An unreliable narrator is one whose recounting of the story has questionable accuracy. A narrator can be unreliable for many reasons: addiction, denial about their realities, intellectual disabilities, or they may simply be characters who were created to be liars. One novel that employs an unreliable narrator is Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time." An example of a movie with an unreliable narrator would be "Forrest Gump." If you get a chance, take a look at the script. Why is Forrest an unreliable narrator? How does his dialogue help perpetuate that identity? Is it still possible to distinguish his unique speech from others simply by reading the written dialogue?
Your answers may surprise you. You can read the script here: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Forrest-Gump.html
A good example of a short story that uses dialogue to forward the plot and flesh out the characters is Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants." A good exercise to strengthen your skills at dialogue is to try and use it as Hemingway does, not simply to inform the reader by letting important information be exchanged to another character, or to decorate the piece with witticisms, but to really add another dimension to the story. Also, listening to people speak and really being attuned to how they interact is always helpful in making your written dialogue sound more natural.
Also, if you're looking to read a novel with very strong and powerful dialogue, Arundhati Roy's "The God of Small Things" is not only brilliantly crafted, but it also happens to be my favorite book of all time.
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