I don’t have a system to decide which movies are overlooked, but these are films that deserve a lot more attention than they have gotten. Some even won minor or major awards, but I love them so much and know so few people who have seen them. So here we go:

Ghost World

This movie introduced me to the excellent graphic novels of Daniel Clowes, the manic genius of director Terry Zwigoff (who would later give us the deliciously disturbed Bad Santa), and  Scarlett Johansson. This is probably my favorite Steve Buscemi role, and at the time I thought Thora Birch would be a star. Where’d she go?

The movie opens to Thora Birch dancing to the Bollywood number “Jaan Pehchaan ho” from Gumnaam. She is a misfit, knows it and loves it. On the verge of graduating from high school, and being forced to figure out what she wants to with life, not wanting to fit in to any of the compartments that the world has designed for her. She has a crush on an older loser, played by Steve Buscemi, a 35-year old male version of her, but everyone around her needs her to fit in. One of my favorite movies (and graphic novel) of all time.

The Royal Tenenbaums

This is the only Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited , The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou) movie that actually broke out of its quirkiness and really told a magnificent story (I haven’t seen Fantastic Mr. Fox yet). A story of a dysfunctional family of over-achievers who seemed destined for greatness, but just got side-tracked. With a cast to die for– Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Owen Wilson (who co-wrote the movie), Luke Wilson, Ben Stiller, Danny Glover, Bill Murray.

That last scene where Ben Stiller puts his hand on Hackman’s shoulder and says, “I’ve had a rough year, dad” makes me misty-eyed every time. Oh, and it has an excellent, excellent soundtrack.

Punch-Drunk Love

What would happen if you took an Adam Sandler movie and took away the jokes? Would his character still be funny, or would it become a tragedy about a man-child who’s antics were his cries out to the world that he needed help?

And all at once I knew, I knew at once he needed me.

Barry Egan, played by Adam Sandler, starts out as a tragic figure until he finds small mysteries and true love and grabs hold of his life. This movie also stars Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Also, I’m a sucker for Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood), who directed this movie– I’d watch a blank screen if his name was in the credits.

Whale Rider

The brilliant little movie about Keisha Castle-Hughes as Paikea, the 12-year old Maori girl who is the descendant of the original whale rider. She was nominated for an Oscar for this movie.

The Dreamers

I wrote a full-length review of this one five years ago. Quoting from there:

Every lover of film knows that film has the power to mold, change one’s life. It does- or at least we have to believe it does. So it is with any kind of love. But in the spring of 1968, film lovers, for a brief period of time, believed that they could change the world with their love and their art. The removal of Henry Langois, the founder of Cinematheque Francais, lead to a protest for cinema which only proved to be a snowball rolling downhill which grew in to a popular revolt, firebombs, riots, politics and more. It became a worldwide phenomenon and ‘gave birth’ to modern cinema.

I am 24 and love films. I discuss the merits of Chaplin over Keaton, Beatles over Elvis and Hendrix over Clapton in the same breath- in the same breath as the issues like the Vietnam war (assisted by Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July), of Christ (The Passion, Last Temptation), of the holocaust, of everything. The characters in Bernardo Bertolucci’s magnificent ‘The Dreamers’ have a belief structure based on what they absorb from film.

Millions

Before there was Slumdog, there was little Damien who found himself with a very large amount of money. This is a wonderful movie by Danny Boyle, better known for Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting, about a very young boy who finds himself with a very large pile of cash.

The Fall

The most visually stunning movie of the decade before Avatar, was Tarsem’s The Fall. And I believe it would still give Avatar a run for its money, because these are not special effects. In many ways it is similar to Pan’s Labyrinth, the story of a young girl’s fantasy that takes her away from her the pain around her. Where in Pan’s Labyrinth we want to believe the fantasy for the sake of the girl, here we want to believe it for the sake of her story-teller, the ‘fallen’ actor who has the girl steal pain-killers for him.

Pan’s Labyrinth

Which brings us to Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s a brutal but haunting fantasy. It is the story of a young girl who lives in a fantasy world of her mind (or is it?) to escape the gruesome reality of the world around her. This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Once

Once is a partly improvised, partly scripted film about a young man and a young woman who meet by chance and almost fall in love over the course of a day. But in the process, they compose a beautiful song, which might be all that’s left of their relationship when all is said and done.

But at least they had the song. And the Oscar acceptance speech by the two of them (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) for the song was probably my favorite Oscar moment ever.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

What I wrote about it 4 years ago:

Hands down my favorite film of the year. Miranda July is my hero, a star– fresh and vibrant, a performance artist, writer, director and an actress after my heart. This is a film about simple love and simple sex and candid people with transparent intentions, with a straightforward manner. A younger Hollywood. But was Hollywood ever this fresh and uncynical? The lack of cynicism is what makes the characters of Me and You… alike and sets them vastly apart from everyone else they encounter. The scene where Mirana July and John Hawkes walk to his car as a metaphor for the relationship they could have had was one of the best scenes in a movie in a long time.

