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.)
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12 Years a Slave (2013)
Director: Steve McQueen
Genre: Historical Drama
Notable cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Bill Camp, Adepero Aduye, and Brad Pitt
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 96
Steve McQueen’s landmark retelling of Solomon Northup’s memoir was a lightning rod of conversation and that year’s best picture winner at the Academy Awards. In capturing Northup’s journey from being kidnapped as a free man to over a decade in captivity, McQueen creates a film connected to both body and soul and the degrading, still festering evils of America's system of enslavement. A star-making turn from Lupita Nyong’o earned her an Oscar and announced the arrival of one of the boldest actors of her generation (see also: the grotesque genius of her work in Jordan Peele’s Us).
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023)
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Genre: Teen Drama
Notable cast: Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Benny Safdie
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Metacritic: 84
Based on Judy Blume’s indelible 1970 coming-of-age novel, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret follows Margaret Simon (breakthrough star Abby Ryder Fortson) as she faces all the milestones on the road to becoming a young adult. There are the tumultuous upheavals of friendship, religion, puberty, and understanding a parent as their own full-fledged person for the first time. “Honestly, her spiritual journey is very much the reason I wanted to make the film in the first place,” said director Kelly Fremon Craig. “I was really struck and moved by the fact that she carves out her own sense of spirituality.” But the film’s surprise is a fully lived-in performance from Rachel McAdams as Margaret’s mother, a portrayal that Vanity Fair said “deftly paints a thorough and compelling picture of a woman of the era—someone who, like Margaret, is stuck between who she was and who she seems to be becoming.”
Atlantics (2019)
Director: Mati Diop
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, and Ibrahima Traoré
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Metacritic: 85
Achingly romantic and fiercely original, Atlantics is a shape-shifting ghost story of sorts that defies simple categorization. Mati 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.
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Director: John Singleton
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Angela Bassett, Regina King, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, and Tyra Ferrell
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Metacritic: 96
John Singleton’s landmark film about young adulthood in South Central Los Angeles set a high bar for 1990s coming-of-age films at the start of the decade, and it’s one that other coming-of-age films have been chasing ever since. At the center is the story of three reunited childhood friends, Tre, Doughboy, and Ricky, whose plans for the future fatefully collide with the violence in their community. On top of featuring a staggering ensemble of future major stars, Boyz N the Hood launched Singleton as a major voice—making him both the youngest-ever nominee for best director at the time and the first Black director nominated for the award. What has endured is a highly influential and still emotionally powerful film about the Black American experience, and a new-era must-see classic.
Cover-Up (2025)
Director: Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus
Genre: Documentary
Notable cast: Seymour Hersh
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Metacritic: 85
Through a portrait of storied journalist Seymour Hersh, Cover-Up examines the attacks against American journalism in the decades since the Vietnam War. As detailed in the film, Hersh uncovered the My Lai massacre as a freelance journalist and remains one today (Hersh was an early adopter of Substack). He is a no-bullshit, funny, and often very unwilling subject, resulting in a documentary as entertaining as it is engrossing. Like director Laura Poitras’ previous non-fiction biographical work (Citizenfour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), Cover-Up elegantly approaches its subject, but also presents a subtle portrait of the context of his work.
Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Genre: Documentary
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Metacritic: 89
Kirsten 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.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Marg Helgenberger, Aaron Eckhart, Peter Coyote, Conchata Ferrell, Veanne Cox, and Cherry Jones
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 73
In one of the most rewatchable, satisfying, and quotable films of the 21st century, Julia Roberts stars as the real-life legal assistant who helped take on California power company PG&E over claims of water supply contamination. It’s still a complete and utter barn-burner of a film and performance. Director Steven Soderbergh also had a second film in theaters this year, the War on Drugs film Traffic, for which he won the best director Academy Award. But–sorry, film bros–he deserved it more for this keenly observed, classic character study. At those Oscars, Roberts’ expected best actress win resulted in one of the most delightful (and longest) acceptance speeches in the ceremony's history and one of the most quotable (“stick man, I see you”). Netflix should be required to play her speech immediately after the credits roll. They’re called boobs, Ed!!
