Our sixth, seventh and eighth favorite overlooked films of the year are a trio of critical darlings. What Milk , Rachel Getting Married and The Wrestler have in common is that they all have attained huge recognition for their lead actors, Sean Penn, Anne Hathaway and Mickey Rourke. What is remarkable about Milk and Rachel Getting Married, however, is the fact that several less heralded actors offer magnificent performances in each title. Neither of these is the single character focus that The Wrestler is. Mickey Rourke is basically Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood away from being out there on his own in it, but Milk's bit players steal the show while Rachel Getting Married moves a shocking number of small parts in and out of the spotlight at various times. All three of these are highly entertaining movies with anchor performances that are in serious contention for Oscars glory. Picking any of them on any given evening is really just a question of mood. They are all great choices for a couple of hours of entertainment.

Rounding out the top ten are 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and Towelhead. The former film is a Romanian import that challenges the notion of a Seinfeld joke. That show presupposed that any conversation with a Romanian would start and end with "that Ceauºescu was some bad dictator" and there would be nowhere to go after that. This movie explores the lives of a pair of teen girls, one of whom suffers an accidental pregnancy. Her country has not legalized abortion, so she is forced to set up an illegal abortion at a hotel. This proves to be more difficult than anticipated and the movie gets a lot less cheery from there. BOP recognizes that the subject matter is inflammatory and we understand that it is not for everyone, but several members of our staff were impressed by its examination of day to day life inside an oppressive regime. Our final selection, Towelhead, is the latest film from Alan Ball, he of American Beauty and Six Feet Under. As is the case with several other suggestions for Best Overlooked Film of 2009, it's not the cheeriest of subject matters. A 13-year-old Lebanese girl is forced to deal with pubescence as well as cultural differences in harsh fashion. First, she is sent away from her home by her mother, who is jealous of the way her boyfriend looks at the too-young girl. When she gets to her home with her religious zealot of a father, she experiences difficulties caused by his "women are to be seen and not heard" attitude. Even worse, the married dude next door who looks a lot like Harvey Dent keeps hitting on her. Eventually, while she is babysitting his son, he...well, he does some stuff that would make even Two-Face a bit uncomfortable. Towelhead is a film that challenges our notions about cultural mores and makes for fascinating viewing in our changing political climate.

Just missing the top ten are The Wackness, Bigger Stronger Faster, Tell No One, The Fall, Synecdoche, New York, The Reader, Transsiberian and Redbelt, most of which are rather unhappy stories. Clearly, BOP was in a dark place this year and we really related to the more twisted stuff. If you are ever ultra-happy and looking to make yourself feel a lot worse, BOP has kindly provided a great list of the Buzzkills of the year in the form of our Best Overlooked Films of the 2009 Calvins. You're welcome (?). (David Mumpower/BOP)

Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Director
Best DVD
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture

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