Little Children is one of the few masterpieces of 2006.

Welcome to the 1st annual Overlooked Awards. This is a chance to recognize those films, performances, directors, screenplays and animated shorts, which are all worthy of award recognition, but didn’t received nominations at the big awards. Even though its one of those categories that the typical fan dreads to pick for polls, I’m privileged to see many of the wonderful short animated films that are made each year. So I thought it was my duty to recognize the shorts that I felt deserved nods as well.
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Of late, the plight of Africans has been providing ample inspiration for English language filmmakers. Along with African produced films like TSOTSI and YESTERDAY and documentaries like DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE, a great deal of light is being shed on the continent’s dark past and bloody present. CATCH A FIRE tells a story set in Apartheid-era South Africa and delves into the blurry line between freedom fighter and terrorist.

Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke, ANTWONE FISHER) is a mine foreman who doesn’t want anything to do with rebels fighting the white government. He wants to live a simple life with his wife Precious (Bonnie Mbuli) and his two young daughters. Then when he plays hooky from work one day to couch his village’s soccer team, a bomb is explodes at the mine. White investigator Nic Vos (Tim Robbins, MYSTIC RIVER) points suspicion toward Patrick, who is arrested and beaten. When his whereabouts seem to get even fishier, Vos brings in Precious and beats her. But when his story pans out, he and his wife are set free. Emboldened, the innocent man joins the rebels and sets out to bomb the mine he used to work at.

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For the most part, DreamWorks animated features have been well animated and fun films, if not a bit disposable at times. OVER THE HEDGE keeps with that tradition.

RJ (Bruce Willis, LOOK WHO’S TALKING) is a raccoon who accidentally destroys Vincent the bear’s stash of food while in the process of trying to steal it. In the process, RJ wakes Vincent (Nick Nolte, THE HULK) from his hibernation. Vincent wants to kill RJ, however when the raccoon promises to replace at the food, the burly bear only gives him till the full moon to accomplish the task, which is about a week.

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This tragic drama is part character piece, part revenge tale, part redemption story. How those parts weave together and the directions in which they go is what makes this film so fascinating and original.

Elvis Valderez (Gael Garcia Bernal, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) comes to Corpus Christi, Texas after he is discharged from the military. He finds preacher David Sandow (William Hurt, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) and introduces himself in so many words as his illegitimate son that he has never met. The pastor, who now has a new family and life, doesn’t want anything to do with Elvis. The young man then goes about seducing his half sister Malerie (Pell James, BROKEN FLOWERS) and ultimately bringing ruin to David’s family, which includes his wife Twyla (Laura Harring, MULHOLLAND DR.) and 17-year-old son Paul (Paul Dano, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), who is pressed into being the dedicated gung-ho Christian when he seems to have more secular musical aspirations.

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After you watch this film, you’ll wish there were a better way for the Academy to choose who gets nominated for the acting Oscars. Maggie Gyllenhaal (WORLD TRADE CENTER) elevates a fairly straight-forward drug drama to another level.

Sherry Swanson (Gyllenhaal) has just been released from prison where she was serving time for theft, which she committed to buy drugs. She moves into a halfway house and quickly gets in contact with her brother Bobby (Brad William Henke, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW), who has been taking care of her young daughter Alexis (Ryan Simpkins, TV’s WONDER SHOWZEN). Bobby’s wife, Lynette (Bridget Barkan), who has become very close to Alexis, is reluctant to let recovering addict Sherry jump right back into her daughter’s life. Other key characters include Sherry’s dad (Sam Bottoms, THE OUTLAW JOSIE WALES), Sherry’s tough parole officer Hernandez (Giancarlo Esposito, DO THE RIGHT THING) and Dean Walker (Danny Trejo, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN), who Sherry meets at AA.

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Albert and David Maysles, who directed the poignant Rolling Stones documentary GIMME SHELTER, were asked to make a documentary about the two Bouvier sisters, Jacqueline Onassis and Lee Radziwell. While in the process of experimenting with the idea, they discovered the Bouvier’s aunt Edith Bouvier Beale and cousin Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, who were living in a dilapidated mansion in East Hampton, New York. Vastly more interesting than the socialite Bouviers, the Maysles brothers found two fascinating eccentrics that live life uniquely.

Along with directors Ellen Hoyde and Muffie Meyer, the Maysles brothers virtually moved into the crumbling mansion, which has holes in the walls, no running water and raccoons living throughout the house. In the opening of the film, we see newspaper reports of the Beales fighting with the local government and neighbors over health code violations and the unkempt look of their property, which sits in the middle of other beautiful estates. The filmmakers just watch as the two women tell the tales about their lives and feelings — often bickering about every detail. It’s amazing to see photos of them when they were younger and lived life closer to the norm.

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