Netflix’s streaming service features a library packed with original films, critical and commercial gems like blockbusters and Oscar-winners, horror films, and indie darlings perfect for your next movie night. But, with so many great movies on Netflix comes the headache of choosing which flick fits your binge-watching mood. Do you want a Netflix original or a star-studded whodunnit? Maybe you’re in the mood for an action-packed Bollywood adventure? Does a horror movie that doubles as nightmare fuel sound tempting?
Whatever kind of story you’re looking to escape into, you’ll find it on our best movies on Netflix list. So without further ado, here are our picks for the 50 best Netflix movies streaming right now.
Last updated on May 1, 2023.
1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Year: 2022
Cast: Daniel Craig, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn
Genre: Mystery, Comedy, Crime
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 140 minutes
Director: Rian Johnson
Trailer: Watch here
Writer/directior Rian Johnson delivers a deliriously fun follow-up to his breakout 2019 murder-mystery with Daniel Craig returning to play famed detective Benoit Blanc. This time around, Blanc, equipped with a colorful new wardrobe and his same slow, Southern drawl, heads to Greece to investigate a murder amongst a group of friends reuniting for an island holiday. Most of the culprits are out-of-touch elites – to the nth degree – with stars like Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, and Edward Norton playing supermodels, Twitch streamers, politicians, and tech moguls who are as ridiculous as they are corrupt.
2. Inception
Year: 2010
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 148 minutes
Director: Christopher Nolan
Trailer: Watch here
Christopher Nolan’s imaginative sci-fi adventure will most likely be remembered as one of the best genre films in cinematic history, and for good reason. The movie — which stars everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy to Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine — is the ultimate heist flick, following a group of thieves who must repurpose dream-sharing technology to plant an idea into the mind of a young CEO. DiCaprio pulls focus as Cobb, a troubled architect with a tragic past who attempts to pull off the impossible so that he can return to his family, but the whole cast is firing on all cylinders here and Nolan’s direction is superb.
3. The Dark Knight
Year: 2008
Cast: Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger
Genre: Action, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 152 minutes
Director: Christopher Nolan
Trailer: Watch here
The second film in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is undoubtedly its best. Not only does Christian Bale fully immerse himself in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, playing the tortured-billionaire-turned-vigilante with a singular conviction, but the film also boasts Heath Ledger’s Joker, a maniacal villain worthy of sharing the screen with our hero. The film marks one of Ledger’s final roles before his death, but it’s a viscerally gripping portrait of a man burdened by past trauma and driven by his madness for chaos and destruction. Sure, we’re all rooting for Batman to win, but we can’t deny the fun of seeing Ledger blow sh*t up for two-plus hours.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Year: 2010
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Brie Larson
Genre: Action, Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 112 minutes
Director: Edgar Wright
Trailer: Watch here
Edgar Wright’s 2010 action comedy about a hapless boy who must defeat evil ex-boyfriends in order to win the hand of the girl he loves is a fast-paced ride that bombards the senses. Michael Cera plays a loveable goof in the titular hero, a young man enamored with a woman named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In order to be with his lady love, Scott must fight her evil exes — six guys and one girl — who challenge him to truly strange contests. The film is a cinematic mash-up of Japanese anime and gamer culture, intended for the crowd who grew up on Nintendo and comic books, but it brings plenty of laughs all the same.
5. The Hangover
Year: 2009
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: Todd Phillips
Trailer: Watch here
Sure, the trilogy this film spawned should’ve ended before it began, but we must show some respect to the original. Todd Phillips created the bro-comedy to beat all other bro-comedies with this flick about three guys throwing a wild bachelor party for a groom who mysteriously disappears. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis play the groomsmen who wake up after a night of raging to find their friend (Justin Bartha) missing. They have to retrace their steps, which include hasty marriages to strippers, stealing a police car, being roofied, and getting on the bad side of a local Chinese gangster, in order to find him.
