Top 10 Small Films

Top Ten Small Films

Here our list of the Top Ten Small Films. This is not crappy linkbait. Everyone here at the Production Blog put serious thought and effort into creating this list. We even including a secret film that probably no one outside my group of friends has ever seen and that is one of our favorites. I hope that you will take a moment to take a look at our list of the Top Ten Small Films of all time.


1. Basquiat

Basquiat is the Story of Jean Michel Basquiat who was a graffiti artist whose meteoric rise through the art world proved that you can be rich and famous as an artist in your own lifetime. Basquiat became something more than just an artist, more than just famous, He became infamous and if you can do that you can become a legend.

When I was in art school, Basquiat had largely been forgotten about but me and another guy utilized a lot of his techniques in our artistic works.

Yes, I am an infamous blogger and I love to blog. But I would much rather be a novelist and even more than that, I would much rather be a painter. I am not the only one. A bunch of famous authors recently came out and stated that their true passion was painting. You can see a video from that show by clicking here.

In the movie, Gary Oldman told Basquiat that his audience hadn’t even been born yet. But it has definitely been born now. You can see Basquiat’s influence everywhere. I am not bitter that I wasn’t discovered. The art world is even harder to break into than the entertainment world. I count myself as being lucky that I made it as a blogger. Now if I can make it as a filmmaker or professional entertainment writer, I will be really happy.

As for the art, I am very glad to see Basquiat influencing the art world. As a devotee of the style, it makes the art world all that more pleasurable to me. It gives me a sense of self worth and validation to see paintings similar (and better) than my own in galleries.

Basquiat is brilliantly cast. David Bowie is a better Warhol than Warhol was, and any movie with Gary Oldman in it is just about guaranteed to be gold. This film has a plot that anyone can enjoy, artist or lay person, plus it has cinematic psychedelica that makes the movie very memorable. They do a good job of illustrating the mythology that surrounded the painter as well.

Don’t watch the following video as it contains the ending to the movie. This is one of those rare posts that I wrote just for myself. And my painting of Basquiat would not be complete without this footage. I just hope that I have created something beautiful.

This Basquiat Video is of Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) relating the story that Julian Schabel wrote for Basquiat after his death. I think that this was probably the most fitting tribute to Basquiat possible short of spray-painting a wall somewhere.

2. Kicked in the Head

Kicked in the Head is one of those brilliant small films that slips by everybody. It would have slipped past me had I not been watching the IFC late at night about 10 years ago. This is your chance to check out a very humorous dark comedy

Kicked in the Head is a little known small film starring “Cousin Eddy” from Quentin Tarantino’s “True Romance” and the great TV show, “Grounded for Life.” Kicked in the head also stars True Romance’s Michael Rapaport.

Kicked in the Head is about a dream-filled writer following a destiny he read off of a fortune cookie. But after he comes across a stash of narcotics his destiny takes a strange turn and he ends up sleeping with a flight attendant played by Linda Fiorentino.

Keep in mind this is a small film. But they did a lot with what they had and they created a very funny and quirky dark comedy that I would recommend to anyone. This isn’t one of my malfeasant and misshapen marketing ploys. This is a little cinematic secret of mine that I am sharing with all of you.

3. The Professional

Leon - The Professional probably doesn’t count as a small film at this point but when I watched it, the film was a cult classic. This was long before it became a mainstream, action-hero favorite. In France, the film debuted under the title: Leon the Professional. I put this movie on the list because it is a movie that everyone should see. I am trying to limit this list to movies that can’t be missed rather than just a fluff top ten article.

This movie debuted one of the great actresses of our time, Natalie Portman who recently did a nude scene. The Professional was Natalie Portman’s first film and it is probably her most brilliant. Someone deserves a lot of credit for starting her off in such an ambitious role for a girl her age. She was only like 12 or 14 at the time of the film.

Natalie Portman plays a young girl whose family is murdered by a corrupt cop, Gary Oldman over a dispute over drugs. She takes solace in the apartment of an Italian hit man named Leon, Jean Reno. She then convinces Leon to teach her the art of “cleaining” as he calls it in order to avenge her murdered family.

The Professional is Gary Oldman’s second appearance on my top ten small films list and his performance in this one is better than Basquiat. This is the movie that really put him on the map. He plays the villain in this film, a corrupt cop with a love of classical music comparable to Alex’s in A Clockwork Orange.

