2015 Calvin Awards: Best Overlooked Film
By David Mumpower
February 11, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The vote for 2015 proved novel, as a heretofore unmentioned bylaw of BOP voting – yes, we have rules for The Calvins – triggered. Further details will be explained on Friday. For now, what matters is that we have a first in the category of Best Overlooked Film. A movie that was a day and date video on demand release has been selected by our staff as the Best Overlooked Film of the year.
Snowpiercer narrowly missed being one of our Top Film Industry Stories of the year, finishing 11th in a vote that recognizes the top ten. At that point, many of our writers appreciated the strength of its candidacy in this category. The South Korean production starring Captain America embraces the global nature of storytelling in the social media era. International influences abound. In this instance, the ideas of the videogame Bioshock and the Hugh Howey book franchise, Silo, are integrated into a tale of train dwellers who happen to be the last remnants of humanity.
The story is a standard tale of class struggle given a sublime spin thanks to the claustrophobic setting of a dystopian train. One’s status in society is dictated by how close they reside to the front cars where mankind’s overseer, Wilford, nurtures the dying flame of human existence. Chris Evans’ character, Curtis, lives at the back of the train, but he is upwardly (forwardly?) mobile. The idea of a societal revolution occurring within the confines of a single train is a masterstroke of creativity.
Snowpiercer never once shirks away from the horrors of the mortal coil, even when the viewer wishes that it did. Frankly, it is difficult to look at Chris Evans in the same light after Snowpiercer, and that alone makes his decision to take this role all the more impressive. Our staff is under no illusions that Snowpiercer is a perfect movie; however, it is the sort of daring project that Hollywood has actively avoided in recent years. As much as any of our selections in recent memory, this movie embodies the idea of Best Overlooked Film.
If you have followed The Calvins over the years, you should understand that the duo of Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo represents a kind of dream project for our staff. Add in the presence of John Carney, the director of Once, and the film is elevated to a once a generation type of production. To our utter delight, Begin Again did not break our hearts and in fact surpassed our lofty expectations for the project. Telling the story of a downtrodden music executive and a struggling, recently dumped musician, Begin Again once again encapsulates the impact that a pair of artists with unfortunate life experiences can have upon one another. Already lauded in the Best Scene category, this film proves to be a strong cross-category performer during the 2015 awards. Its second place status in Best Overlooked Film is the best Begin Again does in any race, though.
Scarlett Johansson starred in a pair of science fiction classics last year. One of them, Lucy, earned more in its first few hours of release than the other, Under the Skin, managed during its entire domestic run. Unsurprisingly, our eclectic staff drifted toward the unheralded release, the latest offering from Sexy Beast director Jonathan Glazer. This oddly toned, laconic release examines how men behave when a too-beautiful woman expresses sexual interest in them. Spoiler: IT’s A TRAP!!! No 2014 offering proved more divisive to our staff than Under the Skin, but the film’s ardent supporters championed it all the way into the top three in Best Overlooked Film.
Perhaps no film in the 2000s has evaluated the idea of gay marriage from a quirkier perspective than Love Is Strange. It tells the story of a (decades) long term gay couple who finally decide to wed now that the law allows it. Once they do, one of them is fired by his Catholic employers, and they can no longer afford to live in their own home. So, they start residing on the couches of various friends and family members, none of whom can accommodate both men at once. The pairing of John Lithgow and Alfred Molina is brilliant, and Love Is Strange manages to tug at the heartstrings while demonstrating the strength of commitment independent of sexuality. As such, we are proud to declare it the fourth Best Overlooked Film of the year.
Finishing in fifth and sixth place are a pair of heralded indie films. The Skeleton Twins reunites Saturday Night Live cast members Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in a tale of suicidal fraternal twins who are estranged and failing equally at the struggles of life. There is also a lip-syncing of Starship’s Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us that left our staff in stitches. Obvious Child is the world’s first abortion-based romantic comedy, and its bravado won over the BOP crew. With so many romcoms stuck in the doldrums of formulaic entertainment, this odd take on the genre felt refreshing enough to distinguish itself in a world of Nicholas Sparks wannabes.
A pairing of perennial awards season contenders and a rugged British crime drama are our seventh and eighth selections. Amy Adams has been nominated for five Academy Awards, while Christoph Waltz has won twice. Placing them at odds in Big Eyes all but guaranteed the film’s placement on this list. Starred Up is a story about a 19-year-old criminal elevated to an adult prison as a reflection of his crimes and overall behavior. There, he meets an even scarier thug who happens to be his father. The situation escalates quickly from there. Starred Up is currently one of the highest rated 2014 releases on Rotten Tomatoes, and our staff strongly agrees with the consensus.
Our final selections for Best Overlooked Film are Enemy and The Drop. Enemy was the less heralded Jake Gyllenhaal release of 2014. It tells the unlikely story of a man who stumbles upon an actor who could pass for his twin, straight down to an identifying mark on each one’s abdomen. Rather than uniting the two, however, the similarity leads to intense conflict between the men warring for supremacy of their own appearance/personality/life. The Drop will be best remembered as the final movie of James Gandolfini. Even without that trivia note, it would stand on its own as a fantastic Dennis Lehane adaptation. Bane himself, Tom Hardy, portrays a bartender at an establishment notorious for illicit activity. One night he sees too much, and then he says too much to the police. Everything that happens after that is a desperate attempt by him to escape the criminal element that runs the area.
Narrowly missing nomination in the category but still highly recommended by our staff are The Babadook, Frank, What If, Veronica Mars, The Immigrant and Pride. Less financially successful films such as the ones on this list generally stream earlier in their release cycles, so you can already access a few already. The rest should be available over the next few months. You can trust BOP's staff to be right about most of these. After all, we have an exceptional track record in this category.
2015 Calvin Awards
Calvins Intro
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture