Targets (1968)
dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Feels a bit like a skeleton key for everything from No Country For Old Men to Blow Out to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Of course it also ryhmes with Bogdanovich’s later work, particularly The Last Picture Show. The past always makes way for the filth to follow. They don’t make climaxes like this anymore.

Kill List (2011)
dir. Ben Wheatley

A nasty, dispiriting piece of work that sneaks up on you in a way that my favorite movies increasingly do. As a razor-sharp, 95-minute crime thriller with a horror bend, there’s no reason this movie shouldn’t be a streaming classic. I watched it on Tubi—where the menace was interrupted by fast food commercials—and experienced nirvana.

Little Nemo (1989)
dir. Masami Hat and William T. Hurtz

Getting stuck in development hell typically ruins a movie. However, with this list as proof, it often can ferment into a special sauce that imbues the film with a specific type of weirdness and idiosyncrasy it wouldn’t have found otherwise. Little Nemo, a joint production between Japanese and American studios, didn’t come out in the U.S. until 1992—three years after its Asian debut. A story of nightmares and dream worlds, it’s an imaginative and fully weird kids movie like they don’t make anymore.

The Empty Man (2020)
dir. David Prior

A movie that, through various circumstances, completely fell through the cracks, only to be shoved out into the world in October 2020, hardly a time when anyone was making movie theater trips. It’s exactly my kind of thing: ignored by most (including its own studio) but getting away with shooting for the moon. None of these movies ever truly connect with glory, but coming close is exhilarating.

A Perfect Getaway (2009)
dir. David Twohy

I think this may be slowly building a cult following, but it’s not getting there fast enough. This is probably the best B-movie on this list, and knits together one of my favorite genres (thriller) with one of my favorite micro-genres (vacation movies). I’m down with cheap tricks when they’re done this well.

Deep Water (2022)
dir. Adrian Lyne

As someone who is only just now venturing off the beaten path for films made in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, one thing most people don’t realize is that mainstream movies now are actually far less sleazy than they used to be. But Lyne refuses to leave us hanging, delivering the perfect raunchy, trashy thriller that streaming services were designed for.

Fever Pitch (2005)
dir. the Farrelly Brothers

I don’t really believe in the concept of a “guilty pleasure” movie. In fact, that’s largely what this list is attempting to push back against. But Fever Pitch, more than most, is a movie I recognize as being pretty poor yet also refuse to deny loving. It’s a movie built on charm and baseball, which is sometimes all I need.

The Wrong Missy (2020)
dir. Tyler Spindel

Every time I watch a classic Adam Sandler comedy and enjoy it a lot I also find myself thinking, “I cannot imagine a movie like this working these days.” Here is that movie. Produced by Sander’s Happy Madison Productions, The Wrong Missy is a deeply stupid movie that had me in tears when I watched it at 2 a.m. on a Saturday.

The Box (2009)
dir. Richard Kelly

Pure concept. This is buckshot filmmaking that shoots from the hip so wildly, and swings so big, that it circles back around to being pretty admirable. Cameron Diaz stars in what’s essentially a feature-length episode of Twilight Zone. It’s entertaining both when it works and when it fails, the kind of achievement that’s rare.

Knowing (2009)
dir. Alex Proyas

Both an unheralded Nic Cage performance and perhaps one of his great assignments, Knowing places him in the exact correct role and lets him cook in a story rife with conspiracy and doom. I rarely find disaster films successful, but this positions itself in a way that manages to bite.

Time Trap (2017)
dir. Ben Foster and Mark Dennis

This one’s off the beaten path in a way that few movies on this list are. When the biggest star of a film, by far, is the little-known third Wilson Brother, it probably qualifies as a deep cut. Time Trap bites off more than its tiny budget can chew, but that’s ultimately the charm in this sci-fi movie about a mysterious cave.

The Voyeurs (2021)
dir. Michael Mohan

A sleazy Rear Window for the streaming era. By no means a substitute (or even a companion) to the Hitchcock classic, but certainly a worthy addition into film’s metacommentary on itself.

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)
dir. Taylor Sheridan

Sheridan could probably have more movies on this list, but he’s managed to market himself as a higher class of filmmaker (good for him) despite making movies that are cut from a blue-collar, ‘90s cloth. If this movie came out 25 years earlier it would be a huge hit. Now it’s the kind you have to badger people to watch on HBO Max.

