Critics love to argue. It’s one of the great truths of our job. We love to prove to other critics that certain films that are loved should be rejected, more, more commonly, that films that are obscure, perhaps hated, or utterly forgotten, should instead be adored. We have to be honest about our opinions (it’s the unbreakable Critic’s Prime Directive), and occasionally, well, our opinions skew to the unpopular. We critics all have obscure classics in our pockets that we like to whip out during casual conversations, declaring to the high heavens that these unknown or underappreciated films are not only worthwhile, but modern classics.
Only one of the films on this list is an underrated classic. The rest, however, were dismissed or forgotten by most mainstream audiences, and, well, they really deserved more attention, acclaim, or just consideration than some of their better-publicized peers. It’s these films that actually require the most critical strong-arming, the most support. The best and worst will find (or lose) their audiences through dint of their popularity. These eight films require active defense.
Here, then, are eight underrated movies from 2013. See them all immediately.
Read William Bibbiani’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Read Fred Topel’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Read Brian Formo’s picks for the most underrated films of 2013.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
The Most Underrated Films of 2013, Witney Style
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Oblivion
This Tom Cruise vehicle was crackerjack sci-fi film about a post-apocalyptic landscape ruled by evil (and really cool-looking) drone robots seeking out the remnants of a long-fought off alien invading force, but who occasionally try to murder Cruise. Oblivion looks really cool, and is slick and awesome and fun. There are several predictable twists in the story, causing many critics to accuse it of being strictly derivative. I think it felt like a good old-fashioned sci-fi adventure.
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The Family
Luc Besson’s gangster comedy was spirited and fun and, get this, actually funny. I laughed more at The Family than I did at something like The Internship. The film was released to warm reviews, and was ripped from theaters after only a few short weeks, despite a fun script, a lot of good characters and performances, and dead-on gangster toughness from pros like DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer.
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The Lords of Salem
Tracing the trajectory of Rob Zombie’s filmmaking career has been fascinating, as he only seems to be improving. His films are still mired in his usual gut-wrenching horror interests, but he also has a canny ear for natural dialogue, and the kind of on-screen camaraderie that most films so desperately lack. The Lords of Salem was a low-budget fright fest about witches returning to Massachusetts, which featured some great performances, striking images, and actual atmosphere. It’s hardly a horror classic, but in a world where the Carrie remake made as much money as it did, The Lords of Salem was maligned.
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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Most recent fantasy fare, even the stuff aimed at slightly younger kids, has become so bloody serious. There is always so much blood and mayhem and death, we’ve lackadaisically forgotten than children’s adventure films can be bright and brisk and fun. The Percy Jackson films are here to remind us that YA fantasy fiction adaptations don’t always have to be so effing dark. Here is a bright and silly film that loves its own adventure. It’s fresh and rollicking. Even if you can only see it as a Harry Potter ripoff (which it most assuredly is), you can take comfort in the fact that it’s better than many of the Harry Potter movies.
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As I Lay Dying
James Franco directed and starred in this hugely ambitious and only partly successful adaptation of William Faulkner’s famed piece of psychological realism. While the book is essentially unfilmable, Franco gives it the old college try, attempting to translate the abstraction, the stream-of-consciousness narration, and the authentic patois of Faulkner’s hillbillies to the big screen. The film may seem slow and weird on the surface, but in an important way, it captured the dreamy, pained tone of Faulkner’s novel. And that’s not something we should dismiss.
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To the Wonder
Many critics and audiences dismissed Terrence Malick’s recent film as being, well, a little too Malick for its own good. Haven’t we seen all this before from this guy? What’s more, it wasn’t nearly as ambitious as The Tree of Life, his previous film which covered many similar themes, making it seem like a “lesser” film in comparison. I’ll say this: Even if Malick was on autopilot (which I don’t think is true), he is still a staggeringly soulful and thoughtful director with big things on his mind, and To the Wonder is a glorious and moving film.
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John Dies at the End
I’m constantly aching for weird movies, and I don’t get them too often. Sure, occasionally you’ll get something off-the-wall like Thor: The Dark World, but it’s rare you’ll get a weird film made by a weird filmmaker with weird ideas. Luckily, Don Coscarelli is still working, and his little-seen January release was a cheapo but wonderfully bugnuts affair for cult aficionados everywhere. It was about a pair of handsome white drug addicts who fight demons, and discover a narcotic that allows them to skip in between dimensions. It was hampered by its low budget, but it deserves to be discussed more openly.
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White House Down
Why was this film so openly hated? Was it because it came after the inferior Olympus Has Fallen? Was it because audiences didn’t know how to have fun at the movies anymore? I can’t figure it out, because I did not have more fun at the movies this year than when I watched the awesomely cheesy White House Down. Perhaps the best of all Die Hard knockoffs, White House Down has an impeccable screenplay, littered with wonderful goofy crap; I think someone actually says “If you don’t save the president, it will mean the start of World War III!” It was exactly how I like action films to be. It was the action film of the summer, and will be the perfect film to watch and re-watch again and again over a lifetime of rainy afternoons.Channing Tatum, left, and Jamie Foxx star in Columbia Pictures' "White House Down."
