100+ Good Challenging Movies & Shows to Watch

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

Dir. Benjamin Ree

In the first twenty minutes, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin seemed to be quite unremarkable, with the usual way a…

The Substance

Dir. Coralie Fargeat

There is nothing quite like The Substance right now. It’s unsubtle, it’s provocative, and its satirical humor can be a…

His Three Daughters

Dir. Azazel Jacobs

Not everybody holds a good relationship with their sisters, but ideally, we get to reunite and repair things in a…

DAN DA DAN

During adolescence, teenagers get to learn and discover themselves and the world, but for most people, this means going through…

One Hundred Years of Solitude

It’s a tall order to depict One Hundred Years of Solitude. Considered to be one of the world’s most important…

The Girl with the Needle

Dir. Magnus von Horn

Given the original real-life story behind it, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that The Girl with the Needle was so…

The Sympathizer

After the only war the Americans have lost, American post-Vietnam war portrayals tend to lean as patriotic revenge fantasies or…

Exhuma

Dir. Jang Jae-hyun

For the longest time, land was where people formed strength in community, where people were born, lived, died, and was…

The Ugly Stepsister

Dir. Emilie Blichfeldt & Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt

There are plenty of versions of the Cinderella story, but none as brutal and nauseating as The Ugly Stepsister. For…

Boy Swallows Universe

Coming-of-age shows are practically Netflix’s bread-and-butter, but the working class side of Brisbane in the 80’s is a suburb we…

The Believers

Dir. Wattanapong Wongwan

When people donate to temples, they rarely contemplate the way these donations are used for its upkeep and renovation, and…

Interior Chinatown

When adapting a novel, television showrunners have to transform the text into video, so sometimes, things get cut, lines get…

Kübra

Saints used to be given divine messages, but in the modern age, what if God, or any higher power, communicated…

Criminal Record

With the various police procedurals available online, it can feel like an oversaturated genre, at best. At worst, with the…

The Bequeathed

Dir. Min Hong-nam

Succession, whether that be of family assets or of job titles, is always a tricky situation to navigate– often, those…

Stonewalling

Dir. Huang Ji & Ryuji Otsuka

At two hours and nearly 30 minutes, Stonewalling is quite long. The third film from spouses Ryuji Otsuka and Huang…

House of Ninjas

From the fantasy-powered folktales to superhero-like depictions, ninjas have captivated the world, but seem to be a relic of the…

Kiss the Future

Dir. Nenad Cicin-Sain

If you’re expecting a documentary about the particular U2 concert in Sarajevo, to focus exclusively on U2, you’re not really…

Spermworld

Dir. Lance Oppenheim

For people having difficulty bearing a child, artificial insemination is one way to go for parenthood, but going to sperm…

A Round of Applause

Dir. Berkun Oya

A Round of Applause is just so darn weird. We’ve seen stories about people remembering their past lives, but we’ve…

Juror #2

Dir. Clint Eastwood

Juror #2 is the kind of film that doesn’t waste time: it’s immediately compelling as it throws questions about morality,…

God Save Texas

Sometimes thinking about your home state can feel complicated, because while it’s your home, the events and issues and controversies…

Death and Other Details

With the number of murder mysteries popping up since Knives Out, Death and Other Details can seem like a copy.…

The Curse

That The Curse is squirm-inducingly awkward won’t be news to anyone who’s watched a Nathan Fielder show before, but TV’s…

PLUTO

Reimagining a children’s classic as a mature serial killer mystery, PLUTO already had high expectations for its anime adaptation. The…

Bodies

Based on the DC Vertigo comic, Bodies is an intriguing crime thriller with a unique twist – one body, in…

Terrestrial Verses

Dir. Ali Asgari & Alireza Khatami

Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a…

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

Dir. Radu Jude

With a title like this, it was expected that Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World…

Carol & the End of the World

The end of the world isn’t the most optimistic thing to think about, but the scenario leads you to thinking…

The Good Mothers

Dir. Elisa Amoruso & Julian Jarrold

With years of films depicting Italian crime syndicates, most focus on their leaders – the Dons, the Capos, and the…

Black Cake

We don’t really know our parents the same way they know about us. Black Cake recognizes this, and takes that…