If you’ve typically spent most of your time on Netflix browsing the top 10 movies trending on the service, you’re not alone. The top 10 can be a useful way to see what other users are interested in and make choices for yourself as well.
If you want to find something that’s flown under the radar, we’ve got you covered. Netflix is home to hundreds of movies, and many of them are genuinely great. Here are three underrated gems that you should definitely check out.
We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.
Pamela, A Love Story (2023)
Now that Pamela Anderson has completed her comeback with The Naked Gun, Pamela, A Love Story provides the ideal look back at Anderson’s life and career. Few women in the history of Hollywood were more publicly ridiculed and scrutinized than Anderson, and this documentary allows her to explain precisely the ways that she was abused and reduced to a sex symbol.
Anderson’s relationship with the Hollywood machine is understandably fraught, but learning exactly what happened to her can also help us understand all the ways we misunderstand young women in show business, hopefully so that we don’t do it again.
You can watch Pamela, A Love Story on Netflix.
Pacific Rim (2013)
One of the most divisive movies of Guillermo Del Toro’s career, Pacific Rim imagines a future where humanity has been overrun by kaiju. In response, humanity developed giant mech suits — Jaegers — that could take on the kaijus. However, these giant robots aren’t enough to take on the threat.
With the world on the verge of total destruction, humanity must take one last stand. Pacific Rim is big, bombastic, and loud, and it’s also deeply silly. That combination of elements turned off some people, but it’s impossible to deny that the action here is genuinely electrifying.
You can watch Pacific Rim on Netflix.
Barbarian (2022)
With Weapons in theaters, it’s the perfect time to check out Zach Cregger’s first movie, Barbarian. Due to spoilers, describing Barbarian’s plot can be difficult. All you need to know going in, though, is that the movie follows a young woman who inadvertently books an already-booked Airbnb and finds herself sharing it with a man she doesn’t know.
As she navigates their relationship and wonders whether she’s safe, she realizes that everything about the Detroit home she’s staying in might not be exactly as it seems. Things get pretty wild, in ways both horrifying and hilarious, from there.
You can watch Barbarian on Netflix.
