Dirty Recommendations

[b.miller]

In the vein of Headset's "Sola Sistims Favourite song of the day" and Bound's "I'm currently reading...", i thought Treatment might benefit from a hat where we can all throw recommendations people's way with varying degrees of explanation.


I'll start it off with Race with the Devil, starring Peter Fonda and Peckinpah staple Warren Oates as a couple buddies who take their wives on a RV vacation and accidentally witness a satanic ritual killing. The satanites then proceed to chase after them and this movie has perhaps the best tagline ever: When you race with the devil, you'd better be faster than hell.

Lots of car chase-y stuff, lots of Fonda and Oates being cool, lots of screaming wives and weird-looking yokels. There's even a rattlesnake scene and boy is it intense... so if you're bored and looking for a rental, consider this one watchworthy.

[Animal Boything]

I'll kick it off with three of my favorite totally obscure movies:

Cemetery Man (AKA Dellamore Dellamorte): Rupert Everett stars as a graveyard groundskeeper who, beknownst only to him and his grunting manchild assistant, is charged with the tiresome nightly task of re-killing and re-burying the ones that return from the dead (he doesn't report it because of the paperwork involved), meanwhile grimly pondering the meaning of life and death and quietly obsessing over a mysterious woman who keeps entering his increasingly odd life in increasingly odd ways. It's a combination of art film, dark comedy, and zombie gore flick the likes of which I've never seen. It's currently only available on VHS, but Anchor Bay has been dangling a possible DVD release in front of me for years, which keeps getting pushed back. Your local rental place might have it if you're lucky.

Extreme Prejudice: Nick Nolte and Powers Boothe star as childhood best friends who ended up on opposite sides of the law and fell for the same woman (a cheesy but venerable setup) in a rowdy, shamelessly testosterone-fueled modern-day western. William Forsythe is amazing in a small supporting role. Again, this lacks a decent DVD release. You can get it, but it's not even in widescreen!

Withnail & I: This one actually has a Criterion Collection release, thank the lord, but it still seems like nobody I meet has seen it. It's one of my all-time favorite films. It's a morose comedy about two out-of-work actors in 1969 London who decide to escape from their miserable life by taking a vacation to a rich uncle's country home... which leads to utter disaster. Filled with memorably eccentric minor characters and brilliant, quotable dialogue, it's one to watch over and over. (Trivia: Orbital sampled the line "Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day" from this film.)

[Professor]

here's some fun stuff.

Spellbound: A documentary (actually true, however feels like a Christopher Guest movie) about the national spelling bee in the US. I think it's really really funny and disturbing--but keep in mind....it's actually true.

Welcome to the Dollhouse: Very funny. Very disturbing. I'm usually the one in the theatre that's cracking up when everyone else is disgusted. "how can he SAY that?"

The Shining: if you haven't seen it....hehe...watch the original trailer first. one of the best trailers i've EVER seen. period. movie is good too.

[bklyndv]

Originally Posted by Professor

The Shining: if you haven't seen it....hehe...watch the original trailer first. one of the best trailers i've EVER seen. period. movie is good too.

You mean, this trailer?

[mmm skyscraper]

Sunset Blvd.

Creepy film that explores what happens to ex-stars.

Listen to 'Antarctica Starts Here' by John Cale after watching it for a musical wrap-up of the movie.

[ndrwrld]

just watched the 1978 take of
Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.
i forgot just how creepy that movie is.

[grady]

The last three films playing on my DVD player. They're also three of my favorite films that would be found on a list of my top 15-25 films.

Me and you and everyone we know: The first film by Miranda July that came out this past summer. A wonderful, humorous and touching film. It's being released on DVD October 11th. Here is a link to the thread discussing the film earlier this summer on the forums.

THX-1138 (director's cut and original cut): George Lucas's first film that is quite good. Thanks to the inventive and enterprising bittorrent community over at myspleen.net I was able to get a DVD copy of the original cut of the film before Mr. Lucas went back and meddled with the film about a year ago, releasing his new 'director's cut' of the film. However, it must be noted that this was the one instance where Mr. Lucas meddled with his film and it wasn't detrimental to the film as a whole like the original star wars films.

Chungking Express: Wong Kar-Wai's fourth film that made a large splash for him on the international scene. A very simple film split into two seperate stories dealing with desire, loss, and longing. I really like this film.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Animal Boything

Withnail & I

Obscure in the states perhaps but we Brits love this film. So many classic lines. And all so fucking funny.

"We've gone on holiday by mistake."

"If you hit me, it's murder."

"We shall have cake and fine wine. The finest wines known to man."

"I shall have you even if it need be buglary!"

"MONTY YOU CUNT."

etc.

I like Midnight Run - "I've got 2 words for you. Shut the fuck up." and Glengarry Glenn Ross "Fuck you etc".

[monkeyboy]

Don't be a Menace starring the Wayans brothers

Great parodie on other "black" movies like "Menace to Society", "Juice" and "Boyz in the Hood". It's nothing like that shitmovie "Whitechicks"...were the Wayans also starred in.
Just a laugh!

[//\/\/]

barfly with mickey rourke - so, so many good lines - a real tale of descent!