Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

As promised, I’m back with another handful of movies for you to check out. I hope you watched some if not all of last month’s suggestions and I hope you enjoyed them. So without further subterfuge or delay… here are my movie recommendations for November!

Buffalo 66 (1998)

I was introduced to this movie by my good friend Dan Reed. I’d seen it on the shelf many times but the cover had never given me the urge to look into it further. Turns out, as with books, you can’t judge DVDs by their covers. Buffalo 66 is the story of Billy (Played by director Vincent Gallo) who has just finished a 5 year stretch in prison. During that time he has hidden his incarceration from his parents and upon his release he calls them and says he’s made a success of himself and has a beautiful girlfriend. In order to keep up the charade when invited for dinner at his parents’ house Billy kidnaps Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pose as his girlfriend. Layla becomes romantically attached to Billy and joins him on his mission to get even with the man responsible for his prison sentence.

What makes this movie so great is the way it’s acted. The story is pretty silly but the way Gallo and Ricci perform makes for captivating viewing. The scene at dinner with Billy’s parents is one of the most wonderfully awkward feeling moments in cinema and will have you cringing and laughing in equal measure.

Idle Hands (1999)

I’ll say straight off the bat, if you’re looking for something with deep meaning and substance, leave this movie for another time. Idle Hands is the story of stoned waster Anton Tobias (Devon Sawa) who becomes the host for a demon that seeks out only the laziest people and takes over one of their hands, forcing them to commit a string of murders before leaping to the next host. Yeah “laziness kills” is about the extent of the movie’s message. Don’t let that fool you though. Idle Hands is one fun ride.

Co-starring Seth Green, Vivica A Fox and Jessica Alba and with bizarre but hilarious cameos from The Offspring and Blink 182, Idle Hands is a great twist on the stoner comedy and is, next to Pineapple Express one of my favourites in that genre. Sure, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. By all rights you shouldn’t enjoy this movie but if you watch it in the right frame of mind I think you will.

Pecker (1998)

This is a weird one. You might watch it and not be too impressed at first but then you’ll find yourself thinking about it and how actually it’s actually kinda charming and eventually it’ll bring a smile to your face. Pecker is the story of a young sandwich shop worker (Edward Furlong) from Baltimore (his nickname is Pecker, by the way) who takes photos on a beat up Lomo camera that his mum found at the thrift store where she works. Fate tosses him a strange hand when his photos make him an overnight success in the avant garde photography scene in New York City. But fame, it seems isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for Pecker as he, his family and his girlfriend (Christina Ricci) are forced to take a back seat.

Sort of like Juno, but not, Pecker is a great story of the strength of a family bond and how it can overcome great challenges. At times this message might be hard to see because of how totally weird some of the characters are (Grandma uses a statue of the virgin Mary as a ventriloquist’s dummy and tries to convince her bible group it’s a miracle) but that doesn’t matter. Pecker isn’t subtle, but I think you’ll like it.

Near Dark (1987)

I’ve mentioned this movie in my post about my favourite vampire movies but I thought I’d throw it in as a recommendation. Near Dark has pretty much everything I like in a vampire movie; Dark, threatening vampires, tense atmosphere and, most importantly a scant disregard for the stereotypes of the genre. The fact that the word “vampire” isn’t used once is testament to that fact. If anyone was to ask me why I didn’t like Twilight I’d say, first of all, that it was for kids and second of all because I like Near Dark.

Directed by Kathryn Bigalow (The Hurt Locker) Near Dark shows us just why her and James Cameron got together. The style smacks of the same gritty lo-fi atmosphere as The Terminator and the fact it shares some actors with it says a lot too. Don’t watch this expecting nicey nice Hollywood gloss. You won’t get it. What you will get is a gnarly vampire horror with balls!

Casshern (2004, Japanese)

As a rule I want to recommend movies that are easy to pick up and accessible to all. This breaks that rule and wipes its arse with it. Casshern is a loose re-imagining of a 70’s anime of the same name and is probably the most visually insane movie you will ever see. Set in an alternate reality and following a 50 year war between east and west, Casshern sees a scientist come up with a way of re-generating any body part, essentially curing all disease. But when a mysterious disaster strikes a new species arrises and declares war on mankind. Only Casshern, the scientist’s dead son, reincarnated as a superhuman stands a chance of saving the world.

As far as foreign films go this is pretty hard to follow but I urge you to try. It might take a couple of viewings to understand it but the visuals are so amazing that you won’t mind. It’s one of only a hand full of other films that are shot entirely against a digital background. That dire Sky Captain bollocks was another. In any event, if you’re after a visual treat but don’t mind a bit of work, make sure you check out Casshern.

Again I invite you to tell me what you think of my recommendations in the comments below. Did you see any of these movies and hate them? Have you seen something similar that you would recommend to me? Let me know.