10 Criminally Overlooked Movies You Should See Now
Given the massive number of movies coming and going every year, it’s no surprise that every so often, good films manage to go completely overlooked. Sometimes, it has to do with nonexistent marketing, limited distribution or simply bad timing that caused them to slip through the cracks. The fact is there is many gems waiting to be found for movie lovers pinning for something off the beaten path.
The following is an eclectic list of 10 movie gems worth seeking out when you get bored with the generic Hollywood movies you have been watching. There wasn’t any real guideline to make the list but 8 of those movies have less than 20,000 votes on IMDb. Charming and thought-provoking, unique and hard-hitting; here are 10 criminally overlooked movies you should see now.
You Can Count on Me (2000)
A film as rich, restrained and subtle as You Can Count On Me is a true delight and quite a rarity in the world of cinema. Featuring stunning performances from Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, this little gem revolves around two siblings who have very little in common except for the tragic loss of their parents. Orphaned as children, they have grown up counting on each other. Sammy (Linney) is a single mother of an 8-year-old boy (Rory Culkin), living a seemingly peaceful life in her small hometown in Upstate New York. The return of her brother (Ruffalo), a likable drifter who always needs money, is the catalyst for turmoil and dysfunction in the family. This wonderful character-driven look into a brother-sister relationship is blessed with gentle humor and poignant heartbreak, never lending itself to melodrama or cliched pop montage.
I’m Not Scared (2003)
A suspenseful and haunting thriller about a 10-yr old boy who discovers a terrible secret, I’m Not Scared is a masterfully crafted film directed by Gabriele Salvatores, director of the Oscar winning film Mediterraneo (Best Foreign Language Film, 1991). During a carefree summer in his remote southern Italian vllage, Michele (Guiseppe Cristiano) makes an unspeakable discovery, a ghostly little boy his own age chained to the ground at the bottom of a dark pit. Over time, a bond forms between the two and Michele does his best to feed and entertain the captive boy. But it isn’t long before Michele makes a connection between a high profile kidnapping and the little boy in the cellar.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
All children should believe they are special. But the students of Hailsham, a British boarding school, are so special that no one ever mentions their parents, and only little by little do they discover their unconventional origins and chilling purpose in life. Like the children of Hailsham, we are only allowed to slowly uncover the secrets of Hailsham and the truth about these children on our own. Narrating the story throughout is the placid, reflective voice of Kathy H. (Carey Mulligan), a 31-year-old Hailsham alumna who is waiting to fulfill her purpose. Although often poignant, Kathy’s matter-of-fact narration blunts the sharper emotional effects you might expect in a story that deals with illness, self-sacrifice, and tragic predestination. Only after the movie is over do you absorb the true magnitude of what the characters endure. An adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s celebrated sixth novel, Never Let Me Go is a truly haunting and thought-provoking film, one that will remain with you long after the final frame.
City Lights (1931)
A silent romantic comedy as funny as it is romantic; City Lights is Charlie Chaplin at the peak of his career. Made in 1931 when talking pictures had already made their appearance, this film nonetheless became an instant success. This simple but sublime story revolves around the Little Tramp (Chaplin) who meets and falls in love with a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill). She needs an operation to restore her sight, so he sets out to earn the money doing various jobs, making for some hilarious montages. After all the superb comic sequences, the film culminates with one of the most moving endings in the history of cinema, a luminous and heartbreaking fade-out that lifts the picture onto another plane. Chaplin’s message is unspoken, but universally understood: Love is blind.
To Live (1994)
One of the best films of the 1990′s, To Live is a thoroughly sweeping masterpiece from Zhang Yimou. This has to be one of the most underrated movie of all time with less than 9,000 votes tallied on IMDb. Starring Gong Li with whom he has repeatedly collaborated with, Zhang crafts an ambitious story of personal and political events, revolving around the struggles of an impoverished husband and wife (Ge You, Gong Li) from their abundant heydays in the 1940′s to the hardships that accompanied the Cultural Revolution in the 1960′s. They raise two children amidst a Communist regime, surviving numerous setbacks and yet managing, somehow, to live. Epic in its scope but always intimate in its focus, Zhang’s film encompasses the simplest and most profound realities of Chinese life during this turbulent period. For his brutal honesty, the director was banned for two years from filmmaking. To Live celebrate the tenacity of ordinary people in the wake of profound social and historical events.
