Netflix Movies That Are Easy to Write About
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
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The sheer volume of films on Netflix — and the site's less than ideal interface — can make finding a genuinely great movie there a difficult task. To help, we've plucked out the 50 best films currently streaming on the service in the United States, updated regularly as titles come and go. And as a bonus, we link to more great movies on Netflix within many of our write-ups below. (Note: Streaming services sometimes remove titles or change starting dates without giving notice.)
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'8 Mile' (2002)
When the rapper Eminem made the transition from music sensation to movie star, he didn't squander the opportunity by making some throwaway jukebox quickie. He instead hooked up with the super-producer Brian Grazer and the Oscar-winning director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential"), who crafted this gritty, urban coming-of-age drama from the loose outlines of Eminem's own story. He stars as Jimmy Smith, known as B-Rabbit, a nowhere kid from a tough part of Detroit who suddenly finds his voice (and an outlet for his rage) as a participant in the city's impromptu, take-no-prisoners hip-hop "battles." Enimem proves a grounded, credible screen presence, and Hanson wisely surrounds him with an ace supporting cast, including Mekhi Phifer as his best friend, Brittany Murphy as his best girl, and Kim Basinger as the mom with whom he has, to put it mildly, a complicated relationship.
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'Bridget Jones's Diary' (2001)
Renée Zellweger was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her charming and uproariously funny work as the heroine of the best seller by Helen Fielding, here adapted with style and grace by the director Sharon Maguire. As a perpetually self-doubting and accident-prone publicist, Zellweger's Jones takes to her diary as she attempts to navigate the treacherous waters of single life, finding herself caught between two opposite suitors (Hugh Grant and Colin Firth). "Diary" never skimps on the embarrassing details, but Zellweger is such a sympathetic heroine, and the events are crafted with such warmth and good cheer, that you're with her every step of the way. Our critic called it "a delicious piece of candy."
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'Men in Black' (1997)
This "dryly clever" sci-fi/comedy hybrid plays, in many ways, like a sly satire of its star Will Smith's "Independence Day" from the previous summer, treating an alien invasion not as a doomsday event, but an everyday fact of life — burdened mostly by the inconveniences of bureaucracy. Tommy Lee Jones stars as "Kay," a longtime member of the agency in charge of tracking and regulating extraterrestrial visitors, while Smith stars as "Jay," the new recruit who must learn the ropes. The screenplay (by Ed Solomon, a co-writer for "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure") knows that the old-pro-meets-young-hotshot setup is a chestnut and treats it with the proper irreverence. And Barry Sonnenfeld's inventive direction gracefully amplifies the absurdity in every scenario. The result is a rarity: a big-budget tent pole that displays both jaw-dropping effects and a sense of humor.
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'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986)
Nestled comfortably in a remarkable run of teen-oriented pictures that included "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club," this fast-paced comedy from the writer and director John Hughes offers up one of his most iconic characters: Ferris Bueller (played to winking perfection by Matthew Broderick), a cocky, confident, freewheeling fast talker who cooks up a scheme to play hooky one last time with his best buddy (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend (Mia Sara). Hughes cheerfully intermingles broad slapstick comedy with sly character moments, subtly steering his story to an unexpectedly graceful and moving conclusion. (For a more contemporary teen comedy, try "Yes, God, Yes.")
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'The Town' (2010)
Ben Affleck followed the triumph of his feature directorial debut, "Gone Baby Gone," with this taut and gripping crime picture, adapted from the Chuck Hogan novel "Prince of Thieves." Affleck co-wrote, directed and stars as Doug MacRay, the ringleader of a group of tough Boston thieves who hatch a plot to steal millions in cash from Fenway Park — a heist complicated by shifting allegiances, a tenacious F.B.I. agent (Jon Hamm) and Doug's blossoming romance with a potential witness (Rebecca Hall). Affleck's sure hand with actors — Chris Cooper, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite and Jeremy Renner round out the ensemble — and his firm sense of time and place give the film a confidence that more than makes up for the familiarity of its storytelling. (Affleck's follow-up, the best picture winner "Argo," is also on Netflix.)
