time to take to spiritual life. Due to their misfortune they may have never even been taught about the need to seek for benefits in the afterlife. After all, the animalistic mindset follows the demands of the senses at every moment, not even considering future loss or gain. Therefore human society really begins with religion, as the ability to know, understand and love God serves as the prime benefit to the human form of body. Tulsidas sets the table by describing the most destitute in society and then puts forth the solution to their problems: chanting the holy name of Rama. Even if one is the lowest born in society, engaging in the worst type of behavior and not respected by anyone, the name of Rama is so pure that it automatically brings deliverance and eliminates all difficulties and pains. How does this work exactly? Who is Rama and why is remembering His name capable of such amazing things? The Supreme Personality of Godhead is a singular entity, but due to His causeless mercy He expands into a multitude of forms that make appearances on earth. Rama is the name given to the jewel of the Raghu dynasty who roamed this earth during the Treta Yuga, the second time period of creation. Though wholly dedicated to dharma, or religiosity, Rama was still the same original Lord, so His mercy was open to anyone who surrendered unto Him fully in thought, word and deed. The secret in remembering Rama’s name is that the holy name automatically carries with it information of God’s forms, pastimes and activities. Lest we think this knowledge is unknown to those not familiar with the Vedic history recorded in books like the Ramayanaand Shrimad Bhagavatam, one of the properties of the soul is that it is ever-knowledgeable. Indeed, it is considered a torchlight of knowledge which doesn’t require an external energy source. In any form of body, the soul retains its brilliant properties, but due to the influences of material nature, sometimes the intrinsic awareness of the Supreme Spirit and the benefit of worshiping Him gets clouded. The holy name is the sharpest knife capable of slicing apart the thick wall of nescience surrounding the consciousness. As such, anyone who remembers the Lord’s name will slowly but surely reawaken their dormant God consciousness, bringing about memory of the other aspects of the Lord as well. Is there a difference between remembering Rama’s name and taking to activities aimed at leading to the spiritual world? If the sincere soul seeking spiritual enlightenment and liberation is lacking a loving attachment to the Supreme Lord, the highest destination that can be reached is the brahmajyoti, which is a beam of spiritual light emanating off of the original and inconceivably large transcendental body of the Supreme Lord spanning the entire cosmos. The defect of residence in the light of Brahman is that individuality is not retained. Therefore the bliss of brahmananda, or merging into Brahman, is far inferior to the unending joy felt in the presence of the Personality of Godhead in one of His different forms residing in the Vaikuntha planets, the realm right above the brahmajyoti. Since Rama is a personal form of the Lord, remembrance of His holy name falls under the category of bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. Bhakti is not merely a method of self-realization; it is the constitutional position of the spirit soul. All other religious practices descend from the original occupation of bhakti dedicated to Vishnu, or God. Both svartha and paramartha bow down at the feet of loving devotion to God exhibited by the devotees, as no reward can compare to the association of the Supreme Lord within the mind. Consciousness is the key determinant in the mindset of the individual, not their bank balance, the satisfaction level of the stomach, or the number of pious credits they have accumulated. Whether one is abounding in material delights or possessing a large account of spiritual merits, if there is no bhakti, there cannot be any lasting peace. On the other hand, one who is completely destitute, the lowest person in any room they walk into, but remembers Lord Rama, His name, His associates like Lakshmana, Sita andHanuman, and His glorious devotees like Tulsidas, is to be considered the wealthiest person in the world. Whatever distresses are encountered are quickly removed, as the blissful nature of the Supreme Lord and the potency of His name will quickly dissolve all unpleasant aspects of life. Our dreams allow for an escape from the tumultuous struggles of life in the mundane world, but the rescue is temporary. With Rama’s name, however, what you see is what you get. His name is the very essence of Truth, so anyone who is fortunate enough to remember it regularly will find themselves living out the most wonderful dream. By regularly chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, that Supreme Destination which is difficult to approach for even the greatest yogis and scholars will be reached within a second.