Some movies never get the attention they may fully deserve, while others fade somewhat from the conversation over time. Whatever the reasons, there are plenty of movies every year that deserve fresh eyes and second looks. With that in mind, here is a list of one movie from every year of the century so far that I think may have gone overlooked or underrated.
2025 - The Assessment
Would you pass?
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
My notes: Gotta love a well lived in lo-fi sci-fi film with great acting and a high concept premise that seems pretty straightforward, yet slowly reveals more of itself up until the final moments.
2024 - My Old Ass
What would you ask your older self?
An 18th birthday mushroom trip brings free-spirited Elliott face-to-face with her wisecracking 39-year-old self. But when Elliott’s “old ass” starts handing out warnings about what her younger self should and shouldn’t do, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about family, love, and what’s becoming a transformative summer.
My notes: Another high concept premise that works well due to stellar creative vision and excellent performances.
2023 - How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2023)
This is an act of self defense.
A crew of young environmental activists execute a daring mission to sabotage an oil pipeline.
My notes: It essentially plays like a heist movie where the object of the heist is a future that otherwise seems so futile and bleak that to not successfully execute the caper is simply not an option. Propelled along by a bustling, plaintive, largely electronic score composed by Gavin Brivik, we follow our cast of characters from several walks of life as they converge on the representative object of their derision.
That object is the titular pipeline – somewhere in arid West Texas. And the relative isolation only aids in the film’s success at making the viewer feel immersed in the microworld the group of characters have chosen to now exist in, away from a society that may judge their actions separate from their meaning and, at least as far as they’re concerned, necessity. This immersion through isolation makes it all that much easier for us to feel as if we’re a part of the plot ourselves.
The result is a vital commentary on the state of our world – a world where the idea that we may actually be able to make a difference for the sake of humanity’s very future can seem not only daunting, but often impossible.
2022 - Confess, Fletch
A dead body. A stolen Picasso. And this guy.
The roguishly charming and endlessly troublesome Fletch becomes the prime suspect in a murder case while searching for a stolen art collection. The only way to prove his innocence? Find out which of the long list of suspects is the culprit - from the eccentric art dealer and a missing playboy to a crazy neighbor and Fletch’s Italian girlfriend. Crime, in fact, has never been this disorganized.
My notes: Jon Hamm is endlessly compelling to watch in this and I hope he gets to play the character again someday.
2021 - Quo Vadis, Aida?
Bosnia, July 1995.
Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people – rescue or death? Which move should she take?
My notes: Some films pull off the feat of making you feel like a helpless witness to history. In this case, that history makes you wonder how people are allowed by the universe to carry on existing in the face of the terrible tolls they inflict on each other, both directly or through incompetence and inaction.
Truly, devastatingly effective.
2020 - She Dies Tomorrow
Your deepest fear is spreading.
Amy is ravaged by the notion that she is going to die tomorrow, which sends her down a dizzying emotional spiral. When her skeptical friend Jane discovers Amy’s feeling of imminent death to be contagious, they both begin bizarre journeys through what might be the last day of their lives.
My notes: An easily communicable condition and the spread of lots of bad thinking from a movie released in 2020... nah, not relatable at all, either then or now.
2019 - Aniara
A simple trip to mars will become the journey of a lifetime.
A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.
My notes: Another lower budget sci-fi flick that punches above its weight. Loved its exploration of humanity, grief, and joy.
2018 - Burning
The truth is all in your head.
Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he’d mind looking after her cat while she’s away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.
My notes: So much of the film happens at a low key –yet always engaging– level that when big moments do happen they seem all the more important and, in some cases, brutal. It's a skillful portrayal of lonely desperation vs. entitled confidence in which every seeming side-plot ultimately proves keenly significant.
2017 - Your Name.
Separated by distance, connected by fate.
High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.
My notes: I think this might be the film that put me on the path of appreciating anime more that I ever had before – mainly because I'd just never watched much of it. Seeing this made me regret not more seriously exploring the genre sooner.
2016 - Cameraperson
A visually radical memoir.
CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
My notes: Johnson's method of juxtaposing images and moments from across her career – both in terms of time and location – in a way that subtly builds connections of shared humanity is sublime to watch and has stuck with me more than most other films I've seen in recent years.
2015 - 45 Years
Do we really know our loved ones?
There is just one week until Kate Mercer’s 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.
My notes: Two amazing, legendary actors in something of an emotionally high-concept two-hander? Yup, sign me up!
2014 - Ida
1960s Poland.
Young novitiate Anna is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a family secret dating back to the years of the German occupation.
My notes: Between this and his perhaps better known follow-up, Cold War, Paweł Pawlikowski sure does a lot to show that a squared off aspect ratio and stark black and white cinematography can thrive with life when used correctly.
2013 - No
CHILE, HAPPINESS IS COMING!
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, René Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
My notes: For somewhat obvious reasons these days, this depiction of organized resistance to tyranny deserves a revisit.
2012 - The Imposter
There are two sides to every lie.
In 1994 a 13-year-old boy disappeared without a trace from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three-and-a-half years later he is found alive thousands of miles away in a village in southern Spain with a horrifying story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not quite as it seems.
