The 50 best films on Netflix to watch in October 2025
From 21st-century bangers to Oscar-winning classics, there's plenty of good movies on Netflix...
Netflix has a treasure trove of 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.
Contents
50. Don’t Look Up
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2021
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet
- Director: Adam McKay
- Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes
What it’s about: After an astronomy grad student and her professor discover a comet set to collide with Earth, they embark on a media tour to warn mankind. But, whether it’s the President of the United States, TV presenters, or the doubtful public, nobody seems to care.
Why to watch: Don’t Look Up is smug. It can also be a bit irritating, and it isn’t always as funny as it thinks it is. But with stars like DiCaprio, Lawrence, and Streep delivering game, hammed-up performances, and a prudent, surprisingly emotional story about the literal end times, it’s an entertaining, necessary satire for now.
49. The Irishman
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Runtime: 3 hours 29 minutes
What it’s about: Through a chance encounter, Frank Sheeran becomes a handyman for the mafia, ‘painting houses’ and doing anything else asked of him. His dispassion for life makes him a huge asset, especially when he’s sent to work for Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful Teamsters leader.
Why to watch: Thank goodness it wasn’t, but The Irishman would’ve been a fitting final film for Scorsese. It feels like the grand summation of his ambitions and plights over the years.
The gangster beats are there, but as a loving, desperately moving look at mortality, guilt, and how time endlessly, irrepressibly moves on, this is a truly extraordinary movie – and definitely one of the best Netflix films.
48. Something’s Gotta Give
- Genre: Comedy, Romance
- Year: 2003
- Cast: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand
- Director: Nancy Meyers
- Runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes
What it’s about: Harry, an ageing music executive known for dating younger women, unexpectedly falls for Erica, his girlfriend’s mother. As their relationship deepens, both must face the fears and insecurities that come with love later in life.
Why to watch: Something’s Gotta Give is pure Nancy Meyers magic. You have three mega-watt Hollywood legends, cosy interiors that’ll make you resent your own home, and laughably implausible meet-cutes and mishaps that somehow feel relatable.
This is a rom-com classic that’s only gotten better with age; why aren’t we giving Meyers money to make these movies all the time?
47. Steve
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2025
- Cast: Cillian Murphy, Tracey Ullman, Jay Lycurgo, Simbi Ajikawo, Emily Watson
- Director: Tim Mielants
- Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
What it’s about: Steve, the head teacher at a last-chance reform school, fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure as one of his students tries to overcome his impulses for self-destruction and violence.
Why to watch: A modern answer to Dead Poets Society, Steve is an urgent, sobering, yet compassionate drama about self-destruction, burnout, and helping those who don’t want to be helped (or certainly, that’s how it appears).
Murphy is, typically, spectacular, but this is a film that has something to say. You could even call it a companion piece to Netflix’s Adolescence (though it’s not as upsetting).
46. The Devil All the Time
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 2020
- Cast: Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough
- Director: Antonio Campos
- Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes
What it’s about: In the backwoods of Ohio, sinister characters – an unholy preacher, a twisted couple, and a crooked sheriff – converge around young Arvin Russell as he fights the evil forces and local corruption that threaten him and his family.
Why to watch: The Devil All the Time is one of Netflix’s best (and most underrated) films. It could be grim for some viewers (seriously, it is oppressively nihilistic at times). But it also has Tom Holland playing against type as a blood-knuckled avenger, Robert Pattinson doing an outrageous southern accent, and a stark, sprawling story that never holds back.
45. Triple Frontier
- Genre: Action, Thriller
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund
- Director: J.C. Chandor
- Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
What it’s about: Five former Special Ops soldiers reunite to steal money from a South American drug lord. But when the heist goes wrong, loyalties are tested as they give in to greed.
Why to watch: Who among us hasn’t felt like they haven’t been justly rewarded for their efforts in life? Triple Frontier speaks to that universal, cursed longing – it just happens to be packaged in a star-studded, action-packed neo-Western that looks better than most Netflix originals. It’s tight, gritty, and a hidden gem in the streamer’s library.
