The upcoming holiday triple-threat is more than just the most wonderful time of the year for free stuff and vitriolic dinner-table political debates.

During the next two months, it’s also the time when movie studios pull some of their best movies from their hats in shameless (but, let’s face it, well-timed) ploys to make it to the Academy Awards. Keeping up with it all isn’t easy, especially when enough good movies from the first 11 months of the year already have flown under the radar. So if you’ve had enough with the cranberry sauce or a soul-crushingly dull seasonal job, take some time to check out these underdogs of 2006 — all available for rental — that won’t be winning any golden boys but are worth a look.

The Boys of Baraka: School in inner-city Baltimore is like a death sentence for the future of many teens in the system. Some of them, however, get a chance to spend two years learning in Kenya, a journey Baraka chronicles.

The movie has an unusually candid and even-handed view of the boys as they struggle, fight and slowly develop into young men who might not be doomed to flunk out and add to a growing problem. By turns funny, bittersweet and often rage-invoking, Baraka illuminates the deep fissures in the modern school system and remains, bar none, the cinematic social cause of the year.

Clean: This beautifully shot drama unfolds like the story of Kurt Cobain with a glimmer of hope at the end. Maggie Cheung plays the junkie widow of a rocker who must face responsibility for the life she’s led and clean up so she can regain custody of her son. Director Olivier Assayas sidesteps melodrama for a slow but rewarding story that never flinches in the face of less-than-perfect characters.

The Proposition: Leave it to musician Nick Cave to combine a Western on the barren Australian terrain with a brooding tale of brotherhood, all wrapped up in a luridly abstract, hallucinogenic head trip of a movie. The Proposition explores questions of loyalty and moral duty, but it’s the film’s somber mood — shaken by shocking bursts of graphic violence — that lingers for days.

Three Times: A two-hour-plus Chinese film, a third of which is a silent movie? It’s a hard sell for anyone, but the best moments of director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s thoughtful triptych have the rhythm and careful construction of a good short story.

Wordplay: Crossword fanatic or not, it’s impossible to not find this documentary about the culture and the behind-the-scenes world of the puzzles effortlessly enjoyable. Featuring puzzle fanatics Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton and a slew of obscenely talented Average Joes, the movie manages to make the art of crossword puzzles even more fascinating and create breathless suspense few thrillers this year can rival. Like the frustrating and enigmatic puzzles themselves, it’s a perfect choice for the weeks ahead.

And like the best movies, it makes the little things in life seem wonderful without being It’s a Wonderful Life.