17 Otherwise Great Movies From Popular Directors That Seemed To Be Ignored By Audiences

It's almost criminal how underrated The Quick and the Dead is.

1. About Time — Richard Curtis

Universal Pictures International

After writing rom-com classics like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, Richard Curtis jumped into the director’s chair for Love, Actually. His most recent directorial feature also highlights a winsome romance, this time between Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. But the most effective part of the movie is the devastatingly emotional family dynamic at its core — if you don’t cry your eyes out in the last twenty minutes, you might not have tear ducts. Oh, did I mention this is about a guy who can travel through time in a closet?

2. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore — Martin Scorsese

Warner Bros.

Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar for her performance as this film’s titular mother, but the movie rarely is discussed in conversations about Martin Scorsese’s best films. That’s a shame, because it deserves as much attention as his other classics like Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and The Wolf of Wall Street. It’s a sensitive drama about the struggles of single motherhood that’s not afraid to let its heroine make big, messy mistakes.

3. Awakenings — Penny Marshall

Columbia Pictures

In between her two biggest hits (Big and A League of Their Own), Penny Marshall directed one of the most powerful dramas of the ‘90s. Robin Williams stars as a quiet, deeply empathetic doctor who works with catatonic patients, including one played by Robert De Niro. It’s one of Williams’ most moving performances — his warm, tender smile somehow makes the bitterest moments of this bittersweet story still feel hopeful.

4. Bound — The Wachowski sisters

Republic Pictures

The lowest-key movie from the Wachowski sisters (The Matrix, Speed Racer) might also be their best. It’s a beautifully shot as a neo-noir thriller, in which a pair of cunning lesbians plan the perfect crime. The film mostly takes place in one apartment building, and cleverly subverts crime movie tropes to masterful effect — the central women exploit the paranoia of their male counterparts for personal gain.

5. Boy — Taika Waititi

Paramount Home Media Distribution

Taika Waititi is one of the undisputed kings of contemporary entertainment. He can do massive blockbusters (Thor: Ragnarok), Oscar-winning dramedies (Jojo Rabbit), and must-see TV (Our Flag Means Death, The Mandalorian). One of his strongest movies is one of his smallest, though. This coming-of-age flick is set in rural New Zealand, follows a charming young kid as he struggles to reconnect with his deadbeat dad (played by Waititi himself). Bonus points for ending with an all-time great dance sequence during the credits.

6. Chef — Jon Favreau

Open Road Films

Jon Favreau is responsible for countless childhood memories thanks to projects like Elf, Iron Man, and now The Mandalorian. He stars in his most personal movie as a high-profile chef who quits his job and opens a food truck with his son. It’s a feel-good road trip comedy where most of the conflict finishes within the first thirty minutes, and then offers insightful explorations of the creative process. Oh, and Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Sofía Vergara all make memorable appearances.

7. Crooklyn — Spike Lee

Universal Pictures

Spike Lee has made some of the most urgent films of the last 40 years, including Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Da 5 Bloods, and 25th Hour. This is one of his smaller-scale movies: a quiet, semi-autobiographical look at life in 1970s Brooklyn, cowritten with two of his siblings. It deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of coming-of-age films — after all, it’s the only one where RuPaul dances in a bodega.

8. Dead Again — Kenneth Branagh

Paramount Pictures

He’s best known for playing Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter franchise) and winning a screenwriting Oscar for Belfast most recently. But one of Kenneth Branagh’s most entertaining projects is this Alfred Hitchcock–inspired thriller about a couple that tries to recall their past lives to solve a murder case. Robin Williams cameos as a foul-mouthed doctor.

9. Duel — Steven Spielberg

Universal Pictures

Steven Spielberg’s breakthrough film wasn’t E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Schindler’s List — it was this made-for-TV movie about a killer truck. The director makes a rusty 18-wheeler into a monster as scary as the shark from Jaws or the T. rex from Jurassic Park, and it was such a hit that he shot 15 minutes of extra footage for a theatrical release.

10. Frances Ha — Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig

IFC Films

You know them from their separate work in Marriage Story and Lady Bird (and being one of Hollywood’s most talented power couples), but Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig made this phenomenal movie together before reaching the peaks of their powers. Gerwig stars as a directionless young millennial who can’t quite do anything right as she dances through the streets of Manhattan and crashes on Adam Driver’s couch. It’s stressful, funny, and emotional.

11. Hard Eight — Paul Thomas Anderson

The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Before Paul Thomas Anderson became a generation-defining filmmaker with movies like Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, and Licorice Pizza, he made this little crime drama with Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson, and Gwyneth Paltrow, all giving knockout performances. Most of the movie is set in casinos, so if you’re looking for slick Vegas aesthetics after watching Ocean’s Eleven for the 100th time, give this a whirl.

12. Holy Smoke! — Jane Campion

Miramax Films

Jane Campion is the only woman with two nominations for the Best Director Oscar, and she finally won recently for The Power of the Dog. Her strangest film is this Australian comedy, in which a young woman (Kate Winslet) seduces an older man (Harvey Keitel) after he’s hired to extricate her from a cult. It’s a preposterous, unpredictable examination of gender and power dynamics full of dazzling imagery and thoughtful dialogue.

13. The Host — Bong Joon-ho

Showbox Entertainment

Bong Joon-ho made history when Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. This monster movie features similarly cutting social commentary and even more intense thrills. It’s full of magnificent action, creepy monster effects, and a bittersweet focus on found family. And it stars Song Kang-ho (Parasite)!

14. In the Mouth of Madness — John Carpenter

New Line Cinema

The master of horror John Carpenter is best known for his earlier projects, such as Halloween and The Thing. But his scariest movie came toward the end of his career, starring Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) as a man who slowly goes insane as a Stephen King–esque horror novelist warps reality into a nightmare. Keep your eyes peeled for Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker himself) as he briefly appears as a little kid on a bike!

15. The Quick and the Dead — Sam Raimi

Sony Pictures

Before the all-time great Spider-Man trilogy and after his genre-bending horror-comedy Evil Dead trilogy, Sam Raimi made a ridiculously stylish Western starring Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, and a young Leonardo DiCaprio. This might be the ultimate Western for people who don’t like Westerns — the entire movie is a series of intense duels, and Raimi’s grimy, propulsive voice makes each one more exciting than the last.

16. Snake Eyes — Brian De Palma

Paramount Pictures

Brian De Palma might not be a household name, but you’ve definitely seen one of his movies: he’s the man who gave us Carrie, Scarface, The Untouchables, and the first Mission: Impossible. This movie stars Nicolas Cage as a manic dirty cop trying to piece together an assassination at a packed boxing match, and features some of the most elaborate long takes ever committed to American film.

17. And Y Tu Mamá También — Alfonso Cuarón

20th Century Fox

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón won Oscars for directing Gravity and Roma, and also crafted 2000s classics Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men. But before he became one of Hollywood’s most sought-after directors, he made a charming road trip sex dramedy that broke box office records in Mexico, yet still seems underseen compared to his later work. It helped launch the careers of Diego Luna (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and Gael García Bernal (Old, The Motorcycle Diaries).