Frances Ha (2013)
Director: Noah Baumbach
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, Michael Zegen, Charlotte d’Amboise, Josh Hamilton, and Grace Gummer
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 82
A gorgeous and sardonic fable about a screwup who stumbles her way toward getting her life together, Frances Ha remains the most essential collaboration between Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. In an absolutely must-watch performance, Gerwig plays New York dancer Frances as she loses connection with her best friend, Sophie (an underrated Mickey Sumner), and as her rapidly approaching 30s begin to catch up to her. The joy of Frances Ha comes from its romantic vantage on New York City living and Frances’s antics: twirling herself through the streets to David Bowie, having boy roommates, taking an ill-advised trip to France. But it also possesses a sly quotability that leaves gems hiding in plain sight.
Green Room (2015)
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Genre: Action Horror
Notable cast: Anton Yelchin, Patrick Stewart, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Joe Cole, Macon Blair, Mark Webber, and Eric Edelstein
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 79
Comfortably straddling the line between horror and survivalist action, Green Room served “punch Nazis” well before the phrase became a hashtag. A punk band led by the sadly departed Anton Yelchin (in one of his great underrated performances) takes the wrong gig at a backwoods bar and finds itself besieged by a gang of skinheads a terrifying, against-type Patrick Stewart, and things get very dire and very gruesome in rapid order. It’s also one of the most thrilling and no-holds-barred films of the past decade, and provided a major mainstream launching pad for director Jeremy Saulnier–who recently scored a Netflix hit with another throwback actioner with an eye towards social evils, Rebel Ridge.
Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Adriano Tardiolo, Sergi López, and Alba Rohrwacher
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 87
Director Alice Rohrwacher earned a 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, the story of frozen-in-time sweetheart farmhand Lazzaro is used by Rohwacher 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 one of Rohrwacher’s bespoke visual wonders that seem to commune with some kind of cinematic deity, casting a spell that lingers long after viewing.
His Three Daughters (2024)
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Jovan Adepo, and Jay O. Sanders
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 83
Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth 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 Azazel Jacobs gives this chamber piece on death and family a light touch, lifting it off into something unexpected in its emotional depth and making for one of 2024’s best films.
The Irishman (2019)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Crime
Notable cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham, Jesse Plemons, Jack Huston, Marin Ireland, and Anna Paquin
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 94
Martin Scorsese’s epic fable on legacy, loyalty, and unions follows the life of Mob hit man Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro. As Vanity Fair put it, “There’s something crucial about sitting with the same actors for so long. It communicates the weight and ravages of time more keenly than if the actors had been swapped out halfway through.” Much was made of the de-aging visual effects that allowed De Niro to play the character at all stages of Sheeran’s life, as was about Netflix’s refusal to play ball with the theater chains for the film’s limited theatrical release. Now that all that dust has settled, what remains is one of the defining masterpieces of this late stage of Scorsese’s career, one with a lot to say about where to place your loyalties and priorities in life.
May December (2023)
Director: Todd Haynes
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 91%
Metacritic: 86
Todd Haynes’s darkly comedic, sleazy satire stars Natalie Portman as an actor 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 one of the best films of 2023, Vanity Fair wrote, “May December could probably be endlessly unpacked, so varied are its tones and textures and piercing insights.”
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Director: Baz Luhrman
Genre: Musical
Notable cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, John Leguizamo, and Kylie Minogue
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
Metacritic: 66
Baz Luhrman’s maximalist musing on a century’s worth of pop culture is a Paris-set musical about a young poet who falls for a dying courtesan. It has been divisive since the day it was released, back when musicals were dead and buried in Hollywood. This film’s pop sensibility revived the movie musical, gave us a smash girl power rehashing of “Lady Marmalade,” and cemented a never-more-radiant Nicole Kidman’s status among the eternal A-list. But its status as a genre resuscitator can’t be understated: without Luhrman’s masterpiece going really out on a limb when doing so was still unfashionable, there wouldn’t be a best picture Oscar for Chicago or record-busting box office for Wicked. Moulin Rouge! may be a lot, but there hasn’t been a more audacious musical since.
My Girl (1991)
Director: Howard Zieff
Genre: Coming-of-Age Drama
Notable cast: Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, Richard Masur, and Griffin Dunne
MPA rating: PG
Rotten Tomatoes: 57%
Metacritic: 56
Nothing can reduce millennials to tears more swiftly than hearing the name “Thomas J.” This lovely, ultimately tragic coming-of-age story takes us back to a time when movies for children weren’t afraid to grapple with things like death. In the film, Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) suffers anxieties born from the early death of her mother, living in a funeral home, a new stepmother figure (a terrific Jamie Lee Curtis), and the death of her first bestie-peudo-love interest, Macaulay Culkin’s bespectacled Thomas J. It’s an idiosyncratic, elegantly structured dash of nostalgia that hinges on Chekhov’s mood ring, and still inspires uplift despite its heavy material.
