Little known films worth seeing...

Perhaps it's because I'm old, fat and lazy, but there are few things in life that I enjoy more on a cold winter night than sitting by the fire with my wife, having several bottles of wine and watching a good film on the old 57-incher. Since it is snowing today, I thought I'd toss out a few films that I enjoyed and which I have found that pretty much nobody else I know has seen. You know, that horrible conversation where you say, "Have you seen ___?," they say "no," and then you awkwardly say, "well, you should because it kicks fucking ass," while they sort of stare at you suspiciously. I have that conversation several times a day. Hopefully, you'll catch me on a day in which I DO NOT try to relate the entire film to you verbally. Beef up your Netflix queue with these little gems and you'll be well-prepared for a nice snowstorm or two.

Hurlyburly (1998)

This was a David Rabe play before he converted to a film, which means it has something that a lot of films lack - quality dialogue. It was an independent film with a small distribution but a monster cast. Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright Penn, Meg Ryan, Chazz Palmintieri, Garry Shandling and Anna Paquin are in the film.

Essentially, it is about the intersecting lives and absurd behavior of a group of Hollywood industry players who believe they are friends, but really seem more like loose, dependent associates who don't really believe in anything meaningful. They argue over minor details and feigned emotions in a manner unique to bored, unhappy people on a late night cocaine binge.

After seeing the film, I can only imagine what it would have been like to see the original stage production in Chicago in 1984 with Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Jerry Stiller - a production that ultimately made it to Broadway.

Unfortunately, American audiences are so busy lining up for films with explosions in them that the only clips on Youtube are with foreign language overdubs. However, the orginal trailer may be viewed here.


In The Company of Men (1997)

Written and directed by Neil LaBute, this is a sordid tale of two business executive types (one of which is Aaron Eckhart in an early role) who have an ax to grind with women. Women are encroaching on their workplaces, taking positions of power, treating them like tools, filing complaints over off-color jokes and still expecting men to pick up the check and then hold the door for them on the way out. One of the men is freshly hurt by a lover who spurned him. The other (Eckhart) is simply a shameless bastard who uses women for his own purposes but simply and truly loathes them. For shits and giggles, the two formulate a plan to combine forces on an extended business trip to identify an innocent, unsuspecting woman who is not used to receiving attention from men, shower her with attention and pursuit and then pull the rug out from under her. The purpose? To hurt a woman in retaliation for all of the horrible things that they perceive women have done.

The sheer depravity is disturbing. If this film doesn't turn your stomach a little bit, you are the same type of asshole depicted in the film. I don't recommend watching it with your wife, girlfriend, mother or any woman you give a shit about. You may laugh out loud at the wrong time, if you know what I mean.




Drowning Mona (2000)

This is a very funny film and my wife and I are the only people I know who have seen it. It is directed by Nick Gomez, a director now most known for work on film-quality series, as he has directed episodes of acclaimed series including The Sopranos, Dexter, True Blood, Oz and The Shield.

Another amazing cast for a film of which few people have heard - Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell, Casey Affleck, and even Will Ferrell with a small but inspired portrayal of the local funeral home director.

In terms of comedic formula, kind of the classic, contorted plot line set up by an absurd premise from which zany antics ensue. Sounds like a movie I would hate ordinarily, but I begrudgingly found it to be very funny. Mona Dearly (Bette Midler) dies under suspicious circumstances in the opening scene and, as the film moves forward, we find that virtually everyone she knows is a potential suspect in foul play, primarily because Mona Dearly is a terrible person that makes life difficult for everyone. Danny DeVito, the investigating police chief, is basically the straight-man in a small town full of bizarre and eccentric locals. It shouldn't work out to be anything special, but it does. The performances are great, the dialogue is very funny and smart even when it is stupid, and the black humor that pervades the town regarding this horrible woman's death builds in each successive scene. Marcus Thomas, whom I have never seen in any other role, is absolutely hilarious as Mona's idiotic, asshole son.

It's not going to win any Oscars, but it's worth 90 minutes of your time and it's easily as funny as the shit that is passing as the funniest thing ever these days, such as Steve Carell shouting "Kelly Clarkson" when having his chest waxed.



The Big Kahuna (1999)

This talk about Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey brings me to this mountain of incredible dialogue. Again, a play converted to film. The entire film takes place inside a hotel suite at a convention for the industrial lubricant industry. (No, you sick bastards, not 5-gallon buckets of KY Jelly, but oils and greases for manufacturing equipment and conveyors.) There are three characters: two burnt out salesmen played by Danny DeVito (the calm reserved one) and Kevin Spacey (the sarcastic, bitter one) and their young, not-yet-corrupted and annoyingly bright-eyed marketing rookie. Obviously, given the limited scene and small number of characters, the focus is on the dialogue and the relationships and moral divides between these characters as they obsess, argue and suffer over their desire to land an important potential business client who can make or break their company - the sole reason they have attended this convention.

The story is essentially a tragedy with comedic moments - sort of like your life itself. Not a tragedy caused by the special effects of a natural disaster or a violent, multi-state killing spree. Rather, it is a tragedy ebmodied in the small spiritual deaths of everyday life. The loss of one's hopefulness, moral grounding, faith and trust as the realities of modern life grind away.

Again, if you judge a film by the number of exploding cars or Aerosmith power-ballad theme songs, this one sucks. If you're looking for a film that may inspire you to become a screenwriter, queue up this tour de force of the craft of dialogue and character study.

Just a little taste of Roger Reuff's brilliant words:



If anybody has a really good film that I haven't heard of, lay it on me.