44. BlackBerry
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson
- Director: Matt Johnson
- Runtime: 2 hours 1 minute
What it’s about: Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin invent the world’s first smartphone: the BlackBerry, revolutionising communication and – for a time – dominating the industry. However, when an investor joins the company, their hubris blinds them to their doom as a rival emerges.
Why to watch: If you mixed The Social Network and Succession, you’d get BlackBerry, a pacy, irresistible biopic from Matt Johnson, one of the peerless minds behind Nirvana the Band the Show.
It’s often viciously hilarious (Glenn Howerton is on another level) and a fascinating, sympathetic insight into a dead behemoth.
43. Inside Llewyn Davis
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2013
- Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Adam Driver
- Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it’s about: Llewyn Davis, a struggling folk musician in 1960s New York, drifts from couch to couch as he pursues success and tries to retain his artistic integrity and independence.
Why to watch: Inside Llewyn Davis is the perfect example of the Coen Brothers’ indefinable filmography: masterful, but unlike anything else they’ve made.
As drab as it may look and feel, this is a heartfelt, sometimes absurd, and melancholic ode to music, even in failure. Enjoy singing, “Please Mr. Kennedy… uh oh!” for the rest of the year.
42. Society of the Snow
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella
- Director: J.A. Bayona
- Runtime: 2 hours 24 minutes
What it’s about: In 1972, a Uruguayan flight carrying a rugby team to Chile catastrophically crashes on a glacier in the Andes. The survivors are left to fend for themselves in one of the world’s toughest environments, resorting to extreme measures to stay alive.
Why to watch: Morbid curiosity is part of human nature; when something awful happens, we want to know more. Decades after Alive traumatised audiences, Society of the Snow intensifies not only the spectacle and horrors of the tragedy, but the resilience of those who survived.
It’s an incredible technical accomplishment, but awe rightly gives way to pathos.
41. Roma
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2018
- Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Jorge Antonio Guerrero
- Director: Alfonso Cuarón
- Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes
What it’s about: Cleo, a young domestic worker for a family in the middle-class neighbourhood of Roma in Mexico City, quietly observes their unravelling lives while navigating her own heartbreak.
Why to watch: Said to be a semi-autobiographical story based on Alfonso Cuarón’s upbringing, Roma is an auteurist masterclass; a capture of dreams and harsh realities in crystalline black and white.
It demands a little bit of patience, but it’s a richly involving experience if you can give yourself over to it.
40. Okja
- Genre: Drama, Sci-fi
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Ahn Seo-hyun, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal
- Director: Bong Joon-ho
- Runtime: 2 hours
What it’s about: Mija has an unusual best friend: Okja, a genetically engineered “super pig.” When she’s reclaimed by a powerful corporation, Mija embarks on a mission to rescue her and expose their exploitative secrets.
Why to watch: Okja can feel like a live-action Studio Ghibli film; it revolves around a young girl and a large, adorable creature in a world of wacky characters.
However, its joys pave the way for its terrors, pivoting from a fairy tale to a chilling, tear-jerking commentary about the meat industry. By the end, it’ll test even the staunchest meat eaters.
39. Marriage Story
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta
- Director: Noah Baumbach
- Runtime: 2 hours 17 minutes
What it’s about: Charlie and Nicole should be perfect together. He’s a stage director, she’s an actor, and they have a son together. But their marriage starts to fall apart, leading to a gruelling divorce and custody battle that consumes them.
Why to watch: Even though Marriage Story’s characters won’t resonate with everyone, their exquisitely written and acted arcs are familiar – and perhaps even a balm for those who may be struggling.
It’s a bitter, honest showcase of what happens when you want to want to be with someone, when you start saying the quiet part out loud, and how you find your way back to living beyond heartbreak.
38. The Equalizer
- Genre: Action, Thriller
- Year: 2014
- Cast: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz
- Director: Antoine Fuqua
- Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
What it’s about: Robert McCall, a former Marine, lives a quiet life in Boston. However, when he befriends a teenage trafficking victim, he seeks justice by waging war on the Russian mafia.
Why to watch: The Equalizer is a borderline B-movie masterpiece; gratuitously (and deliciously) violent, anchored by Denzel Washington in the sort of ruthless, grin-inducing form once reserved for his collaborations with Tony Scott.