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'I Am Legend' (2007)
Richard Matheson's durable 1954 novel, previously brought to the screen as "The Last Man on Earth" and "The Omega Man," gets another go-round in the hands of the director Francis Lawrence (who went on to make three of the four "Hunger Games" films). Will Smith stars as a scientist who seems to be the last man in Manhattan after a virus eliminates most of the human race but leaves behind terrifying mutant creatures that attack at night. The horror and postapocalyptic sci-fi elements work as well as ever, but the real draw of "Legend" is the skill with which its technicians convincingly empty out New York City — and the eerie prescience of those prepandemic images. (Smith is also excellent in "The Pursuit of Happyness.")
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'Goodfellas' (1990)
Martin Scorsese tells the true story of Henry Hill, an average kid whose idolatry of the neighborhood gangsters made him an errand boy, then a low-level thief, then an architect of the 1978 Lufthansa heist — before he lost it all in a haze of drugs and deception. Scorsese's exhilaratingly expert use of first-person perspective makes the viewer less an observer than an accomplice, along for the jet-fueled ride to the top, and the cocaine-dusted binge to the bottom. Our critic called it "breathless and brilliant." (Gangster movie aficionados will also enjoy "Donnie Brasco" and "Once Upon a Time in America.")
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'Mean Girls' (2004)
The clique-based high school comedy has rarely been told with the rapier wit or the surgical precision of this sharp teen comedy from Mark Waters, directing a script adapted by Tina Fey from Rosalind Wiseman's book "Queen Bees and Wannabes." Fey turned Wiseman's youth-focused self-help book into the fabulously funny story of a new girl (Lindsay Lohan) who must quickly learn how to navigate a new and tricky social stratum. Rachel McAdams is deliciously despicable as the most popular (and thus, the most powerful) girl in school, while the "Saturday Night Live" veterans Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Fey herself shine in supporting turns. (For more wild comedy, stream "Old School.")
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'Seven' (1995)
A serial killer is terrorizing a grim metropolis and playing a bit of a game in the process: Each of his victims is, by his reckoning, guilty of one of the Seven Deadly Sins and dies in a corresponding manner. What could have been a gimmicky thrill-ride or a businesslike police procedural is instead rendered a skin-crawling portrait of urban ennui by the director David Fincher (his breakthrough feature), whose potent images of a perpetually gray and rainy cityscape are all of a piece with the hopelessness at the story's center. Brad Pitt is sympathetic as the rookie detective chasing him down, and Morgan Freeman is quietly stunning as his partner, turning the archetype of the world-weary, seen-it-all cop on its head — by showing us what happens when he sees something he's never even imagined. (Strong-stomached viewers can also check out "Natural Born Killers" on Netflix.)
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'Philomena' (2013)
The British comic actor Steve Coogan — best known for his long-running turns as Alan Partridge and as a fictionalized version of himself in the "Trip" movies and BBC series — made a surprising shift to the serious when he co-wrote and co-starred in Stephen Frears's adaptation of the nonfiction book "The Lost Child of Philomena Lee." Judi Dench received a best actress Oscar nomination for her performance ("so quietly moving that it feels lit from within," per our critic) as the title character, an Irishwoman who is seeking out the son she was forced to give up for adoption a half-century earlier. Coogan (nominated for best screenplay) is the journalist who assists her and uncovers a horrifying story of religious hypocrisy.
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'Straight Up' (2020)
When Todd (James Sweeney) and Rory (Katie Findlay) first meet, they bond over a shared love of "Gilmore Girls." That show's rat-tat-tat dialogue, pop culture savvy and unabashed sentimentality are all over this unconventional romantic comedy. Sweeney also wrote and directed, augmenting the normally drab rom-com template with a cornucopia of quirky and unexpected visual flourishes, and his screenplay is painfully astute, displaying an enviable ear for how, with the right partner, the affectations and witticisms of dating give way to confession and vulnerability.
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'Menace II Society' (1993)
The twin brothers Allen and Albert Hughes were only 21 years old when their debut feature roared onto screens in 1993, bursting with youthful energy. They marshal a sharp visual style and an immersive soundtrack to capture the unpredictability and intensity of South Central Los Angeles in the early '90s, crafting an updated riff on Martin Scorsese's "Mean Streets." Our critic praised the picture's "intense, painful believability" and "crackling ensemble acting," including then-newcomers Larenz Tate and Jada Pinkett and, in a brief but effective supporting role, the rising star Samuel L. Jackson.
