Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Poor Showtime. Forever in the shadow of HBO in the realm of premium cable TV options. Seemingly always playing catch-up. They released their standalone streaming service (simply called “Showtime” for whatever reason) three months after HBO released HBO Now, yet you never really hear about the former. We here at Decider even gave Showtime a relatively cold shoulder when we compared its Amazon Prime add-on to that of Starz.
It may well be time for a mea culpa, though. While HBO Now is still the shit and the Starz add-on to Prime is wildly beneficial (especially if you like big movies from the past few years), the charms of Showtime — and its for-cable-subscribers cousin Showtime Anytime — are becoming more and more apparent, most especially in its selection of feature films.
There’s a distinct ’90s flavor to the Showtime movie arsenal, and that is just fine with us. More recent hits like Boyhood and Spring Breakers are offered, of course, but some of its most welcome offerings come from the ’90s: Quiz Show, Trainspotting, Glengarry Glen Ross, Sling Blade, Pulp Fiction, and Reservoir Dogs are but a few. It’s a strong selection, particularly for anyone who grew up steeped in the heyday of the Miramax indies.
In recognition of how underrated we’re finding Showtime to be, here’s a selection of some of their most underrated films, all of which are available to stream today.
'The Grifters' (1990)
Why It’s Underrated: Unlike its fellow 1990 Oscar films — Goodfellas, Ghost, Pretty Woman, Misery —it’s faded significantly from the public consciousness.
Why It’s Great: Anjelica Huston and John Cusack play a terrifically fucked up pair of mother-and-son con artists, while Annette Bening is every bit the breakthrough performer she was heralded to be as the woman who comes between them.
'Sneakers' (1992)
Why It’s Underrated: Most likely the light-caper vibe of the film has allowed it to fade, particularly after critics only kind-of liked it. It’s had a decent second life on cable television, but it still feels under-appreciated for how great it is.
Why It’s Great: An all-star cast — Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, Mary McDonnall, River Phoenix, David Strathairn — set out to abscond with a decryption device that the world’s governments are scrambling to control. It’s comparable to Ocean’s Eleven in its springy tone, and it actually showed some foresight from its perch in 1992 about the surveillance state.
'Dead Man' (1996)
Why It’s Underrated: Director Jim Jarmusch’s films are almost always underrated by definition. Small, strange, and defiantly singular, they’re essentially actively opposed to madd appeal.
Why It’s Great: Johnny Depp plays an accountant traveling out to a frontier town when a twist of fate sends him on the run. Jarmusch’s typical raggedy band of supporting cast members (including Robert Mitchum’s final film performance) lend color and crucial weirdness to the proceedings.
'The Last Days of Disco' (1998)
Why It’s Underrated: Whit Stillman’s movies always float just under the radar, and while The Last Days of Disco was his most mainstream effort to date, it was also considered a financial disappointment, making back only $3 million of its $8 million budget, and Stillman didn’t direct another feature until 2012’s Damsels in Distress.
Why It’s Great: That trademark sparkling Stillman dialogue is put to fantastic effect here, plumbing the impending wasteland of early ’80s New York and the tragic yuppies who assume they’re figuring it all out. Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny are aces as the central pair of best friends, a dynamic they’re currently repeating in theaters in Stillman’s Love & Friendship.
'The Talented Mr. Ripley' (1999)
Why It’s Underrated: A staggering confluence of follow-up hangovers — Matt Damon post-Good Will Hunting; Gwyneth Paltrow post-Shakespeare in Love; Anthony Minghella post-English Patient — basically doomed this movie to too-high expectations. Only Jude Law escaped looking better than he had before.
Why It’s Great: Looking back at this movie with any kind of hindsight reveals a staggeringly effective character study in sociopathy, starring an actor who is almost too all-American handsome for the audience to accept as a climber. Minghella is good at building suspense and even better at muddying up the audience’s morality while never once losing sight of Tom Ripley’s poisonous sense of self.
'Tape' (2001)
Why It’s Underrated: Perhaps Richard Linklater’s least heralded film (it’s certainly his least lucrative, having pulled in under $500k at the box office), the film shows its theatrical roots and is too stagebound to have made much of an impact as a film.
Why It’s Great: The kinds of moral dilemmas that characterize plays of this type may not be as visually dynamic on the screen, but they still offer a great showcase for acting, and Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman all deliver. It’s a story that sneaks up on you.
'Miami Vice' (2006)
Why It’s Underrated: 47% on Rotten Tomatoes is a start. $63 million domestic off of a $135 million budget is another.
Why It’s Great: Michael Mann’s unlikely adaptation of the ’80s TV hit began amassing a cult reputation almost before it was finished being a failure. Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly, and Time Out New York were among the critics to place it on their year-end top 10 lists. It’s probably the movie that makes the most of Mann’s 2000s adventures in digital photography.
'Away from Her' (2007)
Why Its Underrated: Sarah Polley made her directorial debut in this quiet, sad story about an elderly couple, one of whom is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Julie Christie got an Oscar nomination for her lead performance, though she lost to Marion Cotillard. It only pulled in $4.5 million at the box-office, though, and it’s largely been overlooked in the years since.
Why It’s Great: Beyond Christie’s performance, which is an all-time for an actress who had quite the career up to that point, Polley’s storytelling is sweet and unadorned, showing the kind of confidence that defies her age. And while he was definitely overshadowed by Christie during that year’s Oscar season, Gordon Pinsent was every bit her equal as her husband.
'Bug' (2007)
Why It’s Underrated: Bug really fell victim to its own advertisements, which essentially promised a creature horror film about some kind of bug that descends from alien space. Audiences were thrown, then, to find a psychological thriller that was pretty much entirely about paranoia and not payoff.
Why It’s Great: If those bug-hungry audiences had gone in with an open mind, they’d have found a movie that is almost unbearable in its tension, featuring a great performance by Ashley Judd and a transcendent one by Michael Shannon. It’s plenty horrific, especially if you’re more likely to be freaked out by the seemingly sweet but weird guy in the apartment next door.
'Inside Llewyn Davis' (2013)
Why It’s Underrated: Despite rave reviews, it was all but shut out of the Oscars, including a snub for the lead performance by Oscar Isaac, only one of this decade’s biggest star-making performances.
Why It’s Great: The Coen Brothers sometimes revel in the misanthropy of their characters, and Llewyn Davis is surely a miserable son of a bitch. But the Coens do a masterful job of creating a world around Llewyn, one which aggrieves him and alienates him at every turn. Llewyn may well be the only real person in that world of phonies and harpies and fools, but it creates a full portrait of a man and artist.