If watching a load of goons get gruesomely and creatively murdered in a DIY store doesn’t sound fun to you, then you probably shouldn’t watch it.
37. The Meyerowitz Stories
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson
- Director: Noah Baumbach
- Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes
What it’s about: Ahead of their father’s career retrospective, three estranged siblings reunite in New York, where they contend with living in their dad’s long shadow and how it’s affected their relationships with each other.
Why to watch: Would you want to be friends with the Meyerowitz clan? Probably not: they’re a bit snobby, they seem miserable most of the time, and they’re all emotionally stunted.
Amazingly, that’s why the movie works. It’s a sharp, bittersweet, and relatable comedy about family (dys)function, with legends of the game delivering sublime performances – especially Sandler.
36. Annihilation
- Genre: Sci-fi, Horror
- Year: 2018
- Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez
- Director: Alex Garland
- Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
What it’s about: Lena, a biologist and former soldier, joins a mission to uncover what happened to her husband inside Area X – a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline.
Why to watch: Annihilation comes from Alex Garland, the writer behind 28 Days Later, Ex Machina, and Dredd. It’s sad (and baffling) that it isn’t revered more widely as one of the more ambitious and unsettling sci-fi movies of the past decade.
To its credit, it doesn’t spoon-feed you any answers; it’s a dread-inducing puzzle you can’t solve.
35. Blade Runner 2049
- Genre: Sci-fi
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas, Jared Leto
- Director: Denis Villeneuve
- Runtime: 2 hours 43 minutes
What it’s about: K, a replicant officer with the LAPD, unearths a secret that could reshape society’s view of artificial life. As he investigates further, he finds Deckard, a former blade runner who’s been missing for decades.
Why to watch: We may never see the likes of Blade Runner 2049 again: a beautiful, wondrous sci-fi epic that somehow honours and enriches its legendary predecessor, and one of our greatest living filmmakers’ magnum opus.
It should have been impossible, but – and whisper this – it might be better than the original.
34. The Pursuit of Happyness
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2006
- Cast: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandiwe Newton
- Director: Gabriele Muccino
- Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes
What it’s about: Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman, takes custody of his son after his marriage falls apart. He’s offered an unpaid internship at a brokerage firm, forcing him to live on the streets as he works toward a brighter future.
Why to watch: The Pursuit of Happyness will remind you why Will Smith was once the biggest movie star in the world. He is incredible here, delivering a performance that deservedly landed him his first Oscar nomination. It’s also one of the noughties’ most widely loved feel-good movies. One line says it all: “This part… is called happiness.”
33. The Harry Potter movies
- Genre: Fantasy
- Year: 2001
- Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman
- Director: Chris Columbus
- Runtime: 19 hours and 39 minutes in total across 8 films
What it’s about: Harry Potter, an 11-year-old orphan, finds out he’s a wizard. He leaves his abusive aunt and uncle behind to study at Hogwarts, where he discovers his infamous reputation in the world of witchcraft and wizardry. When the Dark Lord returns from the darkness, he’s the only one who can stop him.
Why to watch: Despite a woeful spin-off trilogy and off-screen controversies, the Harry Potter franchise has endured as one of the 21st century’s biggest franchises.
Why? Because the movies were, and remain, amazingly magical. Four distinct filmmakers and a perfectly cast ensemble brought the books to life better than anyone could have asked for. Sky and HBO are plotting a TV remake, but it’s hard to see how it won’t pale in comparison.
32. Split
- Genre: Horror, Thriller
- Year: 2016
- Cast: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley
- Director: M. Night Shyamalan
- Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes
What it’s about: Kevin, a man who can’t control switching between 23 distinct personalities, kidnaps three teenage girls and keeps them in an underground facility. As they try to figure out a way to escape, a monstrous new persona is about to emerge: “The Beast.”
Why to watch: Split was a long-needed return to form for M. Night Shyamalan when it released in 2016. Almost 10 years later, it’s still a bracingly thrilling, well-intentioned spin on an exploitation flick, armed with James McAvoy’s career-defining performance, a young and commanding Anya Taylor-Joy, and a final scene that made fans of a particular film very happy.