6. The Woman King
Year: 2022
Cast: Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu
Genre: Historical Drama, Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 135 minutes
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Trailer: Watch here
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s action-packed historical epic was one of the best films of the year — even if the Academy Awards forgot it existed come nominations time. Viola Davis transforms herself into a formidable warrior named Nanisca who leads the Agojie, an all-female unit of warriors in the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 18th century. The film follows the recruitment of a rebellious young girl named Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) into their ranks, playing up the brutal training regimen, vicious war tactics, and unrivaled influence that earned them the nickname the “Dahomey Amazons.” Come for the powerhouse performances and intense action sequences, stay for literally everything Lashana Lynch does here.
7. Da 5 Bloods
Year: 2020
Cast: Delroy Lindo, Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors
Genre: War, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 154 minutes
Director: Spike Lee
Trailer: Watch here
Any Spike Lee joint is worth a watch, but this genre-bending thriller about a group of black Vietnam War vets returning to the battlefield decades later feels especially timely. That’s because Lee manages to shed light on a little-known part of our shared history: the way our country treated Black soldiers returning from the war, but he also raises the stakes with a subplot that includes a buried treasure hunt and a heartwrenching mission to retrieve the remains of a fallen comrade. The cast, which includes Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles, is brilliant, the story is gripping, and the direction is top-notch.
8. Easy A
Year: 2010
Cast: Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Stanley Tucci
Genre: Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Will Gluck
Trailer: Watch here
This teen comedy officially put Emma Stone on the map, handing her the lead in a modern-day retelling of The Scarlet Letter — just without most of the Puritanical bullsh*t and witchcraft slander. Stone plays Olive, a fairly clean-cut student who sheds her good-girl image when she pretends to have sex with a friend at a party. She starts trading imaginary sex for clout (and gift cards) but her growing reputation begins to wreak havoc on her friendships and romantic life. Stone has enviable leading-lady status here and she’s supported by a terrific cast.
9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Year: 1975
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Rating: PG
Runtime: 91 minutes
Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Trailer: Watch here
Even if you’ve never seen any of the Monty Python films, you most certainly know of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s been quoted, memed, gif-ed, and idolized by comedy fans for generations. At its core, it’s a parody of the legends of King Arthur and his knights. It’s stocked with an impressive cast — John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, etc — and it’s full of eccentric characters, bizarre adventures, and gut-bustlingly funny jokes. Think failed Trojan Rabbits, modern-day murder investigations, animated monsters, and musical numbers.
10. RRR
Year: 2022
Cast: N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan
Genre: Action, Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 187 minutes
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Trailer: Watch here
This Bollywood epic recounts the real-life story of Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao). The pair fought against the British Raj, i.e. the British government that controlled India in the 1920s. The film imagines their friendship before both men eventually joined the war effort – complete with musical numbers, CGI tigers, and some of the most mind-blowing action scenes we’ve ever seen. Seriously, Marvel, you’ve got some work to do.
11. All Quiet On the Western Front
Year: 2022
Cast: Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch
Genre: War, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 148 minutes
Director: Edward Berger
Trailer: Watch here
Sometimes the best argument against war is to show it fully, in all its brutality and heartbreak, and inevitable devastation. That’s what this film does well, following the story of a young, idealistic German boy who enlists to serve his country during World War I. Instead of finding glory and honor on the battlefield, he and his friends witness unimaginable horrors while struggling to survive in a wasteland created by man’s greed and insatiable appetite for violence.
12. Where The Crawdads Sing
Year: 2022
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 125 minutes
Director: Olivia Newman
Trailer: Watch here
Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) carries this crime drama based on a best-selling book by the same name. Jones plays Kya, a young woman raised in the Carolina marshes who is abandoned by her family as a child and forced to fend for herself in the 1950s-era Deep South. Isolated and uneducated, she begins a romance with a local man who leaves for college, which eventually puts her on a path to meeting popular quarterback Chase Andrews – a boy with bad intentions and the money to feel entitled to them. When Chase mysteriously turns up dead, the town turns on Kya, and she’s forced to open up her carefully cultivated life to public scrutiny in an attempt to clear her name.
