Never Seen It: Part Four

Posted by Harry in Film, Frontpage, Never Seen It | 2 comments

Never Seen It highlights films that you might not have heard of or watched but definitely should, the kind of films that aren’t as well-known as others and don’t attain the accreditation or accolade they perhaps deserve. The films noted may not be 5-star features but every one mentioned is a film worthy of your time…

True Romance (1993)

With one of the strongest group of actors I’ve ever seen in any film, Hans Zimmer creating the score & Top Gun director Tony Scott in the director’s seat with Quentin Tarantino writing the screenplay, True Romance on paper had all the makings of brilliance. It meets this expectation and then some. I only watched True Romance on the recommendation of a friend, not knowing anything about it whatsoever. How it had managed to stay hidden from me is a mystery as it’s absolutely fantastic from pretty much every angle.

Christian Slater stars as Clarence Worley, a simple film lover who works in a comic book shop. After meeting Alabama (Patricia Arquette) whilst celebrating his birthday alone in a cinema, they end up falling in love and getting married. The film takes them through their mission to sell a stash of stolen cocaine stolen from Alabama’s ex-pimp Drexl (Gary Oldman) to a Hollywood director with gangster Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken) and his men hot on their heels looking to get back the cocaine that was originally theirs.

It’s hard for me to describe why True Romance is so good: maybe because of the originality, the perfect acting, the excellent twisting narrative, the touches of Tarantino that add to the entertainment, the unconventional love story… perhaps it is all of these things put together that creates the ultimate cinematic package.

True Romance is very comfortably in my top ten films. Almost 17 years old now and probably deserving the title of cult classic, True Romance has to be seen. I implore you to watch it, at least to admire the abundance of grade-A actors who all play off each other amazingly.

Planet Terror (2007)

Robert Rodriguez is a great director. He’s brought us the likes of the Mariachi “Pulp Western” trilogy, From Dusk Til Dawn and Sin City (and Spy Kids for the youngsters) and his style of direction is not too dissimilar to Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino himself was guest director for Sin City, he co-directed with Rodriguez the 1995 comedy Four Rooms and he starred in From Dusk Til Dawn and Desperado).

Fitting that they should partner up and create a film project that incorporates “all the exploitation genres”. Both directors take elements from these genres when making their films and they collabarated to exploit this, so to speak. Grindhouse was born and it consisted of two films: Death Proof and Planet Terror.

Rodriguez’s zombie/action/comedy/thriller/horror/sci-fi genre mix featured Rose McGowan (Charmed) as a pole-dancer who gets caught up in a mini zombie apocalyse and has to team up with the likes of ex-boyfriend El Rey (Freddy Rodriguez), restaurant owner JT (Jeff Fahey) and Sheriff Hague (Michael Biehn) to fend off the attack.

Planet Terror has multiple interweaving narratives, with Bruce Willis leading one of them as a demented Lieutenant of a military base whilst Josh Brolin heads up another as sinister doctor Will Block. The narratives arch all over the place, twisting around each other… but it works. Planet Terror shouldn’t work but it does – it gets away with inconsistencies and flaws purely because of what its intentions are.

It’s not a serious film (Rose McGowan gets a gun for a leg at one point) and it’s definitely meant to be taken lightly and with a smile on your face. You’ll get that because Planet Terror provides enough fun and excitement to keep your entertained throughout. It’s silly but very aware of this and this makes for a great albeit unusual popcorn flick.

Quick note: watch for Tarantino’s cameo in Planet Terror and the Danny Trejo-fueled trailer at the beginning. This trailer was a spoof but is now going to be made into a film (and rightly so).

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Perhaps only considered a small film on a global scale, Dirty Pretty Things takes a very gritty, realistic and dirty look at life in London for illegal immigrants. Audrey Tautou plays a Turkish immigrant named Senay who works as a maid at a hotel. Living with her and working with her at the hotel is a Nigerian, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The hotel manager runs an operation in the hotel where illegal immigrants sell their organs for documents & passports – Okwe and Senay get unwillingly tied up in this.

Dirty Pretty Things may be a little melodramatic and politically driven below the surface but it’s still a powerful, interesting and well directed film. It’s not a big-budget film and I think because of this it can be more vivid and brutal with what it portrays. Simply it’s a great film that does a lot with a little.

Chopper (2000)

I love this film. I first remember watching this film by accident a few years ago at 1am on a weekday morning whilst channel surfing. I don’t know why I was awake then but I’m very much glad I was or I won’t have found this Australian gem. Chopper is based on a true story stars a nearly unrecognisable young Eric Bana as extortionist Mark “Chopper” Read. The real life man is actually a national celebrity who has wrote a series of autobiographies which the film takes pages from.

The film is much like Dirty Pretty Things in how it presents the narrative: it’s gritty and sometimes brutal. However the brutality is laced with dark humour and this gives the film an edge that is compelling to witness. Bana is electric as Chopper (I’d go as far as saying it’s one of the defining performances of, at the very least, his career if not any actor in the last 20 years) and it’s his performance that drives the film forward and gives it its quirky nature that’s so utterly engaging.

Get over the fact that it’s a low budget Australian film: that’s irrelevant and Bana more than anything else makes that so. Chopper’s brilliant and just like True Romance it is comfortably one of my favourite films. Not in my top ten (there’s just too many films in existence) but it’s right up there and rightly so.

Caché (2005)

A film for the critics, Caché is the work of director Michael Haneke and it plays a tune that hits all the right notes for that niche market. Average Joe cinema-goer, please disregard Hidden as a film you should go out of your way to watch because it’s not for you. I think Caché is excellent because of how it is filmed – if it weren’t for the film-making side of things Caché probably wouldn’t have had the same effect as it did.

I must stress that you shouldn’t watch Caché if you’re a fan of familiarity. The plot follows literary television host Georges Laurent and his family as they try to find out who has been posting them weird, cryptic drawings through their letterbox that link to the past. Caché is a success also due to how you are shown the story – the story itself isn’t  fantastic, it’s the story-telling that is.

I’m not trying to take anything away from Caché though as it is an excellent film. It’s well-acted, well-directed and the narrative has the twists that make for great viewing. The cinematography is the piece de resistance though – certain scenes are shot in such a way that would make even the most talented directors envious.

I guess I’ve included Caché onto this list more because you quite literally won’t have seen it more than because you should. That being said, if you appreciate how films are made give this one a look even if you come away thinking it was pretentious and boring.