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The easiest way to describe Terribly Happy, the second best seriously overlooked film of 2010, to American audiences is to call it Hot Fuzz by way of the early Coen brothers. The most fun way to describe it is crazy Danish deeply disturbing neo-noir amazingness. Henrik Ruben Genz's film is about Robert Hanson, a Danish police officer who gets stationed in a small rural town where everything seems a little... off. He quickly gets embroiled in a complex series of crimes, in addition to beginning an affair with one of the town's strangest residents. Difficult to follow, not just because it is in Danish, Terribly Happy takes all sorts of crazy twists and turns that will certainly keep you guessing, but great performances by stars Jakob Cedergren, Lene Maria Christenson and Kim Bodnia will keep you completely engrossed as you try to figure out what the heck is unfolding in front of you. Sneaking past $170,000 in the United States, I only pray that this film isn't bastardized with an American adaptation of it. Fingers crossed...

So for a list featuring films about environmental destruction, murder, kidnapping, and abusive relationships, what is the perfect topic for the best seriously overlooked film of 2010? Why, Muslim Jihadists, of course. Except, wait, this film is a comedy. Not just a comedy, but a hysterical dark comedy, as great a farce as any Chaplin film, and a satire on par with Dr. Strangelove. Four Lions is, without a doubt, the best overlooked film of the year, and also the funniest film since 2009's In the Loop. Chris Morris's directorial debut follows a group of Muslims living in London, planning to martyr themselves. How is this a comedy, you ask? Clearly you don't understand the comedic potential in four angry but fairly obtuse Jihadists arguing about what they should blow up, as well as exactly where and how to go about doing it.

Featuring some of the most absurd and hilarious dialogue of any film in recent years, you will undoubtedly be shocked by this film, but you will also be rolling with laughter. And like all great comedies, Four Lions has a heart at its center, and its melancholy denouement is quite moving. Considering its subject matter, it is unsurprising that Four Lions only made $300,000 in the United States. But in a year when most of the year's best films did get the attention they deserved, it is disappointing to see how many brilliant movies will never get seen by even serious filmgoers, and this film is a perfect example. Before you watch Inception for the 200th time, track down Four Lions, watch it, laugh uproariously, hate yourself a little bit for finding it so funny, then laugh some more.


To Summarize, the 10 Best Seriously Overlooked Films of 2010:

1) Four Lions
2) Terribly Happy
3) Everyone Else
4) Made in Dagenham
5) Mother
6) Fish Tank
7) Wild Grass
8) The Disappearance of Alice Creed
9) GasLand
10) William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe

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