Theres hardly ever a single, lone reason for why a given film goes unnoticed or gets overlooked. Usually, its a combination of forces; poor scheduling, ineffective marketing, an out of vogue star, misunderstood criticism at the time of its release, or any one of a multitude of other causes. The point is, movies get overlooked all the time, and sometimes, some truly great ones fly under the radar. Over time, many of these films prove their worth by developing advocates or cult followings, while others struggle even to gain that much of a foothold. Since 2000 alone, there have been far too many great films that have gone unnoticed and become underrated. It would be impossible to make a list containing all of them, but hopefully by compiling ten of them here, they can get some of the attention that they deserve, or at least encourage those that may have seen and dismissed them to revisit and rewatch. Here are the 10 most underrated films of the new millennium (so far):
10. Primer (2004)
$7000 can go a long way when it's in the hands of an intelligent craftsman. Shane Carruth, the writer, director and star of Primer, is one such man. His film, a sorely underseen Sundance darling, takes on time travel from both a practical and scientific perspective to become one of the most original and creative science fiction films of the new century. The science of the film isnt cleaned up or simplified for the audience, so oftentimes we can only grasp vague concepts of what the characters are discussing (which is maybe better, since time travel movies usually beg to have holes poked in them by over explaining things). But its fascinating the way Carruth shows how stumbling onto such technology could affect a group of every day men, not only in the way that they use the ability to travel through time, but also in how it slowly consumes them in their personal lives. This isnt a mad scientist story, its a human story, one of small, potent power. At only 77 minutes its short and sweet, although seen by far too few people.