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85 Comments
Thanks for the recomendations. Its a bunch of films on here I haven’t seen. I totally agree on you can count on me.
Never let me go and 400 blows I don’t like very much.
City Lights and Le Quatre Cents Coups are hardly “overlooked”. They appear in basically every list of greatest movies.
Semi-agreed on the visitor, that was a fun film.
I’d like to suggest Slacker, The Fall and Trois Couleurs: Blue.
That Kieslowski film falls in the same category. Every film buff knows about it but haven’t seen it.
GO SEE IT IT’S SO AMAZING WARBLGARBL
I saw it in film class but found it quite slow. I liked the red one a lot better.
That’s what I thought Max until I looked at the ridiculously low number of votes for these movies on IMDb. Classics indeed, but that doesn’t mean all that many people have seen them.
Not everyone who’s seen them votes for them, eh
I agree. I’m speaking in relative terms compared to other movies with a lot more votes.
Great compilation. I agree The Visitor is highly overlooked but I don’t think anyone is overlooking 400 Blows. That movie is pretty renowned the world over. I think a nice replacement would be Way of the Gun. I can’t think of more well written movie over the past 15 years that came and went with little fanfare.
The 400 Blows is one of those movies that is celebrated and yet few people have seen it. Again, there is less than 28,000 votes on IMDb for this movie, paltry by any standard but especially given the fact that’s it’s such a defining film in cinema’s history.
I don’t really get that though why its considered such a cornerstone?
Surely I have read about the importance of it being the first international “mainstream success” of the french new wave, but I find the Bicycle thief to be a way superior and more trend setting film.
I know its from another period and region but they have the same kind of reputation. If you ask me it holds up way better than the 400 blows.
Thank you, Joel, The Bicycle Thief is just as much of a classic. And more importantly, relevant.
I have to agree. While most everyone has heard of “The 400 Blows”, a great number of people have not seen it. This is especially true for the younger generation of cinephiles. I also agree that this is not the movie of the New Wave I would have chosen, mostly due to my unrepentant Godard love.
I don’t think a “most everyone” has heard of The 400 Blows; maybe a lot of film buffs and people who are on imdb a whole lot, but the vast majority of casual movie viewers–aka most of America–has not heard of it, nor could they identify what “French New Wave” even means. I think this is a great list of overlooked films for the casual movie goer. If you can name Jean-Pierre Melville or Francois Truffaut or use the term “mise-en-scene” properly you would probably that these films are not overlooked. The reason the 400 blows is so significant, Joel, is that Truffaut was a film critic–a very counter-cultural one, so to speak–who denounced modern French cinema and actually DID something about it by making this film and essentially helping to begin New Wave. He also helped establish Hitchcock as a legitimately deep and provocative filmmaker, not just a fat guy who made thrillers. (I have a hard-on for both Truffaut and Hitch.)
I’m ashamed – deeply ashamed – to say that I have only seen three of these (Never Let me Go, The Visitor, and the 400 Blows), but I will agree with you that they are absolute must-sees.
I will ask however…is it fair to categorize 400 Blows as “criminally overlooked?” Maybe this is just my silly French major speaking, but I always considered it one of the more prominent entries in the revolutionary French New Wave.
And finally, may I add some suggestions of my own?
“Together,” by Lukas Moodysson (2000)
“Everyone Else,” by Maren Ade (2010)
“Moolaadé,” by Ousmane Sembene (2004)
“Yi Yi,” by Edward Yang (2000)
“Tarnation,” by Jonathan Caouette (2004)
“Spring in a Small Town,” by Mu Fei (1948)
A really inspired list, by the way!
Cool to see Together on a list like this but I find it to be one of Moodyssons weaker films. Show me love (Fucking Åmål) is a masterpiece. Together is a great more lighthearted blockbuster kind of film.
As explained above, The 400 Blows is certainly a defining film in cinema’s history but doesn’t that make it all the more overlooked that so few people have seen it? (less than 28,000 votes on IMDb)
Great suggestions Justin! Yi Yi is a wonderful, wonderful movie.
Is that…it’ can’t be. But it is. You’ve seen To Live too!?!?!?! Yes, yes, yes! I love this movie and agree that it’s is egregiously underrated, even though Zhang Yimou is one of the better known Asian directors. People need to see this film. I think it’s time for me to review this one.
Agree with Never Let Me Go and The Visitor, two recent films that seem to come and go far too quickly given how good they were.
Also, who are these people overlooking City Lights? I must find these people and I must show them the power of silent cinema.
