Yoda's Overlooked Movies

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It's difficult to make a list of overlooked or underrated movies, because inevitably someone else out there is going to love them, too. Furthermore, some "cult" movies have reached the point at which the "cult" is large enough to undermine the use of the word.

So, I'm creating this thread to catalogue and recommend a few films which I think deserve a bit more attention and recognition, but aren't really "cult classics" either. Ideally, you'll find some recommendations here you probably wouldn't have gotten elsewhere. First up...


Drowning Mona (2000)

"Would someone mind tellin me what the hell's goin on?"
"Your mother drove the car into the lake Jeff, I'm afraid she's dead."
"What was she doing in my car?"

A goofy little dark comedy about the town of Verplanck, NY; a place small enough that we know virtually everyone there within the first 10 minutes of the film. The residents of Verplanck have two things in common: they all drive Yugos (part of some form of product testing for a nearby Yugo factory), and they all hate Mona Dearly (Bette Milder). Everyone's got a beef with her, so when she turns up dead, everyone in the town's a suspect.

This makes things difficult for the town's chief of police, played by Danny DeVito. Things get tougher still when he starts to suspect Bobby (Casey Affleck), who's engaged to his daughter Ellen (Neve Campbell). Oh, and Mona's husband is having an affair with a local waitress named Rona Mace (Jaime Lee Curtis).



It's a great concept, but the movie's charm is in the little things. While trying to get to the bottom of a particular beef, DeVito's character asks Bobby about an incident involving his landscaping partner, a lawnmower, and a small dog named Peaches.

"It's been different since Jeff killed Peaches."
"Jeff killed Peaches? I thought it was the other way around."
"Peaches killed Jeff?"

This movie's about as weird as it can be. Mona's husband Phil has a Wheel of Fortune fetish, and Will Ferrell has a small role as a creepy funeral home owner who seems to be creating amateur pornography on the side. Meanwhile, DeVito's character has to ask hoards of questions and sort out the conflicting responses. It's Rashômon on acid.



Midler's character is completely over-the-top, but it's an absurd movie, and it works. Affleck's the perfect choice for Bobby, if only for his timid voice. They're the two standouts in a surprisingly strong cast. Marcus Thomas, as Mona's dimwitted son Jeff, plays a very convincing fool; it's got something to do with the way his mouth almost always hangs open, I think.



Though not particularly hailed by critics or moviegoers, I love Drowning Mona. The ending gets a little strange(r), but as a whole it's bizarre and amusing, and sometimes amusing because it's bizarre. Your mileage may vary, but this one's just odd enough to see anyway.



More to follow.



I have to watch this one again. I watched it with people who hated it from the get go so I admit that I didn't give it my full attention on the first viewing. I always meant to watch it again and now, as fate would have it, here it again circles into my radar right when I have my netflix cue open.



I was interested in seeing Drowning Mona when it first came out, but I never did and then I forgot about it. I'll have to check it out next month sometime.
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The Frighteners (1996)

I mentioned this in the October is here... thread, and it's a good fit for this one, too.

As some of you know, I'm a sucker for concept films; and this one qualifies. Directed by Peter Jackson before he was Peter Jackson, The Frighteners is a supernatural thriller (kind of) about a man named Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) who can see ghosts, and uses his ability to con people. This is all well and good, until he sees a spirit that resembles, well, The Grim Reaper. It's going around killing people, and Frank decides to find out what's going on.



The thing that first struck me about The Frighteners was how crisp it looked. In an industry that's supposed to value style over substance, I couldn't believe that such a slick looking film (both for its time, and even today) had gotten such little attention. Then again, it isn't really a straight thriller or horror film; comedy is sprinkled throughout, and the film only takes itself seriously sporadically (usually when the Reaper-like ghost is on screen).

I think it works just fine, but perhaps moviegoers felt it was unfocused. One minute, Bannister's trying to save someone from Death. The next, a squirrely government agent with a hemorrhoid problem is tearing his shirt off. It's hard to know when you're supposed to laugh, and when you're supposed to be freaked out. It's not bloody or scary enough to satisfy horror fans, and not funny enough to be called a comedy. Basically, don't go in expecting any particular type of film, and you're far more likely to enjoy it.



The life-and-death stuff is pretty interesting, and I like the choice of Fox for the lead. He's not your typical hero, which is good, because a tall, square-jawed star would look tremendously out of place in this offbeat offering. At the same time, his character is required to be a bit of a jerk in the earlygoing, and he's too damn likable to pull it off all that well. He makes up for it later on, though, and his presence is a big reason that an otherwise serious-sounding film feels so strangely lighthearted.