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'The Hurt Locker' (2009)
Winner of the Oscar for best picture (and best director for Kathryn Bigelow), this harrowing war drama concerns a team of specialists trained in on-the-ground bomb defusing in Iraq — with a particular focus on Staff Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner), who's a bit of a loose cannon. Bigelow mines palpable, sweaty tension from this terrifying work, but she doesn't settle for cheap thrills; the film is most intense when dealing with James's internal conflicts and his psychological battles with his team. Manohla Dargis called it "a viscerally exciting, adrenaline-soaked tour de force." (The follow-up by Bigelow and the screenwriter Mark Boal, "Zero Dark Thirty ," is also on Netflix.)
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'Titanic' (1997)
Few expected James Cameron's dramatization (and fictionalization) of the sinking of the RMS Titanic to become a nearly unmatched commercial success (it was the top-grossing movie of all time for over a decade) and Academy Award winner (for best picture and best director, among others); most of its prerelease publicity concerned its over-budget and over-schedule production. But in retrospect, we should have known — it was the kind of something-for-everyone entertainment that recalled blockbusters of the past, deftly combining historical drama, wide-screen adventure and heartfelt romance. And its stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, provided the last in spades, becoming one of the great onscreen pairings of the 1990s. Our critic called it "a huge, thrilling three-and-a-quarter-hour experience." (For more historical drama, queue up "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.")
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'A River Runs Through It' (1992)
Brad Pitt was only one year out from his breakthrough role in "Thelma and Louise" when he starred in this lyrical adaptation by Robert Redford of the story collection by Norman Maclean. Pitt and Craig Sheffer star as the sons of a Montana minister (Tom Skerritt) as they come of age, and come apart, in the early 20th century. It is "ravishingly photographed" (Philippe Rousselot's cinematography won an Oscar and deserved it), and it was a cable standby for years after. But it is more than comfort food. Redford's subtle direction resists empty nostalgia in favor of a nuanced portrait of shifting values and mores. (For more Pitt, check out "Legends of the Fall" and his comic turn in Guy Ritchie's "Snatch.")
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'Boogie Nights' (1997)
When this crime-infused comedic drama roared onto the indie scene, it was widely (and favorably) compared to "Pulp Fiction." It's not hard to guess why: the setting amid the seedy underbelly of the Los Angeles suburbs; the screenplay filled with sly cinematic allusions; the hot-shot young auteur, directing his second feature. But Paul Thomas Anderson was no Tarantino wannabe; "Boogie Nights," his breakthrough film, is most memorable for the affection it shows its characters — a crew of pornographers and outcasts — and for its humanistic approach to their eccentricities. (Anderson's "Phantom Thread" is also on Netflix.)
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'Mission: Impossible' (1996)
You couldn't throw a stone in a multiplex in the 1990s without hitting a big-screen adaptation of a Boomer-era TV series, but Tom Cruise's take on the '60s spy show outlasted that vogue — and ended up with a bigger cultural footprint than its inspiration. The reason was simple: The bigger-is-better ethos of the franchise resulted in movies that felt like movies (not just overblown TV episodes), and that's very much the case in this first installment, with the baroque genre stylist Brian De Palma imposing his trademark trick photography, Dutch angles and sure hand for suspenseful set pieces. ("Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol," arguably the best of the sequels, is also on Netflix, as is the Cruise-fronted "Eyes Wide Shut.")
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'When Harry Met Sally' (1989)
The director Rob Reiner and the screenwriter Nora Ephron all but defined the contemporary romantic comedy with this sparkling, charming and uproariously funny story of an attractive woman (Meg Ryan) and man (Billy Crystal) who test their theories about if men and women can be friends. Stretching from their post-grad years to their early 30s, Harry and Sally's story is filled with quotable dialogue, colorful characters and one of the great punch lines in modern comedy ("I'll have what she's having"). But it's also a thoughtful exploration of gender roles and romantic expectations, and by the time Reiner and Ephron arrive at their lush Year's Eve wrap-up, they've earned the extravagance.
