When people look back on 2010 they'll remember the big blockbusters like Toy Story 3 or Iron Man 2. We'll still be talking aboutInception or The Social Network. We'll keep obsessing over the inevitable award winners like Winter's Bone or even perhaps The King's Speech. You'll geek out with your friends about that night you went to see Tron: Legacy or force sure to be cult classics like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on your buddies. Those movies, in one way or another, captured your attention.
Yet maybe you missed something. In a better world maybe we should have noticed these movies too. Maybe we should have actually shown up to see them. Maybe we should have been talking about them. These are the movies nearly everyone overlooked; good movies which somehow not nearly enough people saw, no one championed, and in some cases studios didn't even bother to market.
This isn't a list of critically acclaimed indies which didn't do well at the box office (they've already been endlessly championed, they had their shot), or films with huge fan followings which couldn't get anyone else to turn out (sorry Kick-Ass). Nor is this a list of movies which flopped at the box office but seem destined for cult success. These movies simply fell between the cracks and never really found the audience they deserved. When you're thinking back on this, you won't think of these films, but maybe you should. Consider giving these movies a second chance. Violent and strange, funny and endearing, gritty and sexy; they're the most unfairly overlooked movies of 2010.
The Runaways
When I reviewed the movie back in March I called Kristen Stewart a modern James Dean. I'm standing by that. If you've only seen her in Twilight, you've probably assumed the worst about the future vampire bride, but in The Runaways Stewart is stupendous as real life, fem rocker Joan Jett. The rest of the movie around her, isn't bad either. It's a real, seedy, drug-infested, sex-soaked rise to rock and roll fame tale, except all the rockers just happen to be girls. The film focuses primarily on the story of Runaways front girl Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) as she's indoctrinated into the rock and roll lifestyle, then sexed up to sell records by the zany, scene-stealing Michael Shannon as manager Ken Fowler. But it's Stewart Joan Jett who will really capture your attention, and she ends up carrying the movie. Stewart's Joan lives and breathes guitar licks, as the true talent behind the music. The rock and roll scenes are toe-tapping fun and the tale of an all girl band manufactured, unleashed, and then run aground is as interesting and fucked up as it ought to be. You'd think any movie starring Kristen Stewart would be an instant sensation, yet somehow her Twilight fandom never really seemed to notice she was in it. Maybe it was the film's hard R-rating which scared the overly chase Twilight crowd away. Whatever the reason, while the movie earned positive reviews, once it was released no one seemed to notice.
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