Some of the words we use to describe movies are more relative than others. “Underrated” makes some people sneer because every movie that’s allegedly “underrated” already has some fans. Otherwise, nobody would be calling it “underrated.” So terms like “underrated” and “overlooked” can’t apply to everyone, and any critic using those terms is — unless they’re very naive — well aware that sometimes they’re preaching to the converted.
But enough with the semantics. Whatever words we use to describe them, it’s important for critics take note of the films that didn’t get much attention. Most people only see one or two new releases a month, if that. It’s a critic’s job to watch dozens of films, big and small, in every conceivable genre, to discover what’s really out there and report our findings to everyone else.
So we take it seriously when we say that, while films like “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Backrooms” and “Obsession” hogged all the headlines this summer (and understandably so), there are many amazing films which should have made just as big an impression. Maybe you saw some of them already. If so, you’re lucky. You saw some great films.
To everyone else, we hope you seek out these gems and that you find them as invigorating as we did.
The Top 21 New Movies Streaming Now
“Burt”
Films don’t get much more independent than “Burt.” Filmed in only seven days, on a budget of $7,000, Joe Burke’s artful and intimate drama stars Burt Berger as a musician with Parkinson’s disease who discovers he has an adult son, Samy (Oliver Cooper). All Burt wants to do is bond with his son but his roommate, Steve (Steven Levy), is a crotchety old fart who doesn’t trust anyone or anything. Either Steve has Sammy’s number or he’s about to make everyone’s life a lot harder. Possibly both.
Stark photography and honest writing set the stage, but “Burt’s” wonderful performances are real stand outs. These characters are so specific, and so wonderfully odd, that you never doubt they’re real. Unceremoniously dropped onto streaming in June, “Burt” is the sort of film that “overlooked movie” lists like this one were invented to elevate. This little gem deserves a lot more attention, and a lot more love.
“Camp”
Avalon Fast’s queer coming of age summer camp witchcraft empowerment horror fantasy “Camp” wears a lot of hats; impressively, it never feels unfocused. Zola Grimmer stars as Emily, a young woman with a history of drug use and a fresh tragedy just behind her, who finds herself working with wayward kids at a Christian sleepaway camp. Her fellow counselors are into drugs, sex and pagan rituals. Before long, Emily is performing unusual rites in the attic above the mess hall, giving herself strange powers, falling in love with another witch and gradually realizing she’s using the supernatural as another way to avoid confronting her issues.
“Camp” is an intimate, dreamlike indie which takes a familiar narrative about dealing with and healing your psychic damage and watches it all go askew. Maybe it’s weirdly disturbing, maybe it’s weirdly uplifting, but it’s certainly weird. Fast’s absorbing, poetic direction makes their film impossible to accept at face value.
“Carolina Caroline”
Everyone loves a good crime spree love story, but not enough people paid attention to “Carolina Caroline.” Samara Weaving stars as Caroline, a small town Texan who catches a con artist, Oliver (Kyle Gallner), scamming her place of business. Instead of turning him in, she falls under his spell and becomes his talented protégé. He’s content to rip off gas stations and department stores but Caroline gets ambitious. Soon, they’re robbing banks throughout the South, pushing their love and their luck to the edge.
Adam Carter Rehmeier’s crime drama avoids the sensationalism and B-movie thrills that are typical of this narrative, hammering home the idea that people who consciously choose criminality have an emotional reason for stepping outside the confines of polite society. And although it seems like maybe “Carolina Caroline” is setting up the possibility that their love is also a sham, it’s actually more complex than that. It’s a love story about two people who find each other and lose everything else. It’s bracing and sobering, and fantastically acted by Weaving and Gallner.
“Couture”
The first big blockbuster of the summer, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” once again celebrated the glamorous world of high fashion. Alice Winocour’s underseen “Couture” has a different perspective, exploring the industry through the hard-working women who make all that glitz possible but get none of the credit — and almost none of the money.
Angelina Jolie stars as a filmmaker enlisted to direct an artsy opening video for Fashion Week in Milan. She has to make work-related excuses for leaving set because “I have breast cancer” isn’t enough. Make-up artists, models and dressmakers round out the cast as Winocour quietly explodes the idea that this industry, and by extension any industry, is magical. As an analog for Hollywood, “Couture” is perceptive and relatable. Everyone pays attention to the show. Nobody’s paying attention to 99.9% of the people who make it run — and nobody’s paying us jack squat.
“The Death of Robin Hood”
Hugh Jackman plays a superhero at the very end of his life in a downbeat, pensive breakdown of a familiar, mythic figure. No, it’s not “Logan”; it’s Michael Sarnoski’s “The Death of Robin Hood,” and it’s a little surprising it didn’t get more attention. In Sarnoski’s vision, Robin Hood is an old, mass-murdering thief whose legend arose through a shaky confluence of con artistry, random chance and propaganda. The rich are still despicable and the poor are still struggling, but Robin wasn’t a political animal. He was just another guy, and he’s living with a lot of regrets and a lot of death threats from the families of people he’s killed.