Ahah James, I can’t believe so few people have seen To Live, it’s an incredible movie.
Sonofabitch. I really need to see The 400 Blows already. Right there with ya’ on Never Let Me Go, too. Freakin’ gorgeous movie.
You work at Moviefone and you haven’t seen The 400 Blows? tsk tsk… Thanks for dropping by Aiden
I’ve seen “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”. I managed to catch it on the teve one day. It is a very good movie, moved me to tears that one. I liked your list, some of this movies I’ve heard of but I haven’t had the time to see them yet.
Yes indeed quite a moving film and a wonderful performance by the little guy who played the main character.
I wholeheartedly approve of anyone recommending films other than the standard gazillion-dollar fare, so mucho kudos to you. I’ve seen six of these, and am now interested in two more thanks to this list. That’s what a movie blog should do, in my opinion; draw attention to movies others might not have seen. Well, that’s not all a movie blog should do, but you know what I mean.
PS, as everyone else is adding movies, I’ll nominate Dear Zachary and Shotgun Stories.
Thanks Colin, much appreciated sir.
Good list of films Castor, I’ll put them on my Netflix queue. I’m still hesitant to check out Never Let Me Go, loved the novel and I’m afraid it may not live up to my expectations. I love the novel version of The Road but the film was a letdown.
Another film I’d add to the list is Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, such a great little “horror” film. It came out a few years before his breakout Pan’s Labyrinth and not people saw it.
I can tell you the central revelation is made much earlier than in the book. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing or not
Ted- I also LOVED the book and found that it didn’t influence me as much as I feared when I saw the movie. The revelation is sooner, which I had heard in the reviews and made me nervous, but it’s less important than the relationships between the characters. I’m not ashamed to say I still cried at the same places I did while reading the book, and I knew what was going to happen!! A must see.
I saw Backbone
Good list. Never Let Me Go is one of my faves of 2010. I think I have seen City Lights not sure (that is bad). I suspect I would have remembered if I had seen it though.
I do not think I can bear to see The Boy in Striped Pajamas … I have a hard time getting through Holocaust pictures; I could not even finish reading “Diary of Anne Frank”
I need to finish You Can Count on Me. I got well into it but had to stop watching it (forget the reason). And 400 Blows is always in my recommended list from Netflix.
Today is Tuesday and I participate in this feature (at least the past two weeks) reviewing overlooked films. My pick this week was Starter for Ten.
Reading the comments, I’m surprised at all the love for Never Let Me Go. It really came and went and barely made $2 million at the box office.
Yeah that is interesting … your readers must have provided the majority of the tickets sales!
It was literally in our local art house cinema for a couple of weeks.
Going to check to see if I can find DVD/BD/VOD sales figures.
I know I’ve been slack on 400 Blows, Never Let Me Go, and The Boy in Stripped Pajamas. To Live sounds like a movie I’d love.
Love City Lights, The Visitor, and You Can Count of Me (can never go wrong with Laura Linney). Off to Netflix for the hunt I go!
Definitely give “To Live” a chance
I love all these movies, especailly You Can Count on Me, although I think 400 Blows is only considered underrated by today’s standards if that. It did, after all, help define an entire generation in it’s day.
Wow Mike, you have seen all of these. Very impressive sir!
Never heard of I’m Not Scared and To Live. I’m on the case. Thank you. In addition to The Visitor, I would also recommend The Station Agent. Tom McCarthy’s films are just sort of overlooked in general. Which is a real shame.
Also, I’d like to recommend John Sayles’ Sunshine State. Edie Falco will wreck your heart.
Thanks for the recommendation. I haven’t seen Sunshine State.
Jeez, I don’t know why Never Let Me Go was so overlooked. I walked out of that movie bawling my eyes out for half an hour…which was embarassing, but totally worth it. I genuinely love that movie.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is awesome too. It was really popular here when it came out on DVD, because so many people had read the book.
Ahaha embarrassing indeed
I can’t say it moved me nearly that much, but it lingered in my mind for days.
Phenomenal list. So glad you mentioned The Best of Youth. That one moved me to tears. I’m Not Scared was a lovely surprise.
The movieverse is simply littered with underseen gems. I’m convinced there are hundreds of title that each one of us here still should see.
So with that, I would like to add Spring Forward (1999, dir. Tony Gilroy, with Ned Beatty and Liev Shrieber) and 13 Conversations About One Thing (2002, dir. Jill Sprecher, with Alan Arkin, Matt McConaughy). Small, life-affirming films.
