This post is updated regularly as movies leave and enter Netflix. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk. With hundreds of films from around the world on the streaming giant that changed the game, how does one even know what to watch when they fire up their Netflix? Start here! We’ve gone through the many films available on the platform and pared down the selection to 30 must-see titles, including acclaimed dramas , action films , comedies , horror flicks , and even stuff for the whole family , with Netflix Originals peppered in throughout, alongside its licensed films.
No algorithm nonsense here: Our picks represent the personal favorites of seasoned movie critics, and they’re updated every week and month to include or remove films that join or depart from the streaming service. This list represents the best of Netflix’s movie offerings, and it starts with a new rotating critic’s pick of the week. Year: 2024 Runtime: 1h 44m Director: Azazel Jacobs What a gorgeous, moving piece of dramatic filmmaking this is.
An acting showcase for three stunning performers, this tearjerker almost unfolds like great theatre as Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne (doing the best work of her career) play three sisters who have come home for the final days of their father’s life. Funny, tender, and incredibly emotional, it’s one of the best films of 2024. Critic Brian Tallerico watches and writes about movies and TV every day.
To curate this list, he dives into Netflix’s catalogue to surface acclaimed, surprising, or otherwise noteworthy titles — using his taste and a lifetime of cinema study as his guide, instead of whatever the algorithm happens to be pushing. After triple-checking to make sure they’re still available, he watches each, organizes them by category, then writes his recommendation. We highlight more than just Oscar winners or popcorn flicks: These films present interesting ideas, made an impact on cinema, and changed our culture.
Read on to find something to watch. Year: 2022 Runtime: 1h 41m Director: Charlotte Wells What a beautiful movie this is, one of the best of the 2020s so far and it’s nowhere else for streaming subscribers. Paul Mescal earned an Oscar nomination for his work as the father of an 11-year-old girl, played by the wonderful Frankie Corio.
Aftersun is actually a memory piece, a drama about that moment in life when you realize your parents are human too. It’s gorgeous. Year: 2015 Runtime: 1h 58m Director: Todd Haynes Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in Todd Haynes’ poignant and heartbreaking drama about a love affair between two women at a time when that wasn’t allowed.
It’s a beautifully made film with phenomenal performances from the entire cast, especially the two leads. You won’t forget it. Year: 2019 Runtime: 2h 7m Director: Todd Haynes Dark Waters will make you angry.
Mark Ruffalo stars in this true story from director Todd Haynes, known for more formally ambitious stuff but able to nail the old-fashioned outrage needed for this one. Based on a New York Times article, the movie details an investigation into the DuPont corporation’s poisoning of a small town with chemicals in the drinking water. Ruffalo is great, and so are Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, and especially the great Bill Camp.
Year: 1989 Runtime: 1h 45m Director: Phil Alden Robinson If you build it, he will come. One of the best baseball movies ever made is really a story about fathers and sons. Phil Alden Robinson directed Kevin Costner to one of the most beloved performances of his career as an average Iowan who hears a voice that tells him to build a baseball field.
Redemption, U.S. history, and, of course, a love of America’s pastime intertwines in this moving drama with an incredibly loyal fan base.
Year: 1992 Runtime: 1h 40m Director: James Foley For a long time, it felt like David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1984 masterpiece was unfilmable, but Foley, working with the playwright as screenwriter, figured it out, assembling one of the best ensembles of the ‘90s to do so. Alec Baldwin notoriously steals his one scene, but the entire cast here is a stunner, especially Al Pacino (who was Oscar-nominated), Alan Arkin, and Jack Lemmon. Year: 2023 Runtime: 1h 52m Director: Julio Quintana If you’re looking for an old-fashioned, effective sports drama, look no further than this modest adaptation of the book Mustang Miracle , about a Mexican-American golf group who became the Texas state champions in 1957.
Dennis Quaid is the draw as the irascible coach, but it’s the young cast who makes this work, along with solid, tender direction from Julio Quintana. It’s an easy, heartwarming watch. Year: 2023 Runtime: 1h 57m Director: Todd Haynes Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman star in the latest from Carol and Far from Heaven director Todd Haynes, a stunning character study of an actress who discovers that some people are impossible to figure out.
Portman plays a star who tries to get under the skin of Moore’s character, a woman who raped a child when she was a teacher, and later married that young man. Charles Melton is phenomenal as the now-grown victim, stuck in perpetual adolescence. Year: 2020 Runtime: 1h 47m Director: Sean Durkin A victim of the pandemic, this was one of the best films of 2020.
