I guess my question to all would be what is the probability that a movie, given it is a "must see film" remains obscure? In the simplest terms I would say about 0 for everyone "must see", so let's say "must see" for a specific genre.

Like I don't consider the Evil Dead movies obscure and consider it a must see for people who like that type of movie. I think a lot of the movies in this thread are just bad and a lot of people would think that. Shark jumped around the "formula 51" reference.

Cool Thread, thanks for everyone's suggestions.

A couple suggestions, especially if you like dark comedies, are "Happiness" and "The Squid and the Whale." I hadn't heard of these until friends suggested them.

"Happiness" is a super dark comedy, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lara Flynn Boyle, and the guy who plays Jackie Treehorn in Big Lebowski. This movie uses interwoven stories and characters to explore the dark and perverse underbelly of suburban sexuality. Very dark, but very funny if you like that sort of thing.

"The Squid and The Whale" stars Jeff Daniels as the patriarch of a dysfunctional family. Very funny movie, not as disturbing as Happiness but still kind of dark.

The Killing. Kubrick does film noir.

Because it isn't anywhere near obscure.

And its not there least known. That would be Blood Simple.

Maybe I'm wrong on this but would Hitchcock's Rope be considered obscure? It was one of the most innovative movies of its time

Quoted from Wiki
The film is Hitchcock's most experimental, abandoning many standard film techniques to allow for the long unbroken scenes. Each shot ran continuously for up to eight minutes without interruption. It was shot on a single set, aside from the opening establishing shot street scene. Camera moves were planned in advance and there was almost no editing. The walls of the set were on rollers and could silently be moved out of the way to make way for the camera, and then replaced when they were to come back into shot. Prop men also had to constantly move the furniture and other props out of the way of the large camera, and then ensure they were replaced in the correct location. A team of soundmen and camera operators kept the camera and mikes in constant motion, as the actors kept to a carefully choreographed set of cues. The cyclorama in the background was the largest backing ever used on a sound stage and included models of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. Within the course of nine reels the cumulus clouds made of spun glass change a total of eight times. This was also Hitchcock's first color film.

The Fog of War
- Excellent documentary in which Robert McNamara is interviewed.


I'll third Little Big Man. Awesome movie. "Today is a good day to die."

Bob Roberts: best political black comedy ever. A Tim Robbins project that actually manages to skewer both sides of the aisle. Also Jack Black's first movie, plus David Strathairn, Alan Rickman, and Giancarlo Esposito.

Second the recs for Pi and Lone Star.

12 Angry men - A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Maria full of grace - A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.

Ghost in the shell - (Anime)The world has become intensively information oriented and humans are well-connected to the network. Crime has developed into a sophisticated stage by hacking into the interactive network. To prevent this, Section 9 is formed. These are cyborgs with incredible strengths and abilities that can access any network on Earth.

All,

just listen to chopstick.

Not to beat a dead horse, but has nobody here ever seen Dead Man ? For those of you who liked Ghost Dog, it was made by the same director, Jim Jarmusch, who also made a few other obscure works of genius or near-genius : Night on Earth, Mystery Train, Down By Law, Stranger Than Paradise, and Coffee and Cigarettes (as well as Broken Flowers more recently, which I liked but not nearly as much as the others).

Night on Earth, especially, should be mentioned in this thread.

"Ghost Dog- Forest Whitaker as an inner city Samurai hit man, up against the Public Enemy spouting mob. His best friend is a Haitian ice cream vendor and neither of them speaks the other's language. It works well."

Ghost Dog was horrible, unwatchable. I am a jim jarmusch fan, but I wouldn't say any of his movies are MUST SEE, since not everyone really enjoys them at all.

"Pi is my favorite Darren Aronofsky film. Shot in black and white, it's extremely thought-provoking (it made my brain hurt when I first saw it) and very well executed."

Pi was an excellent movie, even though the math doesn't make sense. Not for everyone though. Also has an excellent soundtrack by aphex twin.

