Films You Didn't Know You Needed To See

My main man Kai over at The List put out the call for help - every few months, he asks his fellow awesome blogger friends to write about, well, you can see it in the title. Three flicks each, nothing too long, just shine a light on some movies you think more people need to see. I've written about at least two of the three on here before, but it's been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely time.

The rest of the choices, including Kai's, can be found here.


Code 46 (2004)
I've been ringing the bell for this one for years, with minimal success. Michael Winterbottom paints one of my favorite pictures of the future here with a minimal budget and a lot of imagination. Tim Robbins stars as a fraud investigator who travels to Shanghai on a case, where he meets and eventually falls in love with Samantha Morton. Only...there's something forbidden about their love. Love or hate the story - and the slow pace of it all, which usually throws people off - it's the tiny glimpes into our multi-culti near-future that turn me on, most notably the mashed-up language that everyone speaks.


Box of Moonlight (1996)
Now that everyone in the world (ok, the movie blogosphere, anyway) knows who Sam Rockwell is, it's high time you all go back and check out one of his underseen past performances. Indie director extraordinaire Tom DiCillo directs Rockwell, as well as other 90s-era indie forces John Turturro, Catherine Keener and Dermot Mulroney in this fun little slice of life about a man (Turturro) who's facing a mid-life crisis. Working on an out-of-town contract job (not unlike Code 46, actually), he collides with The Kid (Rockwell), an off-the-grid hippie of sorts who helps him to discover what's really important in his life. Certainly quirky, but pretty charming, too.


The Nines (2007)
Interested in an out-there Drama Mystery Sci-Fi Fantasy (according to IMDb)? John August, longtime collaborator of Tim Burton and writer of one of my favorites, Go, wrote and directed this head-scratcher of a movie that stars Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy, all playing multiple roles. This film will have you discussing its meaning (and plot) long after you've finished watching.

And then...

ReVideoView - The Nines

There's a really good chance you haven't heard of The Nines, much less seen it. In a few weeks of release in fall of 2007, it grossed less than $100,000. And though it is yet another "puzzle piece movie" (along the lines of Donnie Darko/Southland Tales and even writer/director John August's Go), the bigger mystery is why it went so unseen?

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Go vet Melissa McCarthy, The Nines opened on just two screens in late August last year, but averaged $14k+ on each - a more than respectable debut for any art-house flick, much less one with as slight a budget as this. Considering that it features two high profile actors in Reynolds and Davis (each high profile in their own way, granted), one must wonder why it expanded to just three additional screens the following weekend?

But that's enough questions - time for some answers.

The film is split into three parts, with the three actors each playing a different-yet-related role in each part, for a total of...wait for it...nine characters. In the first, Reynolds is Gary, a David Caruso-like actor starring in a TV crime series. When we first meet him, he's just gone through a crisis of sorts, and we're catching him as he's about to break down, complemented by an awesome, "House of the Rising Sun"-like cover of Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hanging On," performed by The Ferris Wheel. In time, he will undergo house arrest, where he meets a mysterious neighbor (Davis) and is tended to by a publicist (McCarthy). Gary soon discovers that it may not be just his world that's falling apart, but something...more. To expand would be to ruin the fun.

In part two, Reynolds is now Gavin, an up and coming screenwriter who has just cast his friend (McCarthy, now playing herself, more or less) in his TV pilot, while he has been cast himself as the lead in a reality show about the making of his show (still with me?). Davis plays the VP of Development overseeing Gavin's pilot. For this segment, we learn from the DVD extras that Gavin is the fictional embodiment of August, who is friends with McCarthy in real life (a great short film that the two made some years back is also included on the DVD), and the drama they face in The Nines is parallel to what they went through when August was a TV writer himself.

For the third and final segment, we have Gabriel, loving father to Noelle and husband to Mary. After a day spent hiking, the three return to their car only to find that the battery is dead. With no cell phone service available in their remote location, Gabriel takes it upon himself to travel to higher ground to seek a better signal. Along the way, he encounters Sierra (Davis), who may or may not be able to assist him in his quest to find his way home.

The three narratives are each separate entities, but overlap and share pieces of their plots and characters. What starts as confusing to Gary and the viewer soon becomes clear, with hints to the mystery sprinkled throughout.

August has crafted a fine film, one filled with deep thoughts and sprawling ramifications, yet it manages to never take itself too seriously, getting a diverse performance from Reynolds, who can transition from comic to tragic and back with ease. Even more impressive is that it looks and feels like a much bigger film than it is, with each segment given a specific look (rich golds and reds in 16MM for the first, the second shot in digital video, and the third a blue/green 35MM). Also of note is that the house arrest scenes were shot in August's real-life house, one of the many details that makes this philosophy-tinged genre-less movie accessible and fun.

Fletch's Film Rating:

"Darn tootin!"

And then...