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'Nightcrawler' (2014)
Nothing less than a 21st-century "Taxi Driver," this sleek and disturbing nocturnal thriller from the writer-director Dan Gilroy concerns a smiling sociopath (Jake Gyllenhaal) who fakes his way into the world of television news with his visceral photography of crime scenes and accidents. But a taste of fame only leaves him wanting more, and it soon becomes clear that he'll do just about anything to get a good story — including create one. Gyllenhaal is eerily convincing as the moral void at the story's center — the movie also stars Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed — while Gilroy's crackerjack script rolls to a steady boil of dread and dismay, refusing to absolve viewers of their own complicity. (For a throwback urban crime thriller, try "Dirty Harry.")
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'Michael Clayton' (2007)
George Clooney turns in a towering performance as the title character, a "fixer" for a powerful New York law firm who's grown tired of cleaning up the messes of the morally reprehensible. But there are no easy exits in this world, dreamed up by the writer-director Tony Gilroy as a sleek and shrewd snapshot of corporate malfeasance. He creates a showcase role for Tilda Swinton, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a ruthless power broker whose confidence is diminishing by the minute. Manohla Dargis deemed it "adult, sincere, intelligent, absorbing." (Other Oscar winners on Netflix include "Darkest Hour" and "Girl, Interrupted.")
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'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967)
"This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks." With those simple but accurate words, the producer and star Warren Beatty helped kick off a whole new movement of subversive, challenging, youth-oriented moviemaking. Directed by Arthur Penn, the film initially received mixed responses — our critic dismissed it as "a cheap piece of baldfaced slapstick" — but in the passing years, its power and influence became undeniable. Every performance is a gem, but Beatty and Faye Dunaway rarely rose to this level in their other work, mixing sexuality, danger, restlessness and ennui.
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'Full Metal Jacket' (1987)
This vivid and disturbing grunt's-eye view of the war in Vietnam combines elements of Gustav Hasford's novel "The Short-Timers"; the war reporting of Michael Herr (who helped write the screenplay); and the distinctive eye of its director, Stanley Kubrick. Its best scenes come early, in the basic-training battle between a cruel drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey) and the heavyset new recruit he singles out for abuse (Vincent D'Onofrio). But Kubrick maintains a sense of relentless discomfort and complicated morality throughout the picture, which functions as a probing examination of the Vietnam War and of the mental toll it took on the men who fought it.
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'Gattaca' (1997)
In this thoughtful drama that emphasizes the science in science fiction, the writer and director Andrew Niccol dramatizes a not-too-distant future in which privileged children are genetically engineered before birth. This "handsome and fully imagined work," as our critic put it, is unapologetically brainy in a manner reminiscent of "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "THX 1138," daring to imagine that provocative ideas are just as thrilling as chases and shootouts. But it's not just a think piece; Niccol works playfully within the conventions of not only dystopian sci-fi but also mystery and film noir, throwing in a dash of other-side-of-the-tracks romance for extra spice. (Sci-fi fans should also check out "Blade Runner 2049.")
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'The Lost Daughter' (2021)
The actor-turned-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal writes and directs this adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novel, starring Olivia Colman as a professor on vacation whose strained interactions with a large, unruly American family — particularly a young, stressed mother (Dakota Johnson) — send her down a rabbit hole of her memories, a switch-flip intermingling of past and present. There is a bit of back story to untangle, which turns the film into something like a mystery. But "The Lost Daughter" is mostly noteworthy for its willingness to explore the darkest moments of parenthood, the horrible feeling of giving up and longing for escape. Colman brings humanity and even warmth to a difficult character, while Jessie Buckley beautifully connects the dots as her younger iteration. Our critic calls it "a sophisticated, elusively plotted psychological thriller." (The Gyllenhaal vehicle "The Kindergarten Teacher" is similarly unnerving.)
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'Monster' (2004)
Charlize Theron underwent a miraculous physical transformation to play the real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos, rendering herself all but unrecognizable in the process. But the power of her Oscar-winning performance goes much deeper. Theron manages to provoke both fear and sympathy with her portrayal, capturing not only Wuornos's rage and dangerousness but also her love for a kind woman (Christina Ricci, also excellent), whom she hopes, against the odds, can save her. The director, Patty Jenkins (who later helmed "Wonder Woman"), makes no apologies for Wuornos's acts, but neither does she minimize them, telling the story with grace and nuance and allowing her actors the space to bring these haunted souls to life.
