Best Overlooked Film

Spirited Away

Every year, dozens of films slip through the cracks and simply don't get seen by enough audiences, and because we're not all movie critics here, not by enough of the staff to get the attention they deserve. For this reason, we've created the Best Overlooked Film Award, with films earning under $25 million qualifying.

A bit of a conundrum occurs here, though; six of the films on our Best Picture list earned under this mark and they make up six of the top seven of this list, though in a slightly different order. So the explanation? All of these films are overlooked, but some are more overlooked than others.

Topping this new list is the Japanese anime Spirited Away. Although it's earned several hundred million dollars worldwide, it's had difficulty breaking into the American animation market. Rich in details and carrying a powerful message, it's inspired those who have seen it. Due to the several strikes against it though (animated, foreign origin, no wacky sidekicks) it's been largely ignored, making it an excellent choice as a film that people should give a second chance.

In some sense, it's difficult to think of the highest grossing documentary of all time as "overlooked." However, when you consider that this milestone only gets the film to about $18 million, it's a borderline travesty. Documentaries are generally the bastard child of cinema, with few people seeking out what they'd see as a lecture on film. Not many documentaries are as entertaining as this one, though, and in turbulent times it just becomes more poignant. Moore has often had a reputation for bullying his points, but in Bowling for Columbine, he stands back and lets his points speak for themselves and raises more questions than he answers. In putting it second on this list, we hope that it encourages more studios to give entertaining and enlightening documentaries a chance in theaters.

In third and fourth place we have Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Adaptation, numbers four and two in the main list. Neither of these are really underexposed, both of them receiving wide releases, but then both were summarily ignored as well. Confessions is a triumph of style, with George Clooney's amazingly confident directorial debut pulling a lot of the weight. It shares a Charlie Kaufman scripting effort with Adaptation, which despite plenty of exposure, simply was too strange for the general public and will struggle to reach $20 million without a tremendous success at the Oscars.

Punch-Drunk Love comes in fifth place and despite the presence of Adam Sandler, fell below the grosses of both Magnolia and Boogie Nights. It's hard not to see why as this film is more like a French new-wave film than The Waterboy, and it proved too big a challenge to too many different groups of people. If you're looking for a film with lots of heart, you can't go wrong with this one.

Another of this year's actor-turned-director efforts comes in at number six, Bill Paxton's Frailty. A creepy thriller about faith and serial killers, it barely got a chance in theaters but featured great acting and a twisty-turny plot. Solaris was a film that was critically reviled in some circles and mismarketed to an uninterested audience, but found a receptive greeting among the staff here, who were thrilled by the thoughtful choices it made.

Lest you think we're all a bunch of art-house freaks, we voted Super Troopers in at number eight. A sublimely goofy comedy from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, it was the most quotable movie of the year for us and became an easy film to recommend for a fun evening.

In ninth place came the French film Brotherhood of the Wolf. If you see only one subtitled-period piece-kung fu-religious-monster-historical epic movie this year, make it this one.

Rounding out the top ten is Igby Goes Down, a piece about disaffected youth starring a Culkin. Hey, I'm as surprised as you guys. The rest of our list includes a lot of "failed" comedies (Death to Smoochy, Big Trouble), foreign films (Atanarjuat, Y Tu Mama Tambien) and many other films that just weren't considered commercial enough for wide release (The Good Girl, The Cat's Meow). (Reagen Sulewski/BOP)

Top Ten
Position	Film	Total Points
1	Spirited Away	71
2	Bowling for Columbine	62
3	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	53
4	Adaptation	48
5	Punch-Drunk Love	42
6	Frailty	39
7	Solaris	34
8	Super Troopers	33
9	Brotherhood of the Wolf	31
10	Igby Goes Down	22