31. Jaws
- Genre: Thriller
- Year: 1975
- Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Runtime: 2 hours 4 minutes
What it’s about: After a young woman is killed by a shark, Amity Island’s police chief Martin Brody teams up with a marine biologist and a local fisherman to find and kill it.
Why to watch: What is there to say about Jaws that hasn’t already been said? After all, it’s rightly lauded as one of the best films ever made; remarkable, considering it was only Steven Spielberg’s fourth feature film.
It began the New Testament of blockbuster cinema, and decades on, it’s still worthy of worship.
30. Scream
- Genre: Horror
- Year: 1996
- Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard
- Director: Wes Craven
- Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes
What it’s about: A year after her mother’s death, Sidney and her friends are targeted by a costumed serial killer: Ghostface, a horror movie-obsessed murderer who could be hiding in plain sight.
Why to watch: Ghostface is a horror icon. Even now, kids and adults alike don the mask (bonus points if you had the one that pumped blood) and run around with fake knives at Halloween.
Here’s something people should remember: Scream is still every bit as effective as it was in the late ’90s, whether it’s the kills (the opening murder is extremely distressing), the performances, or its airtight, meta screenplay. Try as it might, the series has never been better.
29. All Quiet on the Western Front
- Genre: War, Drama, Action
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl
- Director: Edward Berger
- Runtime: 2 hours 27 minutes
What it’s about: A young German soldier enlists to fight in the First World War, eager to serve his country. But the initial excitement fades as soon as he arrives on the battlefield, witnessing his comrades die in horrific ways and experiencing the merciless reality of war.
Why to watch: Anti-war films aren’t a novel concept; the best Studio Ghibli film is Grave of the Fireflies, and Come and See is one of the most popular movies on Letterboxd.
Yet, All Quiet on the Western Front struck a nerve when it dropped on Netflix, proving the timelessness of its harrowing, all-too-true story. Watching young men wake up and realise they’re stuck in a nightmare will always be affecting.
28. Private Life
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2018
- Cast: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Kayli Carter
- Director: Tamara Jenkins
- Runtime: 2 hours 3 minutes
What it’s about: Rachel and Richard, a middle-aged couple in New York, are desperate to start a family. After years of trying on their own, they turn to their niece Sadie for help.
Why to watch: Private Life is raw, funny, and deeply human – a story about love tested by the quiet heartbreak of infertility. Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti give grounded performances as a couple clinging to hope, but it mainly works because it doesn’t fake emotion – this is wholly earnest.
27. Collateral
- Genre: Thriller, Action, Crime
- Year: 2004
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith
- Director: Michael Mann
- Runtime: 2 hours
What it’s about: Cab driver Max picks up Vincent, who has an unconventional request: drive him around through the night and drop him off in time for his flight home the next morning. He agrees, but he quickly learns that Vincent is a contract killer.
Why to watch: Jerry Maguire, Ethan Hunt, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell; Tom Cruise has no shortage of great roles. Collateral is his best work… and he plays a terrifying villain, a rarity in his long career.
Here’s the thing: it’s a fantastic action film, and the music is phenomenal. But its greatest moments could be a play; two men sitting in a car, prey and predator in conversation. Also, it’s a team-up with Cruise and Michael Mann, the director of Heat – greatness was guaranteed.
26. Good Will Hunting
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 1997
- Cast: Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver
- Director: Gus Van Sant
- Runtime: 2 hours 6 minutes
What it’s about: Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, mostly hides his genius… until a professor discovers his gift. With the help of a therapist, he begins to confront his past, his anger, and the possibility of a better future.
Why to watch: When they won the Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting, Ben Affleck was 25 and Matt Damon was 27. Forget the gold statuette: writing something so shrewd, funny (“How do you like them apples?”), and long-lasting so early in their prosperous, iconic careers is perhaps their greatest achievement. It’s a classic, and it is your fault if you haven’t seen it yet.
25. Schindler’s List
- Genre: Drama, War
- Year: 1993
- Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes
- Director: Steven Spielberg
- Runtime: 3 hours 15 minutes
What it’s about: Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist, hatches a plan to save thousands of Jews from persecution in the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during the Second World War.
