The 20 Most Under-Rated Films of 2008

Originally written January 2009

Two thousand eight saw much artistic ambition in cinema. But when it came to delivery on those ambitions, problems abounded. Ambitious projects, imperfect delivery – that was the story of 2008.

I review films based on a scale of 1 to 10, saving the 10 rating for masterpieces, which of course do not come around very often. I did not give out a single 10 in 2008. But I didn’t give a 10 out in 2007 either, so that is not particularly noteworthy. The surprise was that I didn’t give out a single 9 in 2008. No film was worthy of more than an 8 in my book.

This was only due to imperfect delivery, however. If I had ranked films exclusively on ambition, there would have been many tens. It is sad that so few of 2008’s ambitious films got seen. Their flaws were disappointing, but their creativity, artistic intelligence and bravery were exhilarating. Anyone who cares about film, it seems to me, should appreciate diamonds in the rough. If we only pay attention to perfect achievements, then we miss most of what is going on in any art form.

Cinema suffers greatly when audiences refuse to nurture serious artists through a bit of misfiring. We should be enthusiastic about seeing interesting, imperfect films that aim high artistically. If we refuse to purchase tickets to creative films with weaknesses, then we make it very difficult for directors to take risks. All we end up with is safe, prefabricated product made according to corporate formulas.

First let's look at my top 10 films of the year:

1. WALL-E 2. Mister Lonely 3. The Edge of Heaven 4. Synecdoche, New York 5. Snow Angels

6. The Visitor 7. The Dark Knight 8. Changeling 9. Slumdog Millionaire 10. Stop-Loss

Of those, only Dark Knight and Slumdog got the attention they deserved. WALL-E got rave reviews, appeared on many Top 10 lists, and surely will win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. But how many adults saw it? Only about two percent of my adult friends saw it -- a grievously low number. I had hoped that WALL-E would receive a nomination as Best Picture, which would have pushed more adults to see it. A nomination for Animated Film does not have much impact. In this sense, I would say that even WALL-E is under-rated. Almost no one considers it a must-see, which is heart-breaking. Yes, the film had mawkish moments. But non-mawkish passages were far more numerous, and the film presents a bracing and philosophically profound meditation on the fate of humankind. Its lyricism also at times is nothing short of sublime.

Second is Mister Lonely, directed by underground legend Harmony Korine. When I exited the theater after seeing Mister Lonely, I was sure the film would become a sensation. Instead it disappeared almost immediately. This was the most stunning and depressing failure of 2008. My hope is that Mister Lonely will become the next Donnie Darko, getting rediscovered on DVD after a failed theatrical run. Any fan of Donnie Darko would surely appreciate Korine’s elliptical and haunting film. I’d go so far as to say that the still-young Korine is becoming the next Federico Fellini.

Mister Lonely consists of two unrelated storylines edited together beautifully. Each raises provocative questions about postmodern life but does not answer them. Korine is not a didactic artist. He does not try to explain anything to his audience. Rather he points out puzzling things and asks us to contemplate them.

The film’s dominant storyline concerns a charming and sensitive group of celebrity impersonators who live communally in a castle by the sea in a remote corner of what appears to be Scotland. At the group’s heart is a young woman who lives as Marilyn Monroe (yet another evocative, deeply human performance from Samantha Morton). While visiting Paris, this woman encounters a soft-spoken young man living as Michael Jackson (he is played by Diego Luna). She brings him home to the castle, where she exclaims joyfully to her friends: “I found a Michael!” Once part of the group, this young man goes through several rounds of something like self-discovery. Meanwhile, the woman crashes into walls inside herself, with tragic consequences for her and everyone around her.

The second storyline is far more surreal and contains breathtaking aerial photography involving Werner Herzog and a group of nuns. (You have to see it to believe it.) This story raises questions about God and spiritual consciousness. It is quite amazing to see an avant-garde artist like Korine, who is reputed to be such a nihilist, contemplating God.

The Edge of Heaven, number 3 on my list, is from Turko-German wunderkind Faith Akin. I did not expect Edge of Heaven to attract an audience in the suburbs, but the fact that it failed even in cities was a major disappointment. A chief reason might be the fact that none of the larger art-house distributers picked it up. Perhaps it would have found more of an audience if Sony Pictures Classics, for example, had gotten behind it. Whatever the reason, it’s an absolute travesty that The Edge of Heaven has been seen by only a couple thousand people in the United States.

Charlie Kaufman’s gigantic directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, my vote for fourth-best film of the year, was seen by a significant number of people. That is at least gratifying. But the stridently negative reaction from many quarters floored me. I can understand someone not loving a film -- but hating it venomously? Not many movies generate hatred. It usually indicates that a film pushed people’s buttons. Was the brutal realism of Synecdoche’s exploration of death too disturbing? Was the film too disconcerting in the way it undermined the concept of identity?