There are dozens of movies in the past decade that could make this list, but here are the ones that will stay with me the longest.

• Finding Nemo
  Finding Nemo is probably my favorite animated movie of all time. It is perfect, and watching it first day in downtown Chicago in a theater packed with kids was special.
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
  To understand the joy of Kill Bill, take in this quote from the man himself, Quentin Tarantino:

  ‘Remember when you were nine years old and that favorite TV show of yours and all your friends just began to not be as good as it once was? How it used to be this thing you worshipped, but now the formula has gone a tad tepid and like 3 of your friends are over for a sleepover and you’re all hopped up on too much sugar talking about what the coolest episode ever would be? You’re vibrating from the energy of just unleashed possibilities and your Mom is telling you to get to sleep, but that Nine Year Old creative force is just shaking… running a thousand words a minute, spilling everything you ever dreamt of to your buddies and it feels like the greatest thing any of you have ever heard? Well that’s where you have to write from. You have to write with that energy and that fire. It is all about that magic 9 year old unleashed.’

  This describes precisely how I feel about this movie.

• Inglorious Basterds
  The last line of the film sums it all up: I believe this might just be [Tarantino’]s masterpiece.
• Ghost World
  This movie introduced me to the excellent graphic novels of Daniel Clowes, the manic genius of director Terry Zwigoff (who would later give us the deliciously disturbed <em>Bad Santa</em>), and  Scarlett Johansson. This is probably my favorite Steve Buscemi role, and at the time I thought Thora Birch would be a star. Where’d she go?
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
  This was the best book and the best film of the series. Fellowship had a lot of build up to take care of and Return of the King had many farewells. But Two Towers could concentrate on the meat of the story, and let’s face it, the Battle of Helm’s Deep is one of the greatest set pieces in the history of film and literature.
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet star in this movie about memories. Would you really want to erase all the painful ones? If you do, what remains?
• Star Wars: Episode III The Revenge of the Sith
  What I said 4 years ago still holds true:

  This was the best time I had at the movies last year. It is difficult to describe the impact of these films on me and I will not attempt it here. I love them dearly and loved this film like none other. The final scene on Tatooine was one of my most emotional. Are we prepared for life after Star Wars?

• United 93
  This is as close to a documentary as you can get without being a documentary. But Paul Greengrass makes it exciting, devastating, like you’re living through 9/11 again. There are no overt heroes, just many understated ones in the few hours that morning that changed everything.

And now for Hindi movies.

• Dil Chahta Hai
  This movie hit very close to home. I had finished college and moved across the globe that year. The first half of the movie was my life in the first half of 2001, and the second half was what I was getting in to. Real life.
  
• Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
  This was the first (and only) Hindi movie that felt like it was of the next generation. Not mine. It’s fresh, funny, characters talk the way people talk and it is immaculately crafted. Also, Imran Khan is a star.
• Saawariya
  This movie is magic. It is set in a parallel, mythical universe where all Hindi movies live, where all Bollywood mythology is true and exists solely to tell the great stories of our time. Also, Ranbir Kapoor owns it.
  
• Black
  The second Bhansali movie on my list. What I said 4 years ago:

  Black is not your traditional Bollywood movie, however. Hindi cinema’s former angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan, who for 30 years has been a super star, the likes of which have never been seen in Hollywood, stars as a man who teaches the deaf/blind/mute/beautiful Rani Mukherjee to live her life. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who previously has given in to the excesses of Bollywood cinema, creates a sparse and subdued drama like none other.

• Hera Pheri
  Hands down the funniest movie of the decade. If you could edit out the songs and Tabu, it might have been the funniest movie of all time.
• Hey! Ram
  A brutal Hindi film, maybe the most harrowing ever made. And while it does give in to excesses at times (as does every film on this list barring the first two), performances by Hassan and Shah Rukh Khan elevate this to a class of its own.

∞

As an honorable mention, the most fun I had in a movie theater (after Episode III) was probably Grindhouse. Those 4 hours in a movie theater packed with hooting, shrieking, whistling schlock fans were special.

Another honorable mention to watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi with an auditorium room full of fans at Celebration II in Indianapolis. People were screaming, shouting out dialogue with the movie, cheering the heroes on (“The first transport is away!” hooray, went the crowd).

∞

And here is the complete list of movies I rated 5 stars from the last decade. As you can see, I am quite liberal with ratings (and the list is not complete for 2009 and for Hindi movies). The honorable mentions, runners-up are in bold: Continue reading →