4. A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly was the latest film by Richard Linklater who also gave us “A Waking Life” and Dazed and Confused. The film was also the first film to be rotoscoped to perfection. Rotoscoping is a form of animation where film stills are painted over via computer or by hand. I want to write an article on rotoscoping that I will eventually hyperlink to this post.

A Scanner Darkly saved my life. It is a film that condemns all aspect of drugs including: Law Enforcement, Rehabilitation programs, Alcoholics Anonymous, Drug Culture and of course the Drug itself. The only way to avoid a “slow death” from addiction is to never take drugs in the first place. It doesn’t paint a very hopeful picture of a drug-addicted life. But take heart: it also says that if you quit doing drugs, that “someday a long time from now that you will see as you did before.”

A Scanner Darkly saved me from the “dark world where I dwelled.” I’ve been off drugs all chemicals for nearly 10 years but I was a dry drunk. This movie showed me that the drug culture was bankrupt and that I wasn’t missing anything. I realized that family and friends are more important. Here’s a trick to any of you who are attempting to get off drugs or alcohol. Just find something else to do. These days, I keep myself so busy blogging, studying, working, or planning my film that I rarely even think about getting inebriated.

The best part about this movie was that the acting was so good. Then again, these weren’t hard roles for Keanu Reeves, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Downey Jr. I don’t think that eloquent junkies are too far of a stretch from their real lives. All of them are actors and all of them have had trouble with drugs.

Personal lives aside; however, this film was an excellent adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel. It doesn’t follow the story line word for word but it captures the same flavor and still says something about the human condition. For those of you who don’t know who Philip K. Dick is, he is the author behind films like Blade Runner and Total Recall. He also wrote the story for Paycheck starring Ben Affleck but they butchered that story so badly that I hesitate to mention it.

5. Brick

Brick bombed at the box office when it was the only good film in the entire theater. This sounds like an overstatement but this film was released in 2006 amidst a litany of crap. Neither of the only two other good films (The Departed and A Scanner Darkly) they made in 2006 had come out yet.

Brick is a Pulp Noir story told in modern day times. The strange setting really enhances the film as well. The setting of Brick is a modern day high school and it is very weird to see modern kids running around talking like 1920’s pulp fiction characters. This coupled with all the familiar noir characters like Femme Fatales, Brain, Anti-heroes etcetera.

Noir is making a resurgence in fiction and film which really makes me excited. Being a pulp fiction writer (when I write fiction) I am glad that the market for Pulp is returning.

Brick is about a teenage loner played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who investigates the disappearance of his girlfriend and infiltrates the high school’s drug world in order to fnd answers.

Brick is one of the only 3 good movies to come out in 2006 and we highly recommend it. But I do have a tip for you. Do not watch this film drunk. Before going to the theater, I had a rare couple of drinks and let me tell you watching this film was tuff. The eloquent and noir slang-filled dialogue coupled with a plot driven film made it hard but it was worth it.

And let me tell you, If I strain that hard to pay attention to a movie when I am drunk it has to be a good film.

6. Dead Man

Dead Man is a little known film starring Jonny Depp with a Radiohead soundtrack. I know that the film has roots in other genres but I have never seen anything else like Dead Man in my entire life.

I think that’s what makes Johnny Depp such a great actor. Most high-dollar actors would never consider a part like this but Johnny Depp will take a part in a small film if he likes the role. Of course, he still goes for the moneymaking blockbusters like Pirates but he’s not afraid to take a risk on a small film. Even on the high dollar fluff movies, he excels. The whole Pirates franchise would have bombed without Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush.

In Dead Man, Johnny Depp plays an accountant on the run in the old west after murdering a man. He meets up with an eccentric outcast Indian named Nobody who helps prepare Johnny Depp for his trip to the spiritual world while having a lot of cool adventures.

Nobody befriends Johnny Depp because Depp’s character is named William Blake and Nobody mistakes him for the poet whom Nobody is a fan of (pun intended). This film might be considered a western but unlike other westerns the film is very respectful to Indians including some inside jokes aimed at a Native American audience.

I’ll conclude Dead Man with a little movie trivia. Dead Man was Robert Mitchum’s final role. Mitchum played the Industrialist in the town of Machine.

7. Miss Potter

Miss Potter is the most magical movie that I have seen since Finding Neverland. When I attended the premiere of this movie, I thought that was going to sleep through a chick flick but I was pleasantly surprised by what a great film this was.