13. Phantom Thread
Year: 2017
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 130 minutes
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Trailer: Watch here
There’s toxic romance and then there’s the relationship between Reynold Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Alma Elson (Vicky Krieps). Woodcock is an in-demand dressmaker for London’s upper crust, crafting gorgeous designs for high society snobs and royalty alike in the 1950s. When he meets Alma, a waitress at a country restaurant, she quickly becomes his lover, his muse, and eventually, his wife. But Woodcock is demanding and unmoving in his pursuit of perfectionism, something that takes its toll on their relationship and forces Alma to adapt in ingenious, slightly sinister ways.
14. Bullet Train
Year: 2022
Cast: Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Sandra Bullock
Genre: Action, Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 127 minutes
Director: David Leitch
Trailer: Watch here
This fast-paced action thriller is loaded with talent, quick-witted comedy, and some impressively choreographed stunt sequences, which is really all you can ask for from a premise that boils down to “assassins fighting on a high-speed train.” Brad Pitt is one such hitman, a gun-averse bucket-hat-wearing courier charged with pilfering a briefcase. He’s thwarted by a couple of British brothers (an excellent Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor Johnson), a Cartel henchman (Bad Bunny), a scheming kid (Joey King), and a Yakuza boss (Michael Shannon) that’s somehow weaved all of these killers into his web of revenge.
15. The Mitchells Vs. The Machines
Year: 2021
Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Rating: PG
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe
Trailer: Watch here
If The Mitchells vs. The Machines proves anything, it’s that Disney doesn’t have the animation market cornered just yet. A fun, beautifully touching ride that covers everything from our reliance on tech to familial squabbles, this film has a stacked voice cast — think Maya Rudolph, Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride — and a strong storyline to go with it. A dysfunctional brood’s road trip is upended by a robot apocalypse here and even worse — it seems this quirky, completely unprepared group is humanity’s only hope.
16. The Irishman
Year: 2019
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
Genre: Biography, Crime
Rating: R
Runtime: 209 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Trailer: Watch here
Martin Scorsese delivers another cinematic triumph, this time for Netflix and with the help of some familiar faces. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino team up (again) for this crime drama based on actual events. De Niro plays Frank Sheeran a World War II vet who finds work as a hitman for the mob. Pacino plays notorious Teamster Jimmy Hoffa, a man who frequently found himself on the wrong side of the law and the criminals he worked with. The film charts the pair’s partnership over the years while injecting some historical milestones for context. It’s heavy and impressively cast and everything you’d expect a Scorsese passion project to be, with some interesting de-aging CGI that does its best to show the scope of Scorsese’s storytelling.
17. If Beale Street Could Talk
Year: 2018
Cast: KiKi Layne, Regina King, Stephan James
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Barry Jenkins
Trailer: Watch here
Barry Jenkins excels at bringing the Black experience to the screen with an authenticity that is rarely matched by his fellow filmmakers. He did it with Moonlight, and he does it here with this adaptation of a piece from James Baldwin’s iconography. Told in a nonlinear style, the film recounts the romance of Tish and Fonny, two young Black lovers living in 1970s New York. When Fonny is accused of a heinous crime, Tish and her family fight to prove his innocence. The film stars KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, and more. All in all, the story is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time, and King puts in an Oscar-winning performance as Tish’s devoted mother.
18. Miss Americana
Year: 2020
Cast: Taylor Swift
Genre: Documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 85 minutes
Director: Lana Wilson
Trailer: Watch here
Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote an album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.
