Nominate your favorite underappreciated gems. These are not so-much weird, intentionally out-there cult films. These are mainstream movies that, for whatever reason, never found an audience. Many of these titles are no longer in print, though they all deserve to be. They’re not always easy to find, but worth the effort to track down. Please include title, date, and a spirited defense.

First Five

1. Nobody’s Fool (1994)
D: Robert Benton
Sully (Paul Newman) is a worn out, hard-luck case with a few cards still left up his sleeve. When his estranged son returns to town, embattled family in tow, Sully has to deal with the broken pieces of his life long ago swept aside. This seldom seen Robert Benton adaptation of the Richard Russo novel is funny, wise, eminently quotable, and all together more involving than Benton’s much more famous Kramer Vs Kramer. Terrific cast includes Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffith, and Bruce Willis. There is also a great bit with Philip Seymour Hoffman as an over-zealous small town cop.

2. The Addiction (1995)
D: Abel Ferrara
Good egg grad student Lili Taylor bitten by sexy hipster vampire. She then becomes jaded, beret-wearing cynic who cuts class, muses about the nature of evil in the world, and turns all around her into vampires. Bucket of blood grad party finale is a scream. Great Christopher Walken cameo as world-weary vampire king. Better than Ferrara's more famous Bad Lieutenant. Waay better than fey, boring, pretentious Interview With a Vampire (Imagine spending eternity with those babbling idiots. Now that's horror!). Filmed in glorious b&w.

3. The Late Show (1977)
D: Robert Benton
Spacey chatterbox Lily Tomlin hires Art Carney, a jaded old-school gumshoe, to find her lost cat. When Carney’s partner turns up dead, the both get sucked into a seamy LA underworld of hustlers, creeps, and murderers. Great 70s noir atmosphere has a tight, funny script, and terrific chemistry between the 2 leads. Another unsung Benton classic.

4. Citizen Ruth (1996)
D: Alexander Payne
Though a lot of critics were all over this early Alexander Payne film (Election, Sideways, About Schmidt), it never found much of an audience. Glue huffing Ruth Stoops gets caught in a battle royal between pro-life and pro-choice activists. The fact that Payne portrays both sides as 2 dimensional stereotypes is sure to piss off anyone coming into this with a specific political agenda. Laura Dern’s nuanced, spot on portrait of an unrepentant drug addict is the human core of this sharply written satire of modern political life. No syrupy feel good messages here. Ruth is a force of nature and a very human one at that.

5. Dogfight (1990)
D: Nancy Savoca
When I mention this film to friends, they rarely hang in through the synopsis. Four young marines stage an ugly date contest before they head to Vietnam. Could be why people stayed away in droves. Which is a shame since this is very well-made, very watchable film populated with interesting, believable characters. The main characters of the young marine (River Phoenix) and the shy, homely folkie (Lili Taylor) reveal themselves slowly to the audience, eventually overcoming whatever preconceived notions we may have of them in the beginning.

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