10 Massively Underrated Movies From The 1990s

6. The Man In The Moon

Strange Days Ralph Fiennes
MGM

Another feature debut for an Oscar-winning actress, 1991's The Man In The Moon was Reese Witherspoon's first big-screen outing - and she got off to one hell of a start.

The final film directed by Robert Mulligan (the man behind the 1962 classic To Kill A Mockingbird), The Man In The Moon is a touching coming-of-age story about two sisters competing for the affection of a handsome young man who lives next door.

Admittedly, the story does hit most of the beats you'd expect from this type of movie, but the predictability of the film is a minor quibble when compared to its superb performances, perfectly balanced tone, and beautiful rural setting, photographed with great precision by legendary cinematographer Freddie Francis.

Witherspoon went on to do much bigger (and arguably better) things, so it's somewhat understandable that a small movie like this would fade into the depths of her IMDB page. However, this is a movie that was praised as one of the best of the year by renowned film critic Roger Ebert - so it's absolutely worth seeking out.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.