How TIME’s Film Critic Chose the 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century

by

I’ve noticed a pattern when I look at what movies young film fans are enjoying online – it’s often the classics by directors like Hitchcock, Coppola, and Scorsese, along with some well-known film noir and romantic comedies. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it made me wonder about all the great, unexpected films that used to come out regularly in theaters. Some would briefly do well, then fade from memory, while others were overlooked by critics and never found an audience. It got me thinking: what happens to those underappreciated movies after their initial release?

I’ve put together a list of films from the beginning of this century up to now – movies that might have been overlooked when they first came out, but deserve another chance. I fondly remember the excitement of going to the movies in those early years, hoping to find something amazing, or at least something unique and captivating. Films like Idlewild – a 1930s-style musical with an all-Black cast – or an English-language adaptation of The Magic Flute set during World War I, or the beautiful historical romance Bright Star. It’s often the smaller, or even imperfect, films that stay with us the longest.

This list leans towards films that American viewers may not have seen in theaters – whether at mainstream cinemas or smaller independent ones. I’ve mostly included English-language films simply because it would have been impossible to cover all of world cinema and identify hidden gems for English-speaking audiences. However, I’ve included a few non-English films that I think deserve more attention, particularly those by overlooked masters like Marco Bellocchio, or directors who later became famous but whose early work is also excellent, like Jacques Audiard. There are inevitably many other incredible filmmakers I couldn’t include – my apologies to Hou Hsiou-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang – and you might not find your personal favorites here either.

This list isn’t meant to be definitive, but rather a fresh way to look back at film history. What one person considers an underappreciated movie is subjective, and your choices will likely differ from mine – and that’s perfectly fine! The main goal is to spark your own movie memories. We’re used to lists of the “Greatest” films, so this is a list of movies that stick with us for reasons that are hard to explain – something that computers and artificial intelligence couldn’t understand, because truly loving movies is a uniquely human experience.

See the full list here.

Read More

2026-02-04 16:06