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'Fast Color' (2019)
Most superhero movies clobber the viewer with special effects, smirking quips and strained world-building; Julia Hart's indie drama is barely a superhero movie at all, but a rich, tender character study of three women who just so happen to move objects with their minds. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is remarkable as Ruth, who has smothered her "abilities" in addiction and irresponsibility, returning home to join her mother (Lorraine Toussaint) and daughter (Saniyya Sidney) in an attempt to, well, save the world. Hart's rich screenplay (written with Jordan Horowitz) vibrates with small-town authenticity and hard-earned emotion; our critic called it "a small, intimate story that hints at much bigger things." (For more indie drama, try "We the Animals.")
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'Metallica: Some Kind of Monster' (2004)
A fascinating portrait of a superstar heavy metal group at a crossroads, "Some Kind of Monster" finds Metallica all but falling apart, with the musicians barely able to contain their hostility toward one another as they try to piece together an album The result is what A.O. Scott called "a psychodrama of novelistic intricacy and epic scope." Voyeuristic and compelling, it's a film about the nuts and bolts of making an album — but it's also about celebrity behavior, and the kind of psychobabble and walking-on-eggshells approaches that these bandmates must employ to continue abiding each other into middle age. (Music documentary lovers will also enjoy "What Happened, Miss Simone?")
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'The Power of the Dog' (2021)
"I wonder what little lady made these?" Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), asks about the paper flowers created by Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) — the first indication of the initial theme of Jane Campion's new film, an adaptation of the novel by Thomas Savage. Phil is a real piece of work, and when his brother and ranching partner George (Jesse Plemons) marries Peter's mother, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), it brings all of Phil's resentment and nastiness to the surface as he tries, in multiple, hostile ways, to exert his dominance and display his dissatisfaction. That tension and conflict would be enough for a lesser filmmaker, but Campion burrows deeper, taking a carefully executed turn to explore his complicated motives — and desires in this film of welcome complexity and unexpected tenderness; Manohla Dargis called it "a great American story and a dazzling evisceration of one of the country's foundational myths." (If you like literary adaptations, try "The Talented Mr. Ripley.")
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'Procession' (2021)
The films of the director Robert Greene (including "Bisbee '17" and "Kate Plays Christine") live at the intersection of documentary, drama and process, intermingling fact, fictionalization and the difficulties of pursuing that most elusive of goals, truth. That mixture is particularly effective here, as the filmmaker spent three years collaborating with a professional drama therapist and six survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the Midwest to create a series of scenes inspired by their experiences — and the considerable emotional fallout that ensued. It's a deeply moving and blisteringly powerful account of survival and support. (Documentary aficionados may also enjoy "Misha and the Wolves.")
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'Passing' (2021)
"She's a girl from Chicago I used to know," Irene (Tessa Thompson) says of Clare (Ruth Negga) — a statement that is accurate on the surface but that contains volumes of history, tension and secrets. Irene and Clare are both light-skinned Black women who have made different choices about how to live their lives, but when they reconnect, they are both prompted to reckon with who, exactly, they are. The screenplay and direction by Rebecca Hall (adapting Nella Larsen's 1929 novel) delicately yet precisely plumbs their psychological depths and wounds, and the sumptuous costumes and immaculate black and white cinematography serve as dazzling counterpoints to what Manohla Dargis called "an anguished story of identity and belonging."
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'The Nightingale' (2019)
Jennifer Kent, the writer and director of the terrifying "The Babadook," returns with this "rigorous, relentless" riff on revenge narratives and Hollywood westerns, refracted through the prism of white supremacy and violent patriarchy. Aisling Franciosi stars as an Irish woman in 19th-century Tasmania who embarks on a perhaps ill-advised crusade for justice after a brutal assault by a powerful commander. But such a summary makes "The Nightingale" sound like a straightforward story of good and evil; Kent complicates her characters at every turn and causes us to question which side we're on. It's a long, brutal, difficult picture, but an undeniably powerful one.
