Five Underseen Movies in 2011 Worth Watching
4. Black Death
Quiet and understated have been the key phrases today. Let’s change that. In Black Death, Sean Bean plays a weathered knight during the Bubonic Plague. Allow that to sink in for a minute. Bean, accompanied by a small group of other knights, is sent deep into the countryside on a mysterious mission. A village in the woods has shown no sign of the Plague that’s infecting the rest of the country — or so they say. What’s their secret? The church leaders suspect witchcraft, and send a young priest along with the knights to investigate on their behalf.
What follows is a grim, brutal depiction of a medieval world struggling to understand a disease they have no means of comprehending. The movie builds up the world of the Plague from the first moments; by three minutes in, you’ll want to breath through a rag for the rest of the movie. Somehow things only go downhill from there, as the band of “heroes” encounters self-flagellating monks, violent bandits, and the types of torture only the medieval world could invent. Really, you could argue that Black Death is as much a horror movie as it is a medieval thriller. Whatever the case, it most certainly lives up to its title.
Also, do you think Sean Bean just… dresses like that all the time now?
5. Take Shelter
Please watch this movie. I’m still an ardent fan of M. Night Shyamalan’s earlier work, and this is as close as anybody else has ever gotten to replicating the M. Night Shyamalan vibe of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. Except Take Shelter may be even better. No, seriously.
Michael Shannon certainly bests any actor this year as Curtis, who suffers from vivid, seemingly prophetic dreams of a coming storm. The movie deals with his struggles to prepare a safe place to protect his family from the storm. He sinks thousands of dollars — which his family can’t really spare — into renovating their old tornado shelter, stocking it with gas masks, power, and running water. Naturally, people in the town start to wonder about all this, and Curtis himself struggles with the suspicion that he might be going insane even as he indulges his need to protect his family. The resulting movie is haunting, gripping, and probably should be the highest priority of the movies on this list.
Now, just to clarify, this isn’t a “most” or “best” list. It’s just a “check it out” list. As many movies as I tracked down last year, there are still some that I need to see (Beginners springs to mind). What about you? Do you have any under-the-radar recommendations?
So glad to see some love for Black Death. It (like Centurion before it) has been passed up by most people as just another bloody medieval film, but it was a lot better than that. The acting was great and the story was better than 90% of the movies I saw last year.
I would highly recommend both Black Death and Centurion, though I would urge people to stay away from the similarly themed Ironclad (with James Purefoy, Paul Giamatti, and Derek Jacobi). Ironclad was awful
Oh yeah – Take Shelter is amazing – definietly should have been nominated for Oscar.
Shannon just destroys every lead actor nomination with his brutal performance. Best performance of the year for sure. And great sad movie too!
Black Death was superbly eery and Take Shelter was one of the most gripping movies I’ve seen in a long time, especially one incredibly intense scene. Good picks!
@Paul
I would definitely recommend the 2011 British film called ‘Kill List’. It was probably one of the scariest films I have ever seen and its last act is absolutely terror-inducing. I would call it a modern day Wicker Man (the 70s version), only much better.
The plot centers around a former hitman being persuaded by his partner into taking a new assignment: three new targets to kill. As each hit becomes more and more bizarre and disturbing, he realizes there’s much more to it, which is quite evident during the last target.
It is essential that you go in not knowing anything else than that, just that it starts a little slow but the pay-off twist near the end is insane. The trailer is also very cryptic, as it reveals basically nothing, though there is a split second frame that might:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqkqF–v1tg
Let me know if you decide to check it out!
Seen a number of recommendations on Meek’s Cutoff and Black Death and still need to see them, but Take Shelter is one of my favorite films from last year. Not much to say that hasn’t been said already, but just piling on the love.
The movies I loved from 2011 that are under-the-radar as far as mainstream movie-goers are concerned include Another Earth, The Skin I Live In, Tyrannosaur, Bellflower, and The Guard. All ones that I would recommend (A.E., TSILI, and Tyrannosaur in particular)
I Just picked up Take shelter the other day because the trailer was great, had never heard of it before that. The movie Is really Great
Let me guess…Sean Bean dies in Black Death, right?
What you can’t give Quinto the nod for Heros also?
How was there a Sean Bean movie released that I didn’t know about :O Must watch now 😛 And yes… I do think he dresses like that all the time. It’s long passed wardrobe for him. They just call him onto the set and he’s good to go.
Black Death? Oh, no no no….. It was grim, dark, and the ending just seals the deal. I L-O-V-E Sean Bean, but this movie had no redeeming qualities (maybe the costuming?).
I was really surprised by Arthur, a movie a friend recommened to me which I had previously heard nothing about. Its IMDB score stands at 5.7/10 but I gave it a 8/10. It has all to components of a romantic comedy but mixed in a way that makes it very enjoyable.
Take Shelter was the best movie I saw last year. And Jessica Chastain was fantastic. This movie deserved better.
Another Earth could have also been added to this list. Great movie with a great ending.