Best Overlooked Film Revisited: 2005
By Tom Houseman
February 26, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
However, when looking at the choices that the BOP staff came up with for the 2006 Calvin Awards, it's hard to argue with any of them. Hustle & Flow scored over $20 million as well as a couple of Oscar nominations (including a very deserving Best Song win), but all of the rest of the films on the list richly and sadly deserve the title "overlooked." Several of them were critically acclaimed but were completely ignored by audiences, including this audience. I'll admit that I haven't seen Murderball, Grizzly Man, El Crimen Perfecto, Junebug, Downfall, or Land of the Dead. That's more than half of the nominees, and I'm a little embarrassed about that.
So when I set out to make my list of the best overlooked films of 2005, it was not with the intention of critiquing the stellar group that made the original list. Rather, it is just me putting forth what my ballot would have been had I voted for the award back in 2006. And of course, I am working under my new, much stricter for parameters for what constitutes an overlooked film. None of the nominees can have made more than $5 million at the domestic box office or have won an Academy Award in a major category (i.e. not Foreign Language Film or Documentary). This would eliminate Hustle & Flow, Shopgirl, Millions, and Land of the Dead.
It's gonna be really difficult to kick this article off without making a pedophile joke, but I will try and avoid it. At number ten is Roman Polanski's adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale of young orphan boys on the streets of London, Oliver Twist. Not the usual dark, edgy fare for which Polanski is known, this is a straightforward and beautiful period piece, excellently adapted by The Pianist scribe Ronald Harwood. Polanski recreates Dickensian London in superb detail, but the man who really steals the movie is Ben Kingsley, as Fagin. Kingsley is delightfully creepy as the leader of the orphans, and his performance shows why he is one of the best film actors working today.
Of the films on the original list that fit within my rules of "overlooked," I've only seen one, and that one comes in at number nine. Mysterious Skin marked the moment when Joseph Gordon-Levitt went from being that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun to being the crowned prince of the independent film world. Gordon-Levitt stars as a gay prostitute in a small town in Kansas trying to escape his history of sexual assault. Costarring is Brady Corbet, who is trying to find the truth behind what he believes to have been an alien abduction in his childhood. Mysterious Skin is a difficult film to watch, but it's worth the effort as it is a beautiful character study featuring some fantastic performances.
Going from number nine to number eight you'll realize you're not in Kansas anymore, courtesy of Neil Gaiman. Gaiman wrote the screenplay for Mirrormask, a beautiful surreal story about a young girl who is transported from her unhappy reality to a magical world where nothing is what it seems. If you're thinking it sounds similar to last year's Coraline, well that was based on a book by Gaiman, but this story from the graphic novelist is very different and much more complex, in addition to being stunningly beautiful to watch. At times charmingly funny and very dark and creepy, Mirrormask is one of the best fantasy films of the decade. Why do Tim Burton's lackluster efforts make hundreds of millions of dollars when there are films like this that get ignored?
At number seven is another film that would have been a big hit with audiences had it gotten a wider release and better advertising. As it is, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang will have to settle for being one of the films that helped jumpstart Robert Downey Jr's career, in addition to being a delightful black comedy. Downey plays Harry, a convict who is pretending to be an actor, tagging along with a cop as research for a role. When he runs into his childhood girlfriend things get even more complicated. Downey is delightful in Shane Black's hilarious twist on the cop comedy, which also features some delightful narration and a hilarious performance by Val Kilmer as "Gay Perry," the cop who is saddled with training Harry. Just writing this paragraph makes me wish I was watching this movie instead of writing this article.
The only thing keeping me writing is my number six film, which stars dreamy-eyed Daniel Bruhl. The Edukators is the kind of unique comedy that would never be made in America, but that Europe is known for. Bruhl stars as the leader of a group of anarchists who break into the homes of rich people to rearrange the furniture and leave strange messages on the walls. When they run into the owner of one of the houses, they kidnap him. While the trio holds the man hostage in a cabin in the woods, we begin to see the human side of this villainous character, and he even develops a bond with his captors. An insightful and touching film, The Edukators is another film that scared audiences off with its subtitles, but is definitely worth checking out.
You probably haven't seen my number five movie, but the landscape of modern film is very different because of it. Layer Cake was the directorial debut of Guy Ritchie's producer, Mathew Vaughan, who went on to direct Stardust and the upcoming Kick-Ass. This British action flick stars current James Bond, Daniel Craig. Craig is fantastic as a drug dealer who gets in over his head when he is given two impossible assignments by his boss and has two find a way to live through them. Less cutesy than Ritchie's films, Layer Cake is tough and gritty but still a whole lot of fun to watch.
At number four is the darkest, most disturbing movie on this list, mostly because its entirely true. Darwin's Nightmare shows the horrifying effect on Tanzania and its Lake Victoria of the fishing for the Nile Perch. The environmental, economic, and political destruction of this small, poverty-ridden country is heartbreaking, and director Hubert Sauper pulls no punches in showing the destruction of this small country and the unwavering efforts of a few Tanzanian activists to stop the destruction of their homeland. This incredible film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary, but lost to some movie about adorable penguins walking around in the snow. What a world.
My number three and two films are the first and last feature films by two brilliant and respected artists. Number three is Me and You and Everyone We Know, the sweet and touching feature debut of Miranda July. July is an experimental filmmaker, artist, author and musician, and makes her feature film debut with what I like to think of as the thinking man's Love Actually. The two protagonists are a recently divorced shoe salesman and a lonely performance artist (played by July), and as we explore their lives and their budding romance we see all the people either directly or remotely associated with them and how all of them are looking for the same thing: some sort of real, human connection. Me and You and Everyone We Know is charming and witty and so much fun to watch.
The White Countess was the last Merchant/Ivory film, as producer Ismail Merchant died before it was released. The number two film on my ballot, The White Countess is a fitting sendoff for the man who produced some of the best period pieces of all time. Ralph Fiennes stars as a blind American diplomat in Shanghai in the lead up to World War II. His situation is complicated when he meets Sofia (played by Natasha Richardson in what is also one of her last films), a Russian refugee who is supporting her dead husband's aristocratic family. Kazuo Ishiguro penned this complex film, which features beautiful sets and costumes along with several fantastic performances.
And what would I consider the best overlooked film of 2005? That would have to be Neil Jordan's outstanding adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel Breakfast on Pluto. Jordan is best known for his complex romantic drama The Crying Game, but Breakfast on Pluto is one of his best films, as much an ode to his homeland of Ireland as it is the heartbreaking and complex story of a young man coming of age in the ‘70s, dealing with love, political upheaval, and his developing sexuality. Cillian Murphy got a lot of attention in 2005 for his incredibly creepy roles in Batman Begins and Red Eye, but he gives his best performance as Kitten, a transgendered MtF trying to find himself. If the appeal of seeing Cillian Murphy in drag isn't tempting enough (a joy only matched by seeing Gael Garcia Bernal in drag in Bad Education), then I don't know what to tell you. Breakfast on Pluto is a touching, beautiful film that might jerk a few tears out of you.
The Best Overlooked Films of 2005:
1) Breakfast on Pluto
2) The White Countess
3) Me and You and Everyone We Know
4) Darwin's Nightmare
5) Layer Cake
6) The Edukators
7) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
8) Mirrormask
9) Mysterious Skin
10) Oliver Twist