(Credit: Netflix)

How many times has this happened with you, where you see a boring yet intriguing thumbnail or a film with a strange name on Netflix, and you scroll past it because it doesn’t seem clickable in that moment? Then one day, you finally click play out of boredom and realise halfway through that you have accidentally found something brilliant.

It might not happen very often, but it has happened to all of us at least once. What we might not realise is that we need to do this frequently because not all good films make noise when they get released. In many cases, the film does not get the deserved attention, and it gets lost on Netflix, only for people to discover it years later.

These are the ones that do not try to please everyone, and maybe that is exactly why they work. We have to sit with them instead of letting them rush us. Netflix actually has a few of these movies that get buried under louder titles, but it also builds its own fan base of people who love weird, thoughtful storytelling.

So here are five films we think deserve a second look. They may not be the easiest watches, but they are definitely the type that make you feel like you’ve found something that was meant for you to find.

The five best movies to watch on Netflix

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (Macon Blair, 2017)

At some point, we all get tired of pretending that little injustices don’t bother us. Someone cuts the queue, someone steals your things, and we are supposed to shrug it off because apparently that’s what adults do. This film takes that exact frustration and turns it into something tender and hella relatable. It is not heroic or dramatic, just painfully real.

Melanie Lynskey plays a person who finally decides she has had enough, and watching her slip through that decision feels quite therapeutic. There’s violence, yes, but it’s the type that comes from exhaustion, not revenge. By the end, we’re left thinking maybe the world won’t change, but it feels a bit lighter knowing someone at least tried.

The Endless (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, 2017)

Nothing about this film announces itself, and that’s exactly why you might want to watch it this weekend. This movie asks bigger questions than most blockbusters ever dare to. It’s about two brothers who revisit a commune they once escaped, and though it starts as nostalgia, it slowly turns into something that feels cosmic and deeply personal at once.

The stillness in this movie feels purely philosophical. We keep waiting for an explanation, but all we get is this feeling that life itself might just be an endless loop of choices we don’t fully understand.

Windfall (Charlie McDowell, 2022)

You know that kind of movie where nothing really happens, but you still can’t look away? Windfall is that. It is just three people sitting around this fancy house, and one of them is a robber, the other is this rich guy, and his wife, and the longer they talk, the weirder it gets. No big twist, no chase, just quiet tension that keeps crawling under your skin. Everyone’s too calm, too polite, like they’re trying to out-civilise each other while thinking the worst things possible.

It’s the right film for when you don’t want to think too much, but also don’t want your brain to rot. You can lie on the couch, half-tired, and it keeps you watching because it feels real, like this is what would actually happen if three people like that got stuck together.

The Devil All the Time (Antonio Campos, 2020)

This one’s long and slow and exhausting, but in a good way. It’s set in this small American town where everyone’s trying to be good but ends up doing awful things anyway, and it keeps jumping between people and years, so you start seeing how the damage just travels. There’s religion, violence, and family, but it never feels preachy.

It’s not a fun movie, though, in case you are wondering, but it’s one of those that fills a Sunday afternoon when you want something to completely pull you in. It moves slowly, but it’s hypnotic; the performances are ridiculous in the best way, and it leaves you a bit quiet afterwards. The acting is insane, and by the end, you feel calm, like your brain’s tired but satisfied.

Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail, 2023)

At first, it looks like a regular family drama, and then it just starts… breaking apart. The Wi-Fi dies, the news stops, people show up at the door, and no one knows what’s happening. They keep talking like normal, trying to be nice, trying to act sane, but you can feel everything’s slipping.

It’s perfect for a Saturday night when you want to be drawn in but not drained. It’s slow, yeah, but it keeps you guessing because every scene feels a bit off, like something’s hiding behind the conversation. Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali make the whole thing feel real enough that you start imagining how you’d behave if it happened for real.