Jeremy Urquhart is a writer at Collider who focuses on the Godzilla series, the films of Martin Scorsese, and anything in the action genre.
To make it clear right from the start, there is a difference between a movie feeling forgotten and underrated. If you're to look at the year 2006, which is two decades ago, at the time of writing, you'll find a fair few movies that were unseen in their time and/or forgotten about in the years that have followed.
If you're after a ranking about those, and want to uncover some properly obscure flicks, that topic’s been done here. These movies, on the other hand, feel underrated, which isn't the same as forgotten. Maybe some of these are kind of obscure, or feel forgotten compared to the likes of 2006’s heaviest hitters, like The Departed and Pan’s Labyrinth, but some are also cult favorites that have a fanbase, but those fanbases aren’t quite as large as deserved. Generally, these movies have aged well, and if you track them down all these years on from release, they're likely to stand out as better than anticipated. And that sense of a pleasant surprise is the main factor, in most of these cases, for the titles below deserving spots here. 10 'The Science of Sleep' Coming out a couple of years after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and not being quite as good, The Science of Sleep is still a compelling movie from Michel Gondry, even if that 2004 sci-fi/romantic drama remains his best work, as a director. The Science of Sleep is comparably surreal, though, even if it’s not quite as high-quality, and it does indeed dive deep into the mind and an unusual dreamlike world... though it's probably more fantastical than sci-fi, even if the word"Science" is there in the title. It’s possibly better to just experience it and go with the flow as best you can, with a film like this, since it’s pretty hard to describe as far as the plot is concerned. It’s engaging and creative in other ways, so the loose narrative really isn't an issue, when it comes to The Science of Sleep. 9 'Stranger Than Fiction' If you wanted to label Stranger Than Fiction as “baby’s first Charlie Kaufman movie ,” then sure, you could probably make that argument. It would be dismissing a more approachable and still entertaining movie that deals with some kind of interesting philosophical and thematic ideas, though, and you'd be missing out on something that’s still a good watch. Those going in expecting just “another” Will Ferrell movie will probably be surprised, or maybe disappointed, or a little of both. This is him trying to do his The Truman Show, Jim Carrey-style, and while he doesn’t migrate over into dramedy territory quite as seamlessly, he is still quite good here. Stranger Than Fiction is more than solid overall, really, and can be appreciated for existing in some largely unexplored territory/middle-ground between existential drama and crowd-pleasing fantasy/rom-com. 8 'Syndromes and a Century' There are a fair few autobiographical, or semi-autobiographical, movies directors have made about their childhoods, including The Fabelmans and Hope and Glory . Apichatpong Weerasethakul also made one, to some extent, with Syndromes and a Century, though here, the focus is on his parents, who both worked as doctors, and then partly looking at how that impacted his childhood. It’s a little more down to Earth than what you might be used to seeing with Weerasethakul, who’s best known for helming movies that wander a little more into either fantasy or sci-fi territory . Syndromes and a Century is compelling and atmospheric, though, as a family drama of sorts, and it still retains a unique feel throughout, too, even if it’s comparatively “normal” by this director’s standards. 7 'Rocky Balboa' Unfortunately for Rocky Balboa, Creed has come out since, and it’s a better movie overall, rivaling the first Rocky in terms of quality while also doing a lot with Rocky, as a character. But for almost a decade, Rocky Balboa felt like the endpoint for the series and the character, and even if it wasn’t as good as Creed ultimately was, it felt like a much better finale than Rocky V , which is probably the only Rocky movie that’s just not really worth watching. Rocky Balboa is about Rocky being old and dealing with some recent life hardships, but still having it in him for one last fight, with everything being kind of formulaic, but it also just works. With Rocky Balboa, it’s unapologetically sentimental and designed to be one last hurrah for Sylvester Stallone in the titular role. It’s about Rocky being old and dealing with some recent life hardships, but still having it in him for one last fight, with everything being kind of formulaic, but it also just works, darn it. It’s a fun and emotionally satisfying watch, and worthy of being released the year that the Rocky series commemorated 30 years since its beginning. 6 'Mission: Impossible III' Better than the second movie in the series, though possibly a little behind the first in terms of quality, Mission: Impossible III is still very good, as far as action/thriller/spy flicks are concerned. It does suffer from something similar to Rocky Balboa, though, in the sense that later movies exceeded it in quality, with films #4 through #7 in the Mission: Impossible series being particularly strong. Still, Mission: Impossible III delivers where it counts. It gets a lot out of having Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain this time around, and there are also certain characters and story ideas here that end up being seen/explored more, to great benefit, in subsequent films. It’s an overlooked and somewhat underrated movie in what’s an admittedly overall popular series, but it still feels worthy of shouting out here regardless. 