What is underrated, anyway? The term, being on the positive side of criticism will spare critics the vitriol from calling something “overrated.” But is it simply just a way of saying I liked something more than other people did? I’m a glass half full kinda guy; I think it can serve more purpose than that. I think something can be rated highly, but be underrated in that discussion is largely focused on one aspect.
For instance, for this list, I included a film that is picking up awards hand over fist. People have already determined that it’s meaningful. I’d however, contest, that 12 Years a Slave is underrated. Why? Because there seems to be two types of discussion about the film: is it too brutal to win an Oscar? Or “it’s important.” Both of these discussions seem to be about the same thing: are the depictions of slavery with the whippings and nasty racial words and spit and blood too much for people to watch? Will we feel too bad about our nation’s past? Or is it important because it’s unflinching?
Lost amongst all of this chatter is a scene that pushes 12 Years a Slave beyond a slave narrative and into a modern all of America’s existence parable territory.
The scene I speak of is when Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is spared a hanging from his tormentor (Paul Dano) but left with a noose around his neck until his master returns. Solomon taps his feet on the mud to keep himself from choking. His fellow enslaved walk around him, doing their work, not risking themselves for his literal neck. That scene lasts an uncomfortably long time. So much time that it makes me feel that McQueen is letting it sink in that the inability to help another human being, regardless of their race, and pretending that they don’t exist is still happening right now; just because you’re watching something in the past doesn’t mean it solely comments on the past.
That’s right, a year when a slavery film might be the awards sweeper is the year when a lot of genre and independent films were sneaking in conversational topics. That’s great. If you missed these ideas, concerning privilege, war crimes, social identity and homosexuality in everything from indie films to broad studio comedies, perhaps you too will find them underrated.
OK. I hope I didn’t lose you. Hell, CraveOnline’s William Bibbiani already went a divergent angle and called 12 Years a Slave “possibly the best horror film of the year, but it’s a disappointing drama”, so it might be considered underrated here anyhow. I could’ve just spared you all an analysis.
That’s OK. You probably just went to the slideshow first.
You can also call me overrated in the comments section if you’d like.
Read William Bibbiani’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Read Witney Seibold’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Read Fred Topel’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Brian Formo is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @BrianEmilFormo.
Brian Formo Picks the 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2013
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10. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Ron Burgundy’s (Will Ferrell) second film has mostly been written about as not as good as the first. What? I think this one is far more legendary. There’s a freakin’ minotaur and the ghost of Stonewall Jackson! Also, Kristen Wiig is a perfect addition. More importantly, this Anchorman feels more on point and consistent to me. But perhaps that’s because the jabs at American news consumption hold like glue. Car chase cutaways, making up news, stories getting killed by a corporate sponsor, all these jokes set up a turf war of cable news teams that have taken reports on news, sports and history to new – non-news places. Yes, those are easy targets, but it’s nice to have them interspersed amongst the (hilarious) condom, hair and shark jokes.
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9. To the Wonder
If you click on my author’s page you’ll see that I am a Terrence Malick apologist. Of course his most frustrating film that he’s ever made will end up on my list. Why? Because even when a Malick film doesn’t floor me it still has some of the single best and most beautiful moments. To the Wonder has those, too. Including: Rachel McAdams in an antique store putting away her husband’s things, and essentially putting away Ben Affleck’s cold soul; Olga Kurylenko and Romina Mondello walking through the Oklahoma suburbs begging for someone to come outside. Yes, it never fully connects (Affleck why can’t you ever unpack your boxes?!). But Malick is a master of moments. Usually when stitched together his films are one of the best films of the year for me. In this case, it’s underrated. I guess he’ll always be underrated to me. Brian Formo, M.A. (Not a Master’s in the Arts, but a Malick Apologist.)
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8. Blue Caprice
Probably the most underrated movie on my list because it’s barely been seen. But it deserves to be. Director Alexander Moors took a story that we see sensationalized often – a mass shooting – and has fashioned a slow burning reveler. An abandoned black youth (Tequan Richmond) finds a dangerous father figure in John (Isaiah Washington), who’s reeling from a recent divorce. The psychology that leads them to carry out the Beltway sniper shootings of 2002 takes a few leaps, but that’s because it just isn’t normal. There has to be leaps that aren't just explained away. To great effect, Moors doesn't fully expose their motivations. It’s a somber, understated, horrific film, shot with a nice metallic blue hue. Additionally, this is redemptive in a leading role for Washington – who’s always been a great actor, but has been shunned from the acting community for his homophobic remarks during his stint on Grey’s Anatomy. That tossed aside quality lends itself starkly to Blue Caprice. Moors is a director to watch…
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7. In a World...
However, the best first feature of the year came from Lake Bell, who pulled all the duties here: writing, acting and directing. It’s a behind the scenes comedy that Hollywood loves to do, except Bell has placed it in a world (ha!) that most cinemagoers never think of: the competitive field of voiceover work. While the famously maligned “in a world…” approach to movie trailers isn’t used anymore, it is a field that is like the rest of Hollywood: male dominated. That’s what makes this Hollywood film feel less like an insider’s joke: it’s hard for women to get inside that world and Bell is a gleeful guide. In a World… is a bit of a gem for how much Bell can get out of a small premise. Now, Hollywood, don’t let her struggle to find the next gig. We need more opportunities for female directors like Bell. She’s got an Alexander Payne bone in her body. Take note.
