7 Must-See Movies You've Never Heard Of
You'll want to check out these underrated films featuring Timothée Chalamet, John David Washington, Zoë Kravitz, and more.
Just because a movie isn’t in the running for an Oscar or blowing up on the Twitter-verse, doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching. A film can get overlooked for any number of reasons and still be a perfectly decent or even profound watch. Unfortunately, there’s no scientific reasoning behind why movies get missed, though if there was, movie-makers would surely pay to find out. Everything from big-budget productions like Tenet to small Sundance Jury Awards like Step have been neglected over the years. Even movies with stacked casts that feature favorites like Timothée Chalamet, Kristen Stewart, or Zoë Kravitz fly under the radar.
Keeping an eye out for these underrated selections isn’t so hard, but this past year you were probably (and understandably) a little too preoccupied to keep tabs. So if you pride yourself under usual circumstances on finding the best unseen films, but have been lacking as of late, you’re definitely not alone. Luckily, L’OFFICIEL lines up the 10 best movies you've never seen.
Adventureland
This cast is so stacked it should be a crime no memes have been made from it yet. Adventureland stars Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Bill Hader, Ryan Reynolds, Kristen Wiig, and Martin Starr all in one movie about the world’s worst summer job. The film follows James Brennan (played by Jesse Eisenberg) a college grad who made plans to backpack across Europe, but whose parents financial troubles force him to get a summer job instead. He ends up at the rickety local amusement park named Adventureland, where he meets Emily Lewin (played by Kristen Stewart).
Attack The Block
Before British-Nigerian actor John Boyega became known as Finn in Star Wars, he was Moses in Attack The Block. Directed by Joe Cornish and released in May of 2011, this movie is a fast-paced, slightly-frightening, but definitely funny sci-fi adventure. A street gang of South London teenagers is pitted against an invasion of slimy alien monsters in the middle of a housing project that quickly becomes more like a haunted house.
Middle of Nowhere
Middle of Nowhere was the Best Director Award winner at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and yet is still considered to be largely overlooked. The movie chronicles a young woman named Ruby (played by Emayatzy Corinealdi) who is challenged by the controversial decision she makes to put aside her professional ambitions as a medical student when her husband is incarcerated. Written and directed by Ava DuVernay, the award winning movie is a story of self-discovery.
Dope
Released in 2015, this coming-of-age film stars a young Zoë Kravitz and A$AP Rocky. Filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa re-imagined the high school cliche of sharing the uncool kid (played by Shameik Moore) story. Using a majority Black cast, Famuyiwa and executive producer Pharrell Williams re-told a teen narrative before diversified rom-coms were blowing up on Netflix.
Miss Stevens
This is a modal window.
That’s right, Timothée Chalamet and Lili Reinhart starred in a teen comedy-drama together, and somehow no one watched it. Directed by Julie Hart and released in 2016, Miss Stevens follows a teacher chaperoning a weekend school trip to a state drama competition. It premiered at SXSW in March 2016, opened in theatres the following September, and even received a New York Times review, but somehow flew under the radar.
Step
This Baltimore documentary is a touching film about a high school Step team that is far more about community and Black-female empowerment than dance competitions in gymnasiums. Directed by Amanda Lipitz and released in 2017 and won a special Sundance Jury Award as well as received high praise from Michelle Obama (perhaps the greatest prize of all). Sadly, the film never saw its heyday like the similar Netflix documentary Cheer, which came out several years later.
Tenet
While Director Christopher Nolan’s Warner Bros. produced film received some hype, it was cut short once the movie came out in theaters on August 12, 2020. What prevented most viewers from ever watching the movie was that Nolan would only let it play in IRL at movie theatres, with exception of a few drive-ins. With many cinemas still closed or operating at a fraction of capacity due to the pandemic, the movie had little hope of performing at the box office. The main character is played by Malcolm and Marie, Black KKKlansman, and Ballers star John David Washington, with Robert Pattinson supporting. Tenet was also soundtracked by Travis Scott, who made a song and merch for the movie release but to little avail.
