It can be hard to find the best movies on Netflix. We all understand the struggle of scrolling time—hours lost to wading through all of the Netflix movie options that could instead have been spent, you know, watching something. Or maybe something has been sitting patiently on your queue, waiting for someone to give you a nudge to finally press play. So, like a beacon in the night, here’s a guide to 25 of the best films within Netflix’s huge selection—including everything from landmark films to cult classics to Netflix original hidden gems—updated monthly as films appear on and leave the platform. Take that, decision fatigue. (And if you want a list of the best shows on Netflix, we’ve got one of those, too.)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Director: Martin ScorseseGenre: RomanceNotable cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona RyderMPA rating: PGRotten Tomatoes: 88%Metacritic: 90
Though it was initially overshadowed by other entries in his filmography, Scorsese’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s tragic romance has been rising in favor in recent years. And no wonder, because its sumptuousness is undeniable. There’s unsparing 19th-century period design by Dante Ferretti and Robert J. Franco, a lush Elmer Bernstein score, and a dazzling barn burner performance from Pfeiffer at the top of her game. The film’s heartbreaking emotional blows are as brutal as anything in the entire Scorsese canon, even though they come in corsets and coaches. The maestro may have made The Irishman for Netflix (and that movie ranks among the best options on the platform, too), but the rest of his filmography is more than worth a watch as well.
Atlantics (2019)
Director: Mati DiopGenre: DramaNotable cast: Mame Bineta Sine, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima TraoréMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 96%Metacritic: 85
Achingly romantic and fiercely original, Atlantics is a shape-shifting ghost story of sorts that defies simple categorization. Diop’s first feature follows a young woman set to marry a man she does not love, while her lover flees their native Senegal by sea in search of work. Overnight, spirits begin to possess the townsfolk, seeking revenge against an exploitative corporation. Never less than captivating, the film features unforgettable visuals and an arresting blending of themes that make for one of the most daring Netflix originals—and signal Diop as one of the major breakthrough directors of the past decade.
Dick Johnson is Dead (2020)
Director: Kirsten JohnsonGenre: DocumentaryMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 99%Metacritic: 89
Johnson is always breaking the boundaries of what we think a documentary can be, never more so than in her deeply moving yet not-depressing tribute to her father on the eve of his death. Between candid interviews with her father, Dick, Johnson stages his death in various, surreally funny scenarios, such as a fall down the stairs or being struck by a rogue air conditioner. The director told Vanity Fair that making the film was an act of coping with her beloved parent’s dementia: “How can my father and I together confront the fact that he, who is irreplaceable, will disappear?” The effect is whimsical, profound, and restorative, making for the wildest study of love and loss in Netflix’s vast stable.
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Director: Spike LeeGenre: DramaNotable cast: Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Rosie Perez, Danny Aiello, John TurturroMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 92%Metacritic: 93
A landmark of American filmmaking, Lee’s classic presents a day in the life of a Brooklyn neighborhood as tensions escalate between its citizens and a local racist pizzeria. The film and its place in the culture are always ripe for reexamination, from that dazzling cast to its “Fight the Power” pop maximalism to its still frustrating total blanking at the 1990 Oscars. Lee’s vision of Black American community remains more potent and influential with each passing year, only bolstering its prominent place in our moviegoing consciousness. Even in the choppy, vast waters of Netflix originals (or Prime Video movies, since it’s available there, too!), the platform still has some of history’s biggest movies hiding in plain sight.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)
Director: David DobkinGenre: ComedyNotable cast: Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Pierce Brosnan, Demi LovatoMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 64%Metacritic: 50
Both a lampoon of silly, earnest musicals and a straightforward silly, earnest musical in its own right, the film casts Ferrell and McAdams as Icelandic underdogs in the eponymous global competition. It’s a wholly satisfying mix of typically goofy Ferrell-isms and hilarious musical performances, all building up towards the film’s soaring, Oscar-nominated ballad “Husavik.” And for fans of the annual real song contest, you’ll find plenty of Easter eggs and cameos from beloved past contestants, including a delightful mashup singalong sequence. More than anything, the film cements McAdams as one of our great stars–she delivers a heartfelt performance that elevates a goofy comedy into something more touching. Play “Jaja Ding Dong”!!
Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Director: Alice RohrwacherGenre: DramaNotable cast: Adriano Tardiolo, Sergi López, Alba RohrwacherMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 91%Metacritic: 87
Director Rohrwacher earned a new legion of new fans from 2023’s Josh O’Conner-led La Chimera—but prior to that masterpiece, she made another with this idiosyncratic fable. Another foray into symbolic magical realism, Rohrwacher uses the story of frozen-in-time sweetheart farmhand Lazzaro to weave a magical examination of class and exploitation. Around its midpoint, the film takes a daring leap that recontextualizes everything we have seen as more than meets the eye, setting the tender Lazzaro on a course for tragedy to come. It’s another of Rohrwacher’s bespoke visual wonders that seem to commune with some kind of cinematic deity, casting a spell that lingers long after viewing.
