23 Hidden Gems Worth Seeking Out On Netflix

Don't let these critical darlings and cult favorites get lost in your Netflix queue...

Netflix has been under fire recently for a number of controversies, including bloated budgets, mass layoffs, surging prices and subscriber hemorrhaging, to name a few.

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But regardless of Netflix's troubles as a company, that doesn’t mean the streamer is out of good titles. As such, I've assembled 23 remarkable movies seemingly buried in the Netflix library that are worth seeking out!

1. Girl, Interrupted

Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

James Mangold’s acclaimed psychological drama about a young woman’s experience at a mental hospital in 1960s New England served as a launchpad for a number of up-and-coming performers, including Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall, Elisabeth Moss, and Brittany Murphy.

2. The Paper Tigers

Well Go USA Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

In this kick-ass comedy that flew under the radar in 2020, a trio of kung fu prodigies, now languishing in middle age, must reunite to avenge their murdered master while catering to the personal and professional responsibilities of their everyday life.

3. Croupier

The Shooting Gallery / Courtesy Everett Collection

Mike Hodges’ neo-noir film ushered Clive Owen toward stateside stardom with his exceptional performance as an aspiring writer who is drawn into schemes, seductions, and grifts while making ends meet at a local casino.

4. Before I Wake

Relativity Media / Courtesy Everett Collection

This long-delayed dark fantasy from modern horror master Mike Flanagan follows a young boy who shocks his foster family when he displays a supernatural power to manifest his dreams…and nightmares.

5. Girlfriend’s Day

Netflix / Courtesy  Everett Collection

Bob Odenkirk headlines this hard-boiled comedy-drama hybrid as a washed-up romance card writer who is drawn into a web of deceit and danger in his attempts to craft the perfect card for a newly announced holiday.

6. The Bad Batch

Merrick Morton / Neon / Everett Collection / Everett Collection

Ana Lily Amirpour’s star-studded and visually stunning dystopian flick surrounds a young woman who is exiled to a desert wasteland in which she encounters bloodthirsty cannibals, a prophetic drifter, and a drugged-out rave cult.

7. Christine (2016)

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Rebecca Hall offers a career-redefining performance as the titular character in this shocking true story of a depressed and frustrated news reporter from the executive producer of The Sinner.

8. Catfight

Dark Sky Films / Courtesy Everett Collection

Indie darling Onur Tukel’s dark comedy follows a pair of women (Sandra Oh and Anne Heche) who have fallen on hard times and are seemingly destined to physically fight one another in a violent exchange of comeuppance.

9. Big Eyes

Weinstein Company / Courtesy Everett Collection

One of Tim Burton’s most underrated films, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz headline this true-life tale about Margaret and Walter Keane’s contentious marriage in which the latter took credit for the former’s signature painting style.

10. In a Valley of Violence

Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

The House of the Devil filmmaker, Ti West, departed from his usual horror output for this eccentric, Blumhouse-produced western about a drifter who is targeted by a pompous and bullheaded deputy in a remote desert town, setting the stage for a bloody clash in which nobody is safe.

11. The Sweetest Thing

Columbia Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

Years before Bridesmaids, Girl’s Trip, and Bad Moms, this R-rated road trip comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Selma Blair, and Christina Applegate provided a hilarious alternative within a genre that was normally relegated to gross-out frat-boy fare.

12. Heist (2001)

Warner Bros / Courtesy Everett Collection

Renowned as the most popular of David Mamet’s directorial work, this suspenseful character-driven heist film provided a stellar exhibition for the phenomenal cast, led by a magnetic Gene Hackman, to make cinematic magic out of the playwright’s trademark dialogue.

13. Girl on the Third Floor

Dark Sky Films / Courtesy Everett Collection

Before he returned to the world of professional wrestling in 2021, CM Punk starred in this practical FX-heavy horror picture about an expecting father who is fixing up his new family home only to encounter the sordid secrets of the property as well his seductive new neighbor.

14. Killing Them Softly

Weinstein Company / Courtesy Everett Collection

Starring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, and Ray Liotta, Andrew Dominik’s savage crime drama follows two drug addicts whose robbery of a mob card game sets in motion a domino effect that brings about professional hitmen to punish those believed to be responsible.

15. The Long Dumb Road

The Film Arcade / Courtesy Everett Collection

Jason Mantzoukas and Tony Revolori are undeniably hysterical in this quirky coming-of-age road comedy about a student en route to art school who finds an unexpected travel buddy in an unfiltered wanderer plagued with his own personal regrets.

16. He Never Died

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A cannibalistic shut-in and bingo enthusiast (Henry Rollins) worries that his bloodthirsty impulses may impact his newfound relationship with his adult daughter (Jordan Todosey) in this surprisingly introspective and twisty horror-comedy.

17. Piercing

Greenwich Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

A clean-cut sociopath has the tables turned on him when the escort he planned to murder proves to be more than he bargained for in this surreal and stylish thriller starring Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska.

18. The Beguiled (2017)

Ben Rothstein / Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

Sofia Coppola’s riveting remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood classic follows a wounded Civil War veteran (Colin Farrell) who discovers something more than just sanctuary while seeking shelter in an all-girls school, the residents of which competitively vie for his attention and affection.

19. Under the Shadow

Vertical Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

This spellbinding Iranian horror-thriller starring Gangs of London’s Narges Rashidi surrounds a lonely mother and her daughter as they face evils both manmade and otherwise in 1980s Tehran.

20. The Long Riders

United Artists / Courtesy Everett Collection

Walter Hill’s cult classic western depicts the dissolution of the James-Younger Gang and notably recruited an impressive cast largely comprised of real-life siblings, including the Keaches, the Carradines, the Guests, and the Quaids.

21. Cut Throat City

Well Go USA / Courtesy Everett Collection

RZA, of the Wu-Tang Clan fame, returns to the director’s chair for this solid thriller about four desperate friends who come together to pull off an ambitious robbery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

22. Buybust

Well Go USA /Courtesy Everett Collection

This visually-immersive Filipino twist on The Raid follows an anti-drug task force that finds itself overwhelmed and on the run after drug cartels manipulate local citizens into turning hostile against them over the course of one fateful night.

23. The Perfection

Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

Allison Williams and Logan Browning play musical rivals whose jealously and vindictiveness have seemingly sent them beyond the brink of madness in this jaw-dropping horror picture that’s as unpredictable as it is unsettling.