Top Ten Movies You’ve Never Seen : #’s 10-6 (JMcQ)

10. Shallow Grave – Made by the same director as Trainspotting, this was one of Ewan McGregors first roles. A much more dark movie than Trainspotting, the movie begins by three flatmates interviewing a series of very comedic individuals for a spot in their apartment. Finally, when all applicants are found to be utterly laughable, a dark, tall man inquires about the place, with cash in hand, and everything seems to work out. That is, until this new flatmate isn’t seen to leave his room in a number of days. The curious nature of all three of our protagonists causes them to first look into the transim of the door, and come crashing through the door where they see the fourth dead. Going through his belongings, they find the cause of death (heroin) and a suitcase (full of money).

At this point, the three divide on how to deal with this, either calling the police and giving up the money, or resorting to darker means. The two characters, Alex and Kerry, eventually force the third, David, to agree to a plan by which they hack up the body and bury it in separate pieces. Pulling the short straw, David is forced to do all the work itself, and as a result slowly goes insane, closing himself in the attic with the money. Going insane has its upside later in the movie, after the deceased’ friends come to take the money, an action to which David kills the would-be killers with a drill. Injured before David could get to the killers, an injured Alex tries to make off with the money, and an always-scheming Kerry switching between the two. David, cognoscent of the plot to remove the money, ends up knifing Alex, to which Kerry responds by shooting David and leaving with the money. Does Kerry live the perfect life from then on? You’ll have to see the movie!

9.Swimming With Sharks – This 1995 movie is another dark comedy, and the simple circuitous story telling is just one of the sharp points of this movie. Beginning with the lead character watching a body go by on the stretcher, the events that lead to this ultimate event are laid out in a staggered style. We see this protagonist get a very lucrative and status-seeking job right out of film school with an acclaimed producer, which very quickly goes slower. Through a daily torrent of complaints and orders, Guy tries to do the best he can fulfilling all the desires of his boss. Even when Guy wows his boss with a killer idea for a script, the boss goes and takes all the credit for himself. And, Guy finally snaps.

Coming up to his producers apartment, he binds and ties his boss to a chair. Injuring him, Guy starts pouring salt, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, and all sorts of other materials into his wounds. Trying to plead his case in very convincing terms, Buddy (the boss) tries to break it down to Guy that it takes time to get through the ranks, and that the mTV generation just wants to get everywhere without going through the ranks. Unconvinced by this argument, Guy continues to argue with Buddy until his girlfriend (who we learn is having sex with Buddy to further Guy’s career) enters. Learning about this arrangement, Guy is egged on by a final Buddy speech to do what he needs to do to make it in the industry. But what does he do?

8. Human Highway – What can I say about this movie? First off, unless you see this in an art house or something, this will be an edited version. This movie has probably the best musical pairing of all time, with both Devo and Neil Young taking major parts in it. Also, we get to see a very young Dean Stockwell (from Quantum Leap) in it, taking a double dip as producer and actor. The members of Devo are waste-handlers for the local nuclear plant, and always have a song on their lips. We get our first glance at Neil Young as a dork, with very thick glasses and slicked back hair. Seriously, if you are familiar at all with what Neil Young looks, this is completely different from any tour video or any of his videos. Neil is Lionel, a bumbling guy that takes a job as an auto mechanic with his friend Fred (Russ Tamblyn). Lionel’s big aspiration is to someday be a rock singer, and with the help of a wrench, he (kind of) becomes one.

During the period when he is knocked unconscious by a wrench, Lionel is a rock star. A 30 minute derivation from the plot sets them on some sort of tour, with the ultimate scenes being the 14-minute long “music video” where Lionel jams with Devo, taking his place as guitar god with the twiddling of knobs and synthesized beats of Devo. The movie ends with a simply delightful all-cast rendition of the beginning song, which segue ways into one of the more odd endings to be seen in all of popular film. Perhaps, if one was to actually buy the full movie, they could piece together this movie a little better than I could.

7. Hedwig and the Angry Inch – In what has been called “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” of the next generation, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the story about a genderqueer (bio-boy) who goes for transitioning surgery at the request of his army lover. A surgery later, and Hedwig is left with an one-inch mound of flesh. More than a man or woman, Hedwig follows around the band of his protégé Tommy Gnosis, who callously left Hedwig and even has the audacity to use some of Hedwig’s songs in his sold-out concerts. Through a number of very cleverly-written songs, a very intricate story of continual heartbreak is written, with a story approach similar to the Shel Silverstein book “A Separate Piece”. The philosophy of this movie is that everyone came from a creature that was either man/man, man/woman, or woman/woman, and that Zeus cut everyone apart into two beings, thus creating this necessity to find the correct person for someone.

Hedwig finally gets back together with Tommy after Tommy’s underlings find Hedwig pimping eirself out, and Tommy and Hedwig share a few nice, drunken moments. The car (which Tommy is driving) eventually goes off into busy traffic, causing a crash. Since Tommy is one of the biggest starts in music at this time, the finding of a “freak” like Hedwig is a shock for everyone, and headline fodder for all the tabloids. But, is this revealing piece of news good for Hedwig? Well, you will have to rent the movie from your local Blockbuster or hit up your GLBT buddy – they should have a copy of it or know where a copy can be got (I’ve got mine sitting on my entertainment stand!)

6. But I’m A Cheerleader - But I'm A Cheerleader is a positively delightful little movie. For those of you who have not seem the movie, it deals with Megan, a cheerleader, and the attempts by everyone in her life to turn her heterosexual. However, all of this comes as a surprise to Megan, who considers herself totally straight. Making the ultimate spot in the movie is RuPaul, out of drag, leading the males of the "sexual redirection" school to the ultimate goal of straightness. As a sub-plot through the movie, Mike (RuPaul) tries to counter the sexual advances of Rock

With exercises enforcing gender roles, like sweeping and household chores for the ladies, and playing football and working on cars for the boys, "True Directions" believes that their students will become straight. However, with experiences showing that homosexuality is something people are born with as opposed to something that can be erased, very few actually graduate. The ultimate scene in the movie has Megan doing a cheer to win her girl, a spoiled brat back after being kicked out of the program and her house. Does she win Graham, or does Graham make her parents and Mary J. Brown happy?