Heat (1995)
Director: Michael MannGenre: CrimeNotable cast: [deep breath] Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenneman, Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Dennis Haysbert, Mykelti Williamson, Jon Voight, Wes Studi, and at least two dozen moreMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 84%Metacritic: 76
At the time of its mid-90s release, Heat promised a fireworks showdown for acting titans Pacino and De Niro. Audiences were ever so disappointed to find that the film itself was much more contemplative. Though it carries thrills in the form of the central heist and a classic pursuit between cops and robbers (not to mention some of the best performers of their generation), Heat is something of an existential epic. In the years since, Mann’s masterwork has developed a devoted cult following obsessed with its masculine profundity and staggering beauty. Thirty years on, this crime thriller is finally appreciated for being more than an action film—a true feast for the eyes, ears, and mind.
His Three Daughters (2024)
Director: Azazel JacobsGenre: DramaNotable cast: Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Jovan Adepo, Jay O. SandersMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 98%Metacritic: 83
Coon, Lyonne, and Olsen give three revelatory performances as diametrically opposed estranged siblings–the dictator, the hippie, and the burnout, respectively. They cram together in a tiny New York City apartment as they await the death of their father. They battle over groceries, monologue about the Grateful Dead, and try (and fail) to keep their many past resentments at bay. Sure, His Three Daughters is at times a painful watch, brimming with claustrophobic tension and biting wit. But writer/director Jacobs gives this chamber piece on death and family a light touch that lifts off into something unexpected in its emotional depth, making for one of 2024’s best films.
The Killer (2023)
Director: David FincherGenre: CrimeNotable cast: Michael Fassbender, Arliss Howard, Tilda SwintonMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 85%Metacritic: 73
This one arrived quietly, despite typically feverish anticipation for anything from Fincher—and it really deserved more attention. For viewers who were disappointed by Hollywood tale Mank (another of Fincher’s Netflix original films), this is a return to form for the director, who brings a pitch-black sense of humor and violence back to the forefront. Fassbender stars as a contract assassin on the trail of vengeance after one of his assignments goes wrong, resulting in a sparse but jet-setting good time. Folks who catch up to its brittle thrills will find typical Fincher meticulousness and gallows comedy, a showstopping midpoint fight sequence that left me breathless, and Swinton telling elaborate anal sex jokes while downing whiskey.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Director: Guy RitchieGenre: ActionNotable cast: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh GrantMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 68%Metacritic: 56
Based on the classic television show but infused with a fresh verve, this secret agent adaptation is nowhere near as musty as it might sound. It may look like forgotten, cobwebbed IP but, as Vanity Fair wrote in our review, “it manages, through the pluck of its cast and its director… to entertain in a fizzy, offbeat kind of a way.” It’s less a rote actioner for your dad to fall asleep watching, more of a thrill ride that will satisfy all the grownups in the house. If The Crown didn’t turn you into a Debicki superfan, her cooing villain turn here surely will.
May December (2023)
Director: Todd HaynesGenre: DramaNotable cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles MeltonMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 91%Metacritic: 86
Haynes’s darkly comedic, sleazy satire stars Natalie Portman as an actress who becomes obsessed with the real life figure she is about to play: a former teacher (Julianne Moore) who became a tabloid fixture for her sexual relationship with a teenage student (Charles Melton). As much as the film skewers tabloid culture (it’s loosely inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau), it’s also a darkly comedic look at performance and the lies we tell ourselves. In calling it the best film of 2023, Vanity Fair wrote, “May December could probably be endlessly unpacked, so varied are its tones and textures and piercing insights.”
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)
Director: Todd HaynesGenre: ComedyNotable cast: Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Elizabeth MarvelMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 92%Metacritic: 86
Probably the most underrated and underseen of Baumbach’s films, The Meyerowitz Stories follows the disappointing adult children of an egotistical and self-aggrandizing sculptor (Hoffman). If Meyerowitz sounds like a greatest hits of Baumbach’s frequent tropes–the lingering wounds left by parents on their children, unpleasant artists, New York City in-jokes–the result is nevertheless his most emotionally resonant film. As he told Vanity Fair, the writer/director also draws from his own personal story to tell this family saga–as he did with the Oscar-winning Marriage Story, another Netflix production. Sandler (no stranger to Netflix movies) offers up his career-best performance, as does Stiller.
