13 Underappreciated Netflix Originals That Deserve a Spot on Your Watch List Tonight
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When Netflix first launched, it was clearly a secondary distribution service, designed to provide access to shows and movies that had already aired elsewhere. Obviously, in more recent years, the platform has moved more and more into original programming, and it's had as many breakout hits as it's had flops. But its original content has really taken off: according to Deadline, 2018 marked the first year Netflix produced more original content than acquired titles. While you definitely have watched some of Netflix's most popular original movies, there are a ton of titles that may have never even made it to your watch list. If you're looking for something unexpected to stream, try one of these underrated Netflix original movies!
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Beasts of No Nation
The original Netflix original (seriously: it was the platform's first original film) is also one of its best, if not one of its buzziest anymore. Starring Idris Elba as a brutal militia soldier, the movie follows a young boy forced to be a child soldier as he fights to retain his own humanity.
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The Breaker Upperers
It's the ultimate reverse rom-com concept: a pair of friends who will, for hire, insert themselves into the lives of strangers to help them end their relationships. Of course, when they start questioning the ethics of their work, things quickly and hilariously go sideways.
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
When his Malawi village faces the possibility of a deadly famine, a teenage boy puts his talents to work and figures out how to build a wind turbine. It's an uplifting story with some serious pedigree, including director/writer/star Chiwetel Ejiofor.
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Gerald's Game
A couple go on a romantic retreat to try to rekindle the spark in their marriage, but when things go horribly awry, one woman has to escape a dangerous situation where she can't even trust the evidence of her own senses.
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I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House
This horror film is every bit the creep-fest you could want, focused on a writer with dementia, her live-in nurse, and a house that may be haunted by a violent act of the past.
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Icarus
You probably remember the Olympic doping scandal, but do you know how it all unraveled? This documentary reveals the chain of events that led to one of the biggest scandals in sports history.
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The Incredible Jessica James
In a movie meant for the single ladies in all of us, this rom-com traces the journey of a newly single writer who connects unexpectedly with a fellow recent singleton.
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The Little Prince
In a sweet, beautifully animated adaptation, Netflix shares its own take on one of the most famous children's tales in Western literature.
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Mascots
It's the ultimate competition — the World's Greatest Mascot competition, that is. In an off-beat comedy, a group of quirky people compete for the biggest prize in the mascot world: the Gold Fluffy.
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Mercury 13
One of the least-known stories of the early American space program was that of the unofficial "Mercury 13": a group of female pilots who passed the same physical standards as the male astronauts but were unable to gain permission to train as real astronauts. This documentary tells their story, past and present.
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Mudbound
In the 1940s, two families (one white, one black) in Mississippi struggle to make a living as farmers, but they face the realities and torments of both a postwar world and of prejudice in the South.
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Tallulah
It's almost like Juno, but in reverse. A young woman (Ellen Page) meets a toddler and her neglectful mother and, in an impulsive moment, decides to take the little girl with her and pass her off as her own daughter.
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Tramps
It's a rom-com with a twist, with a sweetly funny love story playing out against the background of a shady deal involving a mysterious suitcase.