Five Lesser Known Gems On Amazon Prime Right Now!

All right, so here's the plan.  I will post as often as I can lists of movie recommendations that you can find on streaming. I am working on some themes  - like movies of this actor or director, or movies that take place in deserts or movies with dogs, etc - but there will also be hodgepodges.  Like this one.  The only real connecting tissue here is that these are all available, as of this writing, on Amazon Prime, in the US. Click the film titles to go directly to the films. I will post some Hulu and Netflix recommendations as well.  

One final note - I am generally not going to recommend "obvious" films here.  Not because I don't like Star Wars or Marvel or oscar bait like 1917, but because you've more than likely already heard of them, probably seen them and at least have surely passed them a million times already in your streaming cues.  I'm trying to help out cut down cue scanning time by posting about some of the lesser known gems. I've watched a lot of movies - a lot of good stuff and a lot of crap - so you don't have to! All recommendations fully guaranteed or your monies back!

Romeo Is Bleeding

A dark film noir-esque thriller from the early 90s where our hero is a corrupt cop and the ingenue is a psychotic Russian hit woman, Romeo Is Bleeding is one of those tales of crime not paying for the characters in the film, but oh how it pays for the viewer. Provided of course the viewer enjoys the sort of crime movies where pretty much everybody loses. Gary Oldman plays the cop, Annabella Sciorra plays his wife (the only innocent person in the whole tale), Juliette Lewis plays the cop’s mistress, Lena Olin plays the hit woman, and Roy Scheider plays the mob boss who probably could have used a bigger mansion, or at least better security.  There are many other recognizable faces here too. Olin’s unhinged hit woman is one of the scariest villains, male or female, I’ve ever seen.  And yet, when she kicks her way out of the car she’d just caused to crash, while handcuffed no less (grabbing driver Oldman by the head with her legs from the backseat), I’d never wanted to be a shattered windshield so much in my life.

Search For One Eye Jimmy

Since the golden age of Independent American Cinema in the 60s and 70s it almost seems there’s a certain type of quirky independent movie for each decade - you know, ones with offbeat stories, quirky characters, lots of strange but inconsequential things happening in the story lines (though these often surround a central very important theme or plot point) often in suburban or blue collar life. For example, in the 2000s you can contrast Juno (obvious big overarching plot point, Juno’s teenage pregnancy) to Little Miss Sunshine (major plot seems to be Olive’s impending beauty pageant appearance, the whole point of their journey, but other more important plot points slowly emerge) to Napoleon Dynamite (still not really sure what the major plot point in this was - maybe it can just be summed up as Homer Simpson once summed up an episode of his show, “it was just a bunch of stuff that happened”) - and yet all 3 films feel like they could take place in the same slightly off kilter universe. 

The 90s feels like the apex of the quirky indie film, comedic or otherwise. Anyhow this sure was a lotta words about other films just to talk about the film The Search For One Eyed Jimmy. But then, those films all take one on the sort of journey where you have no idea where you are heading any particular moment, and it often doesn't make a lot of sense (especially if you're hanging out with Napoleon and Pedro). But parts of the journey will look both familiar and more than a little weird ((in the way going outside now looks to most of us in places self quaranting). Well, that's the journey of Search For One Eye Jimmy. The setup is Les, recently graduated from film school, is making a documentary about his old neighborhood. In the middle of maaking this documentary he scraps the old neighborhood angle to focus on the search for one of its many colorful characters, who is missing. And yes, you guessed it - One Eye Jimmy.  There are many recognizable folks in this, from Coen Brother regular and That Guy! Michael Badalucco, Steve Buscemi, Anne Meara, Sam Jackson, John and Nicholas Turturro and more. A goofy, low budget production from the 90s, you will enjoy it more or less based on how you generally feel about quirky low budget indie 90s movies.

