Obscure Films Worth Checking Out
These films are extremely underrated, underseen or underappreciated for a variety of reasons. There are so many great films out there yet to be discovered. In some cases I spend quite a considerable amount of my time researching and identifying obscure films. This is why I love films so much, why I spend hours upon hours watching films that not many have heard of. The odds are that you will quite likely strike gold, and the pay-off is absolutely priceless. Some of these films are my absolute favorites. For the basis of this list, I have omitted films from my Obscure Horrors, True TV Films, Documentary, and TV Horrors - to avoid repetition. I created this list to share some of the great films I have discovered, and to help others discover them. All comments and suggestions welcome.
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- DirectorGorman BechardStarsJessica BohlRichard BrundageKeith HerronA dark drama which takes a looks at how far its characters will go to relieve loneliness, even if only for an hour.
- DirectorSimon HeseraStarsMark BurnsBeatie EdneyFiona LewisBernie, a self-destructive alcoholic, is given watch over his niece Winnie. He tests the patience of the various people he knows and Winnie is often left on her own.
- DirectorJeff KanewStarsHal HolbrookLouise FletcherPeter ArmstrongA man plots to kill his wife and children, seeking advice by disguising his plan as a fictional story for his business.
- DirectorRichard T. HeffronStarsDick Van DykeLynn CarlinDon PorterA successful public-relations man's refusal to admit his alcoholism jeopardizes his career, his family, and his life.
- DirectorThomas CarterStarsAndy GriffithSeason HubleyPaul ProvenzaNoah Talbot is a long-time alcoholic whose drinking begins to have a devastating effect not only on his personal life but on his family as well.
- DirectorGary WalkowStarsHenry CzernySeth GreenSheryl LeeSociety will always present problems--we can look for the best outcome within our beliefs.
- DirectorHarold BeckerStarsJames WoodsSean YoungJohn KapelosA real estate developer who enjoyed short-lived success seeks to regain his edge by using cocaine, but takes himself to new lows as he gets lost in the downward spiral of drug addiction.
- DirectorJohn NewlandStarsAngie DickinsonDavid JanssenMariclare CostelloThe marriage of a wealthy, outwardly happy couple is threatened by the husband's alcoholism.
- DirectorTimothy LanzoneStarsDanny BarclayEric BloomDavid John ColeFour mathematicians are hired by the US government to solve the most powerful problem in computer science history.
- DirectorRobert GreenwaldStarsMartin SheenMelinda DillonMatthew LabyorteauxWhen his drinking problem takes control of his life, a father tries to leave the bottle behind while putting his and his family's lives back together.
- DirectorPhilip HaasStarsJames SpaderMandy PatinkinM. Emmet WalshA thrill seeker agrees to help a shady professional gambler win a high stakes poker game. However, they lose and become captives of two eccentric rich men who decide to forcibly keep them on their remote gated ranch as indentured servants.
- DirectorMarc ForsterStarsRadha MitchellMegan MullallyCatherine Lloyd BurnsThe story of a Californian couple expecting a child and their group of friends confronted with the tragedy of a big loss.
- DirectorRobert CelestinoStarsRick GomezFrank John HughesVinessa ShawHenry Harper is a successful novelist who has it all. But after surviving a recent trauma he finds himself haunted by a dream that terrifies him. Convinced that the only way to understand what the dream means is to write his way through it, Henry decides to go to a remote second home to begin work on his next novel, a thriller. While on his way there he encounters a strangely familiar drifter who confronts him with information that threatens to turn everything he knows to be true, upside down.
- DirectorBernard RoseStarsDanny HustonPeter WellerLisa EnosUpdate on Leo Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," set in contemporary Hollywood.
- DirectorRichard PearceStarsDonald SutherlandJohn MarleySharon AckerIn this gripping sci-fi drama, a celebrated heart surgeon (Donald Sutherland, "The Hunger Games") collaborates with an offbeat scientist (Jeff Goldblum, "Jurassic Park") to perform the first artificial heart transplant.
- DirectorEric HaydenStarsKhary PaytonLance HenriksenBrian BaumgartnerWhen a tragic accident cuts short the first manned mission to explore life on the moons of Jupiter, Michael Forrest must make the 3 year journey home to Earth in pure solitude.
- DirectorDavid BlairStarsTimothy SpallJuno TempleHayley SquiresA story set in the north English seaside town of Blackpool and centered on two kindred spirits who form an unlikely friendship.
- DirectorPaul QuinnStarsAidan QuinnJames CaanJacob TierneyA middle-aged teacher discovers photos from his mother's past that convinces him that she has not told the truth about his real father. Venturing into Ireland where he believes his real father to be, a past romance slowly unfolds.
- DirectorScott ZiehlStarsTodd FieldJason LondonRoxana ZalThis shocking and unnerving drama chronicles the lives of two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) whose thrill in life saving is surpassed only by their destructive and all-too-frequent thirst for another kind of rush, heroin.
- DirectorFred HainesStarsMax von SydowDominique SandaPierre ClémentiIn the bourgeois circles of Europe after the Great War, can anything save the modern man? Harry Haller, a solitary intellectual, has all his life feared his dual nature of being human and being a beast. He's decided to die on his 50th birthday, which is soon. He's rescued from his solipsism by the mysterious Hermine, who takes him dancing, introduces him to jazz and to the beautiful and whimsical Maria, and guides him into the hallucinations of the Magic Theater, which seem to take him into Hell. Can humor, sin, and derision lead to salvation?
- DirectorJayme MonjardimLuca BuenoStarsCésar TroncosoDan StulbachDani AntunesA disillusioned psychologist tries to commit suicide until he strikes up a friendship with an unlikely savior who teaches him a new way of living.
- DirectorJordan SusmanStarsDevon GummersallDylan BrunoGina PhilipsA dramedy that centers on a self-procalimed anarchist and his like-minded friends.
- DirectorAmanda SthersStarsJames CaanTom HollanderJonathan Rhys MeyersHarry Rosenmerck, an Ashkenazi Jewish American cardiologist, left everything to become a pig farmer in the Holy Land.
- DirectorSandra NettelbeckStarsAshley JuddGoran VisnjicLauren Lee SmithA talented professor is forced to come to terms with her clinical depression.
- DirectorMichael FenglerRainer Werner FassbinderStarsLilith UngererKurt RaabAmadeus FenglerWith slicked-down hair and three-piece suits, dependable Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. He gets along with his colleagues although his boss wants him to go beyond technical cleanliness to problem solving. He's a dutiful husband; his wife's a social climber and pushes him to seek a promotion, but they also share sweet moments. He's a caring father, helping his son with homework. His parents visit; his mother criticizes his wife. Old School friends drop by, as do neighbors. Some comment on Raab's wife's expensive tastes. His promotion may be a long shot, especially after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?