19. Call Me By Your Name
Year: 2017
Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Trailer: Watch here
If you can look past the Armie Hammer-sized elephant in the room, this gorgeously-shot coming-of-age film is one of the most bittersweet love stories you’ll see on-screen right now. Timothee Chalamet gives a leading man performance as Elio, a teenage student on a summer holiday with his father in Italy. He falls for the older Oliver (Hammer) who works for his dad as a research assistant and the two begin a passionate, secret affair that burns hot and bright and eventually breaks the poor kid’s heart in a way we can all relate to.
20. Emily The Criminal
Year: 2022
Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: John Patton Ford
Trailer: Watch here
Aubrey Plaza turns in a mesmerizing performance as the criminal in the title of this tense and tight crime thriller. Plaza’s Emily is a recent college grad plagued by debt (who can’t relate, tbh?) who’s given up on using her actual degree in the hopes of making money to pay off her outrageous loan interest each month via a catering contract job. When that doesn’t foot the entire bill she’s turned onto a less-than-legal scam enterprise that sees her creating fake credit cards, selling TVs out of her four-door sedan, facing off against junkies with boxcutters, and stealing luxury vehicles. Her descent into a life filled with felonies is swift, anxiety-inducing, and a bit too believable for comfort.
21. Enola Holmes
Year: 2020
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 123 minutes
Director: Harry Bradbeer
Trailer: Watch here
Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin star in this gender-flopped take on the classic detective adventure. Brown plays the titular Enola, a young woman whose mother vanishes in the night, putting her on a crash course with Viscounts and her two older brothers — one the famous investigator, the other an uptight prick. Brown is perfectly cast and watching her venture across the English countryside via train, bike, and motorcar while solving crime and serving wicked clap backs to period sexism is more fun than we can accurately convey.
22. Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé
Year: 2019
Cast: Beyonce, Jay-Z
Genre: Documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 137 minutes
Director: Beyonce, Ed Burke
Trailer: Watch here
Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella, but fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bey perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.
23. Bo Burnham: Inside
Year: 2021
Cast: Bo Burnham
Genre: Comedy, Music
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Bo Burnham
Trailer: Watch here
Bo Burnham distills our collective quarantined experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing, directing, starring in, composing, and editing this bleak-yet-hilarious bit of performance art that might be the most exciting, inventive thing we’ve seen yet. Is it a movie, a stand-up routine, or a comedy special? We really don’t know, but it’s damn funny so we’re putting it on this list. The self-deprecating humor and catchy tunes are here of course, but Burnham goes darker, crafting complete bangers about everything from the white savior complex to cancel culture, toxic masculinity, depression, and global economic inequality.
24. Bad Trip
Year: 2021
Cast: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 86 minutes
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Trailer: Watch here
Eric Andre borrows Sacha Baron Cohen’s schtick — combining scripted storytelling with secretly-filmed real-world pranks — to create this hybrid comedy masterpiece about two best friends on the road trip of their lives. Andre plays Chris while the always fantastic Lil Rel Howery plays his BFF Bud. The two head from Florida to New York (chased by Bud’s mentally unsound escaped convict of a sister played by Tiffany Haddish) while taking in America’s heartland by way of rodeo nights and unfortunate gorilla encounters at local zoos.
25. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
Year: 2021
Cast: Theo James, Mary McDonnell, Graham McTavish
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 83 minutes
Director: Kwang Il Han
Trailer: Watch here
Netflix knew the IP goldmine they had with Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series which is why it took practically no time at all to greenlight an animated action-adventure movie set in the same universe as Henry Cavill’s passion project. This story follows Geralt of Rivia’s mentor, Vesemir, from his humble beginnings as an impoverished child to a legendary monster-slayer. Becoming an infamous Witcher has its problems though and when a new creature threatens the brotherhood, Vesemir has to face the darkness in his own past to defeat it.
