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[poppabk]

I wanted to see if anyone has a good way of finding those hidden 'gem' movies or TV shows in a sea of dreck. I put gem in quotes because I am not talking the excellent quality critical darlings passed over by mainstream audiences type, but those rough around the edges but still worth watching type of stuff.
For example I just watched a movie called Time Trap on a whim, about a group of college students who find a cave that alters time. It certainly has it's rough edges and maybe some significant flaws, but it takes an interesting premise and ekes as much out of it as it can with a small budget and no name cast. At the same time I have started countless other no name movies only to quit 10 minutes or less in as they are just straight up trash, with nothing to redeem them, and were obviously just churned out to fill up streaming service catalogs. So how do you find the well meaning but flawed movies and avoid the junk?

 

[crowbrow]

Go to IMDB and fall down the rabbit hole. I also used to visit some torrenting sites for less known cult classics and I got lots of good stuff from there.

It of course depends on what type of movies you like too.

 

[Husky]

Just saw Time Trap a few days ago, definitely has a lotta cool factor.
Hey, try Circle, neat sci-fi film from 2015.
Browsing Netflix is a great way to find these films, they've got a strong library of quality indies. Checking the titles in "similar to this" tabs on Netflix or IMDB can also work.
But I guess part of being a hidden gem is, ya know, being hidden.

edit: wasn't sure if I should mention piracy sites, but they're a real good way to browse through titles. Just checking out all the recent uploads on some sites can make for great finds.
Also, have you seen Stake Land?

Another idea--wikipedia has a lot of list pages, such as "List of films featuring space stations," or "List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction." Sometimes I scroll through those and check out what I haven't already seen.

Also, you might wanna see Apocalypse, CA. Actually, I strongly recommend it. Wild fuckin ride. Unfortunately it's no longer legitimately available, but I acquired a DRM-free copy when the director was kind enough to relist it for sale for me. PM me and I'll share.

 

[Nymphae]

OP neglected to mention how he found the hidden gem he talks about lol.

I don't stress about finding hidden gems, I just watch things I like, read about them, and maybe check out stuff that the creator's said was an inspiration or something.

Like recently I was watching popular westerns. I would read about them afterwards on wikipedia, then check out other titles that I found via that page, for example, one of the westerns I was reading about led me to the "Acid Western" wikipedia page, which I scanned and searched for some of the titles that sounded cool to me, one of which was "Ride the Whirlwind" starring Jack Nicholson. I loved it, and have never seen anyone talk about this anywhere else.

 

[Nymphae]

In terms of music, I listen to random itunes radio streams at work, and I shazam songs I like, or write the name of the band into google, and then save the resulting website to my Pocket (web app everyone should be using), where I can browse it later at home and dig through the artist's stuff.

 

[Shifty]

Word-of-mouth or simply casting the net tends to be it. They're hidden for a reason!

 

[Unknown Quantity]

Indie, low budget or b-movies can be found if you check entries for film festivals whenever they're on. Some can be amazing and a lot are average but interesting.

Last festival I went to was the scifi festival in London in 2006. Saw the machinist, primer, tempus fugit (Catalan film dealing with time travel via pills( he got several + or - pills some with days, months, etc) & the results, characters and developments were hilarious) & Detective Q (Japanese short where a detective is hindered by people who keep queuing behind him as he tries to do his job).

Sci-Fi-London - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Thats their wiki, Check awards, mentions, comments if you like scifi. Otherwise other festivals and their pages might help & go back a little bit.

Also checkout the Amateurs. Its funny.

The Amateurs (2005) ⭐ 6.2 | Comedy

1h 36m | R

m.imdb.com

 

[poppabk]

OP neglected to mention how he found the hidden gem he talks about lol.

I don't stress about finding hidden gems, I just watch things I like, read about them, and maybe check out stuff that the creator's said was an inspiration or something.

Like recently I was watching popular westerns. I would read about them afterwards on wikipedia, then check out other titles that I found via that page, for example, one of the westerns I was reading about led me to the "Acid Western" wikipedia page, which I scanned and searched for some of the titles that sounded cool to me, one of which was "Ride the Whirlwind" starring Jack Nicholson. I loved it, and have never seen anyone talk about this anywhere else.

Well I am just going with the scatter gun approach right now, scroll through hundreds of movies on Netflix, amazon, Hulu, Vudu, HBO, Starz, Showtime etc etc, see a movie description that sounds interesting, start it. 1% of the time get drawn in, 99% of the time realize that it was never made to be actually watched, just to be a cool looking poster and description to pad out a streaming catalog. It doesn't even have to be great, but it at least the filmmakers had to have some passion and pride in it.

 

[brap]

Lists on imdb or letterboxd. Browsing the tags on rym.

 

[Rawker]

The cube movies are fun as well as exitenz

 

[Tenaciousmo]

I wanted to see if anyone has a good way of finding those hidden 'gem' movies or TV shows in a sea of dreck. I put gem in quotes because I am not talking the excellent quality critical darlings passed over by mainstream audiences type, but those rough around the edges but still worth watching type of stuff.
For example I just watched a movie called Time Trap on a whim, about a group of college students who find a cave that alters time. It certainly has it's rough edges and maybe some significant flaws, but it takes an interesting premise and ekes as much out of it as it can with a small budget and no name cast. At the same time I have started countless other no name movies only to quit 10 minutes or less in as they are just straight up trash, with nothing to redeem them, and were obviously just churned out to fill up streaming service catalogs. So how do you find the well meaning but flawed movies and avoid the junk?

I go to my favorite "online based free rental service", they have a "catalog" which features lately added files, look for IMDB score of 6+ and watch it, if i really like it, watch more from the director.

 

[andreymagnus]

I think you can find all hidden gems on "Criterion collection" youtube channel or website. I can personally recommend russian movie "Beanpole" which is not popular in Europe or USA, but is going to. It is send from Russia to Oscars in category of "Best foreign language movie"