Browsing through Netflix and everything is starting to look the same? We’ve all been there. It can be hard to find something different to watch so we’ve hunted down ten movies and shows that stand out from the every day choices.
Room
Synopsis: Kidnapped, confined to a tiny room and raped, a young woman gives birth to a son. When he reaches his fifth birthday, she begins plotting an escape.
Why Should You Watch It: Imagine the life of a child that has only lived inside a small shed. Jacob Tremblay gives as tremendous performance as the innocent Jack Newsome who doesn’t understand the struggles his mother, played by Brie Larson, is facing. Room shows love and hope in some truly desperate and unique circumstances.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light
Synopsis: Years after their relationship grows stagnant, Akio’s father suddenly and mysteriously quits his job, and Akio hatches a plan to get him to open up.
Why Should You Watch It: Pretending to be a woman in an online game isn’t how most people would try to bond with their father. Despite the weird premise, Dad of Light is a charming tale of father and son bonding over Final Fantasy.
Mascots
Synopsis: Eager contestants don big heads and furry suits to vie for the title of World’s Best Mascot in this offbeat, comic romp from Christopher Guest.
Why Should You Watch It: Slapstick and tomfoolery is serious business in this mostly ad-libbed mockumentary the continues the lineage of This Is Spinal Tap.
Infernal Affairs
Synopsis: A veteran cop goes undercover to expose a detective who leaks information to the criminal underworld, but the mole doesn’t know who’s tracking him.
Why Should You Watch It: Infernal Affairs is the Hong Kong crime thriller that was remade as The Departed. Just like The Departed it boasts a star-studded cast and is one of the best crime movies you’ll ever watch.
Swiss Army Man
Synopsis: A washed-up corpse with surprising abilities gives a hopeless man stranded in the wilderness someone to talk to – and a newfound reason to live.
Why Should You Watch It: Not your typical buddy movie, Swiss Army Man is the story of a man and corpse that tackles some of life’s great challenges. Like escaping from an island using a farting corpse as a jetski.
Aggretsuko
Synopsis: As Retsuko enters her fifth year at a prestigious trading firm, she struggles to motivate herself every day as the daily stress from work takes a toll.
Why Should You Watch It: The makers of Hello Kitty are not the people you’d expect to make a show about women dealing with sexism in their daily lives but that’s exactly what Aggretsuko does. The mild-mannered red panda resorts to death metal karaoke to let off steam after work until she makes friends with some colleagues and they band together against her sexist pig of a boss.
Norsemen
Synopsis: Set in 790AD, Norsemen features the daily challenges of people living in a small Viking village, from power struggle, brother rivalry, gender equality, to betrayal and friendship.
Why Should You Watch It: Strongly influenced by The Office, Norsemen tackles the day to day challenges of a disrespected and incompetent viking chief. It’s occasionally violent, often sarcastic and always farcical.
It Follows
Synopsis: After a sexual tryst, Jay learns that her date has passed on a lethal curse that can only be shed by sleeping with another unsuspecting partner.
Why Should You Watch It: A stylish and suspenseful horror film that has all the makings of becoming a modern classic. It follows earnestly embraces the horror genre instead of stopping to wink at the audience and it’s all the stronger for it.
Top Boy
Synopsis: Two London drug dealers ply their lucrative trade at a public housing estate in North London.
Why Should You Watch It: Comparisons to The Wire have been made and they’re well-deserved. Top Boy’s ensemble cast put on a brilliant performance that finds time to breath and bring life to the characters.
The Five Venoms
Synopsis: A dying kung fu master sends his last student to track down five former pupils in order to learn which one of them has become evil.
Why Should You Watch It: Sometimes you just want to sit back and watch a classic kung fu movie. You can’t do much better than The Five Venoms if you’re looking for something to fill that void.