10 More Actors Who Gave Their Best Performances In Movies Nobody Saw

While undeniably being best known for her brilliant work as April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation, Aubrey Plaza has rather quietly built up an enviable filmography of quality roles in dramedies in more recent years, such as Safety Not Guaranteed, Ned Rifle, Ingrid Goes West, and Happiest Season.

Plaza received vocal rave reviews for her sublime performance in the 2020 blackly comedic dramatic thriller Black Bear, a difficult-to-categorise but utterly mesmeric film built almost entirely around Plaza's incredible work.

This is certainly a movie best watched without knowing the finer particulars, but Plaza stars as a filmmaker suffering from creative block who heads to a quiet rural retreat in the hope of entangling her mind, only to do quite the opposite.

Its tricky central conceit won't work for everyone, but even if Black Bear isn't fully "for you," Plaza's sheer magnetism in the lead role, launching between poles of depression, sardonic humour, and outright terror, is a treat that needs to be seen.

And yet, following its Sundance 2020 premiere the film sat on the shelf for almost an entire year before being quietly dumped on streaming, where it's largely been ignored outside of the Plaza die-hards. Shame.