26. The Trial of the Chicago 7
Year: 2020
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Genre: History, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 129 minutes
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Trailer: Watch here
Aaron Sorkin’s star-studded courtroom drama delivers a handful of ridiculously good performances from its impressive cast – a lineup that includes everyone from Succession’s Jeremy Strong to Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, and Watchmen breakout Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The film follows the true story of a group of anti-Vietnam war protesters charged with conspiracy counts and inciting riots during a demonstration at the 1968 Democratic Convention. If you’d like to gauge how unsettling and absorbing this movie is beforehand, word has it that Strong asked Sorkin to tear-gas him for a scene so, yeah, it’s an intense watch.
27. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Year: 2020
Cast: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Taylour Paige, Colman Domingo
Genre: Music, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: George C. Wolfe
Trailer: Watch here
This dramatic interpretation of August Wilson’s iconic play rightly earned considerable awards buzz when it was released just a couple of years ago. That’s mainly due to Viola Davis, who turns in a stunning performance as the legendary Blues singer, and the late Chadwick Boseman, who plays a frustrated young Jazz musician whose ambition disrupts a fateful recording session. It’s tense and contained in a way that suits its source material but it feels even more relevant now than when Wilson first wrote it.
28. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Year: 2022
Cast: Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Trailer: Watch here
Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell deliver a dazzling display of chemistry in this adaptation of a classic novel that feels as scandalous and searing as its source material. Corrin plays Connie, the titular Lady Chatterley, a young woman who marries a rich aristocrat and finds her life to be increasingly dull and restrictive. O’Connell plays Oliver, the gamekeeper of her husband’s estate. The pair begin a forbidden affair that had dire consequences for both and, while the sex scenes are plenty, it’s the bond between Connie and Oliver – and what it says about the class divide and sexist societal expectations – that really holds your attention.
29. I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Year: 2020
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis, Toni Collette
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 134 minutes
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Trailer: Watch here
Charlie Kaufman’s latest film is based on a book of the same name and stars Chernobyl’s Jessie Buckley as a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time — which normally would be a happy event except she’s secretly been planning to break up the with the guy. That guy is Jesse Plemons, who seems to be in everything these days, and along with Toni Collette and David Thewlis who play his parents, they make for hellish dinner mates. There’s a sinister vibe permeating everything about this straightforward plot so if you think you know how this ends, let us be the first to tell you: You don’t have a clue.
30. It Follows
Year: 2014
Cast: Maika Monroe,
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Trailer: Watch here
Maika Monroe carries this supernatural thriller that once had 2014-era hook-up culture shaking in its boots. The film follows a young woman named Jay (Monroe) who contracts an STD after a backseat hookup. The only problem? STD in this case stands for “sexually transmitted demon.” Her only hope to not end up dead is to pass the curse onto someone else – or figure out why this being is haunting people in the first place.
31. Pinocchio
Year: 2022
Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Cate Blanchett
Genre: Animation, Family
Rating: PG
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
Trailer: Watch here
Guillermo del Toro’s trademark whimsy and love for dark fantasy make for a wonderful balancing act in this adaptation of a beloved childhood fairytale – told this time in stop-motion animation form. Of the two retellings fans were given this year, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is undoubtedly the superior work, rehashing the familiar plotline – a wooden puppet brought to life as the son of his carver – and setting it amidst the backdrop of Fascist Italy before and during the Second World War. It’s grim and mesmerizing and surprisingly moving, even if you can predict most of its trajectory.
32. Day Shift
Year: 2022
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco
Genre: Comedy, Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: J.J. Perry
Trailer: Watch here
Horror comes in many forms and not every “scary” movie has to terrify you. Some of them can make you laugh. And this film? This film does both. There are enough jumps and thrills to keep you guessing but the real draw is the chemistry between Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco. One plays a vampire-hunting single dad, the other, his tightly laced sidekick who is definitely not cut out for the stake life. Add in a pretty wild Snoop Dogg guest spot and some gory Buffy Summers-esque slaying action and you’ve got a recipe for a great horror comedy watch.
