Netflix’s streaming service is a content library filled with blockbusters and indie darlings, but a good amount of those come courtesy of the streaming giant itself. Netflix’s original films are stacked with sci-fi action epics and sports comedies, and Oscar-winning aueteur entries. So, to whittle down the smorgasbord of choices, we’ve rounded up the best Netflix feature-length creations that deserve to be added to your queue.
You can see the full list of the best original movies on Netflix below:
Last updated on August 1, 2023.
30. Run Rabbit Run
Year: 2023
Cast: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: Daina Reid
Trailer: Watch here
Succession’s Sarah Snook leads this Australian horror flick about a fertility doctor who begins to notice strange behavior in her own daughter. Snook plays Sarah, mother to a seven-year-old girl named Mia who begins insisting she’s the reincarnation of Sarah’s sister, Alice, who died when she was a child. As strange occurrences plague their house, Sarah is forced to reckon with the idea that Mia’s split identity isn’t just child’s play and that her own dark past might be to blame.
29. Luther: The Fallen Sun
Year: 2023
Cast: Idris Elba, Cynthia Erivo, Andy Serkis
Genre: Crime, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 129 minutes
Director: Jamie Payne
Trailer: Watch here
Idris Elba returns as the brilliant but troubled copper, John Luther, in this thrilling mystery from Netflix. Would it help to know Luther’s disgraced-detective origins via the BBC drama? Sure. But just jumping straight into this cat-and-mouse game between the on-the-run anti-hero and Andy Serkis’ twisted serial killer might also be a hell of a lot of fun.
28. Set It Up
Year: 2018
Cast: Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Claire Scanlon
Trailer: Watch here
Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell star in this office rom-com with a bit of a twist. Instead of the two young co-stars falling in love, it’s Deutch and Powell who try to set up their overbearing, workaholic bosses with each other so that they can get a break from their demanding jobs. Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs play the employers from hell, and Deutch and Powell put themselves through the paces to make the pair fall in love, and to make us laugh. It’s superficial, it’s cute, and it’s proof that Glen Powell has always been charming.
27. White Noise
Year: 2022
Cast: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Andre Benjamin
Genre:Absurdist Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Director: Noah Baumbach
Trailer: Watch here
What could be more perfect than a story about the uncertainty of the modern world? As a public service announcement, please do not watch this film if you’re already feeling queasy about climate change and emerging fascism. Based on the masterful Don DeLillo novel, Baumbach delivers a stirring contemplation of modern worry with a family that has more than enough reasons to panic. Jack is a professor of Hitler Studies, Babette is secretly takes a drug that curbs her fear of death, and their children have to be raised by an expert in Hitler Studies and a woman overwhelmed by life. Plus, they all have to quarantine at a creepy government encampment after being exposed to toxic chemicals following a train derailment. The comedy is black, and the need for anti-anxiety medication is real.
26. Private Life
Year: 2018
Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Kayli Carter, Molly Shannon, John Carroll Lynch, Desmin Borges, and Denis O’Hare
Genre:Dramedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 123 minutes
Director: Tamara Jenkins
Trailer: Watch here
There’s probably a movie out there about two wannabe parents whose niece volunteers to donate her eggs, and everything works out, and there’s a musical number or something. That’s not this movie. Jenkins exquisitely wrings the heartache and sweetness out of the scenario and, naturally, Giamatti and Hahn are absolutely amazing as a couple who struggle mightily against the odds and fail repeatedly in what they hope might give their lives full meaning. A hit at Sundance, the movie squeezes your hand tighter and tighter until you hope as desperately that the two aspiring parents will finally have a breakthrough.
25. Eurovision Song Contest: A Song of Ice and Fire
Year: 2020
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Will Ferrell, Dan Stevens
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 123 minutes
Director: David Dobkin
Trailer: Watch here
Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams take on the planet’s most-watched singing competition with this campy comedy about an Icelandic duo named Fire Saga, who are set on achieving glory on the world’s biggest stage. Ferrell and McAdams play Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir, artists chosen to represent their nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, a real competition that features musicians from all over the world, who are often performing in wild get-ups. Dan Stevens almost steals the show while Pierce Brosnan and Demi Lovato make appearances. We’re calling it now: “Volcano Man” is going to be a bop for the ages.
24. 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.
23. The Wonder
Year: 2022
Cast: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kila Lord Cassidy
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Trailer: Watch here
Florence Pugh delivers a devastating-yet-subtle performance in this period drama that deep dives into the superstition and oppression that surrounds religion in a small hamlet in the Irish Midlands. Pugh plays Lib, a young nurse with a dark past who’s hired to investigate whether a young girl who claims to be touched by God is a miracle or a fraud. It’s a tense, slow-plotting thriller, one that gives Pugh ample space to show off her skills amidst a gorgeous backdrop of rainy, rolling hills.
