20 Underrated Movies From 2000 You've Probably Never Seen

3. Wonder Boys

Released: 25th February 2000 (US)

Unusually released twice in the US in 2000, first in February and then with a new marketing campaign in November, Wonder Boys flopped both times. That, though, shouldn't put you off rediscovering this witty comedy-drama of literary failings and ramshackle academic life.

Having made his name as a real-life literary wonder boy with his debut novel at the age of just 25, Michael Chabon spent years struggling with a follow-up before eventually delivering a book about a writer who has spent the years following his debut hit failing to write a second novel. (Since beating his own writer's block Chabon won the Pulitzer Prize for his magnum opus The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay and is currently the showrunner on Picard).

This film version was director Curtis Hanson's follow-up to modern classic LA Confidential and it too struggled to replicate that earlier success.

Nevertheless, this story, set in a chilly but beautiful wintery Pittsburgh, is an enjoyably meandering shaggy dog story (with actual dog, albeit one that's dead in the trunk of a car). Michael Douglas has rarely been better than letting himself go here to play the barely-holding-it-together novelist and professor.

For a story of unfulfilled promise, Wonder Boys is surprisingly optimistic and deserves to find an audience that will appreciate it.