Ozploitation - There are some fairly obvious picks here (Brian Trenchard-Smith's filmography alone could make its own list -- Stunt Rock, BMX Bandits, Dead End Drive-In, etc.), but perusing a list of widely accepted Ozploitation canon, I just couldn't pass this one up.
HARLEQUIN (aka DARK FORCES) (1980)
I've written about this one before, from BNAT 15 (the "Wolf of Wall Street" year), but I'll take any excuse to talk about this movie. Robert Powell (best known for playing the title role in Jesus of Nazareth) plays Gregory, a Rasputin-type and a role originally written for David Bowie. You'll have to squint pretty hard to tell this is Australian (not uncommon for Australian films, as I understand), especially as the cast features the British Powell, fellow Brit David Hemmings and American actor Broderick Crawford, who's not even pretending to act like he's not from Philadelphia. It's a basic Rasputin narrative -- Gregory is a faith healer and advisor who insinuates himself into the powerful Rast family, and shenanigans and strage magicks ensue. Some fabulous costumes (for Powell, at least) and some amazing 80s-TV-movie-level special effects, along with some occasionally very strange dialogue ("Strip poker, anyone?"), make this more entertaining than it probably should be. And that last shot is to die for.
Blaxploitation - Again, a lot of options here, and while I'd love to just do Putney Swope again, this is an underseen gem from an icon of the subgenre.
FRIDAY FOSTER (1975)
Pam Grier had already played her most iconic characters (save Jackie Brown, of course) when she made this movie. Based on the early 1970s comic book character of the same name, Friday Foster doesn't very closely resemble the comics, but is more like the filmmakers plucked Ms. Friday out of the comics and dropped her into a blaxploitation movie. Which is still entertaining. Foster is a former model turned fashion photographer who witnesses an assassination attempt and ultimately finds herself targeted. Foster is a great character, and it's great to see Pam Grier in a role like this that relies less on the ass-kicking (though there's still a bit of that) and more on other resources. And while Grier is the main attraction here, there are a bunch of legends in this movie, including Yaphet Kotto, Carl Weathers, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus and Ted Lange.
Hicksploitation - I went a bit unconventional last time with The Wicker Man, but I'm going back to American hicks for this list.
POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975)
Hoo boy, here's a movie that feels tragically appropriate right now, as repulsive as it is. And make no mistake, it is repulsive, even though I love it. Leslie Uggams plays a character not unlike her real-life persona, a crossover superstar, straddling the worlds of music and acting. On her way to get off the grid for a two-week vacation, she *really* gets off the grid after her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and she's forced to take refuge in a small town that is ... not exactly hospitable. This is a rough one -- even the trailer might be too much. Brutal rape and harassment, cock fights, dog murder, and a climax where our protagonist is genuinely trapped, with no hope of rescue. It's a tough watch, but it's so well made (with some of the best editing in 1970s cinema, seriously) and compelling, especially the balls-to-the-wall finale. What really puts this in the hicksploitation hall of fame, though, is the presence of not only Slim Pickens but also Dub Taylor -- the Jupiter and Saturn of hillbilly stars. The cast also boasts Shelley Winters and Ted "Lurch" Cassidy. This has always been a sterling example of grimy, nasty rural cinema, but with everything going on right now, the story of a Black woman who is harassed relentlessly with no authority in this town to look after her interests -- most especially not law enforcement -- feels frighteningly relevant.
Drugsploitation - Loads of pot movies to choose from, but I'm going to go with an LSD flick (sort of).
BLUE SUNSHINE (1977)
It only takes about 10 minutes for this movie to go from bland, white 1970s mush to flat-out crazypants. This movie follows a bunch of late 20- to early 30-somethings who took a bad strain of LSD in college in the 60s and find themselves, ten years later, losing all their hair and turning into homocidal maniacs. The worst delayed trip ever. This is a pretty cool conspiracy plot as our main character tries to track down the original person who sold the drug (the titular "Blue Sunshine"). There are some truly outrageous sequences -- notably one where a babysitter tries to kill the children she's watching with a butcher knife for asking for soda (to be fair, the kids are exceedingly annoying). There's a political subplot, as the drug distributor in question is now running for Congress, which adds some more drama (and fun campaign paraphernalia). And for no reason I can figure out, there is a significant chunk of the movie that features celebrity puppets, including puppet Sinatra, and puppet Streisand.
Wild Card - I had a blurb on 1973's The Baby all typed up until I remembered that I used it for another Five Because a couple years ago. Which is good because now I can talk about...
LUCKY SEVEN (1986)
Part of a disturbing number of children's martial arts films in the 1980s, Lucky Seven stands apart from a lot of kidsploitation like Bugsy Malone, where you have a world consisting entirely of kids, who all do adult things with no actual adults to be found. Lucky Seven has plenty of adults, most of whom are at odds with our charismatic youngsters. Lucky Seven has a pretty messy plot (that actually reminds me a lot of BMX Bandits), but plot isn't the point here. There's a lot of goofy kid stuff with terrible disguises and pranks, but there's also a shocking amount of violence for a movie like this, including several scenes of these children getting absolutely destroyed. It's quite startling to see these children fighting (and frequently having their asses handed to them by) the adults in this movie. I mean, it's BRUTAL. This is a KIDS MOVIE. And this is the 1980s -- not as wild as the 1970s, by any means, but still not an era known for filmmakers taking great pains to keep people safe on set. There's a shot of a little girl who can't be older than 10 going slo-mo through a glass window and landing face first on the concrete. No way she didn't spend some time in the hospital after that.
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