Films you've scrolled past but shouldn't have

You have 10,000 titles at your fingertips. And yet here you are, rewatching The Office for the sixth time.

No shame. We all do it. The problem isn’t a lack of options. It’s too many options and no idea which ones are actually good. So you default to something safe. Something you’ve already seen. Something that requires zero risk.

Meanwhile, actual great films are sitting right there in your catalogue. Unwatched. Unseen. Slowly drifting further down the algorithm.

That ends tonight. Here are 10 films you’ve almost certainly scrolled past. They’re on Netflix, HBO, and Disney+ right now. They’re not obscure film school picks. They’re proper, well-made films that just never got the marketing push they deserved. Critics loved them. Audiences missed them. Time to fix that.

Netflix

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) - adventure / comedy

Before Taika Waititi made Thor: Ragnarok, he made this. A grumpy foster uncle and a kid on the run in the New Zealand bush. It’s funny, warm, and surprisingly moving - often in the same scene. Sam Neill gives one of his best performances, and the kid (Julian Dennison) steals every moment he’s in. Most people discovered Waititi through Marvel. Which means most people missed the film where he was actually at his best. If you liked Jojo Rabbit, this is better. And it’s been sitting on Netflix the whole time.

The Lost Daughter (2021) - drama

Maggie Gyllenhaal directed this. Olivia Colman carries it. A woman on holiday becomes obsessed with watching a young mother and her daughter. It’s quiet, slow, and deeply uncomfortable in the best way. It never got big because there’s no hook to sell. No twist, no villain. Just an honest, uncomfortable look at motherhood. The kind of film you think about for days.

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) - dark comedy / thriller

Melanie Lynskey plays a woman whose house gets robbed. She’s fed up with people being terrible, so she teams up with her strange neighbour (Elijah Wood, playing wildly against type) to track down the thief herself. What follows is messy, violent, and hilarious. The tone shifts are wild, but they work. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Then it got buried in the catalogue and barely promoted. It deserved better. Much better.

Anora (2024) - comedy / drama

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner. A young stripper in Brooklyn marries the son of a Russian oligarch on impulse. When his parents find out, things go sideways fast. It’s funny, chaotic, and surprisingly tender. Mikey Madison is extraordinary in the lead. It swept awards season but still flew under the radar for most people who don’t follow film festivals. One of the best films of the decade so far.

HBO

Paddington 2 (2017) - family / comedy

Yes, really. This is one of the best-reviewed films of the decade. It has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. And most adults skipped it because it’s “a kids’ film.” It isn’t. It’s a warm, beautifully made comedy with Hugh Grant giving one of his best performances. Watch it with your partner. Watch it alone. You’ll feel better about life after.

In Bruges (2008) - dark comedy / crime

Two hitmen hiding out in Bruges, Belgium after a job gone wrong. One loves the medieval architecture. The other wants to shoot himself out of boredom. Colin Farrell has never been funnier. Ralph Fiennes has never been scarier. The dialogue is razor-sharp. Martin McDonagh wrote and directed this long before The Banshees of Inisherin. You probably know the name. You’ve probably seen it on lists like this one before. And you still haven’t watched it. Tonight, maybe.

Leave No Trace (2018) - drama

A father and his teenage daughter live off the grid in a forest in Oregon. They get found. The system tries to help them. Not everyone wants to be helped. This is one of the most quietly powerful films of the last decade. It made almost no money at the box office and barely got a mention during awards season. That’s a shame. It’s near-flawless.

The Brutalist (2024) - drama

Brady Corbet directed a three-and-a-half-hour epic about a Hungarian architect who emigrates to America after the war. Adrien Brody gives his best performance since The Pianist. It’s long, ambitious, and deliberately paced - not for everyone, but if it clicks, it really clicks. The kind of film that makes you want to sit quietly for a while after it ends.

Disney+

The Bandit (2024) - documentary

The story behind Smokey and the Bandit and how Burt Reynolds became the biggest movie star in the world. It’s funny, nostalgic, and surprisingly touching. You don’t need to care about car movies to enjoy this. It’s really about fame, self-destruction, and the difference between who someone is on screen and off. Even if you’ve never seen the original film, the documentary works on its own. It deserved a bigger audience.

Summer of Soul (2021) - documentary / music

Questlove’s directorial debut. In 1969, the same summer as Woodstock, a massive music festival happened in Harlem. 300,000 people showed up. Stevie Wonder. Nina Simone. Sly and the Family Stone. B.B. King. The performances were incredible. And then the footage sat in a basement for 50 years. Nobody saw it. Nobody talked about it. This film brought it back to life. It’s pure joy from start to finish. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary and still most people haven’t seen it. If you watch one thing from this list, make it this.

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Don’t lose these

You just read this list. You probably liked three or four of them. In an hour, you’ll remember maybe two titles. By Friday night, when you’re actually on the couch ready to watch something, you’ll remember one. Maybe.

That’s the real problem with film recommendations. Not finding them. Keeping them. You read lists like this all the time. But reading isn’t the same as having them ready when you need them.

If you use sjow.tv, you can add any of these to your watchlist in a few seconds. It shows you which ones are on your streaming services, so when Friday comes you just open your list and pick. You don’t even need an app. It’s a website.

Need help picking from these? Here’s a quick framework for choosing →