Why to watch: As a true story, Schindler’s List speaks for itself; it’s enough to redeem your faith in humanity, even from an era of history that inflicted so much misery.
It’s also a mesmerising film, with Spielberg’s boldest and most sophisticated direction. Are there many cinematic images more powerful than the little girl in the red coat?
24. Superbad
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Stone
- Director: Greg Mottola
- Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes
What it’s about: Before they graduate high school and go to different colleges, Seth and Evan want to have one last big, drunken night together… and lose their virginities. However, things don’t go to plan.
Why to watch: They may be funnier than any of us were in school (“McLovin” is the best fake name ever), but Superbad is the most painfully (and hilariously) accurate cinematic representation of being a teenage boy on the cusp of change. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera (who are superb together) go on a ridiculous odyssey of boozing, sex, and cringe, but it’s rooted in truth.
23. Django Unchained
- Genre: Western, Action
- Year: 2012
- Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Runtime: 2 hours 45 minutes
What it’s about: Django, a slave, is freed by a German bounty hunter and becomes his apprentice. Together, they set off to rescue his wife from a ruthless plantation owner.
Why to watch: Six words: a spaghetti western by Quentin Tarantino. All of his movies are films he was born to make, but he swaggers with Django (including his best cameo next to Pulp Fiction), a stylish, joyously bloody ode to an entire genre of film. Jamie Foxx has never been cooler, and Leonardo DiCaprio has never been scarier.
22. No Country for Old Men
- Genre: Thriller, Crime
- Year: 2007
- Cast: Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones
- Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
- Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
What it’s about: A hunter stumbles upon a suitcase filled with cartel money, setting off a deadly pursuit across Texas. A relentless hitman follows his trail, while a weary sheriff tries to make sense of the violence left in their wake.
Why to watch: A movie only feels stretched out when it’s misdirected. No Country for Old Men may burn slowly, but it’s one of the most heart-thumpingly deliberate and near-perfect films of the past 20 years. Everyone is at the top of their game, especially Javier Bardem’s hitman, who may as well be the bogeyman incarnate.
21. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
- Genre: Comedy, Crime
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista
- Director: Rian Johnson
- Runtime: 2 hours 19 minutes
What it’s about: Master Detective Benoit Blanc is invited to a murder-mystery game on a Greek island by a tech billionaire called Miles Bron. When a real death occurs, Blanc tries to figure out who’s responsible – and what their motives are.
Why to watch: Knives Out was a stroke of knotty, eat-the-rich genius, but Glass Onion is the second in a streak of (hopefully) indefinite mysteries featuring Craig’s I-say-I-say southern detective. It’s grander, glitzier, and engineered for shock and awe even in rewatches; if only more people could have seen it in a cinema.
20. Forrest Gump
- Genre: Drama, Romance
- Year: 1994
- Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
- Director: Robert Zemeckis
- Runtime: 2 hours 22 minutes
What it’s about: Forrest Gump, a kind-hearted, gentle man from Alabama, unwittingly witnesses and influences decades of American history. He only wants one thing: to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny.
Why to watch: Forrest Gump could be retitled “The Movie.” It has everything: heart-wrenching drama, action, big laughs, an all-time romance, and the creative hutzpah to bring it together. It’s trendy to dunk on it these days – ignore the haters.
19. Da 5 Bloods
- Genre: War, Drama
- Year: 2020
- Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Chadwick Boseman
- Director: Spike Lee
- Runtime: 2 hours 36 minutes
What it’s about: Decades after the Vietnam War, the Bloods – a group of Black veterans – reunite in Saigon and embark on a mission to recover the remains of their fallen leader, who died in the heat of battle, and dig up a cache of gold they buried long ago. In their words, it’s reparations for “every Black boot that didn’t make it home.”
Why to watch: This is an anti-escapist war movie from Spike Lee; a furious, gruesome crusade into America’s heart of darkness, and a fascinating, blistering post-Coppola vision of the war’s immorality from America’s fieriest observer. It is sensational – in the simplest terms, it’s Stand By Me in Vietnam.