33. Crimson Peak
Year: 2015
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here
Guillermo del Toro recruits Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston for this gorgeous Gothic horror story that’s more unnerving than truly terrifying. That’s not a knock. Horror takes all kinds of forms, and this story, about a brother-sister duo with a deadly secret and a young woman trying to escape her tragic past, is certainly spine-chilling. Chastain has the most fun, playing a deranged spinster with sinister plans for her brother’s new wife – including poisoned porridge and a bit of ghostly gaslighting — but the real star here is the setting: a Victorian-era mansion that breathes, bleeds, and holds the memories of its unlucky former inhabitants. It’s beautiful – as is everything del Toro does – and it deserves more hype than it’s been afforded.
34. Dolemite Is My Name
Year: 2019
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Mike Epps, Keegan-Michael Key, Wesley Snipes
Genre: Comedy, Biography
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 minutes
Director: Craig Brewer
Trailer: Watch here
Eddie Murphy proves why he’s one of the definitive comics of his generation in this biopic about famed comedian, actor, and showman Rudy Ray Moore, better known as Dolemite to fans of his raunchy comedy albums, stand-up tours, and blaxploitation films. Murphy plays Moore at the beginning of his career when he was just a record store clerk looking to break out in the business. He’s joined by a cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Ron Cephas Jones, Tituss Burgess, and others, but it’s Murphy who shines here, giving possibly the best performance of his career as a man who will stop at nothing to pursue his dream.
35. The Power Of The Dog
Year: 2021
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Genre: Western, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Jane Campion
Trailer: Watch here
Based on the novel of the same name, this Jane Campion-directed Western features a handful of tour-de-force performances and an emotionally wrenching story about familial bonds. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil, one-half of a pair of ranching brothers who becomes bitter and verbally abusive to his brother’s new wife, Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Hiding who he is and angry that his brother seems to be occupied with his new life, Phil befriends Rose’s young son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and as their relationship progresses, both men learn undeniable truths about themselves.
36. The Lost Daughter
Year: 2021
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Trailer: Watch here
Dakota Johnson and Olivia Colman star in this tense drama from first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal. Colman plays Leda, a woman on vacation in Greece who’s forced to confront her own shortcomings as a mother when she befriends Nina (Johnson) a new mom struggling to keep her head above water. The film teeters between the past, with Jessie Buckley playing Leda as a young, overwhelmed, absentee mom, and Colman, who makes increasingly problematic choices in her attempt to get closer to Nina and find some kind of redemption.
37. Always Be My Maybe
Year: 2019
Cast: Ali Wong, Randall Park
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Trailer: Watch here
Ali Wong and Randall Park star in this short but sweet rom-com from Netflix that follows two childhood sweethearts — who’ve spent the last 15 years apart — trying to reconnect when one moves back home. Wong plays a successful chef opening a new restaurant in San Francisco while Park plays her former best friend still living at home and working for his dad. Both have some growing up to do, but the film eschews classic romcom tropes for bits that are funnier and more poignant than your average lighthearted fare. Oh, and there’s a Keanu Reeves cameo that’s just *chef’s kiss*.
38. Hustle
Year: 2022
Cast: Adam Sandler, Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, Juancho Hernangómez
Genre: Sports, Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
Trailer: Watch here
Adam Sandler has plenty of comedy favorites housed on Netflix but we’re highlighting this one because Sandler gets to channel his everyman charm in a sports story that lets his comedic sensibilities control the game. He plays Stanley Sugerman, an aging scout for the 76ers who discovers a potential NBA star during a pick-up game in Spain. Stanley risks his career and his family’s future to back the unknown player, eventually squaring off against his old boss and confronting his own troubled past to help someone else achieve their dreams on the court.
