Films such as “Casablanca” and “The Godfather,” considered among the best movies of all time, succeeded in appealing to both critics and audiences. These well-received motion pictures have been widely viewed in theaters and praised since they were first released.
There are, however, some movies highly regarded by critics and film reviewers that are less well known. In certain cases, they may only appeal to a specific subset of audiences or they may be too downbeat to excite the masses. Other times, they may simply have been overlooked for reasons such a lack of widespread distribution — a challenge generally alleviated by streaming technology
To aid viewers in discovering these hidden gems, 24/7 Tempo has identified 25 best movies that most people may have never seen. These are the top-rated films on user-based websites Rotten Tomatoes and Internet Movie Database that have comparatively few total user ratings.
Many of these films were made with relatively small budgets and may have simply been overlooked during this age of big budget blockbusters. Among the talented individuals behind some of the movies on the list are Oscar-nominated directors — here is who won the Oscar for best director every year since the Oscars began.
Other movies may have been overlooked because they were never released to theaters. Those who have seen them have generally loved them. However, their viewership has thus far been limited.
To determine the 50 best movies you’ve never seen, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on audience rating and popularity from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. Movies with between 10,000 and 50,000 IMDb audience votes were ranked based on their Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score as of August 2021. Only films made in 1950 or later were included, and documentaries were excluded. Supplementary data on cast and director also came from IMDb.
25. Gods and Monsters (1998)
> Starring: Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave
> Director: Bill Condon
> IMDb rating: 7.3/10 (29,463 votes)
> RT audience rating: 83% (13,114 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 95% (66 votes)
“God and Monsters” is a movie about the last days of the famed “Frankenstein” director James Whale, who seems to form a relationship with a Korean War veteran after having many young gay lovers.
24. House of Wax (1953)
> Starring: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk
> Director: André De Toth
> IMDb rating: 7.1/10 (16,448 votes)
> RT audience rating: 73% (41,380 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 95% (43 votes)
Horror classic “House of Wax” centers on a wax sculptor who survives a fire in his wax museum, set by his partner for the insurance money. Seeking revenge, he starts to commit murders to turn the bodies into wax figures for his new wax museum.
23. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
> Starring: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King
> Director: Barry Jenkins
> IMDb rating: 7.1/10 (43,745 votes)
> RT audience rating: 71% (2,601 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 95% (357 votes)
Oscar-nominated “If Beale Street Could Talk” tells the story of a pregnant woman in the 1970s in Harlem on a mission to prove that her fiancé is innocent of the crime he was arrested for.
22. The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
> Starring: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig
> Director: Marielle Heller
> IMDb rating: 6.9/10 (30,074 votes)
> RT audience rating: 73% (12,008 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 95% (166 votes)
“The Diary of a Teenager Girl” is set in 1970s San Francisco, where a 15-year-old girl begins an affair with her mother’s boyfriend.
21. Housebound (2014)
> Starring: Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru
> Director: Gerard Johnstone
> IMDb rating: 6.8/10 (32,351 votes)
> RT audience rating: 73% (8,263 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 95% (43 votes)
“Housebound” follows a young woman who is placed under house arrest after being caught stealing. She is staying in the house of her estranged mother, where evil spirits are lurking about.
20. The Return (2003)
> Starring: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin Lavronenko
> Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
> IMDb rating: 8.0/10 (43,176 votes)
> RT audience rating: 93% (9,547 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 96% (89 votes)
“The Return” is a Russian drama about the emotional journey of two brothers who meet their father after only knowing him from one picture.
19. What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993)
> Starring: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, RaéVen Kelly
> Director: Brian Gibson
> IMDb rating: 7.3/10 (17,455 votes)
> RT audience rating: 88% (52,278 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 96% (53 votes)
Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne received Oscar nominations for the roles of Tina and Ike Turner in this gripping biopic. It chronicles their torrid marriage and Tina’s struggle to break free as an independent woman and artist.
18. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
> Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
> Director: Richard Brooks
> IMDb rating: 8.0/10 (45,791 votes)
> RT audience rating: 92% (4,839 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (37 votes)
Based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams, the film is about a dysfunctional Southern family. Yet despite this award-winning talent and six Oscar nominations, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” failed to win any awards of its own.
17. Maria Full of Grace (2004)
> Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Guilied Lopez, Orlando Tobon
> Director: Joshua Marston
> IMDb rating: 7.4/10 (34,131 votes)
> RT audience rating: 87% (39,733 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (146 votes)
“Maria Full of Grace” tells the story of a poor and pregnant teenager from Colombia who is fired from her job after a fight and finds herself becoming a drug mule to make money to support herself and her large family.
16. Mudbound (2017)
> Starring: Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke
> Director: Dee Rees
> IMDb rating: 7.4/10 (43,863 votes)
> RT audience rating: 84% (5,884 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (199 votes)
Dee Rees’ story is about two men, one white and one African American, who return to rural Mississippi after World War II to work on farms. The Oscar-nominated film deals with issues of racism and the struggles of those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
15. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
> Starring: John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly
> Director: Woody Allen
> IMDb rating: 7.4/10 (35,848 votes)
> RT audience rating: 83% (17,026 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (58 votes)
Set in the late 1920s in New York City, “Bullets Over Broadway” tells the story of a struggling playwright who must cast a mob boss’ talentless girlfriend in order for his play to make it on Broadway.
