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Somehow, we’re already halfway through the 2020s. The world’s still on fire, the algorithms and A.I. have taken over, my readership is down (people love video, and yet, here I remain), and despite the fact that there is continued chatter about the death of cinema… great movies keep slipping through the cracks. While big franchise I.P. garbage continues to dominate the cultural conversation, there’s been a steady stream of bold, bizarre, and beautiful films flying under the radar. Whether they had a tiny theatrical run, got buried on streaming, or just never hit your watchlist, these are 25 films from this chaotic half-decade that you probably haven’t seen — but absolutely should.
The Alpinist
Marc-André Leclerc’s breathtaking free solo ascents are captured in this thrilling documentary about a climber who avoids the spotlight at all costs. His refusal to play by the rules of fame makes the story all the more fascinating and tragic.
The Beast
Bertrand Bonello crafts a genre-bending love story that spans centuries and genres, with Léa Seydoux and George MacKay playing ill-fated lovers across timelines. It’s cerebral, sensual, and designed to keep you emotionally and intellectually off-balance at all times. It was my favorite movie of last year.
Black Bear
Aubrey Plaza plays a filmmaker spiraling through two parallel realities in this meta, mind-melting story about creation, control, and chaos. Bizarre, slippery, and loaded with great performances, it’s the kind of film that dares you to figure it out.
Bottoms
Two queer high school girls start a fight club to get closer to their crushes. It’s ridiculous, hilarious, and sharply written, with rising stars Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby) and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) delivering some of the funniest female performances of the decade.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
A recent college grad becomes a party starter and falls for an older single mom (Dakota Johnson) in Cooper Raiff’s achingly sweet sophomore feature. Kind-hearted and emotionally sincere, it updates The Graduate with Gen Z sentimentality. It’s not Raiff’s only entry on this list…
The Coffee Table
This Spanish horror-jet-black-comedy starts quirky but turns into one of the most disturbing films in recent memory. It’s a harrowing study in denial, trauma, and emotional collapse, disguised as domestic absurdism. It’ll fuck you up.
Dinner in America
This aggressively punk rom-com follows a mismatched duo—an awkward teen and a rebellious convict musician—as they explore music and love on the fringes of society. It’s extremely foul-mouthed and yet shockingly tender, with a killer original soundtrack to boot.
Emergency
Three college friends of color find an unconscious white girl in their apartment and panic about how to handle the situation. What follows is a sharp, tense, and unexpectedly heartfelt odyssey through racial anxiety and friendship. This never even made it onto the radar, which is a shame.
The Fallout
Jenna Ortega absolutely shines in this post-school-shooting drama about grief, guilt, and the quiet unraveling of teen survivors. Directed with compassion and honesty by Megan Park, it captures the internal aftershocks better than most adult dramas ever could to become a defining Gen-Z picture.
First Cow
Maybe your favorite blog told you to see this movie but you probably didn’t. In 1820s Oregon, a soft-spoken chef (John Magaro, in his breakout role) and a Chinese immigrant team up to steal milk from a rich man’s prized cow to bake and sell oily cakes. It’s a gentle, meditative tale of friendship and survival, rich with warmth and subtle melancholy. And it has a very, very cute cow.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
This eco-thriller humanizes radical climate activism by turning Andreas Malm’s manifesto of the same name into a gripping, ensemble-driven heist film. It’s urgent, thoughtful, and more entertaining than it has any right to be.
How to Have Sex
A English girls’ trip to Malia starts as a wild party but ends with emotional ruin in this piercing examination of consent and friendship. Mia McKenna-Bruce gives a raw, unforgettable performance in a film that holds nothing back.
Kajillionaire
Author/filmmaker Miranda July’s story of a small-time grifter family, including scumbag versions of Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and a completely unrecognizable Evan Rachel Woods, unravels into a moving tale of identity and connection. With its mix of oddball charm and surprising emotional depth (a July classic combo), it’s one of the most tender con-artist films ever made and certainly one of the most overlooked.
The Innocents
A group of children discover strange powers in this unnerving Norwegian supernatural thriller that flashes shades of X-Men. Less about action and more about moral consequences, it’s a chilling look at empathy and evil in the unformed minds of youth.
New Order
Michel Franco’s unrelenting social thriller begins with a wedding interrupted by a palpably violent uprising in Mexico City. What follows is a grim, provocative vision of class warfare and authoritarian backlash, told with brutal efficiency. Be afraid of your government.
On the Count of Three
Two best friends played by Christopher Abbott and Jerrod Carmichael (who also wrote/directed) make a pact to kill themselves together, but first decide to spend one last day living it up and facing down old demons. Carmichael’s directorial debut walks a tightrope between pitch-black humor and genuine heartbreak and it’s a shame that no-one ever seemed to see this one.
Red Rocket
Simon Rex is magnetic as a washed-up porn star hustling his way through a small Texas town in Sean Baker’s scuzzy character study. It’s funny, uncomfortable, and sharply observed, full of deeply flawed people doing their best to get ahead. Sean Baker may have won his Oscar for Anora but this is arguably a better film, way funnier, and certainly lesser seen.
Sanctuary
Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott square off in a hotel room in this twisted dom-sub power play psychosexual thriller about control and identity. Smart, sexy, and unpredictable, it’s a can’t-look-away two-hander that turns into a razor-sharp anti-rom-com.
Shithouse
23-year-old Cooper Raiff’s debut about a lonely college freshman finding an unexpected connection is modest from a narrative perspective but emotionally towering, not unlike Before Sunset before it. Awkward, heartfelt, and deeply sincere, it’s a gentle ode to the growing pains of early adulthood for the millennial/Gen-Z cutoff class.
Strange Darling
This twisty indie thriller feels like a lost ‘90s Sundance gem—clever, bloody, and full of surprises. Despite plenty of behind-the-scenes chaos, it emerged as a sharp, fun, and daring piece of genre filmmaking that proved that audience expectations can be deployed against them in truly sinister ways. Go in completely blind.
Titane
From the director of Raw comes this wildly original existential horror experience about a woman who has sex with a car and then enters a strange redemption arc as a missing boy of a middle-aged firefighter. Yup, it’s very strange. Equal parts gear-revving body horror and twisted family drama, it’s a truly unclassifiable shock to the system.
The Painter and the Thief
A painter befriends the man who stole her work, and what unfolds is an unexpectedly intimate and complicated relationship about forgiveness and self. This Norwegian documentary is as moving as any fictional drama, exploring pain, addiction, and compassion with staggering intimacy. Completely snubbed by the doc arm of the Academy and the public at large.
Wrong Turn (2021)
An epic reboot of the slasher franchise trades cannibals for cults and reinvents itself as a survivalist horror epic. It’s smarter, bloodier, and way more ambitious than you’d expect from a seventh entry in any series. This was way too effective to have been this forgotten.
Zola
Based on an infamous Twitter thread, Zola is a wild weekend of strip clubs, scams, and chaos. Directed with style and flair, it’s hilarious, unsettling, and completely unforgettable with Colman Domingo is peak cocaine baddie mode.
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