I find myself in love with some big budget movies (mostly comedies and thrillers), dissapointed in many ohters and avoiding the rest at all costs. I love renting movies but you're always taking a chance but with big movies, you'll see and hear reviews, see trailers and commericals, etc. But with really small movies, you're really taking a chance when you rent. I'm talking about heavily praised small movies like "Lost In Translation" or "Sideways" but really small movies, so which even have stars but are straight to video (well, straight to DVD now). I take the chance every so often and am sometiems really dissapointed but in two cases, with small comedies in both cases. I would like to make these recommendations and urge ohters to do so as well.


"Girls Will Be Girls" has an all male cast but these ladies aren't playing drag queens....they are women! In fact, while it's gay themed, gay people and drag queens are never mentioned. It's an absurd tale about a washed up actress, her sad sack roomate/best friend and a young and naive wannabe. The stories that surround their lives include everything from aborition, rape, drugs, prostitution, alcholism....and it's all fair game for laughs. It's way over the top and dark but it isn't evil or sinsister. It's a very fun movie and even the DVD menus are funny!





"Haiku Tunnel" is even funnier than the highly touted "Offfice Space". The story revolves around a loser temp who is unlucky in life and love because of his issues with procastation and his ability to coast by and try and avoid success. He is asked to become go perm at the office he is working at but manages to screw up everything. THe movie is full of great dialouge and Josh is an unforgetable and relatable character. Anyone that works must see this movie. "Ole!"

VinnyM27 said:[quote]I find myself in love with some big budget movies (mostly comedies and thrillers), dissapointed in many ohters and avoiding the rest at all costs. I love renting movies but you're always taking a chance but with big movies, you'll see and hear reviews, see trailers and commericals, etc. But with really small movies, you're really taking a chance when you rent. I'm talking about heavily praised small movies like "Lost In Translation" or "Sideways" but really small movies, so which even have stars but are straight to video (well, straight to DVD now). I take the chance every so often and am sometiems really dissapointed but in two cases, with small comedies in both cases. I would like to make these recommendations and urge ohters to do so as well.


"Girls Will Be Girls" has an all male cast but these ladies aren't playing drag queens....they are women! In fact, while it's gay themed, gay people and drag queens are never mentioned. It's an absurd tale about a washed up actress, her sad sack roomate/best friend and a young and naive wannabe. The stories that surround their lives include everything from aborition, rape, drugs, prostitution, alcholism....and it's all fair game for laughs. It's way over the top and dark but it isn't evil or sinsister. It's a very fun movie and even the DVD menus are funny!


quote]


Ugggh...sorry, but I thought this movie was horrible. Stale drag at its worst.

Case said:[quote]

VinnyM27 said:

I thoght it was very original, to say that that the drag queens are women. And even when it should have been serious, it wasn't even close! It was a comedy in everyway. If that's a bad drag queen comedy, what's a good one?

VinnyM27 said:[quote]

Case said:

Ummm..."Adventures of Priscilla" for one. And the concept of the drag queen actually playing a woman is HARDLY new. John Waters passed ALL of his pre-"Cry Baby" films on that premise.

For any1 who speaks spanish ( but i suppose there r english subtitles on the DVD) a movie called Ciudades Oscuras (Dark Cities)...it was filmed in Mexico City and it is a bunches of stories of various people in the city and then all the stories come together in the end (like in Pulp Fiction or Amorres Perros)


Sinopsis:
Varias historias entrelazadas que tienen en común la soledad y desesperación comunes a la vida en una megalópolis, además de su ubicación en el centro histórico de la ciudad de México. Entre bares y palacios, comercios y monumentos, farmacias y cafés de chinos, los personajes -policías, prostitutas, adolescentes, cantineros, drogadictos, vagabundos- emergen y convergen, casi siempre sin darse cuenta de lo mucho que tienen en común.

Case said:

Divine, of course. You're right. I just thought it was great and "Priscillia" was good but this movie just got me. I had to buy it and am pissed becuase I paid $10 used at Blockbuster and Hollywood had like five copies for $5.99! And I can't return it at Blockbuster or anything! Still worth it.

DMSR54 said:

Sounds interesting. I might check that out. This could be a good thread for those who aimlessy walk through video stores!.

DMSR54 said:

Hey DMSR54, I have to check out Ciudades Oscuras. I love indie and foreign film. I love ALMODOVAR, ARAKI AND WATERS. The bad part is that in San Jose there isn't a lot of variety. I'm going to have to rent from San Francisco.

Miguel

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Grafitti Bridge.

glamslamkid said:

I think the entire budget for that movie was a packet of dry roasted peanuts and a diet Coke.

I liked Haiku Tunnel Haven't heard of the other one though...

Haiku Tunnel wasn't straight to DVD. I saw it in a movie theater in San Francisco.

Not quite sure what qualifies as a "really small indie movie" but I recommend a few foreign films:

Story of the Weeping Camel (mongolia)
Divine Intervention (by Elia Suleiman, Palestinian)
A Taste of Cherry (by Abbas Kiorastami, Iranian)
The Color of Paradise (by Majid Majidi, Iranian)
Wild Reeds (Andre Téchiné, French)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, Japan)

I've seen most of these at Blockbuster, at least in my area.

Case said:

I'd take Girls Will be Girls over Priscilla anyday. Varla Jean Merman, Miss Coco and Evie are all hysterical. I've seen them in other productions, and outside of this movie they write a lot of their own material (you can see one of Evie's horribly inappropriate and funny film shorts here). There's very little that's funny or original to me about 3 actors playing drag queens, so Priscilla wasn't so fun for me. Incredible costuming though.

RipHer2Shreds said:

I just watched a clip from Evie's website. HILARIOUS!!! Thanks for sharing.

Miguel

heartbeatocean said:

You're right and I don't think "Girls" was either but they are two types of really small indie movies and there are those without stars (which had very limited runs but didn't get much mainstream attention, like "Girls" and "Tunnel") and than those straight to DVD or near straight to DVD movies which have stars (not huge stars, but people like Matt Dillon and Chirstina Applegate, which are in this movie I saw on the sheleves). I definately mistyped above.