14. Exotica (1994)
> Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Elias Koteas, Don McKellar
> Director: Atom Egoyan
> IMDb rating: 7.0/10 (18,434 votes)
> RT audience rating: 83% (8,092 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (32 votes)
A depressed tax auditor tries to escape his past and finds solace at a strip club where he becomes obsessed with the most popular dancer.
13. Columbus (2017)
> Starring: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Parker Posey
> Director: Kogonada
> IMDb rating: 7.2/10 (14,814 votes)
> RT audience rating: 79% (5,589 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (127 votes)
“Columbus” tells the story of a Korean-born man who is stuck in Columbus, Indiana, after his father, a famous architect, is in a hospital there. He meets an architecture enthusiast, who has just moved there to help her mother instead of pursuing her own dreams.
12. The Misfits (1961)
> Starring: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift
> Director: John Huston
> IMDb rating: 7.2/10 (17,521 votes)
> RT audience rating: 78% (9,412 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (30 votes)
“The Misfits” is about four unlikely friends — a recent divorcee, an aging cowboy-turned-gambler, a World War II veteran, and an ex-rodeo rider — who start a business together capturing wild horses
11. Mr. Turner (2014)
> Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson
> Director: Mike Leigh
> IMDb rating: 6.8/10 (24,534 votes)
> RT audience rating: 56% (16,303 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 97% (193 votes)
“Mr. Turner” is the story of the last 25 years of the life of the famous and eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner.
10. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
> Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells
> Director: Marielle Heller
> IMDb rating: 7.1/10 (47,899 votes)
> RT audience rating: 81% (3,151 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 98% (312 votes)
“Can you ever forgive me?” is the story of struggling author Lee Israel. At a time when she is desperate for money, she starts forging letters by famous writers and sells them to bookstores and collectors.
9. Repo Man (1984)
> Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Tracey Walter
> Director: Alex Cox
> IMDb rating: 6.9/10 (34,528 votes)
> RT audience rating: 78% (31,798 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 98% (46 votes)
“Repo Man” follows a young and lazy punk rocker from Los Angeles who gets a job as a car repossession man. He is after a car with a huge price tag and, unbeknownst to him, otherworldly contents in the trunk.
8. Don’t Think Twice (2016)
> Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Mike Birbiglia
> Director: Mike Birbiglia
> IMDb rating: 6.7/10 (16,852 votes)
> RT audience rating: 69% (19,260 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 98% (136 votes)
“Don’t Think Twice” is a bittersweet comedy about several best friends and members of an improv troupe. One of them gets a big break to star in a TV show, while the others begin to think they won’t succeed in their acting careers.
7. Le Havre (2011)
> Starring: André Wilms, Blondin Miguel, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
> Director: Aki Kaurismäki
> IMDb rating: 7.2/10 (20,582 votes)
> RT audience rating: 75% (7,334 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 99% (96 votes)
“Le Havre” depicts the story of an aging shoe shiner who tries to save a young refugee after his cargo ship drops him off in the French port city of Le Havre.
6. Love and Death (1975)
> Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Georges Adet
> Director: Woody Allen
> IMDb rating: 7.7/10 (36,487 votes)
> RT audience rating: 90% (19,067 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (21 votes)
Woody Allen plays one of his trademark neurotic characters in 1975’s “Love and Death.” In this film, the neurotic character is a soldier in czarist 19th century Russia, who hatches a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
5. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
> Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam
> Director: Joseph Sargent
> IMDb rating: 7.7/10 (27,102 votes)
> RT audience rating: 88% (9,460 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (41 votes)
A gang in New York City hijacks a subway car and threatens to start shooting a person every 10 minutes until they get $1 million cash.
4. Henry V (1989)
> Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Simon Shepherd
> Director: Kenneth Branagh
> IMDb rating: 7.5/10 (28,469 votes)
> RT audience rating: 89% (13,474 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (40 votes)
One among a number of Shakespeare adaptations from Kenneth Branagh, “Henry V” plays it close to the source material. Tensions between England and France give way to all out warfare as the young king (Branagh) surmounts a sea of struggles. Citing top-notch performances and gritty battle sequences, critics were universal in their acclaim.
3. A Room with a View (1985)
> Starring: Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elliott
> Director: James Ivory
> IMDb rating: 7.3/10 (40,483 votes)
> RT audience rating: 85% (25,473 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (32 votes)
“A Room with a View” is a romantic drama about a young woman who is engaged to one man but falls in love with another man while on vacation in Florence, Italy. Things are further complicated after he re-enters her life when she is already married.
2. Sleeper (1973)
> Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John Beck
> Director: Woody Allen
> IMDb rating: 7.2/10 (40,085 votes)
> RT audience rating: 81% (30,606 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (35 votes)
“Sleeper” is a comedy about a nerdish health store owner (Woody Allen) whose family cryogenically freezes him after he dies during surgery. He is revived two centuries later to help fight an oppressive government.
1. Ink (2009)
> Starring: Christopher Soren Kelly, Quinn Hunchar, Jessica Duffy
> Director: Jamin Winans
> IMDb rating: 6.9/10 (21,167 votes)
> RT audience rating: 81% (6,147 votes)
> Tomatometer rating: 100% (06 votes)
“Ink” is a sci-fi movie about a mysterious creature that steals a little girl’s soul and her father’s fight to save her from a world of supernatural beings.