Somewhere a long the way I have become a pirate and that once a long time ago I went to a Montessori School. What does that have to do with Miss Potter you ask? That school was located just adjacent to Farmer Macgregor’s garden where Peter Rabbit had many of his adventures. Contrary to what the book would have you believe, Peter never learned his lesson. I saw Peter filching carrots on several occasions.

Miss Potter recreated this world with much of the same magic that I enjoyed in Finding Neverland. The subtle animations and performances by Renee Zellwegger and Ewan Macgregor made this “chick flick” one of the best movies that I have seen.

8. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams

Akira Kurosawa's Dreamsis an acid trip on film. It is actually a series of cinematic dreams that Akira Kurosawa had over the span of his lifetime. But if you are not a film student, Kurosawa fanatic, or LSD user you might have some trouble with this one.

But then again you might not. I loved this film even before I was a film student. The film is actually a series of 8 short films. The really neat thing about this film is that it takes us through the entire spectrum of Japan’s transition from a feudal society full of traditions into a modern world dealing with environmental issues and life after the atomic bomb. If you would like to know more about dreams just click on the link in the next paragraph.

This is Akira Kurosawa’s Dream’s second appearance on the Production Blog and if you would like to read a bit more of an expanded post on this interesting film, please click here.

9. The Boondock Saints

Boondock Saints has since become a mainstream classic. But when I first saw this movie it was a Blockbuster Exclusive which meant that you could only find the movie hidden away in the back of the Blockbuster video along with other films whose distribution was solely limited to Blockbuster videos.

Boondock Saints was limited to Blockbuster despite the fact that it was probably the greatest action film since Pulp Fiction. The reason that it was released straight to video is because the films creator and director, was so abrasive (basically he was a dick) that everyone in Hollywood couldn’t stand to work with him. So the film was sent to video and Troy Duffy was banished from Hollywood forever and forced to languish in obscurity.

Back in the day, I actually had a confrontation with Troy Duffy. He took his Boondock images and set up shop on the same Blogging Platform I was using. I mentioned that I liked the film and would love to get a Boondock Saints tattoo similar to the characters

He basically called me lame and pathetic. Maybe he was right, but even I know that insulting and condescending fans is bad business. I got the last word in on that confrontation though. I won’t tell you what I said because it was pretty mean. Basically, I said to enjoy his success because he wasn’t ever going to work in Hollywood ever again, and if you check out his IMDB page, you will see that I was right. He does occasionally star in documentaries as an example of what not to do. I just hope that I do a much better job than he did when the time comes.

Now I don’t want to come across as a total dick. The truth is that I do have a notorious reputation for publicity stunts and blogging wars. But I am also known for being one of the friendliest bloggers in the blogosphere. You can email me anytime or ask me questions. I can’t pass up a good blog-fight however. But, please realize that its just business for me. Controversy creates attention and exposure. I rarely engage in such things these days either.

I really don’t know what to tell you about the Boondock Saints except that if you haven’t seen it you need to click here immediately and purchase it. I have never met anyone (with the exception of a couple of chicks) who didn’t love this movie.

10. Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is the last film on my list. I’m not sure if this qualifies as a small film but it goes on my list because it is awesome. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Donnie Darko, a highly intelligent (well he knows a lot about Smurf Morphology) but extremely screwed up little monkey.

Donnie Darko’s sharp wit is actually what makes this film. I suppose the insane plot is good because it plays along with Donnie’s skewed vision of the world. Honestly, though it’s the screwed up situations and cynicism that makes this film so good.

It’s hard for me to describe the plot of this film because well it is a bit screwed up. I understand it but I have a little trouble putting it into words. Plus I like to sprinkle in quotes from time to time and I haven’t done that yet in this post. So according to the IMDB Donnie Darko is about:

“A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.”

Okay I have to admit that I could have summarized the movie, but that plot summarymaks me laugh. I am not sure if I would watch a film by reading a description like that. But having seen Donnie Darko, I can give it my personal endorsement. However, I have to issue a caution on this film. If you don’t like dark, weird, and downright crazy films, this is not the movie for you.

Well that wraps up our Top Ten Small Films of all time. I hope that you enjoyed reading the list as much as we enjoyed writing it. If you would like to see some more of our favorite films you can click the link below or check out some of the articles on the Production Blog. Thank you as always for reading. And if there are any small films that you all enjoy, please leave a comment and tell us about it. If we get a lot of comments we will do a reader top ten list as a follow up.

source: http://blueskeltonproductions.blogspot.com