The film was released five years after Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but it would be another two years before he revealed his condition to the public. This would end up being Fox's last starring role in a major motion picture; afterwards, he had a supporting role in Mars Attacks!, and then stuck mainly to TV and voicework for animated films. Though everyone will always remember him as Marty McFly, I'll always think of him as Frank Bannister, too.

One can safely assume that Jackson's work on The Frighteners helped him in his bid to create The Lord of the Rings trilogy; it was the last film he directed before LOTR, and it showed what Weta Digital could do, even with a limited budget.



But, I digress: the film has plenty of twists and turns, though nothing overtly shocking. There's a lot of backstory to fill in, and a few flashbacks. It's all revealed at a sensible pace, and the scattered bits of action are always entertaining.




Nice thread, Yoda.

I'll have to give Drowning Mona a look, and I've always liked The Frighteners, which holds up very well on repeated viewings.



I think Drowning Mona is one of those movies that is trying way too hard to be "quirky". It all felt very forced and flat to me, like a cheap-o made-for-TV version of a Coen Brothers flick (but obviously minus their characters, brilliant visual style and playful wit). It's watchable and probably a teensy bit better than the critical drubbing it took, but it's not anywhere near a good movie, either. Not for me, anyway. Decent cast, but I felt they were mostly wasted as well. I'd slot One Night at McCool's into this same "trying too hard" arena.

Whatever the worst three episodes of "My Name is Earl" are, they are much, much better than Drowning Mona, and at its best that television series is infinitely more amusing, clever, better written & directed and just plain funny than Mona.


But, you're mileage may vary....even in a Yugo with cut brakelines.
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It's difficult to make a list of overlooked or underrated movies, because inevitably someone else out there is going to love them, too. Furthermore, some "cult" movies have reached the point at which the "cult" is large enough to undermine the use of the word.

So, I'm creating this thread to catalogue and recommend a few films which I think deserve a bit more attention and recognition, but aren't really "cult classics" either. Ideally, you'll find some recommendations here you probably wouldn't have gotten elsewhere.
I remember seeing Drowning Mona some years ago. I remember that it was funny and I liked it. But I can't remember a single thing about the movie itself!

I've got an offbeat favorite from the 1950s, Red Garters, a musical spoof of the Westerns that were so popular at that time, where men respectfully remove their hats each time they speak of "The Code of the West" and every shootout and lynching culmunates in a combination funeral and barbecue. Moreover it was staged like a Broadway musical with a surrealistic indoor stage setting that uses hanging windows and doors to suggest one-dimensional houses and stores against a colored background. The stars include Rosemary Clooney (George's aunt) and Guy Mitchell, both of whom were popular recording artists of that period (Clooney had her own TV show and Mitchell may have, too), and Jack Carson, who I think was always under appreciated in both his dramatic and comedic roles (remember him as the playwright cop in Arsenic and Old Lace and as the scheming older brother in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?)

The film is certainly offbeat, the staging is imaginative, the entertainment is light, and some of the songs--especially a ballad by Rosemary Clooney--are quite good. Worth trying to find on tape.



I actually agree with you somewhat, Holds. Some of the oddities come off as a bit deliberate, rather than natural extensions of the film. The whole Yugo thing is probably the best example of that. But I'd say that's the exception rather than the rule, and I can forgive the occasional contrivance if the underlying humor doesn't rest on it.

I think the movie is actually hurt by DeVito's character a little bit, as he's too aware of the strangeness around him. I think films like this work better when nobody on screen seems to realize how odd everything is; much like the "Funny Hat" principle.

Anyway, intentionally quirky or not, I just find the film straight-up funny.



Deathtrap (1982)



Long before Adaptation, there was Deathtrap. But instead of being a movie about writing a movie, it's a movie about playwriting based on a play in which characters write plays about what happens in the movie. And it's a whole lot of fun.



The film stars Michael Caine as Sidney Bruhl, a famous playwrite whose best days are behind him. He's desperate for a hit to reestablish his career, which has deteriorated to the point at which he's largely living off his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon). He receives a letter from a fan (Clifford, played by Christopher Reeve) who's written his first play, and asks for suggestions. Sidney reads it, and declares to his wife that it's fantastic. This leads to some joking about killing the young man and taking the play, a possibility which becomes more tempting when they invite him to their home and learn that no one else has read it yet.

I can't reveal much beyond this point without giving away the plot, of which there is quite a bit. The film piles twist upon twist, some of which are very clever, and some of which test our credulity, but all of which are entertaining.

Caine is quite good as the struggling writer, but Christopher Reeve steals the show as Clifford. His role requires a wide range of attitudes and emotions (for reasons you'll understand if you see the film), and he's believable all the way through. The two of them play off each other very well. Someone else must have thought so, too, because they would eventually co-star in 1992's Noises Off!, another movie based on (and about) a play. It also debuted the year Deathtrap was released, and it'll be finding its way into this thread before long.