22. Do Revenge
Year: 2022
Cast: Maya Hawke, Camila Mendes, Austin Abrams
Genre: Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 118 minutes
Director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Trailer: Watch here
Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes star in this teen comedy filled with cheeky winks to the genre’s early aughts classics. Mendes plays Drea, a popular student at an elite private school whose reputation is trashed after her boyfriend (Euphoria’s Austin Abrams) leaks an intimate video of her. She seeks revenge and enlists the help of the school’s new girl Eleanor (Hawke) who undergoes a makeover to infiltrate the popular clique Drea once belonged to and destroy them from the inside. Come for the “Glenn-ergy” of it all, stay for the plot twist near the film’s end.
21. The Stranger
Year: 2022
Cast: Joel Edgerton, Sean Harris
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Thomas M. Wright
Trailer: Watch here
Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris lead this tense, slow-burn thriller about a criminal on the run and a man determined to get justice. Edgerton plays an undercover cop named Mark Frame who befriends Harris’ Henry Teague in order to elicit a confession related to the kidnapping and disappearance of a young teen. As Mark draws Henry deeper into a faux world of organized crime, their bond becomes twisted by Henry’s sexual interest in Mark and the cop’s struggles as a single father.
20. The Out-Laws
Year: 2023
Cast: Adam DeVine, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin, Nina Dobrev, Michael Rooker, Poorna Jagannathan, Richard Kind, Julie Hagerty, Blake Anderson, Lauren Lapkus, Dean Winters, and Lil Rey Howery
Genre:Action Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 95 minutes
Director: Tyler Spindel
Trailer: Watch here
Bank manager Owen Browning is a doofus, and his fiancé has parents who live off the grid because they do something very illegal for their job. Yup. It’s robbing banks. This is a ridiculous action comedy where the stakes just keep getting higher and weirder, and while DeVine slides easily into a story about disappointed potential in-laws (now the title makes sense) learning to like a dweeb, it’s Brosnan and Barkin as an ultra-cool heist couple that elevate everything. This one’s fun, but those two need their own franchise jetting around the world stealing stuff and being attractive.
19. Marriage Story
Year: 2019
Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, and Merritt Weaver
Genre:Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Director: Noah Baumbach
Trailer: Watch here
Driver and Johansson give commanding performances as a married couple navigating the impossible labyrinth of divorce while trying to shield their son from the worst of it. Charlie is a renowned theatre director with a MacArthur Genius Grant, and Nicole is an actress and newly-minted TV star who feels unfulfilled. Initially, they agree they want to part amicably, but that doesn’t last long, and soon lawyers and backbiting enter the picture, fogging it up so badly that it’s nearly impossible to see why they loved each other in the first place. Fortunately, Baumbach handles each landmine with humaneness and generosity, resulting in a brutal story told with tenderness.
18. 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.
17. The Platform
Year: 2019
Cast: Ivan Massagué, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Trailer: Watch here
This Spanish-language sci-fi flick is all kinds of f*cked up, but in the best way. The film is set in a large, tower-style “Vertical Self-Management Center” where the residents, who are periodically switched at random between floors, are fed by a platform, initially filled with food, that gradually descends through the levels. Conflicts arise when inmates at the top begin eating all the food, leaving the people lower down to fight for survival.
16. The Mother
Year: 2023
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Omari Hardwick, Joseph Fiennes
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 115 minutes
Director: Niki Caro
Trailer: Watch here
Her terrific rom-com resume aside, Jennifer Lopez is a damn good action hero and she proves that in this adrenaline-pumping Netflix original helmed by Niki Caro. Lopez plays an assassin known simply as “The Mother” who goes into hiding after an arms deal gone wrong. Before retreating to the Alaskan wilderness, she places her newborn with a foster family in order to give her a safe and normal life. Years later, the criminals she double-crossed come looking for her and use her teen daughter as bait, forcing the two to work together to survive.
15. The Devil All The Time
Year: 2020
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan,
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 138 minutes
Director: Antonio Campos
Trailer: Watch here
This time-hopping drama set in the backwoods of West Virginia is basically an excuse for director Antonio Campos to assemble his own Avengers-style squad of Hollywood A-listers. Seriously, everyone’s in this movie: Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Eliza Scanlen, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Haley Bennett, that kid who played Dudley in the Harry Potter franchise. The whole gang’s living in shacks and picking up hitchhikers, only to murder them later and speaking in tongues and falling victim to generational trauma. It’s a heavy watch, and there’s not really a happy ending, but boy does Pattinson deliver a batsh*t crazy turn as a perverted preacher.