18. Barbarian
- Genre: Horror
- Year: 2022
- Cast: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
- Director: Zach Cregger
- Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
What it’s about: When Tess arrives at her Airbnb, she finds a man already staying there. He invites her in and suggests she stay anyway, but when she hears strange noises in the basement, she discovers something terrifying beneath the house.
Why to watch: Barbarian marked the arrival of Zach Cregger, a major new voice in horror. Some movies are scary because of their inevitability; if a masked killer comes into a house, you know someone’s going to die.
This film takes great enjoyment in making it clear that you don’t know what’s coming next. Avoid any other plot details before you watch it, and buckle up.
17. Bridesmaids
- Genre: Comedy, Romance
- Year: 2011
- Cast: Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd
- Director: Paul Feig
- Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
What it’s about: When her best friend gets engaged, Annie struggles to keep her cool as she clashes with a new rival for maid-of-honour duties, risking her own place at the wedding and a potential relationship with a charming local cop.
Why to watch: If you’re looking for decade-defining comedy moments in the 2010s, Bridesmaids has several. Melissa McCarthy shouting, “It’s coming out of me like lava!” as she poops in the sink, Kristen Wiig’s drunken aeroplane meltdown, and Maya Rudolph squatting in the street, to name a few. Make no mistake: it’s one of the best comedies ever made.
16. The Big Short
- Genre: Drama, Comedy
- Year: 2015
- Cast: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
- Director: Adam McKay
- Runtime: 2 hours 10 minutes
What it’s about: Before the 2008 financial crisis causes chaos around the world, a group of observant insiders spot the bubble that’s set to burst – and they bet against America, with lucrative results.
Why to watch: Adam McKay (the director of Anchorman and Step Brothers) achieved a miracle with The Big Short: taking a mind-scrambling subject, unpacking it in amusing and digestible ways, and coming out the other side with a scathing, one-of-a-kind caper. You may think it sounds boring – but it isn’t.
15. Creep
- Genre: Horror
- Year: 2014
- Cast: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice
- Director: Patrick Brice
- Runtime: 1 hour 17 minutes
What it’s about: Aaron, an aspiring videographer, agrees to film a day in the life of Josef, an eccentric loner who’s dying from an inoperable brain tumour. However, as the day unfolds, his behavior grows more unusual and perverse.
Why to watch: Creep raises laughably strange questions; why does Josef want to be filmed in a bath, and why does he have a werewolf mask? It’s profoundly awkward, but an air of menace creeps in with every passing scene, thanks to Duplass’ demented performance. This isn’t like any found-footage movie you’ve seen: the camera doesn’t flinch, right to its shocking end.
14. KPop Demon Hunters
- Genre: Animation, Action
- Year: 2025
- Cast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim
- Director: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
- Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: When they aren’t performing for thousands of fans, K-Pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey fight demons and protect people from supernatural threats. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet: a rival boy band of demons in disguise.
Why to watch: Netflix may be the biggest streaming service, but unlike its TV shows, its movies never become pop culture reference points. KPop Demon Hunters is the first exception, and deservedly so.
Produced by Sony Pictures Animation (which made the Spider-Verse films), there’s vibrant, dynamic artistry in each frame. It’s a brilliant two-hander: it pokes fun at Korean culture, but it’s also made for fans and complete noobs. Plus, its soundtrack could turn anyone into a K-pop fan.
13. Tick Tick Boom
- Genre: Musical
- Year: 2021
- Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Vanessa Hudgens
- Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
- Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes
What it’s about: Jonathan Larson, an aspiring playwright, hopes to write the next great American musical. But with his 30th birthday drawing near and the AIDS epidemic ravaging the artistic community, he struggles to handle the pressure.
Why to watch: Lin-Manuel Miranda created Hamilton. It’s fitting then that he’s the only person who could direct a (semi-)biopic about Larson, the mind behind Rent, and his tortured process with such resonance and empathy. The songs are great (’30/90′ is a banger), Garfield is at his peak, and it may even convert musical skeptics.
