Before "Dazed + Confused", "The Spirit Of '76" mined 70's nostalgia to a much more limited audience... I watch this every 4th of July.
Saw "Light Of Day" at the theater. Not a perfect movie but I love it nonetheless. Joan Jett got good reviews for her performance by Siskel + Ebert. I played the soundtrack at the record store I worked at a lot...
Got this one from the library and fell in love. Great low budget movie set in the 80's L.A. punk scene. Features both John Doe and Dave Alvin...
"Falling from Grace". John Mellencamp's only directorial effort (AFAIK), starring himself as...a musician. Not a masterpiece, but an intimate, well-acted small-town film. "Attack". Robert Aldrich's highly personal film about military corruption and cowardice. Eddie Albert and Lee Marvin star in this interesting low-budget affair. "Santa Sangre/Holy Blood". Jodorowsky's mad Oedipal masterpiece is definitely one of a kind. "Holy Motors". Leos Carax. Brilliant, crazy and smart. C.
Someone mentioned "Quest for fire" I definitely second this and it's a must-see if you are interested in ancient (very, very ancient) history. As Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel would say all the events occur "hundreds of years before the dawn of history." A group of very primitive cavemen are attacked by a rival group and in the process lose their only burning fire - they do not know themselves how to create it (I think I remember that they possibly got the original fire from a burning tree struck by lightning?) Anyway, they know they must have fire to survive and now that most of their clan has been killed in the attack, a small group of men journey into the unknown seeking fire. Roger Ebert liked it a lot and he can describe it better than me Quest for Fire movie review & film summary (1981) | Roger Ebert
"Tiger Bay" - Hayley Mills' first movie. Her father John Mills also stars in this movie. It's excellent!
Loved the made for TV movie "Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol" back when it aired in the early '70's that I watched it twice as a teen when it played again as a rerun. It's very much like a Twilight Zone episode. IMDB reviews indicates it's a very underrated movie as I thought so as well... Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol (TV Movie 1972) - IMDb
A Very Long Engagement - almost the exact cast and crew as Amelie and just as good imho, if not better, but everyone has seem Amelie but no-one seems to have seen this. Endless Night (1972) - made a big impression on me at the time, not sure if it still holds up, but a great British murder mystery from a book by Agatha Christie. A Lonely Place To Die (2011) - a very solid thriller with a great cast but pretty unknown.
A wonderful film from 1962 with Jackie Gleason playing a (mostly) serious role: Gigot. One of my all-time favorite films.
Stealing Home with Mark Harmon and Jodie Foster. She is very good in this and it was the first time I saw Harmon really act.
I watched this one whenever it came on TV when I was growing up. "Gigot" needs to be a Criterion release!
The Last Of Sheila (1973) starring James Coburn, Ian McShane, James Mason, Richard Benjamin, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, and Joan Hackett. I've loved this movie ever since I saw it in the theater back in the day. Scared the crap out of me then. Highly recommended! A year after Sheila is killed in a hit-and-run, her multi-millionaire husband (Coburn) invites a group of friends to spend a week on his yacht playing a scavenger hunt-style mystery game. The game turns out to be all too real and all too deadly.
Blood Simple. I had never heard of it and caught back in the 80's one night on HBO. Great piece of Film Noir and the first movie directed by the Coen brothers.
Here's a few movies I think more people should have seen: Citizen Ruth(1996)....Laura Dern plays an out of control pregnant drugaddict Gegen die Wand(2004)...Sibel Kekillis "first" movie, and she is fantastic Singapore Sling(1990)...b&w crazy Greek cultfilm Mixed Blood(1984)...Paul Morrissey's latino gangster tale The Lost(2006)...harrowing serial killer tale loosely based on true events