Were Americans annoyed by the fact that they couldn't pronounce the title or understand what it meant? (It is pronounced sin-ECK-duh-kee, incidentally.) I'm certain that only .00001% of the American population knows what a synecdoche is. I've talked to folks who thought that Kaufman made up the word. When I corrected them on this, they seemed angry, as if I was trying to embarrass them. (I was not. I was simply giving them information.) Americans do frequently go into strange psychological tailspins when they encounter something artistic or literary that they don't understand.

But maybe one shouldn’t read too much into it. Perhaps these people simply thought Synecdoche was one of the worst films of all time. That can bring out venom in anyone. If that's the case, then I can only stand back in wonder. I don't consider Synecdoche a masterpiece, but there was no question to me that it was a major work of art. For this reason, I consider Synecdoche under-rated. While it got seen, it received a qualitative assessment that was absurdly low.

Snow Angels, number five, got high ratings from about two-thirds of critics. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called it “sublimely moving,” for example. But the chorus of praise was not loud enough it seems. For some reason, no one went to see it. The marketing campaign was limited, but you'd think word of mouth would have been sufficient to generate buzz for a film of this quality. Snow Angels was certainly bleak in tone. Perhaps 2008 was the year that even art-house audiences turned their backs on tough subject matter. If that's the case, then I'm simply a radical outlier. For me, tragedy as an art form is always in season.

Snow Angels was directed by the wildly creative David Gordon Green and starred Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale, with wonderful supporting work from young actors Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby. Comedian Amy Sedaris also appears in an interesting, very non-comedic minor role.

Number six on my list, The Visitor, is the second film directed by actor Thomas McCarthy (the first was 2003's The Station Agent). The Visitor did reasonably well at the box office for an indie film with no stars in the cast. Reviews were excellent, and lead actor Richard Jenkins even received an Oscar nomination. But it did not become a must-see, and it should have. Ninety-five percent of Americans have not seen it and will not see it. This is gravely disappointing. Occasionally an indie film becomes a break-out hit (e.g. Juno and Slumdog Millionaire). The Visitor at least should have come close to that. And where was the Best Picture nomination? The Visitor gets a 90% rating from critics, compared to The Reader’s 60% (based on data from Rotten Tomatoes). Yet The Reader gets a Best Picture nod and The Visitor does not?

Clint Eastwood's Changeling, number eight, had a lot of early buzz, but it dissipated quickly for reasons that I still don't understand. Angelina Jolie received a well-deserved Oscar nomination, but other than that the film was under-appreciated and did not take off with critics or audiences. Supporting actor Jeffrey Donovan never got the praise he deserved.

Changeling was a bit bloated and needed tighter editing. But one could say that about countless Best Picture nominees in years past. It was melodramatic -- but Slumdog was nothing more than a melodrama, let's be honest. My only explanation for the under-appreciation of Changeling is that it was female driven. If you put male-driven and female-driven melodramas of equivalent quality alongside each other, the male-driven one will in the vast majority of cases do much better at the box office and among critics. It could also be that the film's unflinching look at child murder was too disturbing in a year when anything bleak caused audiences and critics to stick their heads into the ground like ostriches. Add Changeling to the long list of films that need to be rediscovered when the ostriches have lifted their heads out of the ground and this grotesque spasm of escapism has passed. Average moviegoers of course always tend toward mindless escapism. But right now it appears that everyone in America has fallen under its spell.

Finally number 10, Stop-Loss, directed by Kimberly Peirce (her first film since 1999’s Oscar-winning Boys Don’t Cry). In 2007, critics and audiences completely ignored films that wrestled with U.S. foreign policy. Paramount delayed the opening of Stop-Loss, hoping that audience sensibilities would shift in 2008. They did not, and Stop-Loss was barely noticed when it was released in March 2008. Maybe in 20 years, American cinephiles will realize that Hollywood got brutally punished in 2007-08 for producing terrific cinema taking on the big issues of our time. Stop-Loss and movies like it, such as 2007’s Rendition, might then get audiences of appropriate size.

A dozen or so other films also got cheated by critics and audiences. They were flawed but with modest changes could have been great. They were daring, nearly superb and deserve to be seen by anyone who cares about cinema. They are:

English Language Ballast Revolutionary Road W Elegy Frozen River Body of Lies The Wackness Hounddog Savage Grace Traitor

Foreign Language Reprise Let the Right One In A Jihad for Love Yella Chansons d'Amour