Every time Netflix adds another tween dramedy to their service, you have to wonder: where
are all the good movies?
Well, they're there — they just take some digging.
From chilling horror films to quirky comedies, Netflix is filled with great movie selections
if you know where to look.
Here's a roundup of some of the best Netflix hidden gems you probably haven't seen yet.
In Order of Disappearance
You'll be rooting for the underdog in this hard-boiled crime thriller straight from the
snowy streets of Norway.
Starring Stellan Skarsgard and Game of Thrones' Kristofer Hivju, In Order of Disappearance
follows a quiet, seemingly average snow plow operator on a quest to avenge his the murder
of his son.
Equal parts pitch-black comedy and explosive revenge thriller, In Order of Disappearance
is as unstoppable as its protagonist.
As the New York Times' review put it, it's somewhere between Fargo and Quentin Tarantino,
and the end result is way more fun than it should be.
"Hello?"
"Well, he can't, he can't actually talk right now.
Because he's done."
Officer Downe
Let's just preface this by saying that you shouldn't expect a lot from Officer Downe.
Based on the 2010 graphic novel, the movie is a hyper-stylized splatter-fest about a
cop who can't die.
Well, he can.
He just comes back to life again.
That's about it as far as plot goes.
There's a criminal organization that dresses like animals, some gun-toting nuns, and a
clan of ninja-type people, and as you'd expect, they all take turns trading blows with undead
supercop Officer Downe.
Fortunately, the movie doesn't ask or expect the viewer to take any of this seriously.
It doesn't even ask you to care all that much about who these people are — all it really
wants is to have gunfights and explosions, and in that respect, it does okay.
Just turn off your brain and let Downe take care of the rest.
Ava's Possessions
Just when you thought the demonic possession genre had been exorcised of all traces of
originality, along comes Ava's Possessions, a twist on the trope that looks at life after
a possession happens.
It's a fresh take on the whole possession thing, drawing a satirical parallel between
people who've been possessed and alcoholics, support groups and all.
"My name's Ava"
"My uninvited spiritual guest possessed me for 28 days"
"And was exorcised on Tuesday."
If you're looking for something out of the ordinary to spend an evening with—or just
in the mood to find some bleak comedy in the unlikeliest of places—you could definitely
do a whole lot worse.
War on Everyone
For all of its unlikable characters, War on Everyone is a surprisingly enjoyable movie.
The main characters are Terry and Bob — played by Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña,
respectively — two crooked cops with absolutely no moral code.
Instead of stopping crimes, they spend their days blackmailing criminals in exchange for
kickbacks.
This is technically a buddy cop comedy, but the black humor and overall message that nothing
really matters take it to some weird places.
And yet somehow, by the time the last bullets have found their mark, you realize that you
kind of like these two amoral sleazebags who haven't performed one single act of redemption
the whole movie.
War on Everyone won't hit home with everybody, but if you like dark humor, you may find yourself
enjoying it a little more than you should.
Moon
You may know Duncan Jones as a director from recent films like Mute or Warcraft, but in
2009, Jones released his debut film Moon, a low budget sci-fi gem that pulled in less
than $10 million at the box office.
Starring Sam Rockwell and a robot who sounds like Kevin Spacey, it's the definition of
a bottle movie — just one man in a lunar research station, slowly losing his mind.
"You guys been to any...good parties or anything?"
Of course, any trailer will tell you that there's a little more to it than that, but
we're not trying to spoil anything here.
If you've never seen Moon, do yourself a favor and avoid all the marketing and just queue
it up on Netflix.
A Perfect Day
It was a simple job: just get the corpse out of the well.
But nothing is ever simple for this group of aid workers during the Yugoslav Wars.
Beset on all sides by uptight U.N. bureaucrats, gun-toting kids, and booby trapped cows, all
they want to do is find a piece of rope so they can pull a body out of a local town's
water supply before it poisons the villagers.
With a cast led by Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins, and Melanie Thierry, A Perfect Day is both
an absurd comedy of errors and a low-key satire of the regulations and red tape involved in
international conflict.
Without making any grand statements, the movie suggests a parallel between the main characters'
small-scale mission and the larger surrounding war.
If it's this hard to find a rope, how is an entire country supposed to figure out its
problems?
Blame!
There seem to be two camps when it comes to this Netflix animated film — those who like
the original manga hate the movie, and those who haven't read the manga generally enjoyed
it.
But love it or hate it, when it comes to fresh takes on the apocalypse, Blame! has most any
other futuristic vision beat, hands down.
That's what makes this film so intriguing.
In a seemingly endless, continually growing city that goes for miles up, down, and in
either direction, robots have taken to exterminating humans.
But a small band of people has survived for centuries inside an invisible shield that
keeps the robots out.