Big Night

This 1996 film about two Italian immigrant brothers trying to keep their failing restaurant afloat in 1950s New Jersey is one of those low-key dramas they just don’t make anymore. Brothers Primo and Secundo (Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci respectively) came to America with the dream of introducing the finer cuisine of their homeland to the new world at a time when italian food in America meant spaghetti and meatballs.  Primo is the genius chef and Secundo is the business oriented brother, who runs the restaurant and acts as maitre d. But business is bad. People want spaghetti and meatballs. They have no idea what crostini and bruschetta and timpano are. They sound funny and, besides, they just want some spaghetti and meatballs. It's the 50s! it's the Jersey shore! Primo, ever the uncompromising artist pairs with refuses to "sell out" his menu as Secundo pleads with him to give the customers what they want because, you know, biz iz bad. Secundo wonders why fellow countryman Pascal’s restaurant is doing so well, despite the mediocre spaghetti and meatballs he serves. So he visits Pascal (a never better Ian Holm) who, seemingly out of pity, offers that he knows famed Italian-American trumpeter/singer Louis Prima (probably best remembered today for “Jump Jive and Wail” that was used in a Gap commercial in the late 90s/early 2000s) and that he will steer Prima, currently on tour in the area, to the failing restaurant.  Prima’s arrival will surely bring the sort of publicity the brother’s need to jumpstart the business. What follows is hurried preparations for a banquet- an exquisite 9 course italian meal, with press and “important” figures and friends in the town all invited and all awaiting the imminent arrival of the famous musician. The cast is outstanding, including Ian Holm as Pascal, Campbell Scott and Minnie Driver at the height of their respective fame, plus others like Liev Schrieber, Allison Janney and musicians Marc Anthony early in their careers. And of course any movie with Isabella Rosselini you know is going to be interesting. An ensemble piece that is just a fantastic bit of “quiet” movie making, despite how rawkus the dinner gets. Big Night is a beautiful elegy to success and failure and hope and despair and especially family. But I warn you - do *not* see this film while hungry, as it is food porn of the highest order. Every course more mouth watering than the next. To this day I have never seen timpano on a menu but I am dying to try it. And that final wordless scene between the two brothers is pure visual poetry. And a master class in making an omlette to boot.

The African Queen 

The African Queen lesser known you say?!? Well, if you're a film nerd or a reader over the age of 50 this may be your reaction. But for those not real familiar with films before the 1990s, this may indeed be a lesser known gem. To those latter folks here is a brief description of the film: Hard drinking riverboat captain is hired by a snobby missionary woman to drive riverboat in northern Africa to aid the British War effort in WWI. The original mismatched “buddy” film? John Huston’s 1951 film won oscars for both it’s leads - Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn - who, at the time the movie was made, were in the early 50s and late 40s respectively and far past their matinee idol heydays. It’s definitely the sort of film we could all use today - it realizes people of all ages can be charismatic and heroic each in their own ways, it shows people coming together for the common good, and it shows folks trying to learn from each other and settle differences in a high stress, global situation (though in this case it is a World War and not a global pandemic).  But it's not at all a preachy movie - the tension and drama are taut. The tet-a-tet between Bogart and Hepburn is top notch. Both get pretty sassy. The African Queen is one of those movies that, for all the aspects of it that date it - technology, moral attitudes, a period before civil rights in this country, etc - it shows the universality of the human experience - of how we can be very different, come from very different worlds and yet still connect and learn to work together in the face of a horrible foe and not great odds. And beyond these virtues we are all sorely needing experience of right now, it’s a damn good movie to boot.

First Reformed

Writer/Director Paul Schrader has had a long and storied career, from writing classics like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to directing films like American Gigolo, Cat People, Auto Focus and Mishima. While all those films have a wide range of style, subject matter and, for some anyhow,  quality, they are all “loud” films in their own way. (Well I assume Gigolo is, but it’s the one in this list I’ve not seen). First Reformed differs from those films in that one crucial manner - it is not a loud film. In fact it is a quiet film, a very quiet film, about crises of faith. Of course crises of faith is a major theme that is found in all or most of Schrader's work.

Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller, a Reverend in his mid 40s, whose church, First Reformed, is about to celebrate it’s 250th Anniversary.  Pregnant parishioner Mary (Amanda Seyfried) asks Rev. Toller to speak to her husband Michael(Philip Ettinger), as she is concerned about him. Michael, an environmental warrior, was recently released from prison in Canada, where he had been locked up for some eco-terrorism. Esther (Victoria Hill), who is the music director of Abundant Life, the megachurch up the road, in Buffalo, that funds and directs First Reformed, is concerned about Toller himself. Reverend Jeffers (Cedric the Entertainer), the pastor of Abundant Life, is also concerned about Toller and also about the impending anniversary.

The dreariness of the western New York winter adds to the grey and forboding atmosphere. First Reformed has more than a little in common with films by legendary European directors Ingmar Bergman and Robert Bresson.  This one is not for everyone, but for those interested in conflicted folks in crisis and wrestling with existence, this probably has what you’re looking for and more. And while it is not a loud film, as I’ve already mentioned, there are a few scenes that, provide you are open to the film, will take you to some poignant and unexpected places. For those patient for it, it is a very rewarding film and may very well be Schrader’s masterpiece.