39. Stutz
Year: 2022
Cast: Jonah Hill, Phil Stutz
Genre: Documentary
Rating: R
Runtime: 96 minutes
Director: Jonah Hill
Trailer: Watch here
Actor and director Jonah Hill bravely invites fans into his own therapy sessions with psychiatrist Phil Stutz in this documentary that’s both incisive and lighthearted. Hill devotes much of the doc’s runtime to telling the story of Stutz’s life and his unique approach to therapy before the pair delve deep into the actor’s own psyche, including his increasing anxiety surrounding a key element of his profession. It’s heartwarming and raw in a way you likely wouldn’t expect, and it may change your perceptions about talk therapy and just how beneficial it truly can be.
40. Luckiest Girl Alive
Year: 2022
Cast: Mila Kunis, Finn Wittrock, Connie Britton, Scoot McNairy
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: Mike Barker
Trailer: Watch here
None of us are who we were in high school but that’s especially true for Ani Fanelli, a New York City journalist on the cusp of having it all. Mila Kunis plays Ani as tough, street-smart, and a bit of a black sheep amongst the Manhattan elite whose circles she now navigates while trying to keep a lock on her troubled and violent past. But, when a documentary crew comes knocking, hoping to get Ani’s take on an infamous school shooting incident she survived during her teenage years, old ghosts rise to the surface, threatening her carefully cultivated persona in ways she could never expect.
41. Closer
Year: 2004
Cast: Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Natalie Portman, Jude Law
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Director: Mike Nichols
Trailer: Watch here
The lives of two couples become entangled in irreversible ways in this erotic drama by director Mike Nichols. Julia Roberts plays Anna, a photographer unhappy in her marriage to Clive Owen’s Larry. When she meets writer Dan (Jude Law), the two strike up an affair that not only destroys Anna’s relationship but Dan’s long-term romance with stripper Alice (Natalie Portman). The whole movie is sensual and scandalous and intimately revealing of the tiny cracks that form unmendable fissures in our closest relationships.
42. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Year: 2018
Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Trailer: Watch here
The Coen brothers serve up a slick Western romp, one that serves as an ode to all of the tropes present in Hollywood’s best Wild West adaptations. Split into six parts, each story is loosely connected although thematically and tonally different. Tim Blake Nelson stars as the titular hero, a sharpshooting songster who takes part in the film’s opening musical portion. From there, we get stories of outlaws getting their due, prospectors mining for gold, ghostly hauntings, and wagon trails. Forget trying to follow the thread and simply enjoy the ride with this one.
43. tick, tick… BOOM!
Year: 2021
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Robin de Jesus
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: Lin Manuel-Miranda
Trailer: Watch here
Lin Manuel-Miranda hops into the director’s chair for the first time with this musical biopic about famed Broadway composer Jonathan Larson. Andrew Garfield completely transforms himself to play the tortured artist who would one day give us Rent. In this outing, Larson is still searching for inspiration for his next play while battling grief and a debilitating awareness of life’s deadline. The supporting cast (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp) are all good, but this is Garfield’s moment and he proves his multifaceted talent extends beyond his Marvel superhero contributions.
44. The Snowman
Year: 2017
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Val Kilmer, J.K. Simmons
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Thomas Alfredson
Trailer: Watch here
This stark, Scandinavian crime thriller is enjoying a bit of a resurgence thanks to Netflix and TikTok of all things. The reason being it’s a topsy-turvy, twisty-bendy murder puzzle whose pieces just don’t fit together until the very end. Michael Fassbender plays a Norwegian inspector named Harry Hole (no, really) who struggles to do his job after a break-up and a return to the bottle. To solve a string of gruesome murders with a frosty calling card, he pairs up with Rebecca Ferguson’s rebellious officer Katrine Bratt who has ulterior motives of her own. To reveal any more would be to spoil the ending, which is what you’re watching this whole saga for, to begin with.
