Great but Unusual Movies you might want to see
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Dir: Milos Forman
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louis Fletcher, Michael Berryman
A criminal pleads insanity after getting into trouble again and once in the mental institution rebels against the oppressive nurse and rallies up the scared patients.
Ordinary People (1980)
Dir: Robert Redford
Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Dir: Adrian Lyne
Stars: Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Anne Archer
A married man’s one night stand comes back to haunt him when that lover begins to stalk him and his family.
Rain Man (1988)
Dir: Barry Levinson
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt’s father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Dir: Lasse Hallstrom
Stars: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis
Gilbert has to care for his brother Arnie and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life.
Benny & Joon (1993)
Dir: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Stars: Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn
A mentally ill young woman finds her love in an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
Dir: James Mangold
Stars: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall
Based on writer Susanna Kaysen’s account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the 1960s.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman
A psychologically troubled novelty supplier is nudged towards a romance with an English woman, all the while being extorted by a phone-sex line run by a crooked mattress salesman, and purchasing stunning amounts of pudding.
Brothers (2009)
Dir: Jim Sheridan
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire
A young man comforts his older brother’s wife and children after he goes missing in Afghanistan.
Reign Over Me (2007)
Dir: Mike Binder
Stars: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith
A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.