Overlooked films of the last decade - Page 4

When I saw this title for this post I immedialty thought of united 93

I think Munich is overlooked.  It was really a great film, but not one that seems to be brought up in any regard.  I think besides being a great "historic" film, it is also a captivating spy thriller.  Really makes you scratch your head when you think the same filmmaker went on to make Indiana Jones 4.

I believe someone else brought this up already, but A Bittersweet Life is an excellent movie. It's everything a crime film should be. The action pieces are unbelievable. Lee Byung Hun gives a great performance, as does everyone else in the movie. Kim Jee Woon is probably my favorite Korean director, even above Park Chan Wook, and that film is the reason why. 

 

Oh and 3-Iron.

1. Frailty. Bill Paxton directed this gem that plays out like Hitchcock and Serling had a demented love child. An absolutely brilliant film before the turn happens, and jaw dropping after it does. Stay away from spoilers if you haven't seen it yet. Plus, Matthew McConaughey can act!

2. Broken Flowers. Bill Murray at his dramatic best.

3. Outlanders. One part Viking movie, one part sci fi movie, one part Beowulf. Mix together and play it straight.

4. Black Dynamite. A 70s blaxploitation film made in 2009. A better grindhouse experience than Grindhouse and furiously funny, too.

5. There Will Be Blood. Not overlooked by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly over shadowed by No Country For Old Men. It still surprises me that TWBB isn't hailed as the masterpiece of modern cinema that it is.

I want more people talking about The Dreamers.

I don't think anything in this critique is true.  And the idea that any movie has to have "one cohesive statement" is ludicrous.  I'm not even sure what that means.  Are you trying to argue that this movie has nothing to say?  Because if that's the case, you're still wrong. 
 

 

 

I agree. I didn't like "Babel" much either, especially compared to "21 Grams". I really liked the story with the Japanese girl (and I think she definitely deserved her Oscar nomination), but didn't like the other stories so much. I almost think the whole movie could have been about her, because she was the only character I cared about. Maybe her story wouldn't have been as powerful if it had been stretched out, though. Regarding Penn, I'm also not too keen on his acting most of the time. He was annoyingly over-the-top in "Mystic River". My two favourite performances of his were in "21 Grams" and "Dead Man Walking". 

 

 

 

No offense, but I found this movie quite ridiculous. I borrowed it from a friend whose taste in movies I can usually trust and I thought it was laughable. It's one of those movies where I know I'm supposed to take it seriously, but I just find it absurd. At first I was laughing at how badly it was trying to be chilling, then I felt bad because I knew it was making an honest effort and it's not badly made. I'm trying really hard not to sound like a dick, but honestly I thought it really didn't work.

 

 

Good pick. Incredibly intense and haunting movie. I think it made sure that for life I'll always be interested in what Eva Green does. I'll never forget her harrowing performance in this. I also dug "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (for the most part). There were parts where I got annoyed about how much it overdoes the standard "indie quirk" stuff, but at the same time I do think it had some really nicely written and acted insights.

 

For example, the scene where July fantasizes that the man she's interested in and a woman are declaring their undying love for each other, when in fact he's actually bickering with his ex. It's a very simultaneously funny and sadly true depiction of how selfish and pessimistic being in love can make people. I thought some of the performance art stuff was neat too, like the "me" and "you" shoes, and the metaphor about the walk at the end was sweet.

Edited by Naisu Baddi - 4/12/11 at 9:45pm

I highly agree! Both great films that more people need to see. 3-Iron is one of those films that you will think about for days after seeing it.

I think Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence is often overlooked. It's beautifully shot, has great natural performances by it's young, amateur cast, and is emotionally hard-hitting.

Whilst I agree that more people should see A Bittersweet Life, it's genuinely fantastic, there's probably an entire book to made about overlooked Korean cinema of the past decade. Some phenomenal work was created there and there are some genuine gems like Welcome to Dongmakgol, Friend, Nowhere to Hide, A Tale of Two Sisters, Musa The Warrior which any genre fan owes themselves to check out. 

Soderbergh's remake of Solaris is pretty great and overlooked, even in a decade that has been very good to sci-fi in general.

