Just because these 2014 movies flew under the radar — and each grossed less than $10 million at the U.S. box office this year — that doesn’t mean they aren’t so very worth your time.
1. Actress
Cinema Guild
Playing Theresa D'Agostino in Seasons 3 and 4 of The Wire was a major break for Brandy Burre, the biggest role of her career. But she retired not long after to move to upstate New York to raise her two children with her then-partner Tim Reinke. Filmmaker Robert Greene was her neighbor in the small town of Beacon, and made this fascinating portrait of Burre keeping house, trying to get back into acting, and navigating the end of her relationship. It's a documentary, but it's also a dreamily subjective peek into the mind-set of someone who's always performing, and always aware of the camera. Burre is constantly trying to reshape the movie of her life — she's been playing the role of a Douglas Sirk housewife for a while, and now she's trying to find herself a new one. Greene's film is small, but so worth seeking out — it reshapes what you think docs can be like, and what they can do. —Alison Willmore
Where you can see it: In theaters
2. Blue Ruin
Anchor Bay Entertainment
The stealthily brilliant premise of Jeremy Saulnier's lo-fi thriller is that sad-eyed hero Dwight (Macon Blair) approaches his quest for revenge like he's the hero of a much slicker movie than the one he's actually in. When the man who murdered his parents is released from prison, Dwight's attempt to kill the guy ends up being a sloppy, wince-inducing mess, and things only escalate from there until he's in a standoff with a whole family, battling over wrongs that will never be righted. Dwight's not stupid — like most humans, he's not a natural killing machine. Blue Ruin's well-staged action pile-up ends up being as believable, surprising, and occasionally as funny as it is tragic. —A.W.
Where you can see it: On DVD and Blu-ray, digital rental, and Netflix streaming