Carrie Coon and Jude Law star as a married couple with two kids who move from New York City to London in the 1980s and watch as the divides in their union start to widen. A great character study amplified by Durkin’s sharp visual language, this is a fantastic domestic drama, and the best movie on this list that you probably haven’t seen. Year: 2021 Runtime: 2h 6m Director: Jane Campion The film that finally won an Oscar for Jane Campion for directing is one of the most acclaimed in the history of the streaming giant.
Campion helmed this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Savage, the story of a vicious landowner (Benedict Cumberbatch) who torments the new wife (Kirsten Dunst) of his brother (Jesse Plemons). A drama that plays like a thriller, this gorgeously rendered period piece unpacks themes of toxic masculinity and manipulation in a way that makes it impossible to turn away. Year: 2023 Runtime: 1h 38m Director: Ilker Catak One of the best films of 2023, this Oscar nominee is about a teacher (the phenomenal Leonie Benesch) who ends up in a cycle of blame and confusion after a series of thefts.
When she suspects that it may be a fellow teacher who is doing the stealing, things spiral out of control in this single-setting drama that plays like a thriller. Owing a great deal to Michel Haneke’s dissections of power, it’s a smart, fantastic piece of filmmaking. https://www.
netflix.com/title/81725559 Year: 2019 Runtime: 1h 59m Director: Sam Mendes This Oscar winner doesn’t land on streaming services very often, so take this chance while you can. Sam Mendes directs a visceral recounting of a personal story told to him by his grandfather about his time in World War I, allowing the harrowing journey of a British soldier (George MacKay) to unfold in one unforgettable, unbroken shot.
Year: 2017 Runtime: 1h 53m Director: Edgar Wright It’s a little harder to watch this movie now given the allegations against some of its cast members , but it’s still a remarkably well-made piece of action filmmaking, the kinetically unforgettable story of a getaway driver who knows all the best tunes. Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx, and Lily James may be the stars of this movie, but it’s Wright’s showmanship that really steals the spotlight. Year: 1985 Runtime: 1h 56m Director: Robert Zemeckis Robert Zemeckis directed all three movies in one of the most beloved trilogies of all time.
The story of a teen who goes back in time turned Michael J. Fox into a household name and still serves as the template for how to do this kind of family/sci-fi adventure. The two sequels may not be as good but they’re better than you remember.
And all three are on Netflix. Year: 2023 Runtime: 2h 5m Director: Takashi Yamazaki Netflix stunned people when they stealthily dropped this worldwide hit on their service, making a movie that wasn’t even on VOD finally available at home. The winner of the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, Godzilla Minus One is a masterful blend of action and social commentary, considered by many to be among the best in this generations-spanning franchise.
Year: 2015 Runtime: 2h 47m Director: Quentin Tarantino Debate among yourselves if this should be on the movie or TV list, but it’s still basically the same venture that was released in theaters, only slightly re-edited by Quentin Tarantino into episodes, so we say it’s a movie (and both versions of the film are now on Netflix). And it’s an underrated one, overshadowed by the way it deals with race and gender when it was released. Almost a decade later, it looks almost prescient about how divided the country would become, and it contains some of the best performances in QT’s entire filmography.
Year: 2023 Runtime: 1h 59m Director: David Fincher Michael Fassbender gives his best performance in years as an icy hired assassin who struggles to hold things together when a job goes horribly wrong. It’s a movie about a self-proclaimed perfectionist who is constantly defying his own voiceover, a great film that’s alternately hysterical and thrilling. One of the best of 2023.
Year: 2015 Runtime: 1h 56m Director: Guy Ritchie This loose adaptation of the ‘60s TV show looked like it was going to be a major summer blockbuster, but it kind of ended up a box office bomb, killing a potential franchise before it really began. In part because of that fate, it’s developed a loyal cult following, people who adore its undeniably cool blend of action and a few of the most beautiful people in the world. With the recent success of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen on Netflix, it’s a perfect time to chase that experience with this superior film.
Year: 2003 Runtime: 2h Director: Park Chan-wook It’s hard to explain to people how this movie moved through the film-loving world before Film Twitter was a thing. Recently restored for its 20th anniversary, Oldboy has now been dropped on Netflix again, and it’s lost none of its searing power. It’s the tale of a man who is kidnapped, and its genius is that it’s not a whodunit as much as a whydunit, forcing viewers and protagonists to wonder about a truly grisly motive until the final unforgettable act.