12. Prisoners
- Genre: Thriller
- Year: 2013
- Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Paul Dano
- Director: Denis Villeneuve
- Runtime: 2 hours 33 minutes
What it’s about: When Keller’s daughter goes missing, he grows frustrated with the police’s inability to find her and their reluctance to arrest a suspect. So, despite Detective Loki’s warnings and continued efforts to find her, he takes matters into his own hands.
Why to watch: What would you do if your child vanished? Is there a limit to what you would do to find them?
Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve’s hard-boiled, grim whodunnit, takes distressing turns to show just how depraved a desperate person can be. You have never seen a Hugh Jackman performance like this.
11. The Iron Claw
![Zack Efron shirtless and holding a wrestling belt in The Iron Claw [Credit: A24]](https://cdn.tvguide.co.uk/uploads/2025/10/the-iron-claw-best-netflix-movies.jpg)
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Holt McCallany
- Director: Sean Durkin
- Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
What it’s about: The Von Erich brothers make professional wrestling history in the early 1980s, driven by their father’s ambition. Behind the spectacle, tragedy and loss haunt the family’s pursuit of glory.
Why to watch: Wrestling’s heyday has been and gone, but you don’t need to be a WWE fan to watch The Iron Claw. It’s ultimately a story about brotherhood (and a painful one, at that), beautifully performed by Zach Efron and the rest of the cast. A word of warning, though: you’ll probably only watch it once, unless you want to keep crying.
10. Godzilla Minus One
- Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Drama
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki
- Director: Takashi Yamazaki
- Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes
What it’s about: Years after the US military’s nuclear tests in the Pacific, a gargantuan creature emerges from the depths to inflict its wrath on the people of post-war Japan.
Why to watch: Godzilla is cinema’s most iconic monster (sorry, King Kong), and Minus One is the greatest movie the franchise has ever produced. This is a devastating, awe-inspiring film, painstakingly directed and envisioned by Takashi Yamazaki.
Hollywood and its goofy MonsterVerse should be embarrassed; this is the Kaiju’s finest hour.
9. The Godfather / The Godfather Part II
- Genre: Crime, Drama
- Year: 1972 / 1974
- Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro
- Director: Francis Ford Coppola
- Runtime: 2 hours 55 minutes / 3 hours 22 minutes
What it’s about: Michael Corleone, the youngest son of a Mafia don, reluctantly succeeds his father as the head of the family. While he deals with enemies and betrayal as he expands the family’s operations, we also see the early years of Don Vito, from his Sicilian childhood to the origins of the mob in New York City.
Why to watch: Unlike its good-not-great threequel, the first two Godfathers are inseparable – both in story and quality.
Part 1 redefined gangster movies to the point that it’s considered the Godfather of the entire genre. Part 2 enriched the Corleone saga and became the instant gold standard of sequels. They are just as good as everyone has said and will continue to say, it’s as simple as that.
8. Crazy, Stupid, Love
- Genre: Comedy, Romance
- Year: 2011
- Cast: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone
- Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
- Runtime: 1 hour 58 minutes
What it’s about: After Cal’s wife asks for a divorce, he’s left bereft, drunkenly boring everyone with his problems. This changes when he meets Jacob, a smooth-talking bachelor who teaches him how to date again.
Why to watch: The golden age of romantic comedies ended sometime in the 2010s (go ahead, name more than a small handful of good ones after 2013), making Crazy, Stupid, Love one of the last truly great rom-coms.
But it’s more than a few cuts above its peers, thanks to some jaw-dropping plot twists, Steve Carell’s pitch-perfect performance, and the film blessing us by pairing Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone for the first time. It’s easily one of the best and most rewatchable films on Netflix.
7. Parasite
- Genre: Drama, Thriller
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik
- Director: Bong Joon-ho
- Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
What it’s about: The Kim family lives in a semi-basement flat in Seoul, struggling to make ends meet. When their eldest son starts tutoring a rich family’s daughter, they see an opportunity to infiltrate their lives. However, their deception starts to unravel.
Why to watch: Parasite’s director Bong Joon-ho said it best: “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.
This was the first foreign-language movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars, and for good reason. In short, it’s a masterpiece that everyone can enjoy; a work of art that’s immensely entertaining.