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'Apocalypse Now' (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola's loose, Vietnam-era adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" was a notoriously troubled production, harassed by weather woes, political struggles, budget and schedule overages and problems with actors. Considering how much drama occurred offscreen, it's somewhat miraculous that the final product is so singular and powerful — an awe-inspiring fusion of '60s psychedelic film, '70s genre reimagining and classic wide-screen epic, its ambition even more striking in this extended "Redux" cut from 2001. Our critic called it "a stunning work."
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'The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)' (2017)
Everyone in the Meyerowitz family has an ax to grind, from the aging sculptor father worried about his legacy (Dustin Hoffman) to his current, perpetually inebriated wife (Emma Thompson) to his adult children (Elizabeth Marvel, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller), who have spent their lives trying to please their father and are all screwed up because of it. The writer and director Noah Baumbach conveys their insecurities slyly, via their skittish interactions with their father and each other, and he masterfully makes their tribulations both wittily specific and richly universal. It's a dryly funny and surprisingly moving serio-comic drama; our critic praised its "near-perfect balance between engagement and discomfort." (Baumbach's "Marriage Story" is also on Netflix.)
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'Mudbound' (2017)
In this powerful adaptation by the director Dee Rees of the novel by Hillary Jordan, two families — one white and one Black — are connected by a plot of land in the Jim Crow South. Rees gracefully tells both stories (and the larger tale of postwar America) without veering into didacticism, and her ensemble cast brings every moment of text and subtext into sharp focus. Our critic called it a work of "disquieting, illuminating force." (For more period drama, queue up "The Beguiled" and "Crimson Peak.")
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'Middle of Nowhere' (2012)
Ava DuVernay won the directing award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for this sensitive, thoughtful and moving drama. Our critic Manohla Dargis noted, "she wants you to look, really look, at her characters," seeing past the clichés and assumptions of so many other movies, as she tells the story of Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a young nurse whose husband (Omari Hardwick) is in prison. Ruby dutifully visits, and keeps a candle burning at home, but when a kind bus driver (David Oyelowo) takes a shine to her, she begins to question her choices and allegiances. Corinealdi is a marvelous presence, playing the role with empathy and complexity, and the considerable charisma of Oyelowo — who would team up again with DuVernay for "Selma" — makes her dilemma all the more difficult. (For more heart-wrenching drama, queue up "Steel Magnolias.")
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'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (2020)
The acclaimed stage director George C. Wolfe brings August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winner to the screen, quite faithfully — which is just fine, as a play this good requires little in the way of "opening up," so rich are the characters and so loaded is the dialogue. The setting is a Chicago music studio in 1927, where the "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band are meeting to record several of her hits, though that business is frequently disrupted by the tensions within the group over matters both personal and artistic. Davis is superb as Rainey, chewing up her lines and spitting them out with contempt at anyone who crosses her, and Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 and won a posthumous Golden Globe best actor award for his performance, is electrifying as the showy sideman, Levee, a boiling pot of charisma, flash and barely concealed rage. A.O. Scott calls the film "a powerful and pungent reminder of the necessity of art." (Boseman is also brilliant as the baseball player Jackie Robinson in "42.")
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'His House' (2020)
Genre filmmakers have spent the past three years trying (and mostly failing) to recreate the magic elixir of horror thrills and social commentary that made "Get Out" so special, but few have come as close as the British director Remi Weekes's terrifying and thought-provoking Netflix thriller. He tells the story of two South Sudanese refugees seeking asylum in London, who are placed in public housing — a residence they are forbidden from leaving, which becomes a problem when things start going bump in the night. In a masterly fashion Weekes expands this simple haunted-house premise into a devastating examination of grief and desperation, but sacrifices no scares along the way, making "His House" a rare movie that prompts both tears and goose bumps. (For more horror, queue up "It Follows.")
