Suggest a Movie!

In the four years I’ve worked on Moviehouse, I’ve occasionally run a feature called “A Movie You Might Have Missed.” It’s my chance to highlight a film, new or old, that just didn’t get the appreciation it deserved when it first came out. Sometimes it’s a smaller, uniformly excellent movie that never made it to nearby theaters like 2017’s modern-day western, Wind River. Sometimes it’s just to highlight one aspect of an interesting but flawed picture, like Robin Williams’ fantastic but tiny cameo in Kenneth Brannagh’s uneven 1991 noir tribute, Dead Again.

Movie culture has always been about making money, but particularly since the 1970s and the advent of the George Lucas/Star Wars marketing machine, it has become increasingly hyper-focused on tent pole pictures, summer blockbusters, and the box office returns horse race. If a movie isn’t backed by a big star, a multi-million dollar marketing campaign, and doesn’t have a good opening weekend, it usually disappears. And marketing and millions are hardly the measure of a good movie, especially if you’re looking for something unique and interesting.

So there is value in finding and talking about movies that haven’t received as much attention or that have been forgotten. I have my own preferences, of course – old favorites from growing up, obscure movies I encountered in grad school, or just the occasional lesser-known movie that vanished from theaters before its time.

But now I want to try something new, and I hope you, the people who listen to and follow this show, will be willing to help out. I want to hear your suggestions for films to use for the “A Movie You Might Have Missed” feature. What movies have you seen that you love, that you re-watch, that you think everyone should see so you can talk about it and point out your favorite parts together? What movie do you appreciate that you think too few people have seen, that nobody knows but everybody should know?

If you’re willing, take a minute in the next couple of days and send me an email. Send me a suggestion for one movie or a dozen, and if you’ve got the time, tell me why you’re suggesting them. What is it about your films that you think more people should appreciate? Why is your movie underappreciated?

Part of why I’m doing this is I recognize that everyone’s taste is limited, including mine. I like what I like – old film noirs, comedies from 80s, literary adaptations, sci fi, and superhero movies. But who’s to say that I might not like something that you think is good?

So dust off your old DVD collection or have a look at the “previously watched” list on your streaming account. Think back to the movies you watched over and over again as a kid. Identify the ones you enjoyed that maybe aren’t mainstream or that not enough people have seen. Chances are, even as you’re listening to this, you have an idea in mind, a movie title that’s got you thinking, “More people should see that one.”

If you have one suggestion or twenty, send me an email and tell me about it. I want to see more movies that I’ve missed and let everyone who follows this show hear about them. My email address is really easy to remember. It’s markbrown@delta.edu. Just put “A Movie You Might Have Missed” in the subject line and tell me a little about it. I’ll do my best to see it and write about it. Hopefully, you can help me introduce a movie we might have missed to everyone else who actually did miss it.