What are the most underrated films of all time?

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

The inverse of TulsiGabbardStan's (lol) thread.

- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (I'm a sucker for films that just depict life as it is in the time period it was filmed. there's not really a plot, but that's the beauty of it. the second of my top three favorite films.)
- American Graffiti (see above.)
- Treasure Planet (one of the few animated films in the 2000's not to be CGI-generated. basically a reprisal of classic Disney adventure movies.)
- Crimson Peak (box office bomb, but it stands on the gothic atmosphere it sets and the stunning visuals.)
- 1408 (based on a Stephen King short story, it's a nice horror film that doesn't rely on gore or gross-out sh!t.)

[John Dule]

None of these movies were really "underrated" by critics (they're generally accepted as either good or great), but they're somewhat less-well-known than they should be.



Lady Macbeth: Absolutely great film starring Florence Pugh from 2017. It manages to twist the "strong female character" trope into something incredibly disturbing. I have a feeling that this movie might've made some of the wokies mad simply because the central character is both female and a sociopath, which is just an added bonus.

Silence: Possibly Scorsese's best film, and I fully understand the meaning behind those words. A brilliant meditation on religion, depicting a fascinating period in history in realistic and honest terms. Even Andrew Garfield is decent in this, which is shocking. This film won zero awards and was hardly nominated for anything, but it was easily the best movie of 2016.

Nightcrawler: Oft-overlooked Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle from 2014. It's sort of an updated take on Taxi Driver, and possibly more accessible to modern audiences. The rest of the movie isn't all that exceptional, but Gyllenhaal's performance makes the entire thing worth watching.

Stray Dog and High and Low: Akira Kurosawa is mostly known for his samurai films, so in Western circles these two films are often overlooked. I think they are actually his two best movies-- better even than Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. They tackle complex moral and philosophical issues and feature powerhouse emotional performances.

In Bruges: Not exactly "underrated" these days because more people seem to be discovering it. However, most people still seem to know Martin McDonagh from Three Billboards which, while good, was not nearly on the level of this masterpiece of black comedy. Colin Farrell gives perhaps his one truly great performance in this, and virtually every line of dialogue is brilliant and witty.

The Hunt: A great Danish movie about the dangers of mobs and groupthink. I imagine the language barrier is part of the reason why it isn't more popular, but I think it actually has more to do with how uncomfortable it makes people.

Volver: Another foreign film-- this one is a bit of a mixed bag, but I find myself thinking about it even now, years after I first saw it, with a smile on my face. A Fellini-esque depiction of everyday life in a small southern European town, but mixed with an edge that helps it stand alone.

[vitoNova]

A Serious Man

[Tulsi/Tucker/DeSantis Stan]

The Fast and Furious movies are underrated in terms of entertainment value. You can call them terrible and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but I can’t understand how you could find them boring (with some exceptions).


Revenge of the Sith is better than the Mickey Mouse Star Wars.


The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford is more overlooked than underrated, but still.

Passion of the Christ. Amazing film but the critics hated it for agenda reasons.

[Beet]

Assassination Nation (2018) - A film that pretty much came and went without making any dent at all, and although it's not a perfect film it deserved far better than what it got. Probably the most in-tune film with mid-10s online bullying/cancel/meme culture there is.

Paths of Glory (1957) - Deserves to be Kubrick's most well known film, well ahead of Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, The Shining, or Barry Lyndon. Although the final scene has brought me to tears many times and is well regarded, the scenes with the three accused men in prison are perhaps just as memorable.

Braveheart (1996) - A film that did very well at the time but has since been forgotten, perhaps its reputation has gone down with Mel Gibson's. However it's a remarkably entertaining film with some beautiful shots of the Scottish countryside. I suspect it also helped ignite a boom in the epic battle scene that lasted for about a decade or longer.

Network (1976) and Election (1999) - Both extremely prophetic films that chickened out in the end; had they each gone down the darker path, they would have been truly great. But I'll still put them here because the veins they tapped into have flowed well into the 21st century.

Your Name/Kimi No Nawa (2016) - Not underrated among the cult fanbase it's acquired, but sadly it never got a wide release in the U.S., was never nominated for any Oscar in the animated film category, and will forever be relegated to 'anime' even though it's a rare animated film that adults and non-anime fans can enjoy equally as well. Worse, it's slated for a live-action remake that will certainly fail to measure up. It's too bad most will never get a chance to discover this beautiful film.

[Alcibiades]

Wonder Boys: One of my favourite films ever. I usually can’t stand Michael Douglas, but he puts in such a wonderful performance here. The movie is extremely funny in a quite subtle way, and surprisingly moving. More than anything, I don’t think I have ever seen a film which has better recreated the specific milieu it is set in; in Wonder Boys’ case, the college campus and literary world. To top it all off, Bob Dylan provided the soundtrack with a terrific original song, “Things Have Changed”. The movie doesn’t set out to say something incredibly profound or tell an extraordinary tale. It simply recounts an interesting story in an extremely captivating manner. It is a quiet masterpiece.