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Director: Steven SoderberghGenre: CrimeNotable cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Elliot Gould, Carl ReinerMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 83%Metacritic: 74
Soderbergh’s caper remake remains an unmatched benchmark for fun times had through sheer glitzy star wattage. When it feels like bonafide movie stars are in short supply these days, we will always have the Ocean’s movies, still fresh and zippy but also timeless. It’s guaranteed that when you watch it again, you’ll see at least one great performance that you’d forgotten about since you last saw it. (My money is always on Elliot Gould or Bernie Mac.) Even Vegas doesn’t look this glamorous anymore! Am I starting to sound like a ranting old codger? Anyway, watch this movie with your dad.
One of Them Days (2025)
Director: Lawrence LamontGenre: ComedyNotable cast: Keke Palmer, SZA, Lil Rel HoweryMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 94%Metacritic: 71
Already one of Vanity Fair’s favorite films of 2025, One of Them Days pairs multihyphenate Keke Palmer and music superstar SZA as two friends trying to escape eviction during a single, hijinx-filled day. Maybe it’s a cliché to say that we used to get comedies like this all the time, but this film still feels like an anomaly: an original comedy fueled by the charisma of its two stars, giving classic chemistry. With a slew of hilarious cameos, One of Them Days feels like the newest friendship comedy destined to be a comfort rewatch. Of new movies on Netflix, it’s the most can’t-miss.
Parasite (2019)
Director: Bong Joon-hoGenre: DramaNotable cast: Song Kang-ho, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-damMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 99%Metacritic: 97
If you haven’t already seen the international sensation and first non-English-language winner of the best-picture Academy Award, what’s wrong with you? If you have, revisiting the film only confirms how right we all were to make such a big deal about it in 2019. Director Bong’s tragicomic class satire is a modern-day classic, with a socially conscious point of view that has proven to be immediately influential. After Netflix made hits out of non-English-language fan favorites in both film (like The Platform) and television (heard of Squid Game?), the “one-inch-tall barrier” of subtitles that Bong spoke about at the Oscars now finds Parasite right at home on the streamer. It’s always going to be a good time to rewatch Parasite.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Director: Jane CampionGenre: DramaNotable cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, Frances ConroyMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 94%Metacritic: 89
Campion’s big-screen return earned high praise for its psychologically intense study of masculinity in the American West. It’s never quite the movie you expect: In calling it one of 2021’s best films, Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson said this “stately and mysterious film isn’t quite a character-study drama, not quite a thriller, and not really a Western. It is an elusive and mesmerizing thing unto itself.” An all-consuming visual experience, The Power of the Dog features top-to-bottom outstanding performances from its cast, including Cumberbatch as one of the most terrifying movie villains of recent memory. It’s not just one of the best movies on Netflix right now; it’s one of the best movies ever.
Private Life (2018)
Director: Tamara JenkinsGenre: ComedyNotable cast: Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Molly Shannon, John Carroll Lynch, Kayli Carter, Denis O’HareMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 94%Metacritic: 83
In one of Netflix’s best movies and most overlooked masterworks, Hahn and Giamatti star as an infertile New York City couple, who, after several unsuccessful attempts at fertility treatment, consider surrogacy with their wayward niece (Carter). It’s only the third entry of writer-director Jenkins’s (flawless) filmography, but it’s maybe the best showcase of her bittersweet comic pathos yet: there’s nude ranting, people shoving their feet in their mouths, and bits about overly specific lox portions. If the film’s final shot doesn’t heal whatever ails you, please consult your doctor. All that, plus a powder-keg, career-best performance from Hahn–before she would become a household name with her MCU debut as Agatha in WandaVision–makes this essential viewing.
Psycho (1960)
Director: Alfred HitchcockGenre: ThrillerNotable cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera MilesMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 97%Metacritic: 97
Cue the sharp violin strings! Netflix recently added a slew of Alfred Hitchcock films, including Vertigo, Rear Window, and this notorious game-changer thriller that made an entire generation afraid to go into the shower. You could take your pick among the offerings and be happy (but not if you watch the Anthony Hopkins–led biopic on the director!). However, Psycho still reigns supreme for its narrative nerve and pervy ability to shock. It remains Hitchcock’s most iconic movie for a reason. It practically invented the plot twist, and there are even two of them! Netflix doesn’t often offer films from as far back as Psycho, so for folks looking more for film history: seize the opportunity while it lasts!
