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

This one is the epitome of "I'm smart" filmmaking. I think Breillat thought that casting a porn actor will make her film on the male gayze deep. Unfortunately, it's not any deeper than Rocco's usual fare.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

I thought that the acting from both leads was really stilted and I couldn't find any way to get into their point of view.

In concept, I think that the idea of someone engaging in sex that repulses them is sort of interesting. I also think that the idea of exploring the difference between being repulsed by someone's body versus their gender is interesting. I even think there's something interesting about the idea of knowing that you are being watched by someone repulsed by you, and how in a way that could be freeing because it forces you past the point of caring about how you are perceived.

Unfortunately, the movie seems more interested in being edgy/gross and making simplistic points than actually engaging with them in a complex way.

While I have not seen the film, I can say that the same can fairly be said of the book version she did as well.

I need to read Sotos' afterward again, though. The fact that most reviews say it makes no sense in the context leads me to think he is actually saying something quite important.

A book version of Anatomy of Hell.

I've often wanted to see other Catherine Breillat films but Anatomy of Hell isn't something I'd ever want to watch - I don't know why anyone would. It just looks like a headache-inducing 'avoid-at-all-costs' movie. (Any explicit film starring porn stars is pretty much a porno in my book, no matter how it's dressed up. And dressing it up as a kind of arthouse movie just makes the whole thing sound worse.)

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And there I was thinking women like their sex stuff in the written form.

And they say it's men who need everything spelled out.

Hey. Shhhh. If you're reading this, then you've stumbled upon the fact that I've snuck Cannibal Holocaust into my Top 100 - the shameful precursor to the found footage genre and all-round disreputable horror classic. Yeah, I have the Deluxe Collector's Edition which gives you the option of watching a version with all the animal killing edited out. Just as well, or else I'd never watch the film ever again. As it is, I watch it when I'm feeling up to something that makes me feel guilty for watching it. I'll never forget first seeing it, a download on my computer for what was a hard to find movie in those days - it probably enhanced it's credentials, and made my viewing feel more exciting. Okay. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. As an honorable mention I'll go and put Freddy Got Fingered out there (it fits much more neatly now) - a true masterpiece which very much depends on how you're perceiving it. It's been a lot of fun over the years, watching people's ratings and attitudes change over the years from one extreme to another - and I credit Roger Ebert for that.

I missed this creepy Australian horror film when it came out, but I was very glad to find it and experience the atmosphere it soaks you in - never overplaying it's hand. The cards this mock-documentary deals out at the start aren't exactly all that they appear to be at first, and there's much sleight of hand, but the disorientation you feel has already taken your mind to an unsettled place, which this film will exploit to terrifying effect. The final reveal spooked the hell out of me, and for that I tip my hat. As an honorable mention I'll throw the original Ju-on: The Grudge into the mix here - and many of the sequels, remakes and offshoots are also fun (but ultimately, stretched a little thin in once you get to a certain stage.) Still, this horror franchise has given me many a great horror-watching night.

Melvin and Howard was one of the movies of the year in 1980, but nearly nobody went to see it - leaving it to slide into obscurity, waiting for rediscovery. It's based on real-life Utah service station owner Melvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of $156 million in a will allegedly handwritten by Howard Hughes that was discovered in the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. This film plays out as if the chance meeting between everyman Melvin and a motorbike-riding Hughes really did happen, and the consequences of the bond they make. Featuring Paul Le Mat, Mary Steenburgen and Jason Robards as Howard Hughes, it's a real quality film that's worth tracking down. One of those "nobody believes him, but we know it's true" stories where we feel for the little guy, crushed by the weight of the world, but fighting back. I have another 'duo' film for my honorable mention : Jess + Moss - a cassette-tape, best friend sentimental film that made a big impression on me. Also worth seeking.

sex =/= sexy

Hell yeah. This is one of my favorite movies ever. Scary, but also existential. It's haunting and I love the way that information unfolds through the film. I also love that it feels like a real documentary, including elements that would make sense for a person to be skeptical about the events, unlike other fake horror documentaries where there's no room for doubt.

