8 Underrated Films From Famous Directors You Probably Missed

1. Noah - Darren Aronofsky

A massive blockbuster movie based on the story of Noah's Ark, Darren Aronofsky's long-standing passion project was always going to struggle to find an audience; religious types would find it sacrilege and non-believers preachy no matter what the product was like. There was a massive pre-release debate over who would get final cut - director or studio - with Paramount wanting to lean into the former group (who would be more pre-disposed to large shows of distaste). However, likely in response to a greatly parsed down version, complete with hymns, received iffy test screening results, they relented and gave the visionary director creative control. The end result did fair by all accounts, but deserved so much more.

The film he delivered isn't really a Biblical epic in the vein of The 10 Commandments at all; it takes the grand, well known tale and treats it as a high fantasy mythology, rather than a real origin of species. We're only a few generations away from the Garden of Eden and the pre-flood world is a black wasteland of incest cults and rock monsters. The flood is a brutal, seismic act of God rather than just heavy rain. And all this culminates an excellent creation sequence that sets the Big Bang and evolution against the opening of Genesis, a striking marriage of faith and science.

It's a completely realised vision that gets to the deeper heart of the story beyond simple spiritualism, dissecting the ark-builder's mental state and exploring the very idea of faith. If you missed it, check it out.

What other great films from famous directors are underrated? Share any more down in the comments.