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There are always some movies that fly under the radar of the general public, despite getting major buzz at the independent film festivals. Lost little gems. Some eventually receive their flowers and are discovered years later. Today we are looking at five of them. There’s a couple on the lam, siblings dealing with life choices, a coarse look at academia, the cleverness it takes to be a criminal, and twentysomethings being twentysomethings. None of them were giant box-office successes, but the stories they tell still hold up quite nicely. And there are no superheroes in sight.
The Sugarland Express (1974) – This was director Steven Spielberg’s first theatrical effort after wetting his feet by directing TV episodes and the very fine 1971 telefilm Duel starring Dennis Weaver. The film stars a never better Goldie Hawn and William Atherton as a fugitive couple trying the retrieve their son from foster care. Hawn helps Atherton break out of jail, they kidnap a police officer (Michael Sacks) and his patrol car, and hit the open road. The duo are followed by an army of police cars and Texas Highway patrolmen in hot pursuit, with levelheaded captain Ben Johnson in charge of capturing them. Their exploits make them a media sensation, with townspeople along the highways coming out to greet them and give them gifts. They also form a nice camaraderie with their hostage.
Loosely based on a real incident from 1969, this movie was considered a failure when released despite some good reviews. Sometimes timing is everything in the film world. Now it is looked upon with as another jewel in Spielberg’s cannon. Hawn, Atherton, and Sacks are fully invested in their roles, with Hawn exhibiting no trace of her ditzy blonde Laugh-In persona. Johnson also delivers a terrific performance as the low key and honorable lawman. The ending might not be what the viewer hoped for, but isn’t that just like life?
House of Games (1987) – If con games and scams are your thing, this one’s for you. Lindsay Crouse plays Margaret Ford, a successful psychiatrist who has written a book on obsessive-compulsive disorder. One of her patients, who has a gambling problem, is unable to pay a large debt he owes to a man named Mike (Joe Mantegna). He is suicidal and has a gun, but Margaret takes it from him. She then decides to visit Mike at an establishment called House of Games. He enlists her to watch for his opponents’ “tell” in a poker game where she herself is almost scammed. Intrigued, Margaret asks Mike if she can watch him in action and learn about the tricks of his trade. He shows her more and they begin a sexual relationship.
Mike then lets Margaret pose as his wife in another con with his crew, where a found suitcase with $80,000 is used to fleece a businessman. This swindle goes horribly wrong. Margaret is upset but also seems to love the thrills that grifting gives her. I am not going to give away any more. Crouse and Mantegna’s often-stitled speech can sometimes come across as wooden or stiff acting, but I’ve read that this is on purpose. It’s one of the trademarks of writer/director David Mamet. Rounding out the cast are magician Ricky Jay, J.T. Walsh, William H. Macy and Meshach Taylor. But the cons and their executions are the real stars here.
Go (1999) – Directed by Doug Liman of Swingers fame, this fun crime comedy/drama stars Sarah Polley, Scott Wolf, Jay Mohr, Katie Holmes, Timothy Olyphant, and William Fichtner. We follow the characters in three intertwined stories that all come together at the end. Polley stars as Ronna, a supermarket checkout clerk who sees an opportunity to make some cash selling drugs to actors Adam and Zack (Mohr and Wolf), who are in a relationship. The actors were at the store to score from her co-worker Simon (Desmond Askew), but he has skipped out for a Las Vegas trip. The drug deal cash will solve Ronna’s problem of being evicted. She takes fellow workers Claire (Holmes) and Mannie (Nathan Bexton) along with her to score some pills from local drug dealer Todd (Olyphant).
Meanwhile, in Vegas, Simon and his crew (Taye Diggs, Breckin Meyer, and James Duval) head out for some fun. Simon and Marcus (Diggs) find trouble in a strip club for disobeying the rules and they all head home while being chased by two very determined thugs. Remember the strip club number one rule: you don’t touch the girls, they touch you! Then it is revealed that Adam and Zack have their own problem. To have a drug possession charge removed, they are working with detective Burke (Fichtner) undercover to entrap drug dealer Simon and now Ronna. This leads to a very funny scene with Fichtner and wife Irene (Jane Krakowski) and the gay couple which does not go where you think it will.
Polley brings deadpan acting to new heights and Katie Holmes gets one of the best lines in the film while eyeing the homosexual couple: “Gay men are so hot, it’s tragic.” Olyphant is clearly having a blast playing the drug dealer who keeps getting screwed. Look for Melissa McCarthy in a small role marking her film debut.
You Can Count on Me (2000) – This comedy-drama stars Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo as siblings who lost their parents in a car accident when they were children. Linney is Sammy, a small-town bank officer and single mom, with Ruffalo her drifter brother Terry, who comes home for a loan to help a girl (Gaby Hoffman) he got “in trouble” and then sticks around when he finds out she tried to commit suicide. Matthew Broderick plays Linney’s new boss at the bank who makes her life difficult, and Jon Tenney is her boyfriend on call.
Ruffalo is simultaneously maddening and heartbreaking in his role, as he becomes closer to his nephew Rudy (Rory Culkin) and alienates Sammy. She wants him to be something he can never be, grounded. And he wants nothing of the down-home values she seems to need (although she never really adheres to any of them). Terry takes Rudy to a bar to play pool and keeps him out late. He also takes him to meet the father he has never known, Rudy Sr. (a very mean Josh Lucas), with disastrous results.
Linney and Ruffalo never strike a false note, with Linney bringing out all the wry undertones of her character. Ruffalo is perfect as a sad sack roamer. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan (who shows up as a calm, counseling minister), this small film takes on the big themes of family, faith and finding your way in the world (Also check out Lonergan’s 2011 release Margaret; it’s worth watching).
The Rules of Attraction (2002) – A black comedy based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel set at a college campus, Rules stars Dawson’s Creek hunk James Van Der Beek (cast way against type), Shannyn Sossamon, Kate Bosworth, Jessica Biel, and Ian Somerhalder (definitely giving off future vampire vibes with those eyes). If you thought young people were our future, think again.
This group of college kids has two interests: drugs and sex. Higher education takes on a different meaning with them, and even the faculty gets into the act. Eric Stoltz is on hand as a sleazy professor who has a penchant for his female students. The crude drug-dealing character Van Der Beek plays, Sean Bateman, is brother to homicidal yuppie Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, also written by Ellis.
In some circles the film,written and directed by Pulp Fiction co-creator Roger Avary, is now considered a cult classic. And it certainly has it’s moments. One scene has Van Der Beek pleasuring himself while Starland Vocal Band’s treacly hit song ‘Afternoon Delight” plays in the background. Another has Somerhalder (playing gay here) and Russel Sams on top of a bed dancing in their underwear to George Michael’s “Faith.” Cocaine and booze are a daily sustenance. Sossamon anchors the film, playing a somewhat normal college girl who falls hard for Van Der Beek, but pines for Kip Pardue, who is featured in a long montage of his European travels in debauchery. Swoosie Kurtz and Faye Dunaway (!) show up for one funny scene as the mothers of Somerhalder and Sams.
What films do you feel didn’t get their due? Let us know in the comments.