The Most Underrated Movies of 2024

In our continuing look back at the best and worst of 2024, let’s pause and spend some time on a few of the movies that rarely get any love at this time of year. They’re not the instant classics or the absolute disasters. They’re the good movies that flew below the radar with audiences, critics, or both.

That doesn’t mean these were box-office bombs, or that they got bad reviews. Think more the movies that did okay, financially and creatively, but that in ten years time are the films people get excited about when they show up on Netflix; the films that evolve into those basic cable favorites you watch over and over again. That’s the sort of film we’re talking about today.

Actually, there is a Netflix original on my list, plus several more titles exclusive to other streaming services. This is going to be a major issue in the years ahead: Movies that are mostly unseen and forgotten not because they are bad, but because they were released on smaller streaming services that most people do not have. Because films are now siloed off in these little streaming cul de sacs, and because a lot of these films never show up in theaters or on Blu-ray, it’s easier than ever for worthy pictures to fall through the cracks.

That’s why lists like this are useful. So let’s take a look at a dozen underrated 2024 films that deserve a second look (or a wider audience).