The 10 best Netflix films you can watch in May 2026
A new Sally Field movie has been hailed as an "absolute gem"
Netflix is the biggest streaming platform in the world, and it also has some of the best films ever made – if you know where to look.
But that’s the problem. Whether it’s the platform’s homepage showing you the same dozen-or-so things over and over again, or you scrolling ad-infinitum before watching something you’ve already seen, you can’t always find the best movies on Netflix.
Don’t worry: that’s where we come in. If you’ve already worked through the best films on BBC iPlayer and you want something else to watch, you’re in the right place.
Remarkably Bright Creatures
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2026
- Cast: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, Alfred Molina
- Director: Olivia Newman
- Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
What it’s about: A widow who works at a local aquarium finds joy again when she forms unlikely bonds with a giant Pacific octopus and a wayward young man who comes to town in search of family. Together, they uncover a mystery that will lead them to a life-changing discovery and restore their sense of wonder.
Why to watch: What do you get when you mix a best-selling novel, a two-time Oscar-winning actress, and a loveable creature? In Remarkably Bright Creatures’ case, a wonderful, heartwarming movie that’ll leave you sobbing – and, according to the author, “there’s just a wide range of ages and generations and characters that people can enjoy together”.
It Ends With Us
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate
- Director: Justin Baldoni
- Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes
What it’s about: A florist’s seemingly perfect relationship unravels when an old flame re-enters the picture, forcing her to make a difficult choice about her future.
Why to watch: One critic described It Ends With Us as Hallmark’s version of Sleeping with the Enemy. Whether or not that’s the positive will lie in the eye of the beholder; it’s a frothy, soapy, and thoroughly anti-love story that arguably isn’t dark or delicate enough.
Still, it’s a Colleen Hoover adaptation, and it spawned a major, messy Hollywood lawsuit between its two leads. That’s enough reason to be (grimly) curious.
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Eye in the Sky
- Genre: Thriller
- Year: 2016
- Cast: Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Aaron Paul
- Director: Gavin Hood
- Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
What it’s about: Katherine, a colonel in the British army, is faced with a dilemma when an innocent girl enters the kill zone of an operation to eliminate terrorists in Kenya.
Why to watch: Eye in the Sky is almost a blown-up, knottier take on the trolley problem: is it ethical to kill an innocent person (and a child, no less) if it serves the greater good, even if that “good” is defined and decided by powers beyond you? It’s a taut, ambitious, superbly executed thriller with some terrific performances – including Alan Rickman’s final on-screen appearance.
Small Things Like These
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Clare Dunne
- Director: Tim Mielants
- Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes
What it’s about: In 1985, a devoted father finds a shivering girl in a shed and begins to unravel the tightly held secrets between his small Irish town and its convent.
Why to watch: Very much a companion piece to The Magdalene Sisters and Philomena, Small Things Like These is a somber, disquieting drama about how endemic evil breathes and thrives through all of those who do nothing. Cillian Murphy, in hushed, devastating form, expresses more in his stillness than other actors manage in a scream.
Run Fatboy Run
- Genre: Comedy, Romance
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Moran
- Director: David Schwimmer
- Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: Five years after leaving his pregnant fiancée at the altar, Dennis signs up for a marathon to show her he has changed — and beat her new boyfriend.
Why to watch: Run Fatboy Run is a delightfully sweet, charming British crowdpleaser that unfolds almost exactly as you’d expect. That last part sounds like a criticism, but for a film to be “formulaic”, there needs to be a formula that works – and this rom-com (directed by Friends legend David Schwimmer, no less) is funny and heartwarming enough that you won’t care.
St Trinian’s
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Lena Headey, Gemma Arterton
- Director: Oliver Parker, Barnaby Thompson
- Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
What it’s about: When an educational minister threatens to close St. Trinian’s school, the student body plans a lucrative heist worthy of a million detentions.
Why to watch: For viewers of a certain generation, St. Trinian’s is one of the defining comedies of the 2000s. Gloriously silly, anarchic, and genuinely star-studded, it’s sadly the sort of film that’d go direct to streaming these days and fade into obscurity – but we still remember it, and now you can revisit it!
Barbie
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell
- Director: Greta Gerwig
- Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
What it’s about: Barbie has a perfect life in Barbie Land: she parties all the time, Ken fawns over her, and she has nothing to worry about. However, her eyes are opened to unimaginable possibility when she gets the chance to see the real world.
Why to watch: Barbie is a miracle: it’s the ultimate product placement movie, but it’s also a hilarious, poignant, and ambitiously meta comedy that proves any IP has potential (especially if you have Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig at the helm). Ryan Gosling also threatens to steal the movie as Ken.
I Saw the TV Glow
- Genre: Horror, Drama
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Justice Smith, Jack Haven, Lindsey Jordan, Fred Durst
- Director: Jane Schoenbrun
- Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: A young loner befriends an older classmate who introduces them to their favourite late-night TV show. They become obsessed together, blurring the lines of reality.
Why to watch: I Saw the TV Glow is one of the decade’s true masterpieces; a horror movie that reckons with the timely fears of a generation in horrifying, singular fashion. It never got a major release in the UK, but Netflix is rectifying that regrettable mistake.
Rogue Agent
- Genre: Crime, Thriller
- Year: 2022
- Cast: James Norton, Gemma Arterton, Marisa Abela, Sarah Goldberg
- Director: Declan Lawn
- Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
What it’s about: A con artist masquerades as an MI5 agent for years. But then he scams a quick-witted lawyer — who decides to take him down.
Why to watch: James Norton played one of TV’s most despicable, magnetic villains in Happy Valley. Rogue Agent is a superb use of his talents; a captivating, slimy scammer and charmer (if the timing was right, it would tee him up as the next James Bond – and not just because it stars ex-Bond girl and Secret Service star Gemma Arterton).
Apex
- Genre: Thriller, Action
- Year: 2026
- Cast: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana
- Director: Baltasar Kormákur
- Runtime: 1 hour 35 minutes
What it’s about: A grieving woman testing her limits in the Australian wilderness is suddenly ensnared in a deadly game with a ruthless predator.
Why to watch: Baltasar Kormákur may not be a household name, but if you’ve seen Everest or Beast, you’ll know his knuckle-whitening aptitude for on-location, gnarly survival movies. This one just has the added bonus of all-timer action heroine Charlize Theron and Kingsman’s Taron Egerton as a psychopath. Plus, you’ll be humming that Chemical Brothers song all day. Sold!
Read more: The best TV shows on Netflix right now