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'Dick Johnson Is Dead' (2020)
"I've always wanted to be in the movies," Dick Johnson tells his daughter Kirsten, and he's in luck — she makes them, documentaries mostly, dealing with the biggest questions of life and death. So they turn his struggle with Alzheimer's and looming mortality into a movie, a "resonant and, in moments, profound" one (per Manohla Dargis), combining staged fake deaths and heavenly reunions with difficult familial interactions. He's an affable fellow, warm and constantly chuckling, and a good sport, cheerfully playing along with these intricate, macabre (and darkly funny) scenarios. But it's really a film about a father and daughter, and their lifelong closeness gives the picture an intimacy and openness uncommon even in the best documentaries. It's joyful, and melancholy and moving, all at once.
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'The Old Guard' (2020)
Gina Prince-Blythewood's adaptation of Greg Rucka's comic book series delivers the expected goods: The action beats are crisply executed, the mythology is clearly defined and the pieces are carefully placed for future installments. But that's not what makes it special. Prince-Blythewood's background is in character-driven drama (her credits include "Love and Basketball" and "Beyond the Lights"), and the film is driven by its relationships rather than its effects — and by a thoughtful attentiveness to the morality of its conflicts. A.O. Scott deemed it a "fresh take on the superhero genre," and he's right; though based on a comic book, it's far from cartoonish.
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'Da 5 Bloods' (2020)
Spike Lee's latest is a genre-hopping combination of war movie, protest film, political thriller, character drama and graduate-level history course in which four African-American Vietnam vets go back to the jungle to dig up the remains of a fallen compatriot — and, while they're at it, a forgotten cache of stolen war gold. In other hands, it could've been a conventional back-to-Nam picture or "Rambo"-style action/adventure (and those elements, to be clear, are thrilling). But Lee goes deeper, packing the film with historical references and subtext, explicitly drawing lines from the civil rights struggle of the period to the protests of our moment. A.O. Scott called it a "long, anguished, funny, violent excursion into a hidden chamber of the nation's heart of darkness." (For more genre-infused drama, check out "Sleight.")
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'Catch Me If You Can' (2001)
Steven Spielberg reunited with Tom Hanks and joined forces with Leonardo DiCaprio to craft this breezy, snazzy, giddily enjoyable caper comedy that is based on a (possibly) true story. DiCaprio stars as Frank W. Abagnale Jr., an unflappable con artist who passed as a doctor, a lawyer and an airline pilot; Hanks is the buttoned-down F.B.I. agent who's hot on his trail; and Christopher Walken nabbed an Oscar nomination for his atypically muted turn as Abagnale's hustler dad. Our critic called it "a smart, funny caper" while praising its "strain of sly social satire."
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'13TH' (2016)
Ava DuVernay ("Selma") directs this wide-ranging deep dive into mass incarceration, tracing the advent of America's modern prison system — overcrowded and disproportionately populated by Black inmates — back to the 13th Amendment. It's a giant topic to take on in 100 minutes, and DuVernay understandably has to do some skimming and slicing. But that necessity engenders its style: "13TH" tears through history with a palpable urgency that pairs nicely with its righteous fury. Our critic called it "powerful, infuriating and at times overwhelming."
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'Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution' (2020)
"This camp changed the world," we're told, in the early moments of James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham's documentary, "and nobody knew about it." The most refreshing and surprising element of this moving chronicle is that, title notwithstanding, the subject is not Camp Jened, the Catskills getaway that offered disabled kids and teens a "normal" summer camp experience. It's about how that camp was the epicenter of a movement — a place where they could be themselves and live their lives didn't have to be a utopian ideal, but a notion that they could carry out into the world, and use as a baseline for change. (Documentary fans should also seek out "Elena" and "F.T.A.")
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'American Factory' (2019)
Documentary filmmakers have long been fascinated by the logistics and complexities of manual labor, but Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's recent Oscar winner for best documentary feature views these issues through a decidedly 21st-century lens. Focusing on a closed GM plant in Dayton, Ohio, that's taken over by a Chinese auto glass company, Bognar and Reichert thoughtfully, sensitively (and often humorously) explore how cultures — both corporate and general — clash. Manohla Dargis calls it "complex, stirring, timely and beautifully shaped, spanning continents as it surveys the past, present and possible future of American labor." (Netflix's documentaries "Icarus" and "The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson" are also well worth your time.)