They don't know why the robots can't get inside their colony; they just know that going outside
means risking life and limb at the hands of predatory robots.
It's only when a stranger comes to their town that they realize there may be a chance to
do something about their predicament and finally stop the expansion of the city.
For vision alone, Blame! is well worth watching.
The Vault
James Franco headlines The Vault as the assistant manager of a bank that gets knocked over by
a group of petty thieves.
The twist is, the bank is haunted.
When Franco leads this heist gang down into the underground vault, they get more than
money.
They get ghosts.
You won't be rocking back and forth in terror from The Vault, although it does have its
chilling moments.
You won't end up rooting for the thieves, although it does open them up to empathy eventually.
And you definitely won't be chuckling at James Franco's silly antics, because he's a stone-faced,
mustachioed man on a mission once things really get rolling.
What The Vault lacks in such departments as characterization, script, and suspense, it
more than makes up for in ghosts.
Bunches of ghosts.
If you love ghosts, you'll easily tolerate The Vault.
Cold in July
Starring Michael C. Hall and Sam Shepard, Cold in July begins with a quiet family man
who shoots a burglar in his house.
Soon, though, his family is being terrorized by the departed young man's angry father,
who's fresh out of prison and out for revenge.
While that alone would make for an interesting, if predictable film, Cold in July quickly
switches gears as these two men realize that there are bigger stakes involved than their
petty revenge tale.
One of Cold in July's biggest strengths is that you never guess where the story is going
next.
Each new twisted development takes the characters in an entirely new direction.
If there's a downside to the whole thing, it's that the ending is over a little too
quickly.
But it's not enough to ruin what's otherwise a solid, engaging movie.
Oculus
Netflix has a million and a half horror movies, and the vast majority of them aren't exactly
gems, hidden or otherwise.
Oculus looks a lot like the rest of them when you're scrolling through Netflix, but with
one teensy, important difference — it's actually pretty great.
A brother and sister return to the house where their father murdered their mother, bringing
along the haunted mirror that made him do it.
Their plan is to record themselves being driven crazy by the mirror so the whole world knows
that an evil mirror is responsible for that horrible crime back in the day.
Even the description sounds a little silly, but Oculus is that one rare gem that pulls
it off.
Oculus was one of writer and director Mike Flanagan's first films with a decent budget,
and it shows in every frame.
Flanagan has since gone on to direct several other films, including one of those Ouija
movies that were everywhere in 2016 and Netflix's Gerald's Game adaptation, so his is definitely
a name you'll be hearing about more often in the future.
Fullmetal Alchemist
Is the live-action version of Fullmetal Alchemist as good as the anime?
Not even close.
Is it cheesy and hilarious and full of ridiculous moments?
Oh, you bet.
For newcomers to the whole thing, the story is about two brothers with a natural inclination
for alchemy who attempt to bring their mother back to life.
Things go horribly wrong, and one brother ends up with his soul trapped in a suit of
armor while the other loses an arm and a leg.
When they're older, they search for the mythical philosopher's stone in the hopes of restoring
their bodies.
As far as anime adaptations go, Fullmetal Alchemist is arguably one of the best out
there.
It doesn't cover the whole story, but it serves as an origin tale and works as a self-contained
story that even non-fans can enjoy.
At least, you can enjoy it if you already like over-the-top action fantasies.
That's all this is.
Super Dark Times
This coming-of-age story has all the staples of the genre — high school friends, teenage
drama, house parties, and pubescent angst.
But for two best friends, a traumatic experience may be too much for them to reconcile.
In his feature-length debut, director Kevin Phillips has crafted a tight, unique teenage
thriller.
The rich atmosphere and superb performances from a relatively unknown cast add weight
to an already heavy script.
This isn't an easy movie to watch.
Although other films may be more gratuitously violent, Super Dark Times doesn't offer a
hint of escapism in its few brutal moments.
If you're looking for lighthearted viewing, you'd be better off queuing up something else.
But if you want to experience a superb film with a dramatic message, you could do worse
than Super Dark Times.
A Serious Man
Even by Coen brothers standards, A Serious Man is an unusual movie.
It starts with a subtitled prologue set in the 19th century and then moves into a suburb
in the Midwest circa the late '60s.
The main character is Larry Gopnik, a Jewish physics professor.
"So, am I right?
Okay, so if that's that, then we can do this."
When Gopnik's life starts being derailed by a chain of events completely beyond his control,
he visits three rabbis to figure out the meaning of life.
It's not the Coens' best movie by a long shot, or even their best comedy.
In the end, you'll probably come away scratching your head.
But maybe you'll also watch it again a year later, because there's something there, something
you can't put your finger on.
There has to be something holding it all together.
Or maybe, just maybe, none of it means anything.
"Okay - the uncertainty principle.
It proves we can't ever really know what's going on."
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