Outside the Box - PHOENIX's Top 100 Not Quite Obscure Films

Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes sure were a pair. While most critics point to films like A Woman Under the Influence as all-time greats, my sentimental favourite of theirs is Gloria - a film I watched for the first time quite a while ago while writing a little something about the box office failures of 1980. I was not expecting much - a tough gal and kid pairing sounded too cutesy, if not trite. Oh boy - was I wrong - Rowlands both simmers and explodes in a performance I have in my mental list of best evers, embodying the brutality of a mob insider, poisonous murderer, and all-round battle-axe with unphasable confidence. She has a maternal instinct - so yes, in a very Léon kind of way (Luc Besson's film is said to be a remake) she becomes protective of a kid with nobody left - but that sure doesn't make her a soft touch. That motherly/murdery mix fascinated me, and is something that Rowlands gives life to in a completely original way. Great movie, and a wonderful actress.

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That's one of his only films I haven't seen. I should fix that soon.

Characters can often embody entire nations, and here an American Pilot (Lee Marvin) along with a Japanese Captain (Toshirō Mifune) during the Second World War, find themselves stranded on a deserted island - left to face each other alone in Hell in the Pacific. If I hadn't seen this already, I'd be sold upon hearing the names of those two artists and entertainers, and you have to add that Boorman had just come into his own as a filmmaker. The film plays out nearly wordlessly, and seeing these two enemies fight each other and then form a bond - well, that's one of my favourite movie tropes occurring right there. Can these two survive together? After much fighting, and cooperation - what would it take to break the spell? I think Hell in the Pacific is more a humanistic film than war picture, and is a great film about the importance of the bonds we make in society, and the importance of forgiveness, love and solidarity. Very enjoyable two-man film, and way up amongst my favourites of the director, genre and style.

Some love it, others hate it. My friends are split on Somewhere in Time - some think it's an underseen masterpiece, and others try to persuade me otherwise, but overall I'm happy to just love it and not mind all that so much. Any film with time travel in it has a good chance with me, and this one feels just right to my sensibilities. It's the kind of film that really suits Christopher Reeve's style, and Christopher Plummer makes a great foil - while Jane Seymour exudes a kind of frail innocence that fits neatly into the story. The score is magical, and the method of time travel here is particularly crazy - but it's not the method that's important, but the tragic loop Richard Collier (Reever) forms a part of. I'm well aware that some view this film as something of a letdown, and lacking in substance - but for me it's an ugly duckling I fell in love with regardless, and remains a cult favourite for me and a few others. I'm not an easy touch for romantic kind of films - however, Somewhere in Time romances me in exactly the right manner. People beg me to stop, but I still stand by it.

In an article titled "Love and Coca-Cola", Pauline Kael wrote that Thieves Like Us was perhaps the "closest to flawless of Altman's films - a masterpiece." It has a low profile, as do many of Robert Altman's great films - you could never call him a crowd pleaser, even though he does please a fair few. It's a film that is what it is, and a film of it's time, with Bonnie and Clyde setting the tone in 1967 for period-rich bank robbing outlaw films set in depression era America. It feels like the most assured film from one of the most assured directors of his time - and it's another classic 1970s Altman film that I absolutely love. Great cinematography, lots of style and it's quirky attitude are what attract me to it. Shelley Duvall, with her haunting eyes but jaunty tone, and the young fresh-faced Keith Carradine make a great fictional pair that allude to their more famous, real-life counterparts. Overall, it's something of an odd duck, but anyone watching it should pay especially close attention to the way it was shot, and how it reflects American culture as a whole - using stuff like radio and Coca-Cola pushed way up onto us until we can't ignore it. This film grows on me more and more, every time I watch it.