5 'A Scanner Darkly' Films like Blade Runner and Minority Report take the work of Philip K. Dick and make things generally comprehensible or at least a little more viewer-friendly, as adaptations, but then you’ve also got something like A Scanner Darkly, which doesn’t do that sort of thing at all. This movie throws you in the deep end, and if it starts to look like you're struggling with not being able to stand, it just laughs in your general direction as your lungs fill with water. That’s all by design, because A Scanner Darkly is trying to be surreal and mind-bending, with the way it’s structured and its use of strange animation all making that approach very apparent. It’s a challenging film, albeit certainly compelling in various ways, all the while also being admirable for standing out as quite different from the majority of films Richard Linklater has directed to date. 4 'Candy' Some of the actors in Candy are a lot more well-known than Candy itself, including Heath Ledger, who stars in this, with it notably being released between Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight, but with less fanfare than either. It is, admittedly, a pretty intense movie about a young couple who are grappling with heroin addiction, so something so dark isn't going to be for everyone. And those who it might be for won’t necessarily always be in the mood for it, either. Still, if you don’t mind feeling kind of bad and want to see one of the more underappreciated Heath Ledger movies, it’s worth a watch. Abbie Cornish is also very good in the titular role, with the convincing chemistry between her and Ledger being the main reason why Candy works so well as a romantic drama. 3 'Marie Antoinette' This one admittedly has a decent following nowadays, or maybe it always did, to some extent, but Marie Antoinette does still have the potential to catch you off guard with how good it is. The narrative or consensus around it was that it looked and sounded good, but that it was a step-down in quality for Sofia Coppola, compared to both The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. Subscribe for More Deep Dives into Underrated Films Subscribing to the newsletter gives curated, in-depth coverage of overlooked films, thoughtful recommendations, and contextual essays that expand your cinematic horizons beyond 2006 — perfect for building a watchlist of true hidden gems. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. It’s about as good as those, though, in all honesty, and maybe it’s just that people have gotten a little used to some of the bolder/stranger choices in Marie Antoinette, because having such a soundtrack back a period piece doesn’t feel all that jarring anymore. People do also seem to come around a little, in time, when it comes to biographical/historical movies that go for something other than a direct retelling of a true story . 2 'Reprise' Thanks to 2021’s The Worst Person in the World and 2025’s Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier has become a fairly big name as far as world cinema filmmakers go, but he’s been at it for longer than some might realize. You can go back as far as 2006 to see a great feature film he made, with Reprise being that old, and also being the first entry in a thematic trilogy that continued with 2011’s Oslo, August 31st and ended with the aforementioned The Worst Person in the World. If you're after an intricate narrative, you don’t really get that with Reprise, but that’s okay, because it’s a great character study about two young men who find their friendship tested in small yet noticeable ways as they continue into adulthood. It feels very raw and authentic, much like Trier’s other dramas, and it deserves about the same amount of attention and admiration as his later films, too. 1 'Half Nelson' Ryan Gosling is a pretty big deal, as an actor nowadays, and has been in some undeniably famous/popular movies, with Half Nelson – though acclaimed – not necessarily being one of his most widely popular. Then again, it is a fairly low-key and small-scale movie, being about a teacher grappling with addiction, and what happens when one of his students finds out about that side of his life. All that being said, Gosling’s performance was praised, and earned him an Oscar nomination, though Half Nelson being compelling beyond just that central performance ensures you could still argue it’s a little overlooked. Not forgotten by any means, nor was it ignored entirely at the time, owing to that one Oscar nomination, but it probably deserves a bit more praise and attention when talking about the best movies in Ryan Gosling’s filmography to date. Like Follow Followed Half Nelson R Drama Release Date August 11, 2006 Runtime 107 minutes Director Ryan Fleck Producers Alex Orlovsky, Paul S. Mezey, Rosanne Korenberg, Scott London, Anna Boden, Charlie Corwin, Clara Markowicz, Doug Dey, Jamie Patricof Cast See All
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