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Hidden Gems

Field Value
Status Live — free public web app
Type Web app — hidden-gem movie finder
Availability Free · public — hiddengemmovies.com, open source on GitHub
Repo dmoniker/movies
Live hiddengemmovies.com
Local path ~/Projects/movie-taste-app
Former names Hidden Gems Buddy · Movie Taste Tracker

Description

Hidden Gems is a free web app for anyone who wants high-quality, low-popularity, undiscovered films — not blockbusters or slick Hollywood productions; indie, foreign, older, under-seen craft.

Enter taste (TMDB-style preferences) → get a curated list of films that normally don’t surface in mainstream discovery.

Pivot history: 2026-06-07 — from a couple watch journal (Movie Taste Tracker) to a one-shot hidden-gem finder. 2026-06-08 — shipped as Hidden Gems at hiddengemmovies.com; public repo for anyone who wants to use or fork it.

Shipped updates

  • 2026-06-08: hiddengemmovies.com live — free, public web app; product renamed Hidden Gems; dmoniker/movies public for reuse.

Key features

  • One-shot session — preferences in → curated hidden-gem list out.
  • TMDB catalog + discover filters tuned away from popular / high-traffic titles.
  • Quality bar — favor strong ratings + editorial “gem” heuristics over trending.
  • Optional Grok — short “why you’ll like this” copy when XAI_API_KEY set (same proxy pattern as before).
  • Advanced panel for power users: TMDB-style genre/decade/region knobs, “exclude mainstream” bias.

Tech stack

  • Next.js + React + TypeScript + Tailwind
  • TMDB API; optional x.ai Grok rerank
  • Deploy: Vercel (hiddengemmovies.com)

Open / next

  • Ongoing polish and discovery tuning as usage grows
  • Decide fate of legacy dual-profile + localStorage journal code (if still in repo)