As a cinema nerd, I am always looking for new movies to watch that I have never seen before. That’s why I am always so excited when magazines put forward ‘best of’ lists. I love to scan them to see what I’ve seen and what I can discover.

And that’s why I am excited to pore through TIME Magazine’s 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century.

The list was put together by film critic Stephanie Zacharek, who had an interesting philosophy when it came to picking movies, and gave me a list that I thought was so fun and had a lot of hidden gems within it.

Let’s dive in.

The “Texture” of Discovery

Lists like this always have a philosophy behind them, and I think this one is especially interesting. It was made from a nostalgia for the pre-pandemic moviegoing experience.

The list is supposed to evoke a time when you could walk into a theater with nothing but hope and walk out having discovered something “strange and wondrous.”

Zacharek highlights films like Idlewild, an all-Black musical set in the 1930s, and Kenneth Branagh’s World War I-set The Magic Flute as examples of the types of movies that offer a specific, indefinable magic.

Another cool thing was that she leaned into the idea that these aren’t always perfect films, but they possess a texture and personality that lingers long after the credits roll.

That’s the kind of thing that makes me excited to watch.

What Defines “Underappreciated”?

The thing that drew me into this list was the idea that it was there to celebrate “underappreciated” movies. But what does that really mean?

The list focuses on films that American audiences might have missed at the multiplex or local cinemas. It obviously skews toward English-language movies, but there are a few surprises as well.

Why Humans Still Curate Better Than AI

Finally, something that really charmed me was the idea of curation not by some soulless algorithm, but by a human being who genuinely loves watching movies.

AI can give you data and estimates, but only a human can pick art they think will be meaningful to your soul.

This collection serves as a reminder that the best movies aren’t always the ones with the biggest marketing budgets or the most trophies. Sometimes, they are the ones that were simply waiting to be found by the right person.

TIME’s 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century20th Century Women (Dir. Mike Mills)25th Hour (Dir. Spike Lee)A Cat in Paris (Dir. Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol)A Very Long Engagement (Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)American Splendor (Dir. Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini)Beyond the Lights (Dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood)Breakfast on Pluto (Dir. Neil Jordan)Bright Star (Dir. Jane Campion)Control (Dir. Anton Corbijn)CQ (Dir. Roman Coppola)Dark Skies (Dir. Scott Stewart)Dolemite Is My Name (Dir. Craig Brewer)Dreamin’ Wild (Dir. Bill Pohlad)Drumline (Dir. Charles Stone III)Fantastic Mr. Fox (Dir. Wes Anderson)Femme Fatale (Dir. Brian De Palma)Ghost Town (Dir. David Koepp)Good Morning, Night (Dir. Marco Bellocchio)Hamlet (2000) (Dir. Michael Almereyda)Head-On (Dir. Fatih Akin)I Could Never Be Your Woman (Dir. Amy Heckerling)I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead (Dir. Mike Hodges)Idlewild (Dir. Bryan Barber)Jane Eyre (Dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga)Masked and Anonymous (Dir. Larry Charles)Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Dir. Peter Weir)Miss Juneteenth (Dir. Channing Godfrey Peoples)Monkeybone (Dir. Henry Selick)Mudbound (Dir. Dee Rees)Mustang (Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven)Only Lovers Left Alive (Dir. Jim Jarmusch)Passing (Dir. Rebecca Hall)Peterloo (Dir. Mike Leigh)Phoenix (Dir. Christian Petzold)Shortbus (Dir. John Cameron Mitchell)Somewhere (Dir. Sofia Coppola)Talk to Me (Dir. Kasi Lemmons)The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Dir. Jacques Audiard)The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Dir. Julian Schnabel)The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Dir. Will Sharpe)The Magic Flute (Dir. Kenneth Branagh)The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Dir. Guy Ritchie)The Painted Veil (Dir. John Curran)The Shallows (Dir. Jaume Collet-Serra)The Skeleton Key (Dir. Iain Softley)The Taste of Things (Dir. Tran Anh Hung)Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Dir. Tomas Alfredson)Top Five (Dir. Chris Rock)Wolfwalkers (Dir. Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart)Wuthering Heights (Dir. Andrea Arnold)Summing It All Up

There were actually a lot of movies on this list I have never see nand a few I have never even heard of. I can’t wait to dive into these and to catch up on all the great titles.

What are some movies you believe deserve to be on this list? Some titles you think got left off?

Let me know what you think in the comments.