I recently wrote a post listing 7 Overlooked Films from the 2000s. The piece led to some discussion from comment sections and on Twitter and I ended up settling on doing a second part. There are many more overlooked films than just the seven that were previously listed, and this will hopefully give another batch of movies some attention. From talking with various people I got some great suggestions, but if I missed any talk about them in the comments!
Before you get some more of my picks, here’s some from others. I asked some fellow writers and filmmakers what their picks for the most overlooked films of the 2000s were, and here’s what they said:
Overlooked Films According to…
AJ Meadows: Speed Racer and The Mist
William Pond: Perfume
Matthew Legarreta: Sunshine and Up in the Air
Rian Johnson: Primer
Eric D. Snider: Jesus’ Son, Identity, State & Main, Wet Hot American Summer, L.I.E., One Hour Photo, Elephant, All the Real Girls, Kung Fu Hustle, Millions, and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Curtis Evans: Adam and Into The Wild
Matt Singer: Dear Zachary
I want to thank all of them for helping me out and suggesting titles. Coming up next, my other picks for the most overlooked films of the 2000s. Note: these aren’t in order of quality.
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8 Comments
Have to agree that Identity and Into The Wild were horrendously over-looked. One I want to add is Hostage. Bruce Willis’ turn in the movie is one of his best. The novel of the same name it is based on, is brilliant, and though there are unanswered questions come the end of the movie, it is well made and compelling to watch.
Almost Famous & Garden State….Again.
In Bruges is a fabulous movie which so few people have heard of. I think its worthy of the list.
Good to see PRESTIGE and OPEN RANGE get some love. Both movies were excellent.
Prestige ranks in my top five all time while Open Range was a complete surpise. I thought it was better than Appaloosa or 3:10 to Yuma.
Also **ALMOST FAMOUS was not an overlooked film. IMO it got too much hype.
Almost Famous earned half of its production cost back. Hardly big hype monster.
Sorry Jeremy, but I’m unsure I agree that any of these are overlooked. Maybe it’s just because I have a keen interest in film, but I was well aware (and own) every entry on this list. Great selection, just not sure if they were neccessarily overlooked? Maybe they didn’t find a massive audience at the box office (Open Range didn’t, since nobody goes to Westerns anymore, but the Prestige – that was a hit right? Catch me if you can was huge, In Bruges was big). The 25th hour I do agree with actually. most of my mates didn’t see it until I showed them. The perfect post 9/11 movie and one of Lee’s best. The ending is exceptional.
Films like The Prestige and Catch Me if You Can were big on release but for the most part haven’t been talked about in the years. The former due to overshadowing of the Batfilms, and the latter is a film people underrate. Catch Me if You Can is a film people have forgotten about. In Bruges made $7 million in the US. That’s not big. And a random joe off the street probably hasn’t heard of it.
Almost Famous was NOT a big hit. It and Wonder Boys get my vote. Oh, and Mysterious Skin.
Almost Famous, Wonder Boys and Mysterious Skin.