Sometimes, the best performances of the year aren’t the best performances of the year. Critical reception and awards recognition are limited in their purview, like anything else, and even when one lauds a performance, the other doesn’t always reciprocate. That’s not even beginning to mention audience responses, which often don’t sync up with either. When it comes down to it, what makes a great performance can, to a point, be entirely subjective, and many times, incredible acting goes underappreciated. It can be because they are performances in a genre that is consistently overlooked when it comes to acting, or the movie itself may just not have the muscle and money of a major studio behind it to lobby for its actors.
The 2000s, as with any decade, were filled with underrated movies that featured a number of stellar performances that went completely unrewarded or disregarded at the time. While there are no corrective measures that can be retroactively taken to provide the proper recognition those films and their respective actors deserved, and the corresponding effects it may have had on their careers, it’s still never too late to provide a little praise where due. Of the many underrated movies from the 2000s that feature some of the best acting of the decade, these five need to be seen.
5
‘Love & Basketball’ (2000)
A romantic film with a majority Black cast, it’s frustrating, if not surprising, that Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s Love & Basketballdidn’t find more support from the larger awards groups. The film, and its two lead actors, did receive plenty of love from groups such as the BET Awards, NAACP Image Awards and even the Independent Spirit Awards, but were otherwise shut out from the Oscars and Golden Globes. That’s a major oversight, as it’s an outstanding romantic drama that deserves to be in the conversation with other well-regarded classics of the genre. The performances by Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps are so good that they both should’ve been headlining major blockbusters afterward, instead of being wasted in Alien vs. Predatorand Dracula 2000,respectively.
As two childhood friends who connect over their love for basketball, Lathan and Epps portray their characters across several periods, each offering a different window into their relationship together and their sports careers. It’s an insightful and honest depiction of love and how it can evolve over time as two people enter and exit each other’s lives. Lathan and Epps have incredible chemistry together, and the juxtaposition of their love story and the sports drama gives the film a unique perspective from other romantic films. It’s a romantic movie made by Black creators for Black audiences, but it has universal themes that should appeal to any audience, even if they don’t like love or basketball.
4
‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ (2002)
Most people might not think that a movie about a cowboy mummy terrorizing a Texas nursing home starring B-movie king Bruce Campbellas a man who believes he’s Elvis Presley from the director of the truly gonzo Phantasmseries would have anything resembling tender or moving performances. Alas, that’s exactly what Bubba Ho-Tepdelivers and more. This low-budget horror comedy, directed by Don Coscarelli and based on Joe R. Landsdale‘s short story, is as cult as cult movies get, not only because of its wild premise, but also for how earnestly it handles its aging characters. It takes audiences on a surprisingly emotional journey that’s effective in large part due to the performances by Campbell and Ossie Davis.
As an Elvis impersonator who insists he’s actually the real king, Campbell gives the most nuanced performance of his career. He’s lonely, horny, and he knows kung fu, and the actor pulls off every one of those turns without ever unbalancing the careful tone of the movie. The legendary Davis is every bit Campbell’s equal as a fellow resident, insisting he is John F. Kennedy, who survived his assassination and was dyed Black. It’s another wild swing of a premise that Davis completely sells, and the film only gets crazier as the two elderly men must contend with the soul-sucking mummy prowling their nursing home. While the premise might keep some viewers away, Bubba Ho-Tep defies expectations at every turn and deserves to be seen for its two leads’ deft performances alone.
3
’25th Hour’ (2002)
As one of the most underrated films of Spike Lee‘s entire filmography, 25th Hourhas an absolutely stacked cast. Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, Rosario Dawson and Anna Paquin all give award-worthy performances in this sharply written drama about a drug dealer’s last free night before serving a prison sentence. Shot on location in New York City, the film is another of Lee’s keenly observed urban dramas, but it was also one of the first films to address the post-9/11 anxieties of the city, premiering just over a year after the tragedy. It’s a raw, emotional experience that could only come from a filmmaker of Lee’s fiery passion working with one of the best casts of the 2000s.
Based on the novel by David Benioff, who also wrote the screenplay, the film follows Monty Brogan, played by Norton, a drug dealer who has twenty-four hours to freedom left before having to report for a seven-year prison sentence, which he spends exploring his old neighborhood stomping grounds and clubbing with his two childhood friends, a Wall Street bro played with ultimate sleaze by Pepper and a milquetoast teacher played by a never-more neurotic Hoffman. The three actors, who are among the best of their generation, are all equally phenomenal in their roles, as they each get individual showcase moments, with Norton’s mid-film monologue a particular highlight. 25th Hour has received plenty of critical acclaim since its release, but it was never given the serious consideration it deserved.
2
‘American Splendor’ (2003)
Like Hoffman, Paul Giamatti was a platoon player character actor in the 2000s who knocked any role thrown his way out of the park, whether it was a wine snob in Sidewaysor an orangutan in Planet of the Apes. The best deployment of Giamatti by far, though, was in the docudrama American Splendor. Based on the semi-autobiographical comic book series of the same name by Harvey Pekar, the film similarly blends fiction and documentary as Pekar himself appears in segments while Giamatti plays him in dramatizations. The actor is so effective in the role that it seamlessly blends with the real-life counterpart.
Chronicling the comic book creator’s life and his battle with cancer, the film is one of the most perfect adaptations ever made, and while it was rightly given an Academy Award nomination for its screenplay, Giamatti was unjustly overlooked. The film isn’t just a showcase for one actor, however, as several other performers perfectly transcribe the real people from Pekar’s life, including the incredibly underappreciated Hope Davis as Joyce Brabner, Pekar’s wife and fellow writer, Judah Friedlander as genuine nerd Toby Radloff, and James Urbaniak as Robert Crumb. Like the comic it’s based on, American Splendor is a splendid blend of reality and fiction that may be the most perfect match between an actor and their real-life basis.
1
‘Lars and the Real Girl’ (2007)
Many audiences now know Ryan Gosling‘s incredible comedic abilities thanks to performances in films like Barbieand The Nice Guys, but nearly a decade before either of those films, he was showing off his lighter side as a man in love with a sex doll in Lars and the Real Girl. While that premise sounds like something that would be fodder for a mid-2000s gross-out comedy, the film is actually a surprisingly sweet and sentimental endeavor that treats its lead character with a great deal of empathy. It’s the kind of quirky comedy that can so easily go wrong if the central performance isn’t pitched just right, but luckily, as anyone who has heard “I’m Just Ken” can attest, Gosling has perfect pitch.
Lars is a socially awkward man, riddled with phobias and living in the garage of his boyhood home, which he shares with his brother and his wife. Attempts to socialize Lars all fail until he begins a relationship with the mail-order “real girl” Bianca. The gentleness with which Lars’ friends and family all receive Bianca and attempt to include her to benefit Lars is what makes the film feel so endearingly sweet and special. It has more in common with classic dramedies like Harveythan it does any of the crass comedies that dominated the 2000s. Also starring the ever-underrated Emily Mortimer and Paul Schneider, the cast is uniformly operating on the correct wavelength to pull off the delicate balance the movie needs for its mix of humor and human drama. Alas, the film truly rests completely on the shoulders of Gosling, and he carries it with ease.