Deathtrap is one of those films that you can tell is based on a play, mainly because it takes place largely in one wide-open space (the Bruhl's sprawling inset living room, in this case). In keeping with the venue it was originally written for, the film's various revelations are suitably over-the-top, and there's all sorts of drama. Every permutation of double and triple-crossing is explored. If you're the kind of person who likes to guess the next twist before it happens (like I am), you'll probably find yourself giving up through sheer exhaustion halfway through.

Movies these days are always trying to pull of a dramatic reveal that redefines all that's come before it, and audiences have become a good deal better at sniffing twists out as a result. Nevertheless, Deathtrap will keep even the most suspicious of viewers on their toes, and entertain the whole way through.





Deathtrap is a good one. I think part of why the movie got lost a bit in 1982 is because a decade before Caine starred in something similar, also adapted from a play, Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth (1972 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz) co-starring Laurence Olivier. The less said about that one the better as well, since the fun is in discovering the layers of deception. But that had dual Oscar nominations for Best Actor as well as Best Director and Score. So the success and notoriety of that one stole a bit of Deathtrap's thunder, I suspect, as critics and audiences couldn't help but draw comparisons between the two projects (even a decade apart).

Caine is also starring in the new re-make of Sleuth slated later for this year. Now he's in the Olivier role and Jude Law has Caine's old part (after already taking the title role in the Alfie re-make a couple years ago). This new Sleuth is directed by Kenneth Branagh and has been slightly reimagined and updated by Pulitzer Prize winner Harold Pinter.


But if you like Deathtrap, do check out the original Sleuth.



Ironically enouh, I've already got Sleuth on my Netflix queue. I don't remember if it was because someone else made a similar suggestion, or if I came across it while reading up on Deathtrap after seeing it. Ebert mentions it in his review of the film, so that might be why. Regardless, thanks for the recommendation.



Sleuth is good, I'm going to see the remake this weekend. I will add Deathtrap to the list of movies to see (a rather hopelessly long list that I keep on my hard drive at home.) This is a good idea for a thread. Category-licious.



Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright
How about The Last Castle?

I dunno... I liked this one for no specific reason, it was just an interesting concept... and with both Redford and Gandolfini in it, its worth a look.
Most people I mention this one to tend to give me a blank stare, not a clue what it is...
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GOTTA agree with Yoda on Deathtrap. And Noises Off!, which is just a fun romp that's well cast. Just don't get up in the middle, though. It's one of those movies that gains momentum and plays off it as things just get crazier and crazier. An easy movie to miss, but a lot of fun.

I'll be adding Sleuth to my Netflix queue as well.



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Rewatch Drowning Mona, Yods. Surely you must remember that everyone in the town owns a Yugo! That alone is worth rewatching the whole movie! Those things crop up everywhere. I just saw it again recently and had forgotten how that movie, too, builds upon itself and keeps the momentum. Another good, fun ensemble cast.



Rewatch Drowning Mona, Yods. Surely you must remember that everyone in the town owns a Yugo!
Aye, I mentioned it in the review. I was just citing it as an example of what Holden was talking about; an overt attempt at making the movie quirkier.

Would you put 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag here too? I think I would.
I think I probably would. I'm not in love with it, mainly because I was watching it again awhile ago and found it didn't hold up as well as I'd expected. The first-time through, though, it's very enjoyable. And even if it's not a great film, it'd still be fair to call it overlooked.




Deathtrap is a good one. I think part of why the movie got lost a bit in 1982 is because a decade before Caine starred in something similar, also adapted from a play, Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth (1972 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz) co-starring Laurence Olivier. The less said about that one the better as well, since the fun is in discovering the layers of deception. But that had dual Oscar nominations for Best Actor as well as Best Director and Score. So the success and notoriety of that one stole a bit of Deathtrap's thunder, I suspect, as critics and audiences couldn't help but draw comparisons between the two projects (even a decade apart).

Caine is also starring in the new re-make of Sleuth slated later for this year. Now he's in the Olivier role and Jude Law has Caine's old part (after already taking the title role in the Alfie re-make a couple years ago). This new Sleuth is directed by Kenneth Branagh and has been slightly reimagined and updated by Pulitzer Prize winner Harold Pinter.


But if you like Deathtrap, do check out the original Sleuth.
I've seen the movie of Sleuth, and also saw it performed by an amateur theatre company. There's some stuff I'd love to share about that, but it would be a huge spoiler for those who haven't seen the movie.

Oh, and I like Deathtrap a lot.

Personally I'm wondering if State and Main is going to make it onto the list. I saw it a while back and can't believe it didn't get more attention.