Noticing lxxii - underrated/underwatched movies

Yesterday a FB friend of mine (whom I've never met) followed up (sort of) on a "challenge" he'd been issued: to name five underrated or underwatched movies that influenced his life. He didn't issue the challenge on (which is why I said "sort of"), but friends of his did comment on his list. The result is a great array of movies, some of which I've seen, some of which I haven't but would like to. I thought I'd just catalogue it here, for future reference.

In the order in which they appear in my friend's original post (which I have copied wholesale because it's amusing and smart—as, for that matter, is the friend himself) and in some of 77 comments:

Harvey – 1950, Jimmy Stewart as an amiable guy who drinks too much and whose best friend is a 6'3" invisible rabbit. It has the best monologue about spending time in taverns. It's a celebration of being pleasant.
Local Hero – 1983, Peter Reigert and Burt Lancaster (with a small part played by Peter Capaldi [his film debut]); a US oil company wants to buy a small Scottish village and a chunk of the surrounding land to build an awful oil depot. There's a Soviet sub, an injured rabbit, a cosmological event, and, obviously, a mermaid. [And with soundtrack by Mark Knopfler. And here is "an absolutely lovely and fascinating conversation" about the movie from BBC's The Film Programme.]
Hear My Song – 1991, Adrian Dunbar, Ned Beatty in a scarf, and Tara Fitzgerald (who exhibits the best grin in movies); a failing music entrepreneur seeks a tax-evading Irish tenor from the 1950s in an attempt to make his girlfriend happy. There's also a few scenes with a cow, a dental procedure in a pub, and David McCallum as a detective.

Sanjuro – 1962, Toshiro Mifune in a jidai-geki ["era drama"] by Kurosawa; it's about a scruffy ronin, some very earnest young samurai, a very homely administrator who's been kidnapped, and the shortest and most over-the-top sword scene ever filmed. It manages to be charming, brutal, hilarious, and sad—often at the same time.
Holiday – 1938, Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn; a guy who has worked hard since he was a kid unwittingly gets engaged to a millionaire's daughter. Her family wants him to keep working hard, but he's worked hard so he can enjoy his life while he's still young, and plans to return to serious work after he's had an interesting life. He's NOT engaged to Hepburn. Cary Grant does an astonishing backflip from a handstand.

This friend later commented, "Somebody just pointed out to me that these are all movies about adult men refusing to do what's expected of them"—which from what little I know about said friend could easily describe him.

And other films mentioned in this long thread include:

Destry Rides Again, The Rare Breed, Winchester 73, and Shenendoah—all with amiable (and sometimes also tough) Jimmy Stewart
Sex & Lucia
Gattaca
Julia
Wish You Were Here (1987, with Emily Lloyd)
Shirley Valentine
Birdy
Truly Madly Deeply
S.O.B.
Phenomenon
Fandango
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
The Laundromat (1985, with Carol Burnett and Amy Madigan)
Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven
Ondine (by Neal Jordan, starring Colin Farrell and a mermaid)
Amélie
Brazil
A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles)
Lost in America
Withnail & I

Impromptu (with Judy Davis)
Hope & Glory
Enemies: A Love Story
The World's Fastest Indian
Scandal
Silent Running
Leon: The Professional
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Brother from Another Planet
Diva
Repo Man
The Conversation (with Gene Hackman)
Turtle Diary (with Glenda Jackson and Ben Kingsley)
Sexy Beast
The Draughtman's Contract (dir. Peter Greenaway)

Another FB friend whom I've never met jumped into the conversation here, with these five recommendations:

Jumping Jack Flash (1984, Penny Marshall) – Because it showed some of the possibilities of internet before the internet even existed. Oh, and the soundtrack. And Whoopi Goldberg at her funniest.
Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform, 1958, Geza von Radvanyi) – About a boarding school student who had a crush on her female teacher – with a tragic ending. It was one of my first encounters with LGBTQ+ issues. And because I had a crush on Romy Schneider.
Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973, Vaclav Vorlicek) – A Czech fairy-tale adoption, but showing a different Cinderella, a strong one who can ride a horse, shoot a crossbow, talk with the animals, and has compassion for all living things. From today’s perspective, there’s still a lot wrong about it: Why did they pick fat actresses for the evil stepmother and stepsister, but not for the ‘nice’ characters? Why does the prince only fall in love with her at the ball, when she wears a fancy dress, not out in the snow, when she wears her rags, but is much more interesting and competent? Etc. But back in the day, I adored it.

The Accidental Tourist (1988, Lawrence Kasdan) – What happens when unbelievable tragedy enters your marriage, and you can’t make it recover from it? Staying close to the novel by Anne Tyler, it shows paths in which life can go on. It gives hope. Also, so many quirky characters and scenes, and William Hurt and Geena Davis at their best.
Delicatessen (1991, Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet) – A dark and spooky tenement house settled in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world, with strange rituals and characters, suddenly gets turned upside down when a former clown moves in as new tenant. Pure art, and heartwarming.

What might my five be? Here's what came up in my response to my FB friend:

Wait Until Dark (1967)
Harold and Maude (1971)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Diva (1981)
The Crying Game (1992)
Blowup (1966)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Truly Madly Deeply (1990)

That's more than five, I know. And perhaps not all of these count as underrated/underwatched, I don't know. And there could've been a lot more once I started thinking about it, so I decided to leave it at that. So many good films to see!