Raising Arizona: I don’t know if this is necessarily that underrated, but I think it is often overlooked in comparison to the Coen Brothers’ other films, whereas it is probably my favourite of theirs. Very funny, never pretentious in spite of its left-field approach, and consequently that rarest of things, a genuinely charming film.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

How Green Was My Valley. Which is weird because it won Best Picture, but everyone says Citizen Kane should have won and consequently the former tends to be looked upon poorly, but it actually holds up really well all these decades later and is genuinely moving.

"Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then." Never fails to get a tear out of me.

[Santander]

Anything with Hugh Grant.

[John Dule]

Anything with Hugh Grant.

I still don't believe that you actually love Love Actually.

[Santander]

Anything with Hugh Grant.

I still don't believe that you actually love Love Actually.

It just makes me feel good.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

One of my favorite films of all time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Creek

Watch it. Seriously. I hope some streaming service makes it a cult classic or something because it totally deserves it. (Apparently it's available on Showtime's streaming now. Hope eventually makes it to Netflix or Hulu.)

Not surprising to see why it never picked up: massive buzz back in the day, very low budget, a cast that was mostly teens and whose most notable work prior to it was Nickelodeon shows yet it was very much not a kids' movie or something that would appeal to kids at all, (frankly to a child the premise is basically a horror movie), never got a non-limited art house release and in 2004 online distribution of movies was still pretty niche so if you weren't into the art house film scene you wouldn't even hear of it...it's still one of the most well made and emotional films ever, as well as "realistic". As in the characters act like people in real life would in a similar situation, not like movie characters. Also makes the acting VERY impressive, I wouldn't expect teenage actors with a background in Nickelodeon kid's comedies to display the emotional range needed here but oh boy did it work.

It's better than all of 2004's Best Picture nominees. If you have Showtime's streaming, watch it now. If you don't, then rent it on YouTube or Amazon or something. It's absolutely worth it.

(And don't watch the trailer first, it's very spoiler-y and doesn't really sell the movie well.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oh here's another very underrated movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pop

I was actually turned onto this by my mom of all people (she mostly watches "chick flicks" and not my style at all), she recalled watching it on early MTV or HBO or whatever way back right before I was born on a primitive cable package. It's not too hard to see why it faded into obscurity, Ralph Bakshi kind of did and because of licensing issues it didn't even receive a video release until like 1997 despite being first released in 1981.

But it's a great and powerful film. Basically a multi-generation of story of four fathers and sons each set across the backdrop of the popular music of the era. Powerful stories of tragedy and loss. Also well animated in a rotoscoping style (this actually might be another reason it became obscure, by the late 80s perception had shifted that animation was regarded as for children only and this continued in the 90s), but it holds up well today.

[Progressive Pessimist]

A Serious Man

YES! One of the Coen Brothers' most underappreciated films. Maybe it's just me though because movies about Jewish identity always resonate with me. Sure, the ending leaves a bit to be desired, but that's par for the course with most Coen brother movies. I would also consider 'The Man who Wasn't There' and 'Inside Llewyn Davis' among those too. And I guess that makes up for the Coen brothers movies I included on my most overrated list. I also agree with 'Raising Arizona' being underrated. They're such fascinating directors, not just because of how electic their work is but also because of the wide variety of responses their films evoke from viewers.

In addition to these ones I would add John Dule's inclusions of 'In Bruges,' 'Nightcrawler,' and 'Silence' (though I don't care much for Andrew Garfield or Liam Neeson in it).

Anyway, my actual list of the rest of the most underrated was as hard as my list of overrated in the other thread for different reasons. I find it tougher to define what makes something underrated in comparison to its opposite. Do I make this list based on reception? A lack of popularity or publicity? Being snubbed for awards? Poor box office performance? I wasn't so sure so all the films on this list fit at least one of those criterion:

-99 Homes.
-Under the Silver Lake.
-Deep Red.
-Ingrid Goes West.
-Bottle Rocket.
-Beasts of No nation.
-Adaptation.
-Anomalisa.
-Fateful Findings.
-Blade Runner 2049.
-Blindspotting.
-Paddleton.
-Nocturnal Animals.
-Uncut Gems.
-Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
-The Blackcoat's Daughter.
-The Exorcist III.
-Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
-Free Fire.
-Anthropoid.
-Swiss Army Man.
-The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
-Frank.
-All is Lost.
-First Reformed.
-A Simple Favor.
-Thoroughbreds.
-Doctor Sleep.
-The Old Man and the Gun.
-The Cable Guy.
-Doubt.
-The World's End.
-Weiner.
-Ex Machina.
-The Founder.
-War for the Planet of the Apes.
-What About Bob?
-The Meyerowitz Stories.

Again, I got a little carried away so I'm not going to go into detail about the films on this list. If you're curious about any feel free to ask me.