Blended (2014)
dir. Frank Coraci

A fun fact about me is that I think the rom-com duo of Sandler and Barrymore is better than Hanks and Ryan. Blended is the fourth time the pair have shared the screen, and while it’s not their best, it’s proof that I’ll enjoy them in anything, especially if it casts them against gorgeous tropical locations.

Flightplan (2005)
dir. Robert Schwentke

Features the queen Jodie Foster flexing her hero muscles in a movie that, coincidentally, would be perfect for an airplane. A good lead and goofy thrills in less than 100 minutes. What more do you want?

Song to Song (2017)
dir. Terrence Malick

The video store still needs an arthouse section. Malick is a director who speaks to both my best and worst tastes and a movie lover. Song to Song comes from his much-maligned modern era, but actually connects on its wild ideas. At some point I hope people come to appreciate how good this is. Until then, it’s a slept-on beauty.

Armageddon (1998)
dir. Michael Bay

Easily the most-seen movie on this list, but it qualifies in being misunderstood. This carries a middling 3.0 average rating on Letterboxd, and it’s one-time inclusion in the Criterion Collection has become a bit of a running joke. But it’s Michael Bay throwing 100mph. It’s one of our greatest popcorn movies and it’s time we treat it as such.

Youth in Revolt (2009)
dir. Miguel Arteta

A teen rom-com starring Michael Cera at the absolute peak of his Hollywood career, alongside Portia Doubleday before she went prestigious in Mr. Robot. I’m not really sure why this doesn’t have a bigger following, other than the fact that it had to compete with lots of similar movies in its era.

Triple Frontier (2019)
dir. J.C. Chandor

One of two Chandor films on this list! They make good cousins. Triple Frontier is a bit of a dirtbag take on the dudes rock genre, sending a pretty solid cast of actors on “one last job.” This is a Netflix movie and every time I think about it I wonder why the platform isn’t putting out a few of these each year.

Ambulance (2022)
dir. Michael Bay
Added September 2022

Maybe its April release date didn’t do it any favors, but I sorta can’t believe that a (very good) Michael Bay movie, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, was release in 2022 and it didn’t seem to leave a mark. I’m a fan of Bay’s, but I haven’t totally clicked with his last few movies. Ambulance is a return to form.

Unstoppable (2010)
dir. Tony Scott

Tony Scott is another director whose entire filmography could fit into this list. He makes movies with mainstream sensibilities that rarely ever achieve that status. Upon his death, Scott left behind a legacy of largely under-appreciated wonders. Unstoppable—his last film—is perhaps the purest distillation of his strengths.

Déjà Vu (2006)
dir. Tony Scott

Tony Scott directed a whole pile of awesome movies, including five with Denzel Washington. For my money, the best of the bunch is Déjà Vu. It’s perhaps his most ambitious work, containing some startling beauty amidst his usual virtuosic sense of action.

Margin Call (2011)
dir. J.C. Chandor

Chandor had his Dudes Rock action movie with Triple Frontier, and Margin Call is his boardroom anxiety fest. This is a kind of B-movie take on something like Michael Clayton. It’s not perfect, but it’s a blast for fans of the genre.

The Abyss (1989)
dir. James Cameron

The best James Cameron movie nobody talks about. When I first saw it I thought it was Interstellar underwater. There’s a hard-to-find quality that gives this an additional mystique in 2022, but Cameron has teased a re-master, so it may have its day in the sun shortly.

Sorcerer (1977)
dir. William Friedkin

William Friedkin’s career boasts more acclaimed movies (The French Connection, The Exorcist) yet his true masterpiece is Sorcerer, a lost classic that patiently lays its tantalizing groundwork and then methodically carries viewers on a sweaty-palm journey. It’s the best ‘70s movie most people haven’t seen.

The Kid Detective (2020)
dir. Evan Morgan

Half of this list are misunderstood mainstream movies and the other half are movies with total mainstream appeal that never got the eyeballs they deserved. This is a perfect example of the latter. This should have been a sleeper hit and I don’t think it even reached that level.

