2010 Calvin Awards: Best Overlooked Film
February 10, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Our choice for Best Overlooked Film of the year is The Hurt Locker. As I said above, the rules for this category are that in order for a title to be eligible, it has to earn less than $25 million domestically and Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece currently sits at almost exactly half of that mark, $12.6 million. The problem facing our voters is that as awards season has unfolded, it's gone from being virtually unknown to being a co-favorite in the Best Picture and Best Director categories alongside Avatar, a film that has made, oh, about $2 billion more worldwide. Under the rules of the category, The Hurt Locker absolutely qualifies, but our staff realizes that calling it an overlooked film at this point is pushing the term's usage to its logical extreme. Perhaps this is why the balloting was closer than first anticipated. As we moved closer to the deadline, the voting total for The Hurt Locker actually declined (!) somewhat as people reconsidered whether the spirit of the rule was being violated even if the letter of the law was not. Even so, we obviously have no problem saying that The Hurt Locker is a cinematic masterpiece and a one of a kind viewing experience. As I have told friends, it takes the final climactic events of United 93 and manages to evoke that sort of tension for the entire length of the film save for one dull moment in a grocery store. And that dialing down of the adrenaline is an intentional usage of a change-up to demonstrate how the primary character faces trauma every other moment of his life. The Hurt Locker is quite possibly the most intense movie viewing experience of the 2000s and across the board triumph in movie making. We highly recommend it, even if we realize our terminology is shaky when we state that it is the Best Overlooked Film of the year.
If you want an interesting bit of box office trivia, our second place selection, Adventureland, actually earned more during its initial domestic release than The Hurt Locker. That certainly doesn't feel like an accurate evaluation of the awareness level of each film, does it? Nonetheless, the Kristen Stewart/Jesse Eisenberg semi-romantic comedy about 1980s teens working a summer job at a low budget amusement park is exactly the sort of unheralded movie this category seeks to highlight. Having recently watched the film for the first time, I was blown away by director Greg Mottola's ability to take a cast comprised of people I am not inclined to like (save for Ryan Reynolds) and make them into a group of individuals in whom I fostered a deep emotional investment. Most surprisingly, all of the cartoon-ish character behavior that is a staple of the disaffected teen rom-com genre is thrown out the window here. All of the cast members behave believably and are given logical character development, even for the times when they fail. It's a blueprint example of drama created logically and within the confines of realism for each core character. Between Superbad and this film, Greg Mottola has proven himself as one of the finest directors of organically funny comedy. Don't let the fact that Superbad made exponentially more money fool you into believe it's the better film, either. It's not. Adventureland is the deeper, more introspective movie while still bringing the funny on a frequent basis.
Even if you don't like Wes Anderson films as a rule, BOP believes that Fantastic Mr. Fox is a title you will love anyway. The stop-motion comedy about an accomplished thief whose wife asks him to go straight is a worthy adaptation of the Roald Dahl story and on a par with his much more recognizable Willy Wonka films. No, the film doesn't have Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp, but it does have the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep, which is impressive enough in its own right. What Fantastic Mr. Fox manages to do that is most impressive, however, is translate the mannerisms of most Wes Anderson films into a children's story without overwhelming the proceedings with his odd neurosis and character details. Whereas The Darjeeling Limited was overwhelmed by personal tics, this animated format lends itself well to the depths of detail for which Anderson is known. The end result is a strikingly deep connection with the animal characters, even the ones who find our heroic fox less than fantastic.
Away We Go and Moon are other top five selections. The former film is written by BOP Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, a married couple who produce the highly recommended magazine, The Believer. Their tale of a roadtrip featuring soon to be parents is a celebration of quirky behavior that would make even the afore-mentioned Wes Anderson jealous. Moon, on the other hand, is a magnum opus for actor Sam Rockwell. The actor portrays an employee of a tech company whose current position requires him to live in isolation on the Moon. His only companion during this contract period is a robot named GERTY as voiced by Kevin Spacey. None of this describes what the actual story of Moon, however, and I refuse to spoil further details of the plot. Suffice it to say that Rockwell portrays multiple iterations of the same character at certain points in the film. Also, if one of the best acting performances of the 2000s isn't enough to sell you on the film, you should also be made aware of the fact that it's directed by Duncan Jones, whose father once wrote an album that celebrated Martian spiders. Yes, he's David Bowie's son, but based on the quality of Moon, we may have to start describing Bowie as Duncan Jones' father.
Sixth and seventh place go to the latest film from Studio Ghibli and a title whose quality was such that its producers demanded an apology because its box office run was so poor. The former film is of course Ponyo, a film that skews very young but has such a tender sensibility that children and grown-ups alike should be won over by its charms. Yes, it's a distinctly Japanese movie, by which I mean that some aspects of the story are very, very weird but as long as you can get past sexually hermaphroditic fish and a nursing home's underwater landing right by the Moon (sans Sam Rockwell), you'll be fine.
Bandslam made $5.2 million domestically, a total of roughly one third of the critically reviled I Love You Beth Cooper's $14.8 million. The difference between the two titles is that Bandslam is quite good, which naturally lends itself to the question of why a garbage film catering to the same demographic would do so much better. This very question was asked by Bandslam's producers in assailing Summit Entertainment, the Twilight people, for failing to market a good movie any better than they did. BOP isn't looking to pick sides here, but we are reminded of a quote from the final episode of our beloved Sports Night: "Anyone who can't make money off of Sports Night should get out of the money-making business." Sub in the word Bandslam for Sports Night and you catch our drift. It is a warm, optimistic look at life as an outcast teen and it seems to celebrate the tenet that Conan O'Brien offered in his final appearance on The Tonight Show: ""All I ask of you, especially young people . . . is one thing. Please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm telling you, amazing things will happen." Bandslam is an uplifting film that celebrates this philosophy that good things happen to good-natured people.
A trio of indie films comprise our final Best Overlooked Film selections for the year. Eighth place goes to Sunshine Cleaning, a well crafted story of two sisters and a father who are all trying to find a vocation that pays the bills without making them want to blow their brains out. Fittingly enough, the job that satisfies their needs involves the cleaning of brains that have been blown into walls. In the Loop, our ninth choice, is a foul-mouthed look at how one overstatement from a political official can lead to an unending series of political boondoggles. I cannot state in words how funny this film is, particularly if you are a political wonk. It is wildly entertaining watching a series of dislikable, incompetent characters operate in a situation that is best described as the incarnation of Murphy's Law. Even Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini, falls victim to the process. Rounding out the top ten is An Education, a spirited tale that sounds depressing when described. A teen girl meets a 30-something man and is seduced by his charms and rather exciting, quite illegal job. Yes, he's a bastard and yes, his presence in her life is disruptive to the point of potentially damaging her future. Even so, the chemistry between leads Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard is such that he borders on being a lovable rapscallion, at least for most of the film. The feature does a marvelous job of demonstrating how she could come to love a man she realizes is deeply flawed and, as with Bandslam, it avoids the temptation to offer cynicism in the end. Also, this film announces Carey Mulligan as a bona fide movie star and hopefully this happens sooner rather than later.
Just missing selection this year are Whip It (one of my favorite films of the year), The Cove, The Brothers Bloom, Goodbye Solo, Food, Inc., The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and The Class. BOP expects you to head over to Netflix and immediately fill your queue with all of the titles mentioned above. (David Mumpower/BOP)
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Breakthrough Performance
Best Cast
Best Director
Best DVD
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Worst Performance
Worst Picture