My notes: Put this on as a double feature with 2018's Three Identical Strangers and you'll have yourself quite a time of documentary exploration of identity, with plenty of twists and turns.
2011 - Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Humanity’s Lost Masterpiece… in 3D
Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.
My notes: At the time, I thought this was one of the few examples of actually using the 3D format well, to take you somewhere you literally cannot go in this world to experience something deeply meaningful. So, to be fair, I'm not sure how it plays on a small screen and in 2D, but I've held onto the feeling of watching this in its intended presentation for a decade and a half now.
2010 - Cyrus
John met the woman of his dreams. Then he met her son…
With John’s social life at a standstill and his ex-wife about to get remarried, a down on his luck divorcée finally meets the woman of his dreams, only to discover she has another man in her life - her son. Before long, the two are locked in a battle of wits for the woman they both love-and it appears only one man can be left standing when it’s over.
My notes: I know mileage may vary for some folks when it comes to the Duplass Brothers, but I just really connected with this one when it first came out... so much so, in fact, that I sort of avoided watching it again for many years, afraid that it wouldn't live up to my memory of it. But when I finally did get back to it, I still loved it.
2009 - Two Lovers
Sometimes we leave everything to find ourselves.
A depressed man moves back in with his parents following a recent heartbreak and finds himself with two women.
My notes: One of those exceedingly rare times I went into a movie with next to no knowledge of it and came out wondering why it wasn't getting more attention. Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix are great, so it was a shame that it ended eras for both of them.
Side note... While Phoenix eventually got back on track post- the debacle of his next film, I'm Still Here, and went on to become possibly the best male actor of his generation, Paltrow was a whole other case. I mean, sure, she's charming as Pepper Pots in the Marvel movies, but otherwise, has she done anything worth a watch until this year's Marty Supreme, which she's pretty great in?
2008 - JCVD
The Biggest Fight of His Life!
Between his tax problems and his legal battle with his wife for the custody of his daughter, these are hard times for the action movie star who finds that even Steven Seagal has pinched a role from him! This fictionalized version of Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to the country of his birth to seek the peace and tranquility he can no longer enjoy in the United States, but inadvertently gets involved in a bank robbery with hostages.
My notes: When my buddy Manny first told me about this movie back when it came out, I barely believed that it could be real. It sounded completely made up. But it's real and a captivatingly fun mix of reality and fiction.
2007 - Persepolis
The film Iran didn’t want the world to see.
In 1970s Iran, Marjane ‘Marji’ Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah’s defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
My notes: I'd barely heard anyone mention this movie in the longest time, but have recently started to see clips of it showing up on social media in the context of people discussing what's happening in Iran right now. Here's hoping the spirit of the film and the graphic novel it's based on carry over into the real world as the Iranian people struggle against the very tyranny they depict.
2006 - Why We Fight
It Is Nowhere Written That The American Empire Goes On Forever
Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki’s shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
My notes: Yet another film that gets at some truths we'd do well to heed these days as the current regime embarks on military imperialism in Venezuela and threatens it elsewhere.
2005 - Mysterious Skin
Two boys. One can’t remember. The other can’t forget.
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
My notes: This and Rian Johnson's Brick marked a significant leveling up of maturity for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an actor. And while this is admittedly the less "fun" of the two, it certainly deserves attention just the same, especially as director Greg Araki's influence has seemed to grow thanks to critics and Criterion keeping his flame alive in between his widely spaced out feature film releases.
2004 - The Motorcycle Diaries
Let the world change you…and you can change the world.
Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.
My notes: Admittedly, I haven't seen this one probably since it was in theaters, but the warm feelings I had from watching it have stuck with me for two decades and director Walter Salles' I'm Still Here (different from the Joaquin Phoenix mentioned earlier), from last year, reminded me I should revisit this.
2003 - Elephant
It’s an ordinary high school day. Except that it’s not.
Several ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
My notes: This one is pretty divisive, but it was one of the most affecting moviegoing experiences I had in my twenties and the handful of times I've had the wherewithal to revisit it, it's been just as affecting.
2002 - Das Experiment
You are invited to participate
20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.
My notes: It's been a long, long time since I saw this, so I'm honestly not sure how well it holds up, but at the time, I thought this was a grossly underrated film.
2001 - Ghost World
Accentuate the negative.
Two quirky, cynical teenaged girls try to figure out what to do with their lives after high school graduation. After they play a prank on an eccentric, middle aged record collector, one of them befriends him, which causes a rift in the girls’ friendship.
Thora Birch
My notes: I think this one might tie with Elephant and the next film on the list for how far it might stretch the definitions of "overlooked" and/or "overrated." That said, this is a movie that has only grown in my estimation of it over the years. It's just become one of those movies that, every so often, I'm like "I haven't watched that in a while... better get at it" about.
2000 - Bamboozled
A Spectacular Film by Mr. Spike Lee
Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.
My notes: The early digital video look of this is not exactly the easiest thing to hang with in this day and age, but there's something about the immediacy of the format and the and the storytelling it engendered that I somehow can't imagine having been possible on film in the same way. Put this on in a double feature with Sidney Lumet's Network if you want to understand something about the ridiculous media landscape we're currently in. Also, I remember the commentary track for this being pretty damn good.
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