If you haven't seen it, don't underestimate The Way Way Back - it would figure amongst the best coming-of-age dramas ever made in my book, and even though I see that particular genre as an overstuffed, hackneyed waste of time, I make a big exception for this one. Steve Carell (who plays a great douchebag), Toni Collette (as good as always) and Sam Rockwell (a lot of fun in this) form a triumvirate of great supporting performances to Liam James, who plays Duncan. Duncan really is your average, shy, clumsy kid who'd like nothing more than sequester himself away and read on this particular summer vacation he's being forced on - but we all know that's not happening, with a mother, Pam (Collette) who's trying to help. Not helping at all is Pam's new boyfriend Trent (Carell), who, as a potential father in law, loves to bully the kid. When Duncan gets a job at a local water park run by Owen (Rockwell) he starts to come out and discover himself. I know, if you're reading this you're thinking, "beh - another one of those" - but if you haven't seen it I strongly suggest you just give it a chance, because it's better than most of them - so well written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and so well performed. In fact, it's a total package - a massive surprise for me when I watched it, not expecting much. Deserves it's place on this list.

Gloria is great. Though the kid is super annoying.

And I'm also a fan of The Way Way Back.

This film is a lot of things, but I like to focus on it's kind of sweet, offbeat love story - two extraordinarily eccentric people meeting and clicking. Miranda July then goes and surrounds it with a slightly askew Todd Solondz-like type of world with an ensemble of unconventional but still grounded characters. It's always just the right side of amusing, and it never fails to pick me up. Me You and Everyone We Know won the Caméra d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival - but director July never really followed it up like I was hoping she would - another seeming one-hit-wonder, although her 2020 film Kajillionaire was pretty good (just not in the same league as this, her feature debut.) Loved this film ever since it came out, and it remains a go-to.

Yes - I think we've all seen this freaky, 'spider and the fly' movie where non-human entities sexually attract, lure and then murder young men so that they can be processed as meat. Great visual storytelling in this one, and it's a personal favourite. I tell you what though, every time a film that's really not all that obscure pops up on my list, I'll add an alternate title that deserves an honorable mention - this one will be David Lowery film A Ghost Story. What? You've seen that as well? Hmph - you guys are far too well-watched for me. Anyway, both of these are well worth mentioning as favourites of mine that didn't make the IMDb or Letterboxd Top 250.

Before hitting the jackpot with M*A*S*H, Robert Altman made one of his more serious psychological thrillers in That Cold Day in the Park - the film features Sandy Dennis as Frances Austin, a sexually repressed and introverted lady who socializes with people three times her age. Frances spots a young man sleeping on a park bench in the rain, invites him in, and the two play a dangerous game. I really like this kind of movie - there's a taut tension underlining every quiet, reserved moment in this. Frances is at once a very sympathetic character, but there's something really not right about her - and discovering more is what I found so much fun, albeit of a kind that left me on edge. The film didn't get very good reviews when it came out, but I have a feeling that if Altman had of been established at this point, people would have looked at it differently. I immediately fell for this film upon watching it, and think it's one of his classics.

My appreciation of The Double was turned around by watching Richard Ayoade's Submarine shortly before taking it on a second time - I couldn't exactly specify why that is, but something about his style in the latter made me appreciate how he went about adapting Dostoyevsky's novella in this. I also love the way he casts this film, and it frustrates me that he didn't go on to have a career where he focused on making feature films. I simply like the way he goes about it so much. The Double features Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige, Craig Roberts, Paddy Considine and Sally Hawkins from Submarine and also includes includes wonderful cameos from Chris O'Dowd and Christopher Morris (his costars from The IT Crowd.) It's bleakly dark and set in a nightmarish dystopia, and while it's setting is fairly similar to that in Brazil, it doesn't step on that film's toes. I have a deep abiding affection for this one.

I'm a huge fan of these two.