Sarnoski front-loads the violence, with a brutal opening battle that leaves Robin mortally wounded and recovering on an island, hiding the darkness in his soul from a helpful, healing nun (Jodie Comer). “The Death of Robin Hood” calms down after that, transforming into a pensive consideration of our worst decisions, and the depressing possibility that it may be impossible to make up for our moral failings. Jackman gives a complex, if somewhat familiar, turn as Robin Hood — a performance which should have garnered him more attention instead of getting swallowed up in the summer glut.
“Girls Like Girls”
Hayley Kiyoko’s ultra-popular queer anthem “Girls Like Girls” inspired a beloved music video, a best-selling book and, now, Kiyoko’s own remarkable directorial debut. Maya da Costa makes a major impression as Coley, a teenager who just moved to a small town after the tragic death of her mom. She’s pulled into a popular clique, led by Sonya (Myra Molloy), and the two girls gravitate towards each other as their friendship builds to romance. Except Coley is inexperienced and Sonya isn’t comfortable in her queerness, leading to heartache, betrayal and a whole lot of growing up.
In the abstract, “Girls Like Girls” is a familiar coming of age tale. But Kiyoko compensates for the formulaic elements by enlisting a dynamite new star and filming with hypnotic specificity. The production design and sound design make Coley’s story feel genuine and transportive, solidifying Kiyoko’s credibility as a filmmaker on the rise.
“Hokum”
If you see only one movie where Adam Scott plays a grieving horror author trying to solve a missing person’s case this summer, we hope you chose “Hokum.” Sure, the Netflix serial killer thriller “The Whisper Man” is okay, but “Hokum” hails from rising horror maestro Damian McCarthy, whose previous films “Caveat” and “Oddity” were promising, original and terrifying features.
“Hokum” is, admittedly, a little more conventional than his prior work. Or maybe “accessible” is more accurate. Scott plays an author who travels to Ireland to spread his parents’ ashes. When he gets there, he’s swept up in his own inner torment, then into a freaky mystery involving a hotel employee, a forbidden honeymoon suite and (possibly) a despicable demonic force. It sounds like a great, albeit familiar Stephen King story, but McCarthy shoots the hell out of this thing, pulling horrors out of shadows and weaving a clever tale of guilt, murder and the unnatural.
“Hokum” earned good reviews and a modest theatrical profit this summer, but it came out just before the one-two punch of “Obsession” and “Backrooms” and was quickly forgotten by the mainstream press and audiences around the world. Don’t let the zeitgeist distract you. This one’s a freaky, frightening winner.
“Horsegirls”
The best coming of age movie of the summer, “Horsegirls” stars Lillian Carrier as Margarita, an autistic young woman whose mother, played by Gretchen Mol, is dying from breast cancer. While her mom pushes her to hold down a job and develop her independence, Margarita longs for personal expression and camaraderie. She finds it in the unlikely hobby of hobby horse riding — a sport that combines light gymnastics and dance, which may seem hard to take seriously until you see it through Margarita’s eyes.
Lauren Meyering’s “Horsegirls” takes a familiar format — a drama about a young person learning harsh life lessons and emerging stronger at the end — but finds a welcome new angle. The film specifically focuses on an autistic person’s adolescent experience, and features an autistic actor playing Margarita, which helps Meyering bring a refreshing and nuanced honesty to disabled representation. There’s no condescension, accidental or intentional. It’s a frank, endearing, earnest film about a protagonist living a specific experience that is rarely, if ever, treated this respectfully on screen. Lillian Carrier is phenomenal and if there was any justice in the world she would be remembered come awards season.
“The Rivals of Amziah King”
An early contender for the best movie of 2026, “The Rivals of Amziah King” stars Matthew McConaughey as an Oklahoma beekeeper who’s deeply connected to his entire community, solving problems and performing toe-tapping bluegrass numbers on his off hours. Angelina LookingGlass co-stars as Kateri, Amziah’s ex-foster daughter who comes back into his life, learns the trade and responds with unexpected, thrilling resolve when someone tries to hurt him.
Andrew Patterson made his directorial debut with “The Vast of Night,” one of the best sci-fi films of the decade; his long-awaited follow-up proves he’s got the juice. (Or at least the honey.) “The Rivals of Amziah King” is an electrifying motion picture experience, spryly gallivanting from one sensational sensation to another. McConaughey gives what may be his best performance, LookingGlass is an incredible discovery and you’ll have all these songs stuck in your head for months.
“Tuner”
Leo Woodall is an actor on the rise. If you watch the heist drama “Tuner” — and sadly, not enough people did — you’ll see he’s not just a skilled performer, but he’s got star power too. On top of that, it’s a smartly crafted, engrossing, confident thriller with one of the best screenplays in recent memory.
“Tuner” stars Woodall as Niki White, a piano tuner who wears headphones because his hearing is dangerously sensitive. When he’s staying at a rich client’s house after hours, he stumbles into a heist and uses his talents to crack a safe, just so the thieves can stop distracting him and he can get back to work. This pulls Niki into a career of crime, but a successful one — the kind that briefly puts his life in order before threatening to destroy everything and everyone he loves.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Daniel Roher (“Navalny”), who co-wrote the script with Robert Ramsey, directs “Tuner” like a classic 1970s crime drama, full of class and character and intensity. So the next time someone says “They don’t make them like they used to,” you set them straight. Tell them to watch “Tuner.” People still make great films the old-fashioned way. The problem is, not enough people see them.