That said, I will clarify on one that might raise a few eyebrows: 'Fateful Findings.' Yes, it is a very badly made movie, but it is underrated in the sense of not getting the accolades it deserves as being the the most entertainingly bad movie ever. I love 'The Room' as much as anybody, which is often the film that gets that title, but being a connoisseur of enjoyably bad movies nothing compares to 'Fateful Findings.' It is so fascinating and I urge everybody to watch it. Even if you don't like it as much as I do you will feel something. I've seen many good movies that haven't made my jaw drop like the ending of this film did.

[RINO Tom]

I don't know about all time, but I will echo your 1408 suggestion.  Cusack does an amazing job, and the symbolic layers are cool.  I'm a trippy sci-fi horror nerd, so here are a few more that are underrated, IMO:

As Above, So Below (same symbolism as 1408 in a lot of ways)
Triangle
The Endless (might want to make it through the somewhat worse Resolution first)
Oculus
Coherence

[SevenEleven]

Saw Nightcrawler and Uncut Gems mentioned and felt like I should vouch for these films. Both are worthy of at least one watch.

[John Dule]

-Ingrid Goes West.
-Blade Runner 2049.
-Nocturnal Animals.

I considered mentioning all three of these, but I'd gotten bored writing my blurbs. Good list. I had forgotten about The Man Who Wasn't There; it's easily one of my favorite Coen movies and it's better than anything they've made in the past decade.

[Rand]

L.A. Confidential remains the most underrated film of all time.

[NewYorkExpress]

Anything Meryl Streep has ever been in.

[T'Chenka]

My top 5 most underrated for the 2010s decade:

Your Name. [Japanese] (Except in anime circles)
Swiss Army Man
Intouchables [French]
Sing Street
Coherence

I'll honorably mention Nocturnal Animals since somebody else mentioned it as well. Don't let the first 5 minutes deter you.

[Progressive Pessimist]

My top 5 most underrated for the 2010s decade:

Your Name. [Japanese] (Except in anime circles)
Swiss Army Man
Intouchables [French]
Sing Street
Coherence

I'll honorably mention Nocturnal Animals since somebody else mentioned it as well. Don't let the first 5 minutes deter you.

Man oh man are those opening credits a doozy! It is indeed an important asterisk to mention with recommending this movie. I actually recommended it to my mom a few months ago and hoped she wouldn't ask me to watch it with her just fot those first few minutes. She'd think I was into some weird stuff.

In spite of that, as its inclusion on my list obviously suggests, I f***ing love it! It might even have been my favorite movie of 2016, when it came out

[Mr. Smith]

Red Tails

[KaiserDave]

Agreed on 1408, I'm fascinated by the entire premise.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Will make a post later, but based on number of votes and/or IMDb rating. Not on box office flops

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I can't believe Dule agrees that Silence is the best film of 2016! Just outside of my Scorsese top 5 since it has too much of an outlook on death meant to speak to moderns, but this is tragically underrated.

I also agree on the mentions of Inside Llewyn Davis and A Serious Man, which are my #2 and #5 Coen Brothers films, pending a couple rewatches. I also consider Hail, Caesar! to be tremendously underrated despite not being half as superb as those two (Conservative Academic Twitter weirdly seems to love it in spite of the pacing). I would agree on TWMWT, but really Gandolfini just steals the show, and I'm less interested in the scenes without him (stolen from two actors that I usually think very highly of no less!)

I'm similarly excited to see Network listed because while it is highly rated, I have to agree with what Beet said. It is incredible how prophetic it feels, and it is also one of the best acting performances I have ever seen. Regardless of what it is rated, it should be better known as a classic film staple. I wasn't eager to see Election, but if Beet groups it together, I'll give it a chance.


Two others that I feel exceptionally passionately about:
A Simple Plan - Unfathomable that this is rated lower than No Country for Old Men which is OK, but this film is clearly a more complex and interesting project that gives you more to think about along the same theme.
The Talented Mr. Ripley - Thank you to SN for making me give this a shot because this is the perfect example of what a modern thriller should look like. I have not seen the original, and I feel some of the criticism is more directed at comparing it to Purple Noon, which I have not seen. As a stand-alone project, this is nearly perfect.

There are probably 12-15 others in my top 200 that I feel are unfairly docked including a few of the rare actually quality sports films and a couple modern comedies that are I feel are strong films, but I'll leave it at that for now.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

YES! One of the Coen Brothers' most underappreciated films. Maybe it's just me though because movies about Jewish identity always resonate with me.

Any thoughts on Brighton Beach Memoirs? I haven't seen in over a decade at this point so I only recall a few scenes, but I had a teacher who felt it was the quintessential film for the Jewish American experience. I thought it was just alright at the time. Expected a couple ticks higher but nothing egregious. Is that a part of your palate? If not, any other films you would specifically include in this category?