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The Captain has as it's setting a chaotic and confounding Germany, in absolute anarchy as law and order falls apart during the final weeks of the Second World War. A deserter, Willi Herold (Max Hubacher) finds an abandoned vehicle with a captain's uniform in it. He at first tries it on and enjoys some childish play-acting in the deserted countryside, but when a nervous old conscript finds him, Willi plays the part - and as such a band of rowdy, ill-disciplined troops start to gather around him, and Willi decides to concoct a grand mission which will lead to more death and misery. Those who suspect he's really not a captain play along, hoping to use this ill-judged man to their own ends. They say power corrupts - and it's effects are immediate in The Captain - based on an incredible true story, it's a well made illustration of how the seemingly normal will behave if given the freedom to act as they please with no restrictions or limitation. It's a film with a hard edge to it, but I found the story riveting, and interesting (and nuts.) One of the strangest and most bizarre true stories set during World War II.

I'm a fan of Under the Skin and an even bigger fan of A Ghost Story.

My most recent watch on the list marks a moment I've taken note of this name : Michael Cacoyannis. While his Zorba the Greek was his most mainstream English-language film, it's not bad itself - and it looks like his work outside of the mainstream, from the 1950s to 70s, is worth seeking out and thoroughly enjoying. A Matter of Dignity was an impulse watch that caught me completely unawares and really shook me. Another master that had his finger on the pulse of humanism, it looks like there are another six after this that are must-sees, and I'm adding them all to my watchlist. In the meantime - those who haven't seen this yet might like to give it a go. It starts slowly but builds and builds into a crescendo of melodrama that has a real edge to it, and in the meantime Kakogiannis is masterly in his control of all cinematic elements. Look out though - this is the biggest danger for having recency bias attached to it.

Speaking of humanism - I've never seen as poignant or cutting and urgent as that in The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. We all know what's going to happen in this film due to it's title, but the way it comes about is like a trial in Hades as ambulance drivers haul the dying man from hospital to hospital as doctors misdiagnose, shunt the responsibility, argue with the medics, or simply ignore the guy. In the meantime his dignity leaks out all over his pants and into his last moments of consciousness - unable to speak, his grunts and cries are sympathised with by his last friend in the world - the lady trying to have him seen to. The more she protests, the more forcefully she's denied. Medicine appears to be heading in a very sterile, non-human and bureaucratic direction, and this piece of realism says it in a way that's more concise and meaningful than mere words.

Compiling a Top 100 and not having a Walerian Borowczyk title on it would be wrong, and frankly, insane - so I've chosen his seminal masterpiece, The Beast, which a part of started life as a segment on another of his greats - Immoral Tales. I don't quite know what to say about it - it might be belaboring the obvious to call it sexual. A reflection on the differences and similarities between man and beast? Of what we've lost and/or gained? It might be way more simple or far more complex. If you think you might be nudged into commenting, "well this is just...excessive" while watching a film, you might want to rethink seeing it. I've always been interested in this filmmaker, and became even more so after watching Love Express. The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk with a friend. He is (was) an original.

I know - Fiddler on the Roof is really well known. It's crazy that it's not Top 250 on the IMDb or Letterboxd though, so it deserves it's spot here. It's beautiful - and so life-affirming that all of my cynicism quietly leaves the room and shuts the door when I watch it. Words and music so uplifting even pogroms can't spoil the mood. I need a deserving musical honorable mention since I've given this spot to a well-known film, so I choose Ken Russell carnival of acid-transcendence movie Tommy, because that's one that has always grown in my estimation, and needs acknowledgement here. Two great films.

Sometimes horror is two families meeting, getting together, and discovering that one of them has lunacy as it's core familial element. Speak No Evil is as withering at the seemingly sane one as it is at the crazy one though, and in the end you might actually leave with a new determination to speak out immediately against what's wrong, fight and accept the consequences when you do, because it's not only the right thing to do - it's the only morally justifiable thing to do. Speak No Evil will do that by breaking taboos, and really horrifying you before it's done - and I've rarely seen a film that felt as disturbing at the same time as being worthy of not simply being a guilty pleasure. I don't know - maybe it's just me. I love it - one of 2022's best. It's just a whole lot of fun before it decides it's time to break you.

That's one of my favorites. Glad to hear you're a fan.