Shirkers (2018)
Director: Sandi TanGenre: DocumentaryMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 99%Metacritic: 88
When filmmaker Tan was a young adult, she participated in a production that would have been Singapore’s first road movie. But after filming, the footage and Tan’s eccentric producer disappeared. The resulting documentary charts Tan’s quest for the footage, bringing the footage back from the dead to make something entirely fascinating and deeply personal. This thoughtfully crafted production considers what was lost through the theft of the original film, both for Tan and for Singaporean film culture at large. Shirkers delights both as a personal investigative documentary and as a uniquely film-obsessed story for movie lovers.
Sing Street (2016)
Director: John CarneyGenre: MusicalNotable cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Jack Reynor, Aidan GillenMPA rating: PG-13Rotten Tomatoes: 95%Metacritic: 79
Fans may remember Carney’s “Falling Slowly” heartbreaker, Once, and this follow-up stands up to that new-generation classic. His uplifting 1980s throwback is possibly the best new musical you haven’t seen yet, somewhat overlooked on its first release–trying to release a musical in the same year as La La Land is kind of a tough break. Following a teenage Dublin outcast with big music dreams, it has all the awkward teen drama trappings you expect but becomes something special purely from the buoyancy of its music. The songs of Sing Street are so good—“Drive It Like You Stole It” is its earworm peak—that you won’t believe they are original, fitting in seamlessly with the film’s synth new-wave era.
Strong Island (2017)
Director: Yance FordGenre: DocumentaryMPA rating: UnratedRotten Tomatoes: 100%Metacritic: 86
Ford tackles his own family history and the injustice of the legal system with this nonfiction stunner, a recounting of his brother’s 1992 murder and how the killer went free. Where other documentaries navel-gaze at the details of a murder, Strong Island is more interested in the aftermath of the crime—how his brother’s killer going free shaped both his identity and his family’s. Ford approaches such personal subject matter with a sober and unflinching formal rigor, including some audacious moments where he directly addresses the camera. The result is a film that’s something of an antidote to the rise of the exploitative true crime documentary, a deeply intimate and searingly introspective portrait of a still-grieving family denied justice.
Train to Busan (2016)
Director: Yeon Sang-hoGenre: HorrorNotable cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seokMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 95%Metacritic: 73
If you think you’ve seen it all from zombie movies, then you probably haven’t seen this South Korean cult favorite. The film is set in a Seoul train, where a zombie virus rapidly breaks out mid-ride and infects the passengers—to gory and skin-crawling results. But the movie isn’t just for gore-hounds; it’s pretty smart and emotionally affecting too. Even if some of the tropes seem familiar, Train to Busan gets major audacity points in the full-throttle force of its thrills and its melodrama. Its ability to make you jump out of your skin even on rewatch more than earns the film’s impressive reputation: Rotten Tomatoes ranks the film as the third-best zombie movie of all time, right behind Night of the Living Dead.
Uncle Buck (1989)
Director: John HughesGenre: ComedyNotable cast: John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Macaulay Culkin, Gaby HoffmannMPA rating: PGRotten Tomatoes: 59%Metacritic: 51
Comfort watching, you ask? There was never a better vehicle for the charms of comedy legend John Candy than this John Hughes classic about a bachelor who watches over his brother’s kids. The last film of Hughes’s directorial 1980s hot streak, Uncle Buck was unfairly critically dismissed in its day. But it stays a heartwarming favorite for how it set the template for family-friendly comedies about cute kids facing off with a guy who doesn’t have his shit together. Plus, Candy makes really, really big pancakes, which is and always has been the coolest.
Us (2019)
Director: Jordan PeeleGenre: HorrorNotable cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim HeideckerMPA rating: RRotten Tomatoes: 93%Metacritic: 81
In the unfortunate task of following up the cultural lightning rod of Get Out, Peele was probably destined to produce something divisive. But count me as firmly pro on this thriller about underground doppelgängers violently overthrowing the America above. It’s utterly terrifying in its visceral violence and the staggering dexterity of Nyong’o’s performance. Us is a heady exercise, but it thrillingly mires itself in themes perhaps even more timely than they were on release–as Peele told its first audience: “We are in a time where we fear the other… Maybe the evil is us. Maybe the monster that we’re looking at has our face.”
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Director: Alfonso CuarónGenre: DramaNotable cast: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Diego LunaMPA rating: UnratedRotten Tomatoes: 90%Metacritic: 89
After a few financial misfires, director Alfonso Cuarón catapulted to global acclaim with this Mexican drama about two teenage friends (Bernal and Luna) who take a sexually charged road trip with an older woman (Verdú). Cuarón would be even more lauded for later flashier films, including Oscar-winning Netflix original Roma, but perhaps none of them match the fiery spark of this breathtaking erotic drama. Blending explicit sex scenes with swoon-worthy visual beauty and evocative social commentary, the film hasn’t lost its ability to surprise in the more than 20 years since it arrived.
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