"City of Lost Children :
Nominated for a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival, this sci-fi fairy tale features stunning visuals from directors Jean-Pierr"

Incredible visuals.

Brazil is a movie not yet mentioned here, not sure how obscure it is though. A Terry Gilliam film with Jonathan Pryce, Robert Deniro. Tons of awesome scenes and quotes, totally absurd. For anyone who has seen it, the torturer with the baby mask would make a great halloween costume. Takes place in the future, where a fascist government controls all, rebels blow stuff up, and the general populace kind of ignores it. That provides the backdrop to Jonathan Pryce's obsession with some random chick, who turns out to be a terrorist. Now that I think about it, thats the plot to Equilibrium, except this movie is very funny and good, and doesn't have a stupid ending.

Although I´m not really sure if it´s an obscure movie,
I really enjoyed GUMMO by Harmony Korine.

I´m a bit surprised no one hasn´t mentioned it yet.

I'd reccommend Amelie.. Can't remember if it was popular or not, I do think it did well on DVD.. but obscure enough and a really charming movie to watch for men and women.

It was nominated for 5 academy awards.

Also, 'the best'? Blood Simple kicks it in the junk.

12 Angry Men was a relatively famous film. Henry Fonda and several other famous actors. But it's so old that I'm sure many on here have never heard of it.

Maria Full of Grace - Catalina Moreno was nominated for Best Actress at the 2005 Oscars (Hilary Swank won for Million Dollar Baby) but it probably still counts as relatively obscure I guess.


2 good films regardless though.


My next nominations are both versions of the movie Fail Safe.
1964 original and the 2000 remake.

The 2000 remake is particularly interesting imo because it was a live television event on CBS. Doing a whole movie live on TV was a bit risky of course, but they pulled it off without a hitch and it was REALLY chilling.

A Dr. Strangelove-esque Cold War nuclear nightmare situation without any of the Dr. Strangelove dark comedy.
Film is in Black and White.

Mechanical error sends a green-light to bombers to go nuke the Soviet Union.
President and others spend the rest of the film desperately trying to figure out how to call the plane back.

Pretty much left me breathless and stone-cold chilled as the film intended.

Cast includes George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Richard Dreyfus who I usually dislike but who is OUTSTANDING as the president, Noah Wylie, Harvey Keitel, Brian Dennehy and a few others.


Looking it up on IMDB I see that it won or was nominated for several Emmy awards and also nominated for Golden Globe Best Made for TV movie.
But so few people I know are familiar with it that I believe it's fairly obscure.

Seconded -- just got done watching it for the sixth time or so. The Glass score is excellent -- only real detraction is the occasional 'shouted' comment by Morris.

Has some very powerful moments and humanizes McNamara.

The "Danny Boy" scene alone beats all of "Blood Simple".

Very few people I've mentioned it to have seen "Miller's Crossing", hence I consider it obscure. Many people who liked the Coens' better known movies don't even know it exists.

Blasphemy

That movie's pretty awful and not even close to "must see". "KIDS" is way way better but still not "must see".

advice for future posts:

if a movie is listed here, especially towards the top, then it likely is not obscure.

I didn't remember that I had seen this until I looked it up, and I agree that it is a very good movie about the 1968 riots and it is also legitimately obscure (only 714 votes on IMDB).

Some more

Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) - great wartime (life at home) movie

Barfly (1987)- Mickey Rourke's best performance as Charles Bukowski

In Cold Blood (1967)- excellent adaptation of Truman Capote's real-life crime novel

Evil Roy Slade (1972) - one of the funniest movies ever made.

Wake in Fright (Outback) (1971) - Best Australian film ever made in the opinion of some critics - but very hard to find and has not been widely viewed since it's release.

The Shawshank Redemption. SUCH a good movie, man i really loved it. first time i saw it was right before me and my frat buddies went out to a Dave Matthews/OAR concert