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'The Irishman' (2019)
Martin Scorsese reteams with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci for the first time since "Casino" (1995), itself a return to the organized crime territory of their earlier 1990 collaboration "Goodfellas" — and then adds Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa. A lazier filmmaker might merely have put them back together to play their greatest hits. Scorsese does something far trickier, and more poignant: He takes all the elements we expect in a Scorsese gangster movie with this cast, and then he strips it all down, turning this story of turf wars, union battles and power struggles into a chamber piece of quiet conversations and moral contemplation. A.O. Scott called it "long and dark: long like a novel by Dostoyevsky or Dreiser, dark like a painting by Rembrandt." (Scorsese's "The Departed" and "Taxi Driver" are also on Netflix, as is De Niro's "Awakenings.")
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'Roma' (2018)
This vivid, evocative memory play from Alfonso Cuarón is a story of two Mexican women in the early 1970s: Sofía (Marina de Tavira), a mother of four whose husband (and provider) is on his way out the door, and Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), the family's nanny, maid and support system. The scenes are occasionally stressful, often heart-wrenching, and they unfailingly burst with life and emotion. Our critic called it "an expansive, emotional portrait of life buffeted by violent forces, and a masterpiece." (For more character-driven drama, check out "The Two Popes" and "High Flying Bird.")
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'Private Life' (2018)
Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti shine as two New York creative types whose attempts to start a family — by adoption, by fertilization, by whatever it takes — test the mettle of their relationships and sanity. The wise script by the director Tamara Jenkins is not only funny and truthful but also sharply tuned to their specific world: Few films have better captured the very public nature of marital trouble in New York, when every meltdown is interrupted by passers-by and lookie-loos. "Private Life," which our critic called "piquant and perfect," is a marvelous balancing act of sympathy and cynicism, both caring for its subjects and knowing them and their flaws well enough to wink and chuckle. (For more character-driven comedy/drama, add "Friends With Money " to your list.)
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'Deliverance' (1972)
James Dickey's brutal, muscular novel gets an appropriately unsettling big-screen treatment in this film adaptation from the director John Boorman. Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox play a trio of Atlanta businessmen who head to the Georgia backwoods for a canoeing trip, and get a bit more local color than they're planning on. Our critic called the film, nominated for three Oscars (including best picture), a "stunning piece of moviemaking." (If you love classic action, see "The Dirty Dozen.")
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'My Happy Family' (2017)
A 52-year-old Georgian woman shocks her family, and her entire community, when she decides to move out of the cramped apartment she shares with her husband, children and parents in order to begin a life of her own. "In this world, there are no families without problems," she is told, and the conflicts of the script by Nana Ekvtimishvili (who also directed, with Simon Gross) are a sharp reminder that while the cultural specifics may vary, familial guilt and passive aggression are bound by no language. Manohla Dargis praised its "sardonically funny, touching key." (For more critically acclaimed foreign drama, try "Happy as Lazzaro," "Everybody Knows" or "On Body and Soul .")
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'Atlantics' (2019)
Mati Diop's Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winner is set in Senegal, where a young woman named Ava (Mama Sané) loses the boy she loves to the sea, just days before her arranged marriage to another man. What begins as a story of love lost moves, with the ease and imagination of a particularly satisfying dream, into something far stranger, as Diop savvily works elements of genre cinema into the fabric of a story that wouldn't seem to accommodate them. A.O. Scott called it "a suspenseful, sensual, exciting movie, and therefore a deeply haunting one as well." (For similarly out-of-this-world vibes, try Bong Joon Ho's "Okja.")
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'Burning Cane' (2019)
The brief running time of Phillip Youmans's "haunting" debut feature is, in a way, an act of mercy; it is a story of such bleakness and melancholy, of so many lives in various states of distress and despair, that to dig in longer might be more than some viewers can bear. Yet "Burning Cane" is somehow not a depressing experience; its filmmaking is so exhilarating, its performances so electrifying, its sense of time and place so deeply felt that the picture crackles and vibrates like the old blues records that inspired Youmans, who wrote as well as directed the 2019 film. That he was a teenager at the time renders his work all the more stunning; it has the kind of richness and wisdom some filmmakers spend a lifetime accumulating. (Indie drama lovers may also enjoy "Everything Must Go" and "Residue.")
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-movies-netflix.html
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