45. Beasts Of No Nation
Year: 2015
Cast: Abraham Attah, Idris Elba
Genre: Drama, War
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Trailer: Watch here
Idris Elba is normally so talented and charismatic on-screen that it’s easy to forget he can play a morally-corrupt psychopath to perfection as he does in this harrowing war story based on a novel by the same name. As the Commandant, Elba recruits young boys to his rebel army fighting the government of Ghana by forcing them to undergo a brutal initiation process. Agu, a young boy who saw his father and older brother murdered at the hands of the government, is captured and indoctrinated into the Commandant’s army, suffering through terrible torture, both physical and psychological, before he eventually escapes. The film’s commitment to authenticity makes it hard to stomach at times, but there’s still a sense of hopefulness that makes its ending worth the watch.
46. The Good Nurse
Year: 2022
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne
Genre: Crime, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Trailer: Watch here
There’s an inherent sense of trust in medical professionals that we all harbor which makes the true story of a killer nurse who went undetected for years even more terrifying. Hospitals are where sick people go to get better, not die from preventable, man-made causes. And yet, for hundreds of patients under the care of Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) that’s exactly what happened. Cullen begins the film as an exemplary nurse and a devoted co-worker to Jessica Chastain’s Amy – a single mom secretly battling a serious heart condition. Their friendship fuels the drama that comes when Amy discovers Charlie’s patients have been mysteriously dying, not just at their hospital, but at the dozens of others, he’s worked for in the past. Her fight for justice and her internal dilemma over turning on her best friend make what could’ve just been a paint-by-numbers true-crime story something far more interesting.
47. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
Year: 2018
Cast: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Israel Broussard
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 99 minutes
Director: Susan Johnson
Trailer: Watch here
A teen rom-com for the ages, this movie is based on a best-selling YA series that Netflix was smart enough to snatch up early on. Sequels have followed but none have managed to bottle the exact magic formula that this fun, light-hearted coming-of-age story boasts. Lana Condor plays Lara Jean Covey, a junior in high school who tends to write her crushes love letters without ever actually sending them. After those same letters are anonymously mailed, she’s forced to do damage control by carrying on a fake relationship with one of her former love interests who just happens to be one of the most popular kids at school. Blame this movie for Noah Centineo’s ascension to internet boyfriend status.
48. Tinder Swindler
Year: 2022
Cast: Simon Leviev, Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Rating: NR
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Felicity Morris
Trailer: Watch here
Romance in the age of dating apps is exhausting, anxiety-inducing, and, according to this documentary, downright dangerous. Anyone who swipes right on a regular basis in the hopes of finding love should view this true-crime story as a cautionary tale, one whose villain is the ultimate catfisher and whose victims feel all too relatable. Simon Leviev convinced multiple women across the years that he was a jet-setting billionaire playboy, the heir to a Russian diamond “king,” by wooing them with gifts and trips that they would, unknowingly, finance themselves. In reality, he was a con man who extracted millions of dollars from women in an emotional Ponzi scheme that seems so unreal, it has to be true.
49. Reservoir Dogs
Year: 1992
Cast: Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 99 minutes
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Trailer: Watch here
Quentin Tarantino recruits Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel for this crime thriller about a jewelry heist gone wrong. Full of shootouts, violence, and pop culture references, the film follows a group of criminals who suspect one of their own might be working for the cops. There are plenty of twists and inventive action sequences to keep you guessing until the end
50. His House
Year: 2020
Cast: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: NR
Runtime: 93 minutes
Director: Remi Weekes
Trailer: Watch here
Lovecraft Country’s Wunmi Mosaku and House of the Dragon’s Matt Smith star in this British horror flick that paints a terrifying picture of life as an immigrant. Mosaku plays Rial while Sope Dirisu plays her husband, Bol. The couple flees their war-torn home in South Sudan, applying for refugee status in England and hoping for a better life. Instead, evil lurks, not only in their neighborhood but in their own home which houses ghosts that haunt the pair and force them to reckon with past injustice. Smith plays their case worker who ignores their concerns, forcing the couple to endure some nightmarish conditions before they can find peace in this bizarre and foreign setting.
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