Iceland always seems to punch above it's weight. Film-wise, there's a wide variety of really solid work - whether by Hlynur Pálmason, Baltasar Kormákur, Grímur Hákonarson or many other similarly unpronounceable names - they put out a great range of movies that often make great use of the untouched landscape. Rams (written and directed by Hákonarson) is my favourite of the lot. A great ode to brotherly love, and passion for breeding sheep - which is tested when the two brothers in this film are being forced to kill all of their prized livestock when a fatal, degenerative disease starts to spread. The road these brothers go down, having not talked to each other for decades due to some horrible falling out, is unpredictable but makes for a great film. As an honorable mention I'll add another film that features relatives having trouble with each other while existing as farmers in deserted locations - The Red Awn is a very good film, and hardly seen.

Not an obscure one, but a film that's a must for my Non-Top 250 list of films - I love Enemy, and it's not because (or not only because) of that final scene, which is all most people want to talk about when they do mention the film. It's just such a fine Kafka-esque brain-squeeze of a movie that I immediately loved upon first watch, and it works for my every sense whenever I have it on. Something similarly different is Robert Edwards film Land of the Blind - I couldn't find a place for that one on my list, but I love having an 'honorable mention' option every step of the way to secrete these little favourite films of mine as I go along. It's a dark, dark political satire featuring Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland - painted with very broad strokes. That's why I like it.

I like both Rams and Enemy to different degrees.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

It's really not very good.

I found Anatomy of Hell's exploration of sex as something ugly and empty to be vaguely fascinating. I was probably on the verge of hating it the entire time I watched it, but I never quite got there.


Is it good? I don't know. Probably not. I think all the things Breillat is accused of here are pretty accurate, and consistently so. But at least it was something which is a start. My reaction towards it wasn't simply one of disgust, which is what normally happens if all I feel I'm presented with is pure provocation.

It's fascinating if it were grounded. But getting the ugly and empty parts by using a gay character just undercuts the whole thing, in my opinion. It muddies the water between indifference, aversion, and hatred.

It IS something, but that's why I find it so frustrating and why I've kind of given up on her. It's like a person who manages to start an interesting conversation, but five minutes in they're telling you that there's microchips in your vaccines and it's like . . . I regret engaging with this. Fat Girl is probably the movie of hers I like the most, because at least in that one she saves the face-palm nonsense for the last 10 minutes.

Australia was just awakening from a cinematic slumber when the South Australian Film Corporation was formed and Ken Hannam made Sunday Too Far Away. This is the same year Picnic at Hanging Rock was released, and while the latter was really geared for international audiences, the former is more culturally tuned into the more particular aspects of a male-dominated, alcohol-fueled indomitability ingrained into those who have grown up in what can be such a harsh place. "Friday night [he's] too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away" is the legendary lament of the shearer's wife - her husband lost to her amongst the detritus of such a life. This is such a pure kind of cinema - completely unadorned by nicety, but marvelous in every aspect despite, and because of it. What other film could I post as an honorable mention but Wake in Fright? Some of what I've said goes for that famous film as well.

I don't know if it's obscure (depends a lot on context and type of person I guess) but The Ox-Bow Incident is marvelous and I wouldn't leave it out regardless. A great moralistic tale about vigilantism, mob justice, assumption and killing - and it's just as relevant to today, when people are still being shot and/or killed on unstable and unlikely pretexts. More than that though - it's a scintillating movie that I really appreciate, because I've seen enough of the law being mocked and subverted by powerful men. I also really appreciate a film like this running 75-minutes and not 175-minutes. Sometimes less is more. I had my fingers crossed tightly hoping that John Ford's Stagecoach wasn't in the IMDb or Letterboxd Top 250 - it wasn't, and as such it's an assured honorable mention with my #39. It's great - both films are.

Wooh boy - a powerful mix of scary and gory, with as much terror and horror you could ever try to squeeze into a 100-minutes of movie, Martyrs is all the more enjoyable when it ends, and we finally understand the why and what of all that has gone before. Many horror films invent flimsy pretexts for murder, torture and pain - but Martyrs has at the very least an interesting cause involving the complete degradation and harm being dealt out. But yeah - there's so much torment, blood and all-round messiness in this movie. So much. It can actually pulverize if a person isn't ready for it - but for me it both shook me up and left me satisfied that I'd seen a great movie. There's not much that can match it as an honorable mention - but The Witch simply has to be here, as it's not on the IMDb or Letterboxd Top 250, and it's way too good to leave out - near-bloodless, but Martyrs equal nonetheless.