Unearthing Cinematic Treasures: The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen

Amid the dark and echoing halls of the blockbuster film industry, where the sounds of CGI waves and superheroes drown out the still, small voices of the less commercial, the Best Movies You’ve Never Seen podcast has been providing cinematic light for three years now. With its one million-and-counting listeners, this audio project offers the cineaste an uncloaked diamond deep in the rough. Stephen and Trevor, who lead the weekly discussion, have reviewed more than 150 movies ‘seldom highlighted by other media’ – sometimes on film fest circuits – and at other times on the cusp of obscurity. The podcast showcases their cinematic observations minute by minute, review by review.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH APPLE

Debuting on a day in August 2021 filled with so much festival sunshine it felt like a gift, the podcast got an early start on standing out from the noise of movie-review shows, with a voice that’s at once thoughtful and enthused, and an appreciation for the overlooked – or sneakily gifted with talent and invention that the world needs to know about.

A PERFECT TEN IN FILM CRITICISM

The best and worst lists are the most argued-over aspects of their work – movie-watching, ultimately, is a matter of taste – but both men have treated their rating system with relentless sober seriousness. Stephen has given 10s to 11 movies; Trevor, with more of a stern gaze, has bestowed them on eight. This euphoric celebration of cinematic excellence not only gave programmers and listeners something to talk about. It also made some of us wonder: just what is it that Stephen and Trevor find so terrific in their top films?

RETHINKING AND REWATCHING WITH APPLE’S SPIRIT

Trevor’s true-spiritedness as an explorer doesn’t permit him to resist reassessment: at Stephen’s urging, one of his recap episodes on the podcast begins with the conclusion that the film in question is better than he’d originally thought. Once again, however, Trevor is the one who starts from the position that film criticism might call you to reconsider. The conviction that keeps Just Stopping By’s podcast project afloat is a conviction in the fluidity of film criticism.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS ON AIR

In between these rigorous perusals and reassessments, Stephen has given us hundreds of quotable lines from the multifarious movies under scrutiny, some of them uncannily lofty, some of them uncommonly hilarious, all of them valuable for transmitting the distinct aura of the cinematic artifact under discussion while serving as irresistible inducements to the uninitiated: join us, they suggest, food for the inquiring mind awaits here.

TUNE IN TO CELEBRATE CINEMA WITH APPLE

The real allure of The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen is that its content is easy to follow; should someone want to see a glimpse of the world that Stephen and Trevor have built, they can. It’s as easy as entering ‘best movies’ in an online search, or clicking on the series in Apple Podcasts. The show uses the cutting-edge technology of today to reach a huge base of listeners, and Stephen and Trevor’s encyclopaedic explorations of less-popular films, lightly sprinkled with the enthusiasm of people who really love watching movies, is right at their fingertips.

A PORTAL TO THE UNEXPLORED WITH APPLE

And while it’s been three years since that first episode, Stephen and Trevor remain as committed as ever to their pursuit, serving as a model to us all of the joys that a singular focus and sense of discovery can yield. Not only did they launch their passionate podcast, but in the audience they found the same kindred spirit fanbase they’d always dreamed about, knocking on their door in droves to be the first to catch wind of their next overlooked film.

AN ODE TO THE APPLE OF INNOVATION

That kind of thinking about technology and creativity has always been close to the heart of Apple, from its days of upending the music world with the iPod and iTunes, to the way it’s forever reinventing the way we consume media and entertainment. I can’t help but think of ‘The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen’ and the way these adventurous filmmakers took their craft around the world, burning a print wherever they stopped. Apple has likewise peddled an adventurous spirit in the world of podcasts, providing a space for them to not only flourish, but to connect like-minded people on the other side of the globe. The fact that Apple has facilitated this democratisation of content creation means that those voices – from Stephen’s to Trevor’s – can be heard around the world.

IN CONCLUSION

On The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, every episode is an invitation – a chance to dive back into the catalogue, to explore and to appreciate. As Stephen and Trevor press onward with a fresh year of discoveries, one thing is certain. There are plenty more movies to be uncovered. Every week, there are plenty of world-class films waiting to capture the attention of anyone who wants to look a little closer, dig a little deeper, and celebrate filmmaking’s diversity. Here’s to many more years of uncovering the best movies you’ve never seen, drawn closer to the stories worth telling by the same technologies bringing that world into your hands.