CK, forever

A Look at overlooked gems -- Here are 10 portrayals in 2006 movies, each very good, that didn't deserve to be missed
By someone or other
(well, not me)

``Some movie performances are simply destined to be overlooked, either because they are in the shadow of a showier lead actor or because the movie itself remained below most people's radar. Here are 10 performances from 2006 you should have noticed, and, thanks to the modern miracle of DVD, you can catch up with, now or soon.

so...here is picking three.

Lili Taylor as Paula Klaw in The Notorious Bettie Page. It will probably be Taylor's career fate to be among the perennially overlooked, despite the fact that she rarely gives a bad performance in a range of odd roles. This film about the real-life '50s pin-up queen belonged to the previously overhyped Gretchen Mol, but Taylor was much more interesting as the tough-talking photography-studio moll.

Catherine Keener as Christine in Friends With Money. In the ensemble cast of this far-above-average character-driven comedy, most of the attention went to Friends star and recent real-life divorcee Jennifer Aniston and Oscar winner Frances McDormand, who had a couple of showy, angry meltdown scenes. But notice the fine work from Keener as a screenwriter drifting apart from her husband-collaborator, a subtle, funny portrait of money not buying happiness.

Robin Wright Penn as Phoebe in Sorry, Haters. A reunion of the people who saw this dark-toned, post-Sept. 11 character study could be held in a very small room, and perhaps the mark of a first-rate actress is the ability to emerge unscathed from an unsuccessful film. Penn is riveting here as an enigmatic programming executive for an MTV-like cable network with deep-seated hatred, spontaneously lashing out with ethnic epithets. She remains compelling, even when the movie becomes hard to take.