I love this discussion!
Yes Dave, I love the IMDb search engine where you can input things like “Ratings above 8/10 and more than 1000 votes then order everything by lowest box office first. Loads of gems you can find this way.
http://www.imdb.com/search/title
Of the films in the list. The only ones I’ve seen are “The 400 Blows”, “Never Let Me Go”, “Nobody Knows”, and “The Visitor”. The rest I definitely need to see. Some of which are in my shortlist of films to watch from the 2000s.
Woohoo, glad I managed to pull a few YOU didn’t see
I love your list and would like to add “Ink”. A strange little low-budget film with a unique look and sweet story of where our dreams and nightmares come from. Victoria
Castor, What a great post and collection of films. I remember seeing trailers for a few of these, but they “got overlooked.” I’ve only seen Never Let Me Go and Boy With The Striped Pajamas. Both I have reviewed and agree with your consensus. And you’re right, Never Let Me Go stays with you long after the final frame has passed.
If I were to start watching the other 8 movies on your list, I’m curious, which would you personally recommend be the first to watch?
Thanks T. Tough one as it depends on your movie taste. I would probably say The Visitor as it might be the most “mainstream” of the remaining 8?
What does everyone else think?
I’m pretty sure the only movie out of this list is the Visitor. I will try to watch the other ones tho
And for me, i would add Ip Man, Session 9, Chaser, and Franklyn.
I’m not sure if Brothers count as overlooked since it has some big names in the cast, but if it does count i would add it to the list too
I guess you could say that Brothers is overlooked in the sense that it was easily one of the best American movie of 2009, yet it was completely snubbed of any Oscar nominations. Thus, very few people saw it.
That has to be one definition of “overlooked,” right?
Thanks for the wonderful suggestions Castor! I’ve only seen two from your list and totally agree that Never Let Me Go and The Visitor should be seen by more people. I need to see 400 Blows, have heard great things about it.
And Laura Linney is such a criminally-underrated in general though she’s always excellent in everything she’s been in.
I still find “The 25th Hour” to be continuously overlooked.
Own the 400 Blows – need to see it.
Good list.
Sam you are spot on about the 25th Hour. It does not get much love but it was a very well composed film.
Not really, in the Spike Lee verse He Got Game is terribly unknown for the general public eventhough it has Denzel in it!
I think that is an issue of theme; probably because it was considered “urban” and one of those “basketball flicks” to the general public.
What surprised me about “25th,” is that it had pretty mainstream appeal (especially with regards to the cast – Ed Norton, P.S. Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, etc.). That is quite an impressive lineup.
Coffee and Cigarettes – Jim Jarmusch
Paris, Texas – Wim Wenders
Andrei Ryublev – Andrei Tarkovsky
If we’re going to go Jim Jarmusch, why not “Stranger Than Paradise”? It seems far more accessible.
Haven’t seen it, and Coffee and Cigarettes was pretty damn amazing. Also, more Bill Murray.
I would contest whether the 400 Blows is overlooked. It’s kind of a classic french new wave film and is hardly overlooked when recognizing Truffaunt. There are some other good ones in here, though I will through In Bruges and The Assassination of Jesse James as two recent ones I can think of.
Nice post. I’ve seen four of these and can’t really argue with them being worth seeing, especially City Lights, which is one of my favorite movies. You Can Count on Me is also a great choice. I’ve also seen The Visitor, which is solid.
I do wonder if the 400 Blows is really overlooked, though. That one seems to show up on all types of “great movies” lists from critics and film lovers. It’s possible that it’s been lost from younger viewers.
Thanks for the suggestions. Most of these are already in the Netflix queue, but I’ll be adding The Best of Youth to the mix.
About a year ago, a bunch of my friends came to me because they wanted to learn more about movies; specifically to fill in their movie knowledge with films they should have seen but never did. I put together a list of classics, both new and old, culled mostly from the AFI Top 100 films list and Oscar and Golden Globe nominees and winners. It is shocking the number of movies that had not been seen, mostly quote unquote classics.
“The 400 Blows” is one of those movies that a lot of people say they have seen but haven’t, or not all the way through. I find this most true with foreign films, or at least that is the impression I have since polling my friends.
That’s a good point about The 400 Blows and foreign films in general. I’m guessing if I ran a similar poll of friends, even those with decent movie tastes, the results might be surprising.
