7 Hidden Gems on Netflix Canada
The best movies that might’ve flown under your radar.
It’s easy to forget just how vast the Netflix library truly is. The Netflix algorithm tries to serve up movie and series it thinks you’ll like, but sometimes you start to feel like you’re really only seeing the same twenty-or-so movies every time you search for something to watch.
When you go off the beaten path and really dig into some of the lesser-known titles on Netflix, you can uncover some truly great films!
Here are 7 of my favourite hidden gems on Netflix Canada:
The Endless
Directors and stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead do a lot with their very limited budget in this sci-fi mystery/ thriller. The film follows two brothers who, after receiving a mysterious video message, return to the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. The brothers start to question whether the cult members are as crazy as they seem after uncovering strange and unnatural happenings around the camp. Although there are places that the lower budget does show, you’ll hardly notice due to solid performances and the increasingly bizarre mystery unfolding before your eyes.
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a quirky and darkly comedic crime drama that follows a despondent woman (Melanie Lynskey) as she attempts to track down a crew of burglars who ransacked her home with the help of her offbeat neighbour (Elijah Wood). With lovely performances from both Lynskey and Wood, the film balances humour with social commentary and jarring moments of violence to create something well-deserving of a Friday movie night.
The Invitation
In this contained mystery/ thriller, a haunted man (played by Logan Marshall-Green) attends a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new husband, soon discovering that they might have sinister intentions. Director Karyn Kusama does a wonderful job at drawing out the mystery and rarely lets the audience get ahead of her. The film may occasionally feel like it’s dragging in places but there’s enough conflict built into the dynamics between all the characters that these moments feel few and far between.
Good Time
The lesser-known (but just as good) film that the Safdie brothers made before Uncut Gems, Good Time follows the always-great Robert Pattinson as Connie Nikas who embarks on a journey through the underbelly of New York in order to free his brother (Benny Safdie) from police custody after a bank robbery gone wrong. The movie feels raw and gritty and is deftly plotted, with some clever twists and reversals. Good Time is a character-driven crime thriller that shows yet again what can be accomplished with a relatively low budget and two skilled leads.
Knowing
Knowing was critically panned upon it’s release but I would contend that it’s not nearly as bad as the critics make it out to be and there are elements that make it worth watching. The film follows an M.I.T. professor — played by none other than Nicholas Cage — who links a list of numbers from a time capsule to a series of past disasters as well as ones that have yet to occur. There are several set pieces that genuinely blew me away upon first viewing (admittedly, not all of them hold up quite so well now) and some great Nicholas Cage gonzo moments. Although the ending may prove to be unsatisfactory for many, the film makes good use of a unique premise and offers up enough creepy and unsettling moments to make it a worthwhile watch.
Leave No Trace
In what is a slower and more deliberate film compared to the others on this list, Leave No Trace follows a PTSD-stricken father and his daughter who find their peaceful existence of living off the grid in the forests of Portland, Oregon, shattered after a simple mistake. With wonderful performances from Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace is emotional and quiet and is the only film on this list to have 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you’re looking for something a little slower but incredibly moving, this is your movie.
Upgrade
The second movie on this list to feature Logan Marshall-Green as a main character, Upgrade follows Grey, a man who has an experimental chip implanted in his head that he hopes will give him the ability to avenge the death of his wife. Although Writer/Director Leigh Whannel wrote and starred in 2004’s Saw and has worked steadily in the film industry ever since, it was Upgrade that I think put him on the path to becoming one of the next great Hollywood filmmakers. Upgrade features Whannel’s signature action camera movement (achieved by strapping an iPhone to Marshall-Green and syncing it to the camera) that he would go on to use to similar effect in 2020’s The Invisible Man, creating action scenes unlike anything we’ve seen before.