14. Hunger
Year: 2023
Cast: Nopachai Chaiyanam, Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 146 minutes
Director: Sitisiri Mongkolsiri
Trailer: Watch here
Thai filmmaker Sitisiri Mongkolsiri gives us his version of The Menu with this deliciously tense, inexplicably-eerie restaurant thriller. Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying plays Ayo, a young woman working at her family’s noodle shop who dreams of more. She gets it after scoring a job with a dictator-like food auteur in Nopachai Chaiyanam’s Chef Paul. Paul is uncompromising and abusive and Ayo subjects herself to that abuse in order to climb an imaginary ladder but, once she reaches the top, the view looks grim.
13. Okja
Year: 2017
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Trailer: Watch here
Bong Joon-Ho’s send-up of corporate farming and environmental abuses isn’t subtle. Tilda Swinton goes all-out as the CEO of an evil corporation only to be outdone by Jake Gyllenhaal’s broad turn as an unstable TV host. But its tale of an endearing, genetically modified “super pig” and the girl who loves him is effective and contains both some terrific action set pieces and the most affecting child/strange beast relationship this side of E.T.
12. 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 76ers scout, 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.
11. The King
Year: 2021
Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Joel Edgerton, Robert Pattinson
Genre: Historical, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 140 minutes
Director: Joel Edgerton
Trailer: Watch here
Timothee Chalamet is everywhere right now so really, are you that surprised he’s playing a boyish, rebellious King Henry V in this big-budget Shakespeare adaptation from Joel Edgerton? Chalamet and his bowl-cut bring Hal to life, the wayward prince forced to assume the throne after his father’s death. Hal has to grow up quickly to lead his men into battle against a bloodthirsty French foe (Robert Pattinson having too much fun with his overdramatic accent) and preserve England’s reign. It’s all medieval warfare and political intrigue and it’s held up by Chalamet who stands out — even amongst a stellar supporting cast.
10. 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.
9. Bo Burnham: Inside
Year: 2021
Cast: Bo Burnham
Genre: Comedy, Music
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 86 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.
8. Triple Frontier
Year: 2019
Cast: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Charlie Hunnam
Genre: Action, Crime
Rating: R
Runtime: 125 minutes
Director: J.C. Chandor
Trailer: Watch here
This Netflix original heist thriller stars a whos-who of Hollywood hunks. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal play a group of former special ops bros who reunite to take down an infamous cartel kingpin and steal his profits in the process. Isaac and Affleck look to be the leaders of the team, two men fed up with risking their necks for a country that doesn’t look after them once they’re back on home soil, and Isaac’s A Most Violent Year director J.C. Chandor is at the helm, which means a couple of plot twists and some high stakes action are in store.
7. Beasts of No Nation
Year: 2015
Cast: Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Kurt Egyiawan, Jude Akuwudike, Emmanual “King King” Nii, and Adom Quaye
Genre:War Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 138 minutes
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Trailer: Watch here
One of the first Netflix originals and still one of the best, Elba and the entire cast shine in a challenging drama set in the throes of a West African civil war. With shattered innocence, Agu is adopted into a guerilla army where he loses his childhood entirely to gunfire, drug use, and nearly zero hope of living out the year (let alone eventually living a normal life). Vivid and desolate, Fukunaga’s film provides a deeply moving exploration of the plight of child soldiers and the unfathomable cost of war.
6. 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.
5. Extraction 2
Year: 2023
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Adam Bessa, Golshifteh Farahani
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 122 minutes
Director: Sam Hargrave
Trailer: Watch here
Chris Hemsworth returns as retired mercenary Tyler Rake in this sequel that ramps up the action to unbelievable — and frankly, dangerous — new levels. After barely surviving his last mission, Rake is tasked with extracting the sister of his ex-wife, along with her two children, from a high-security prison. Things go awry, naturally, leading to violent mob showdowns and explosions and helicopters landing on top of high-speed trains. It’s nerve-frying stuff and it all proves that Hemsworth really is the best action hero of his generation.
4. Roma
Year: 2018
Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 135 minutes
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Trailer: Watch here
Academy Award-winning writer/director Alfonso Cuaron delivers what may be his most personal film to date. The stunningly-shot black-and-white film is an ode to Cuaron’s childhood and a love letter to the women who raised him. Following the journey of a domestic worker in 1970s Mexico City named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), the movie interweaves tales of personal tragedy and triumph amidst a backdrop of political upheaval and unrest.
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Year: 2022
Cast: Daniel Craig, Kathryn Hahn, Janelle Monae, Dave Bautista, Edward Norton
Genre: Comedy, Mystery, Crime
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 140 minutes
Director: Rian Johnson
Trailer: Watch here
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. The Irishman
Year: 2019
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, 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 mostly based on a true story. 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.
1. 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 — and its nine Oscar nominations are proof of that. 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.
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