Well the problem with the 400 blows is that its not a great starting point when trying to get some one into older films. It happens way to little in it and is vague because its mostly about emotions the only really memorable with it is the ending.
When introducing people with the classics I’d go for films with a more concrete conflict like the Bicycle Thief, Umberto D, Les Diaboligues, Stagecoach etc.
The french new wave was ground breaking then but not now, the weird stuff (Godard etc.) is unwatchable and the the straighter stuff 400 blows and others are to dull compared to most classics.
I meant to say that most Kurosawa films are among the best examples of conrete stories as well. He is probably the single most important filmmaker in the history of film. All the remakes and spinoffs on his stories confirms that.
Definitely! Kurosawa is a great introduction to foreign films as well as a major influence on just about every filmmaker working today.
I introduced the French New Wave to my friends with “Vivre sa Vie”. There’s a narrative, but it still leaves a lot open to interpretation. Something I love about that genre. It went over like gang busters! As a safe bet, I would say “The Bicycle Theif” or “Breathless” are great starting points.
It’s not often I come across a list like this one that actually has movies on it I’ve never heard of before (Nobody Knows, Best of Youth, I’m Not Scared). With one exception (400 Blows) I really like the ones I’ve seen (The Visitor, Never Let Me Go, To Live).
Thanks for the list.
Thanks for dropping by Smirnoff!
I’m with the others in thinking 400 Blows and City Lights are far from overlooked.
City Lights is largely regarded as Chaplin’s masterpiece. I prefer Modern Times, but that’s a different discussion for another day.
The 400 Blows is one of those brilliant works of art that is still hugely entertaining. I think it could work as a “gateway” movie for folks who aren’t yet into foreign or classic film. It’s just so easy to relate to that little delinquent.
I don’t agree with you on 400 blows as seen in my earlier comment. I think it can be quite the opposite.
Sure it might be easy to relate to (we have all been kids right?) but its still quite vague and really slow. The risk is that if this is the first film you show someone who wants to get into classical cinema they will be bored and scared off.
Hey Castor, this post was featured on SlashFilm! Congrats!
http://www.slashfilm.com/page-2-214/2/
I don’t find it. But thats also a whacky way to sort their material…
Lol Joel, of course it’s there
Now I found it.
Castor: You have my permission to podcast debut on /film cast if there is no AM-cast. =)
I’d love to see the faces on Hatter and Kai then… hahah
Joking aside the /film cast is pretty good actually.
Thanks Scott (and /Film), always nice to be on Page 2
Way to go, picking “The Visitor” — I truly love Richard Jenkins.
Yes, glad he got a chance to shine at last.
Great list, Castor. (As usual.) No long rant from me this time.
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is definitely one of those little-seen gems that deserves a wider audience. I happened across it one night on TV – glad I did. I highly recommend it.
Some other great choices here too Castor – several I’ve yet to see myself so very apt for this list.
Those films you catch when you are not looking for them are often the best experiences, don’t you find?
I don’t think “City Lights” and “400 Blows” quite count as overlooked. Maybe by the mainstream public but both are well-known, and often watched, material in film academia.
I am pleased to say I have seen a few of the films on this list. I found ‘The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas’ to be one of the most depressing films I have ever seen, only watched it once and don’t think I will ever watch it again.
Brilliant list!
Nobody Knows is a very haunting film and difficult to watch. I saw it at an international film festival in Pittsburgh not knowing much about the story. The description here prepares the viewer very much more for it than I was. It is a slice of life film that leaves anyone with any parenting sense (and I’m years from that) scrambling in their seats at their predicament. It’s great to see it on this list.
I have to say, Nobody Knows is one that I’m going to watch pretty soon now. It sounds like something totally up my ally. It’s a bit unfair to only mention one of the films you talked about, but the list on the whole has so much quality in it that I decided to just pick one and go with it. 400 Blows is the only one that I actually feel bad for not having seen yet. It gets mentioned so many times, pretty much everywhere. I am lame. Oh, well, great list.
Great list, especially “The boy in stripped pyjamas” and “Never let me go” these are such moving films and Carey Mulligan’s work in the latter and Farmiga’s in the former was gravely overlooked.
I recently watched Win Win. Great overlooked gem. Thanks for the list. I look forward to watching them. Nobody Knows sounds way too sad for me though. Have only seen I’m Not Scared. Never Let Me Go is the one I really want to see, sounds interesting.
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