Parasite (2019)
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Song Kang-ho, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam
MPA rating: R
Rotten 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 Joon Ho’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 makes 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 Campion
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, and Frances Conroy
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 89
Jane 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 Benedict Cumberbatch as one of the most terrifying movie villains in 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 Jenkins
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Paul Giamatti, Kathryn Hahn, Molly Shannon, John Carroll Lynch, Kayli Carter, and Denis O’Hare
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 83
In one of Netflix’s best movies and most overlooked masterworks, Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti star as an infertile New York City couple who, after several unsuccessful attempts at fertility treatment, consider surrogacy with their wayward niece (Kayli Carter). It’s only the third entry in writer-director Tamara 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.
Shirkers (2018)
Director: Sandi Tan
Genre: Documentary
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Metacritic: 88
When filmmaker Sandi 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.
Stand By Me (1986)
Director: Rob Reiner
Genre: Coming-of-Age Drama
Notable cast: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Richard Dreyfuss
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 75
Speaking of coming-of-age sagas about death, Stand By Me looms large for good reason. With the recent tragic death of Rob Reiner, it’s been uplifting to see his career in the spotlight, including this, his directorial debut. Based on Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” a group of young friends wander through the wilderness in search of the remains of a missing child. Along with the trials of friendship and the boys’ home lives, the film tackles themes including death, violence, and masculinity in gentle emotional ways that have left a lasting imprint on audiences for 40 years. Once ranked by Vanity Fair as the best Stephen King movie, many call it Reiner’s best as well.
Strong Island (2017)
Director: Yance Ford
Genre: Documentary
MPA rating: Unrated
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Metacritic: 86
Yance 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 in 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.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Director: Anthony Minghella
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, and Celia Weston
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 76
Patricia Highsmith’s iconic Tom Ripley got his best screen treatment in Anthony Minghella’s follow-up to The English Patient. With Matt Damon as the eponymous social strata chameleon, the Euro-set thriller follows him as he ingratiates himself to Jude Law’s firebrand-hot Dickie Greenleaf, then murders him and assumes his identity. Despite being a small-scale hit on release, The Talented Mr. Ripley arrived as the cool-factor tide was beginning to turn on stars Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow and its director Minghella (I’ll blame you for that, Elaine Benes!) and the audience response was mixed at the time. But now, reappraisals have accepted the slippery film as the masterpiece that it is. It's also such a perfect time capsule of its young stars that it seems almost miraculous, a gift from a benevolent god.
Train Dreams (2025)
Director: Clint Bentley
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy, Clifton Collins, Jr., Paul Schneider, and Will Patton
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 88
Of all Netflix’s 2025 original films, Train Dreams quietly reigns supreme. Joel Edgerton stars as an early-midcentury logger in this quiet stunner based on an acclaimed Denis Johnson novella. The film depicts his life with equal parts pain and beauty, giving the history of the American Pacific Northwest landscape a mythic scope. Vanity Fair has already declared the film to be “delicate and deeply existential, with breathtaking imagery and a moving, heartbreaking performance at its center.” Viewers continue to discover that after its Thanksgiving-adjacent premiere. If you want to look at this year’s awards underdog, it’s sitting right there waiting for you on Netflix.
Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
Director: Rian Johnson
Genre: Mystery
Notable cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, James Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, Bridget Everett, and Jeffrey Wright
MPA rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 80
By now, Benoit Blanc has become one of the most indelible movie characters of the 21st century thanks to Rian Johnson’s ever-evolving Knives Out franchise. After the standard-bearing original and the rollicking jet set of Glass Onion, Johnson takes us to a more soulful and introspective place with the locked-door mystery of Wake Up Dead Man and comes out the other side with the best and most distinctive entry in the series. Beside Daniel Craig’s rascally Blanc is the film’s greatest asset: a diminished, yet hopeful Father Jud played spectacularly by Josh O’Connor. While the film trades in themes of faith and forgiveness allegorically attuned to our current national climate, O’Connor grounds the film with charisma and a sharp compass for every moment of his character's spiritual rollercoaster.
Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Genre: Drama
Notable cast: Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, and Diego Luna
MPA rating: Unrated
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 89
After a few financial misfires, director Alfonso Cuarón catapulted to global acclaim with this Mexican drama about two teenage friends (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) who take a sexually charged road trip with an older woman (Maribel 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.
