Twenty Bucks (1993)

This was originally written in 1935, but put aside and forgotten about for almost 6 decades. After the screenwriter's death, his son found this forgotten work, read and fell in love with it, and, after updating it for contemporary times, decided to finally have a film made out of it. What we get here is a glimpse into the surprising life and times of a twenty dollar bill and the people that directly and indirectly come into contact with it. It's not a truly unique idea in general, but the use of such a ubiquitous object is. Having it solely focus on the bill would be boring, so what we really get presented with is a look at the lives of the people the bill comes in and out of contact with. They come from all walks of life and economic social classes, so, in effect, this is a clever little film that shows almost the full make up of the denizens of an anonymous American city. Some of the many types of people that get followed include a lottery obsessed homeless woman, an aspiring writer working as a waitress, a veteran thief trying to train an unpredictable new partner, and a groom to be whose not too sure about his father-in-law to be. The characters are made up of an impressive ensemble cast that includes names like Linda Hunt, Christopher Lloyd, Steve Buscemi, Elisabeth Shue, Brendan Fraser, among several others. They all do a pretty decent job, but my favorites are the first three people I mentioned. The film is presented as interwoven vignettes, and, while they're not uniformly great quality-wise, none of them are really terrible. All in all this is a really fun and enjoyable film that's sadly underrated. Do yourself a favor and look it up.