EW’s 50 Must-See Movies You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted on July 1, 2012 at 4:11 pm

I love Entertainment Weekly‘s lists of under-appreciated films and the current issue’s list includes some of my favorites, the movies I am constantly begging people to try.  It is a great chance to see some wonderful films, and in may you will also have the pleasure of seeing some of today’s most accomplished performers in their early years.Some I was especially excited to see included:

Happy Accidents Marisa Tomei has not had much luck with guys, until this new man (Vincent D’Onofrio), who seems great except for this one small problem — he says he is from the future.

Next Stop Wonderland Like “Happy Accidents,” directed by Brad Anderson, this one stars a radiant Hope Davis. We know long before she does that she is destined to fall in love with a man she won’t meet until the very end of the film.

Backbeat Once upon a time, five boys from Liverpool left England to play at a club in Germany. This is the story of the earliest days of the Beatles, from the perspective of Stu Sutcliffe, an integral part of the beginning of the group (though he was more interested in art than music).

The Daytrippers Hope Davis plays a woman who discovers that her husband (Stanley Tucci) may be unfaithful. So she and her whole family get into her parents’ car to drive to his office and find out. Co-starring Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, and Anne Meara, with a small gem of a very brief performance by Marcia Gay Harden.

Fly Away Home Before she was hanging out with vampires in “True Blood” and speaking with an American accent, Anna Paquin starred in this exquisite fact-based film about a girl who is adopted by a flock of baby geese and has to teach them to fly to safety.

The Iron Giant Before he made “The Incredibles” and “Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol” director Brad Bird made this marvelous animated film about a boy who befriends a robot.

Love and Basketball About eighty percent love and twenty percent basketball, this is a romance about two basketball-loving kids (Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps) who go one-on-one in both games for almost twenty years before they get it right.

 

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6 Replies to “EW’s 50 Must-See Movies You’ve Never Heard Of”

  1. Oh I love Fly Away Home. But I can’t watch it without crying! I’m going to check out the rest of the list and see if there is something we’ve missed. I love movies!

    1. Thank you, Amanda! So glad to hear from another fan. If you have a suggestion for a neglected gem I should recommend, let me know!

  2. So happy to see the recommendation for The Iron Giant. We own it on VHS (that tells you something right there), and I recommend it, especially to families, whenever I can. The scene where Hogarth says “grace” is one of my (now grown) kids’ favorites. Still.

    1. I’m so glad “Iron Giant” is one of your family favorites, Pam. I admit, it always makes me cry!

  3. Very pleased to see the mention of Perfect Blue – my favourite non-Miyazaki anime film, and a much bigger influence on Black Swan than Aronofsky is willing to admit.

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