Everyone knows Netflix usually has the latest hit movies available to stream. From the ‘90s rom-com classic Pretty Woman to the latest Jurassic Park film, chances are you’ll find a blockbuster or two to watch during the week.
But Netflix also has an incredible selection of underrated movies you should check out.
Watch With Us has curated a brief list of some under-the-radar flicks currently available, like the Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss and the subversive Megan Fox horror thriller Jennifer’s Body.
‘The Boss’ (2016)
Michelle Darnell (Melissa McCarthy) is a boss bitch — with a heavy emphasis on the latter. When she’s sent to prison for insider trading, she’s humbled enough to realize she has to change her ways. That proves to be difficult when, after being released, she discovers a former lover, Renault (Peter Dinklage), has betrayed her and taken over her business empire. The only way she can regain her wealth and fully redeem herself is to team up with Claire Rawlings (Kristen Bell), her former assistant, who wants nothing to do with her.
Loud and brassy, The Boss relies heavily on its lead star to carry it through some clunky plot. Fortunately, McCarthy delivers in an outsized role that plays to the comedian’s strengths. Michelle is obnoxious at times, but she has a good heart — she truly wants to be a better person. That doesn’t make her an angel, though, and it’s a hoot to see her clash with Bell’s exasperated Claire.
‘Jennifer’s Body’ (2009)
Everyone wants Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) — and that includes her mousy best friend, Needy Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried). But popularity has its downsides, like getting ritually sacrificed, left for dead and coming back as a super-powerful succubus who feeds off teenage boys. That’s exactly what happens to Jennifer, and only Needy can stop her. But is Needy too needy to kill the only friend she’s ever had?
Jennifer’s Body has the bones of a standard exploitative horror flick, but it has the brains and wit of a movie more subversive and clever than it was credited for when it was first released. That’s due to writer/director Diablo Cody, who makes Jennifer’s Body a righteous, angry girl-power revenge movie that’s deliciously fun — and incredibly gory. Fox reigns supreme as the demonic villainess who has every right to devour the boys who only value her body instead of anything else. Her Jennifer is always sympathetic, even when she wipes a dude’s spleen off her hungry lips.
‘Mass’ (2021)
How do you recover from tragedy? In the 2021 drama Mass, two couples deal with a traumatic event they can never forget, no matter how much they want to. Six years ago, Hayden, the teenage son of Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd), killed fellow student Evan, the child of Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton). Their parents meet in the basement of an Episcopal church in an attempt to come to terms with their grief and find some closure.
That’s not so easy, and the most compelling thing about Mass is how it doesn’t offer easy resolutions to the problems facing its protagonists. Mass is a hard movie to take — it deals with issues of gun violence and school shootings head-on, and it shows the full extent of the victims’ parents’ rage and the killer’s parents’ helplessness. But it’s a rewarding movie to watch due to the excellent writing and sheer power of the four leads’ performances. Mass is forgotten about in 2026, and I don’t quite know why. It’s one of the most shattering films of the decade, and you won’t forget it after you’ve watched it.