 

More people need to see Home. It's an environmental doc that Devin once did a write-up for in a "Watch This Now" article. It's one of the most gorgeously photographed movies I've ever seen(consisting almost entirely of aerial/satellite photography). It's free to watch on many sites, and totally worth it. I own it on DVD, but I can't even begin to imagine how good it looks on Blu.

 

Mostly it's great. The Japanese storyline is the most criticised part of the structure and I agree with that to a point, because it is somewhat more disembodied than the other three, but it doesn't hurt the film to where it ever felt messy or confounding to me. If anything Babel's much more obvious than 21 Grams, especially the first half hour or so of that earlier film. There's one decision - the nanny with the kids - which feels more like a plot contrivance than a character moment, but the other obviously irrational decision is taken by the Morrocan kid. He's a kid. Kids aren't logical, especially under the huge stress he was placed under.

 

It's not a fun movie to watch necessarily, which probably makes what flaws it has harder to bear than a lot of other movies, but the artistry on display from both the actors and behind the lens is dazzling. It's 95% great cinema, and elevated by some of the best performances of the decade.

In speaking about Korean cinema, I saw Bedevilled this week and was quite amazed that 1.It combined two distinctly seperate genres into one satisfying whole (kitchen sink socially conscious drama and slasher movie) and 2. Not many people seem to have seen it and it does not have the acclaim of some other great work from South Korea.

 

Seriously chewers, see this movie!!

So, so many overlooked films. Just a few:

 

2046, dir. Kar-Wai Wong. Wong is celebrated, but sadly, 2046 has not yet earned the love that CHUNGKING EXPRESS and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE have, although it's superior to both of those films. I hope one day the world comes around.

 

A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, dir. Steven Spielberg. Maybe not a great film, but certainly a very good one. Criminally misunderstood.

 

ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU, dir. Shunji Iwai. One of the strongest exercises in cinematic style from recent years. Dazzling.

 

EUREKA, dir. Shinji Aoyama. As far as I'm concerned, one of the Grade A Masterpieces of the past decade, but has languished in obscurity. Hopefully Criterion will do a release one of these days.

Aside from the Soundtrack and visual design I'd be hard pressed to call 2046 superior to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE or CHUNGKING EXPRESS. I think 2046 falters largely because it doesn't really seem to have a key thesis, a key emotional hook, that IN THE MOOD or CHUNGKING have. It's quite an insular work, very philosophical and introverted and as such it's a difficult work to engage with. I really like 2046, but I get why people don't like it.

 

Good call on Lily Chou-Chou though, I was hoping that when Tarantino was singing its praises post Kill Bill it might get a little recognition. If you haven't seen them check out two films called 9 Souls and Last Life in the Universe. Think you might like them.

 

 

 

Edited by Agentsands77 - 4/24/11 at 2:06pm

How about Slither? It got glowing reviews here and I think it's at 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. It didn't do well at the box office, which isn't too surprising. However it hasn't really taken hold as a cult film either.

I remeber it being quite funny with what maybe one of the few times Nathan Fillion will have a leading role on film. Probably what holds it back from cult acceptance lie Shaun of the Dead is the gross factor being turned up to 11.

Funnily enough, Slither got an "11" rating in Finland, which means kids over 11 are able to buy and rent it. One of the weirdest ratings I've ever seen.

 

This movie is awesome! Whenever my wife is leaving the house I always say "Starla"!!! "Don't leave me Starla"!!. My wife's name is Cindy but she gets it cause I made her watch this movie. She hated it. She hates me when I do this around other people.

Kinda falls apart midway through but redeems itself during the gonzo fight scene between Black Dynamite and Tricky Dick. 

 

 

I'm trying to think of a better comedy over the last 10 yrs. Maybe Wet Hot American Summer or Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. 

The Road.  It got dumped by its distributor but damn, probably the best movie I've seen in I don't know how long.  I loved Black Dynamite too.  So funny.  A.I.: Artificial Intelligence has moments of brilliance but also just goes in some wrong directions.  Every time I watch it, I want to love it.  I certainly love parts of it.  There's something so profoundly sad about the story that is not really dealt with in any kind of fully realized way, and I can't help but wonder how Kubrick would have made that movie.  I don't know how else to express it.  But you have to respect what Spielberg tried to do -- it's certainly a noble effort.  I almost wish he'd go back and recut it.