GOOD MOVIES YOU MAY NEVER HAVE HEARD OF

                                                                    Part 1

This is the first of a projected series of articles featuring really good movies that didn’t get much play or recognition. 

Julianne Moore is always interesting, and is at the top of her game as The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.  She tries to keep things running in a house with too many children and not enough money by entering contests. She is quite good at it, though most of the prizes are small. Older viewers will remember this time in American history when slogan-writing and catchphrase invention could win you big prizes. Woody Harrelson is good as always as the haphazard husband who works a little and drinks a lot. 

I absolutely loved Every Little Step; it was my number 1 movie of 2009. Okay, you have to also love the play A Chorus Line (which I obviously do). This is a sterling documentary about the try-outs for the revival of the play. The stories of the dancers and the triumph and tragedy of the selections are riveting. By the way, the movie of A Chorus Line is not really very good. 

Beezus is the nickname Ramona stuck her older sister with (mispronouncing her real name, Beatrice) in Ramona and Beezus.  Eleven-year-old Joey King is just completely charming as Ramona, a well-intentioned little girl whose every plan goes terribly (and humorously) wrong. Selena Gomez is well-cast as the long-suffering older sister. I was prepared to hate this bit of fluff but wound up really liking it. 

I just love perfect crime movies and Love Crime is a pip. It’s a French film, and most of the actors are French, but Brit Kristin Scott Thomas blends in perfectly as the boss from Hell. She employs Isabelle Guerin and greatly enjoys humiliating and embarrassing the young woman. There is a twist and another twist (my lips are sealed).

Once upon a time there was an obscure American folk singer named Sixto Rodriguez. He was known only in a small area of Detroit. He got a couple of good reviews and made a couple of CDs that flopped. He was a loner, nearly a hermit. Incredibly, his songs became mega-hits in, of all places, South Africa. Searching For Sugar Man is the story of how his fans in South Africa tracked him down and brought him to their country.  He was immediately a huge star, much to the surprise of his few fans back in Detroit and to himself. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD but may be hard to find. All except Love Crime are fine for all ages, factoring in boredom quotient for littlies.