Pretty much every movie related website on the Internet has come up with some sort of Best of the Decade list over the past month. But while the majority of them focused on straight up “Best of” lists featuring relatively well known films, I figured in the spirit of this website that I would instead focus on the lesser known films that have been made over the past ten years.

But one question I had to figure out was just how should I whittle down films as “Long Tail” films. Plenty of films started out as smaller films that eventually found their audience, while there is certainly a fair share of films that were initially given a wide release. So I decided I would use two different determining factors to help figure out which films would be considered part of the long tail.

The first is the amount of screens the film was released on during its theatrical run here in the US. I decided to go with a relatively small number of screens as the ceiling (100 at the films widest release) and that any film that broke that would simply be dismissed. This number essentially acts as the films initial chance to gain potential viewers. Films eliminated by this include The Proposition (158 screens), City of God (242 screens) and The Triplets of Bellville (463 screens).

Secondly I went off of reviews on IMDb.com. Once again I selected a fairly small number of reviews as the ceiling (no more than 10K). This number reflects the film’s total audience, as the films that are more popular with mainstream audiences, or those that have rabid fan followings, typically break that number quite easily. Film eliminated by this number include such seemingly smaller films like Oldboy (28 screens, 87016 votes), Dead Man’s Shoes (2 screens, 16286 votes) and Let the Right One In (53 screens, 45413 votes).

While still far from a perfect system, this seemed to work pretty well in eliminating a fairly large chunk of lesser known films, making it a far more manageable task for me to select some of my favorites from what remained. One interesting note, this process seemed to favor documentaries as twelve ended up making the list. So while the quality of documentaries has grown throughout the decade, it still seems like the form still has a ways to go to capture the public’s attention.

And without further ado, I give you this decades 30 Best Long Tail Films.

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One of the real treats of this site is trying to find obscure and weird foreign films to watch. I’ve been watching movies long enough that finding obscure American and English language films is a relatively easy proposition, and on the Internet it has become a bit of a cottage industry unto itself. But finding obscure foreign films? Therein lies a challenge.

Now there is a catch to that as well. If someone wants to know about foreign films soon to be sent over the pond, all one needs to do is read Twitch on a daily basis to find the most up to date films and your work is done. Sure they lean a little heavy to genre films, but nobody covers new foreign releases better then Twitch, and it really isn’t even close.

But I didn’t start Where the Long Tail Ends to compete with Twitch. Myself or anyone else would be a fool to try. Rather, I wanted to find films that were bizarre enough that they never much registered with the majority of film goers when they were initially released. There is a wealth of great films out there just waiting to be found, and while I may not have enjoyed Tierische Liebe or Lunacy all that much, I’m quite glad that I watched them. Of course, then there is Schramm.

I have known about Schramm for about two years. As far as German horror goes it is rather infamous for how disturbing it is which, considering the notoriety of German underground cinema, is rather impressive. Schramm was one of a handful of films that were the initial inspiration for me to start this site. Films that caught my eye but I was reluctant to take a chance on. Schramm is not particularly hard to track down, but until recently wasn’t easy to find without buying a brand new copy either. It would take effort, and considering the pay off meant that one would most likely be revolted and disturbed out of their skull, meant that I wouldn’t be putting much effort into finding Schramm any time soon.

So, of course, it found me.

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After reading a recent review of the Independent film Shuttle by Star Tribune film critic Colin Covert, I may or may not have challenged his sanity and his sobriety in this post. But in an effort to be fair I decided to attend the film anyways and see if Colin actually knew what he was talking about. The result?

I’m sorry to say that Colin Covert, film critic for the Star Tribune, and self-proclaimed “SANEST MAN ALIVEEEEE!” was right, Shuttle is a decent little thriller that does more with its premise then a certain recent big budget film that had a similar low brow concept and rode it to a $100 million American Box Office take.

It helps that Shuttle takes a truly absurd premise (an airport shuttle driver kidnaps his 5 passengers all while driving) and milks it for all it is worth and that the two primary leads, Tony Curran (Red Road) and Peyton List (Mad Men) are actually talented actors. Curran in particular is someone who really should be better known, and if you haven’t watched Red Road make sure to as soon as possible. It is a masterpiece.

Oh sure the film has plenty of holes and numerous continuity errors, but the plot whips along and the actors totally sell their roles. The film isn’t whip smart by any means, but it is performing at a level far greater then would be expected of such low grade fare. As an added bonus, the ending is fantastic and really helps drive home the film. Shuttle isn’t great art, but it is a pretty nice genre flick.

But make no mistake, even if he was correct in this instance, I’m still not sold on Colin’s sanity.