Runaway Train (1985)
dir. Andrei Konchalovsky

A perfect selection because it’s 50% excellent and 50% fascinating. The ability to be both pretty good and pretty weird gives a movie staying power and rewatchability. Here’s a prison break/runaway train movie that also maybe predicted the Challenger disaster.

Blue Ruin (2013)
dir. Jeremy Saulnier

A nasty little revenge thriller—cheap tricks and nifty stunts packed into 90 minutes. Saulnier’s 2015 follow-up Green Room is the cult hit, but in my eyes Blue Ruin is much more successful.

Deep Cover (1992)
dir. Bill Duke

Not many films on this list have aged this well, and Deep Cover is a full 30 years old. It’s a murky neo-noir about race and class in the criminal underbelly of LA, and it stars Laurence Fishburne (!) and Jeff Goldblum (!!!). To the extent that any film of this age can be re-discovered, this is a great candidate.

Light Sleeper (1992)
dir. Paul Schrader

Probably a hair less overlooked than Deep Cover, simply because it’s directed by Schrader. Find me on the right day and Light Sleeper might be my favorite movie on this list. It’s a total melodramatic mood piece, and the perfect Willem Dafoe role. It’s certainly not Home Alone 2 or When Harry Met Sally, but it still has me wanting to visit New York in this era.

Bad Education (2019)
dir. Cory Finley

Bad Education premiered at TIFF in 2019, though it didn’t see a wide release on HBO until April 2020, at the peak of Covid. People just missed this, which is a shame because it’s one of the few rock-solid adult dramas from a year that, through no fault of its own, had so few.

Support the Girls (2018)
dir. Andrew Bujalski

It’s probably the Linklater fan in me that’s drawn to this. It starts off feeling like a pretty run-of-the-mill drama but eventually opens up into a pretty naturalistic, character-driven portrait of a community you’re deeply invested in by the end of its run time. And Regina Hall is the best she’s ever been.

The Daytrippers (1996)
dir. Greg Mottola

A sub-90-minute charmboat debut from Greg Mottola (Superbad, Adventureland) that feels eerily like an awesome episode of a modern prestige drama. An absolute must-watch for fans of shows like Girls or Ramy.

Contact (1997)
dir. Robert Zemeckis

Take any number of corny-fun ‘90s blockbusters (Speed, Die Hard, The Rock) and combine it with a prestige space poem (2001, Interstellar) and you’ve got Contact. It’s easy to pick apart (which is why it fits on this list), but I fell head over heels for it.

Together Together (2021)
dir. Nikole Beckwith

In which Nikole Beckwith uses the rom-com container to tell a really charming story about platonic friendship. It’s a breath of fresh air and is subversive in a really lovely way. We need to rebuild our movie middle class. This is simply “pretty good” and it managed to be one of my favorite watches of 2021.

Night Moves (1975)
dir. Arthur Penn

A real slime-fest of a ‘70s mystery, set in the swamps of Florida, pegged on a great performance from one of my favorite actors. I feel like mainstream movies used to be grosser and more depressing. Everything is so milquetoast now.

Old Henry (2021)
dir. Potsy Ponciroli

Tim Blake Nelson starred in one of my favorite movies of all time, O Brother Where Art Thou? He was hardly a superstar then, and that was more than 20 years ago. The fact that he’s leading anything in 2021 is miraculous. The fact that it’s good is less surprising. It takes a couple big swings down the stretch (with questionable effectiveness) but it’s a good time.

Matchstick Men (2003)
dir. Ridley Scott

Nic Cage is giving an out-of-his-mind performance (even by his standards) at the center of a deeply satisfying mystery thriller. Cage has a whole list of cult hits, and it sorta blows my mind that this—directed by Ridley Scott—isn’t among them.

Blinded by the Light (2019)
dir. Gurinder Chadha

While Queen was constructing blockbuster hagiography in Bohemian Rhapsody, Bruce Springsteen got his sloppy kiss in the form of Blinded by the Light, which attempts far less and accomplishes much more. What a joyful little cheeseball of a movie.

Breakdown (1997)
dir. Jonathan Mostow

The platonic ideal of a ‘90s thriller. Killer lead performance by Kurt Russell. Gorgeous settling in the American southwest. Compelling elevator pitch. Sharp cinematography. 95-minute runtime.