Year: 2024 Runtime: 2h 11m Director: Jeremy Saulnier Future superstar Aaron Pierre stars in the latest from the phenomenal director behind Blue Ruin and Green Room , proving again that he is one of the best at tight action filmmaking. Wasting no time, Rebel Ridge opens with Pierre’s character essentially robbed by smalltown cops while he’s trying to take bail money to his cousin. The former military specialist doesn’t take that well.
This is one of the best Netflix originals in a long time. ( Streaming September 6. ) Year: 2023 Runtime: 2h 20m Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K.
Thompson What a gift to Netflix subscribers for this to already be on the service, mere weeks after playing in theaters and landing on Blu-ray. This is how you do a big-budget blockbuster sequel, developing the themes of the first movie and setting up the stake for what now appears will be one of the best trilogies in superhero history. Packed with so much detail and creativity, it’s a film Netflix subscribers will want to watch over and over again.
Do so while you still can. Year: 2024 Runtime: 1h 55m Director: Richard Linklater Future superstar Glen Powell co-wrote and stars in this comedic gem that reminds one that movies can still be made for adults. With echoes of noir and the kind of sexy romantic dramedies that don’t get made much anymore, this is the story of an undercover cop named Gary (Powell) who talks a desperate young woman (Adria Arjona) out of having her husband murdered, setting in motion an unpredictable, funny, riveting series of events.
This is one of the best films of 2024. Year: 1975 Runtime: 1h 29m Director: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones During a hiatus between the third and fourth seasons of Monty Python’s Family Circus , the gang of mega-talented comedians decided to make movie history. Inspired by the King Arthur legend, Holy Grail is a timeless comedy, the rare kind of film that will still be making people laugh hundreds of years from now.
And while the Monty Python boys were already famous, this film took them to another level, cementing their place in movie history. Year: 2014 Runtime: 1h 33m Director: Jennifer Kent One of the best horror films of the 2010s has not been widely available for streaming subscribers so take the chance to watch it again while it’s on Netflix. Jennifer Kent’s directorial debut centers on a mother (Essie Davis) who struggles to raise her problem child alone after the death of her husband.
Oh, and there’s also a real monster in the boy’s room. Year: 2017 Runtime: 1h 43m Director: Mike Flanagan Before he helmed The Haunting of Hill House , Mike Flanagan co-wrote and directed one of the best Netflix Original horror films in this adaptation of Stephen King’s 1992 novel of the same name. Carla Gugino is phenomenal as a woman who gets handcuffed to her bed by her toxic husband.
..and then he has a heart attack.
As she tries to figure out how she will survive, she accesses the trauma of her past. Year: 1975 Runtime: 2h 3m Director: Steven Spielberg The movie that ushered in the blockbuster era is often viewed more in terms of how it changed the industry than the fact that it’s, well, perfect. Seriously, you don’t need to change a single frame, line reading, or edit in Jaws , a film that works to raise tension from its very first scene.
There’s a reason people are still writing books about Jaws . And they will be for a very long time. Year: 2006 Runtime: 1h 30m Director: Gil Kenan Everyone had a house in their neighborhood that the kids avoided, and Gil Kenan turned that shared fear into a clever and action-packed animated film about a creepy mansion that literally comes to life and tries to eat people.
Using a motion-capture technique instead of pure CGI, this is a visually dated film, but the storytelling is funny, feeling almost like an early influence on Stranger Things in the way it channels ‘80s influences like Steven Spielberg. Year: 2022 Runtime: 1h 56m Director: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson The Oscar-winning director took his visionary skills to stop-motion animation with this instant classic, a retelling of the beloved fairy tale about the wooden boy who longed to be real. With spectacular voice work, this version reimagines Pinocchio during the period before World War II, allowing del Toro to explore his themes of innocence and violence again.
It’s a deeply personal, beautiful film. Year: 2022 Runtime: 1h 46m Director: Henry Selick The director of A Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline finally returned this year with this clever and twisted tale co-written by Oscar winner Jordan Peele. The comedian also co-stars as one of the title characters, the literal demons for a girl who blames herself for the death of her parents.
Selick is a master of stop-motion animation and this project allows him to stretch his visual prowess in new, gross ways. It’s a new Halloween classic (that can be watched any time, of course!) If you subscribe to a service through our links, Vulture may earn an affiliate commission..
