Recents folder in Favorites

Robin eve wrote:

I am opening the files in Finder and they don't show up.

Maybe something wrong with your Spotlight index. Try rebuilding it: Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

Recents arranges them by file size and then date, so all my big files [movies] show first, and then photos, downloads, etc. Finally, documents which is what I most want to see. SOOOOOO frustrating.

Change the sort and grouping View Options for the window. The default sorts by Date Added. I'm not sure how yours would change.

It will only show files you have opened in the Finder. If you open them from an app, they will generally not appear in Recents.

When you create a file, that will also not necessarily cause the file to appear in Recents.

Are files you open from the Finder not showing up there?

Recents is a Search folder. You cannot change it.

If you want a better search folder that finds things you want, you would have to create that yourself.