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6. The World's End
This was my favorite summer flick. It’d make a nice companion piece to Her. Simon Pegg is unhinged as a n’er do well who rallies old school chums to enable his drinking binge fantasies – until they discover that the town they grew up in his been taken over by robots that enjoy going to the exact same bar replicated in seven different buildings. There’s an anti-corporate message, there’s some great fight scenes and nice internal chuckles (the Brits aren’t the type to make you spill your drink, there’s some great wink-wink-nudge-nudge going on here); but unlike Spike Jonze (director of Her), Edgar Wright ultimately wants to be in the dark ages. If everything and everyone is becoming so similar, just start over entirely.
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5. You're Next
This was my favorite horror film of the year. Partly because of the horror indie film in-winks (having director Ti West and director Joe Swanberg argue about commercials vs. film; making Barbara Crampton, of Re-Animator, the mother, thus giving all men of a certain age a certain Oedipus complex that actually ends up playing out); partly because it goes for a lil extra justification for the home invasion other than thrills (to pick off this family because they got rich from engineering war weapons); but what seals the deal is the use of blender, and Sharni Vinson as the capable heroine. This film sat in Lionsgate’s cellar for almost two years. As with most horror movies, thank God someone went into the cellar. To get You’re Next out.
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4. Laurence Anyways
Xavier Dolan is 24, he’s had three films debut at Cannes. With Laurence Anyways he’s made his grandiose; it’s a beautiful and timely pop confection. Dolan has written and directed a movie about a man (Melvil Poupaud) who tells his girlfriend of numerous years (Suzanne Clement) that he’s a woman. It charts the next ten years of their lives, trying to make it work, unraveling, coming back, etc. It is an epic love story. Despite some stunning visuals, what is most stark about Laurence is the time setting. He sets this film in the 1980’s to 90’s. Clement’s character says, “Our generation can handle this.” What Dolan appears to be saying is, while the previous generation set a lot of acceptance groundwork, it’s truly his generation that is up to the challenge. They got this.
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3. Twelve Years a Slave
I used my intro to talk a lot about a certain scene that wraps up all of American injustice in one shot (if you don’t know what scene I’m referring to, then please read my intro). To add a different underrated talking point here I’ll say, again, I think just talking about the aspect of whether the whippings are too brutal is doing a disservice to the work of art in this film. McQueen is a great visual artist. He is obsessed with the rigors placed on a body. In Hunger it was starvation as politics. In Shame it was sex as a lifeforce. In 12 Years a Slave the body is brutalized, but starker to me is McQueen’s use of the body as commerce. There’s Paul Giamiatti’s sleazy scene of selling the slaves based on physical attributes that he displays like an all you can eat buffet. There’s Alfre Woodard’s scene explaining how she came to escape slavery through marrying her master. 12 Years is a worthy addition to director Steve McQueen’s fascination with the body and while it is horrific and important for its portrayal of slavery, McQueen has filmed so much more than just the past.
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2. Behind the Candelabra
Again, this is a film that will be an awards winner – in television. I say it’s underrated because those awards won’t be in the film community. Cannes understood that’s where this biopic of Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his lover (Matt Damon) belonged, by placing it in competition at their film festival. HBO be damned. This is a film. This is the best film that Steven Soderbergh has made since Out of Sight. We are deprived of talking about it as a film because of distribution semantics (though we are continuously lucky to have HBO). Theatergoers were deprived of treating it as a film on the big screen because it was deemed “too gay” for a studio to make and release. For a nation of evolving awareness our largest accepted, watched, awarded and funded gay theatrical film is still Brokeback Mountain – one about the difficulties of coming out; with machismo bullshit standing in the way of happiness, and one that featured more heterosexual sex and nude women than homosexuality. Damon, Douglas and Soderbergh made a great film about the secret, closed off nature of their relationship and film studios were wrong to close them off as well.
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1. The Bling Ring
Sofia Coppola undoes all the hope that I might have felt watching Her. Hers is a film that shows a vapid desire for things, not for the things themselves, but for the brags of having them. The Bling Ring works wonderfully because this group of teens who steal from celebrities don’t even seem to enjoy what they are doing unless it’s commented on. Also underrated was Harris Savides, the great cinematographer who passed away last year. This was the last film that he shot, and it features one of the best shots of the year: two teens running through a modern block, large-windowed, sterile house in the Hollywood hills. As they turn on all the lights and grab what they can, we watch from a still, single take from above. It’s like looking at a miniature, boring dollhouse. The house belongs to a reality TV star: a manufactured personality who hasn’t done anything other than wear expensive clothes. Self-branding is a new aspiration and Coppola has given us a great – and underrated – portrayal of the ridiculousness of that.
