2. Wonder Boys (2000)
For those who haven't seen this gem, I look at it as a film about a dysfunctional teacher/writer, a dysfunctional student, a dysfunctional editor, and overall just imperfect people in general you get to observe make mistake after mistake in life. I wish there were more films like this where you get a glimpse into a group of characters lives who clearly don't have it all figured out just yet. It's comforting to see, and I think that's why I'm personally able to relate to the core of this movie so well. Michael Douglas is in rare form here, playing a believably conflicted, troubled professor who feels he's on the cusp of getting his novel published. Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic job playing his slightly disturbed and wacky editor, and even Tobey Maguire is bearable to me for once as an aloof, and confused college student who is attempting to figure out what life means to him during his transition into adulthood. Add to it, a lovely Katie Holmes in her prime, and you have yourself a film that was criminally underrated and bypassed back in the year 2000 during it's initial theatrical run. Even the setting is perfect, the winter months in Pittsburgh, PA, on or around a college campus, giving anyone the chance to remember their days in college if they ever attended a northeastern school during the coldest stretches of the school year. Seeing that sort of mise en scene pop on Blu-ray would be a beautiful thing, to say the least! Sadly, it's only received a bare-bones DVD release with little to nothing in the way of extras. The bottom line? This is one hell of a character driven film that's well written, and well acted throughout. That alone ought to give credence to the argument it should have been on Blu-ray by now. Hopefully Paramount agrees at some point. Finally, let's take a look at my number one film out of this list that should have been issued on the Blu-ray format years ago...