6. Get Out
- Genre: Horror
- Year: 2017
- Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
- Director: Jordan Peele
- Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes
What it’s about: Chris, a young Black man, agrees to meet his white girlfriend’s parents at their estate in upstate New York. Over the course of the weekend, insidious racial tensions emerge as Chris uncovers a horrifying secret.
Why to watch: Perhaps only rivalled by Hereditary, Get Out may be the best horror movie of the past 10 years.
Who’d have thought that Jordan Peele would be known as the new master of horror? In his directorial debut, a sharp, frightening satire that confronts racial tensions, he showcased his deft handle on the absurd – especially when it’s not funny. It’s the perfect choice to watch in your own sunken place: your couch, probably hiding under a blanket.
5. Rebel Ridge
- Genre: Action, Thriller
- Year: 2024
- Cast: Aaron Pierre, AnnaSophia Robb, Don Johnson, Emory Cohen
- Director: Jeremy Saulnier
- Runtime: 2 hours 13 minutes
What it’s about: Terry arrives in Shelby Springs with one goal: posting bail for his cousin and leaving before he gets into more trouble. However, when the crooked police force illegally seizes his money, he’s forced to take matters into his own hands.
Why to watch: Rebel Ridge might be Netflix’s best thriller yet — a lean, clinical blend of Reacher’s Dad-coded charms and Jeremy Saulnier’s precise direction.
It feels like a modern heir to First Blood: grounded, fuelled by righteous and controlled anger, with a star-is-born, hulking performance from Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson as his smarmy, loathsome foe.
4. Oppenheimer
- Genre: Drama, War
- Year: 2023
- Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Runtime: 3 hours
What it’s about: At the height of the Second World War, J. Robert Oppenheimer is recruited for a top-secret project: to create an atomic bomb, a revolutionary, catastrophic weapon that haunts him for the rest of his life.
Why to watch: Oppenheimer isn’t Christopher Nolan’s best film (that honour goes to Interstellar), but it is the culmination of his directing oeuvre.
Is it the quickest three-hour movie ever? It could be, barreling towards its inevitable boom with a breathless rhythm. You’d think a three-hour, part-black-and-white epic about the atomic bomb wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it almost made $1 billion. You could say… they heard the music.
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
- Genre: Comedy
- Year: 2013
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Runtime: 3 hours
What it’s about: After his career on Wall Street is cut short by a crash, Jordan Belfort takes a job at a small brokerage firm. Years later, he’s one of the wealthiest and most corrupt brokers in America – and the FBI is on his trail.
Why to watch: Leonardo DiCaprio’s filmography is an embarrassment of riches. Titanic, Inception, The Departed, The Great Gatsby, and Inception, among many others. The Wolf of Wall Street is his defining role – that’s how good it is.
It’s an epic, rollicking extravaganza of drug-fuelled, money-hungry decadence, and DiCaprio sells all of it (even the dwarf tossing). To think Martin Scorsese was in his 70s when he made this. That’s why he’s the GOAT.
2. Warrior
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2011
- Cast: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
- Director: Gavin O’Connor
- Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes
What it’s about: Tommy, an ex-Marine, returns home under mysterious circumstances to train for the world’s biggest martial arts tournament. Elsewhere, his estranged brother is at risk of losing his home, so he decides to get back in the cage to make ends meet.
Why to watch: Warrior is the best sports movie ever made. Yes, better than Rocky.
It is a foolproof movie. Unabashedly macho, yet shamelessly sentimental, with some of the most bruising and emotional combat sports scenes put to film. It doesn’t matter if you have a heart of stone: you will cry, and then you’ll recommend it to everyone, and so the Warrior cycle continues.
1. Uncut Gems
- Genre: Thriller, Crime
- Year: 2019
- Cast: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Lakeith Stanfield
- Director: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
- Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes
What it’s about: Howard Ratner, a jeweller and compulsive gambler, risks everything on a bet that could pull him from the depths of his debts. But his addiction pushes him closer to ruin and graver consequences than anything he’s ever faced.
Why to watch: Uncut Gems isn’t just the best movie on Netflix. It’s one of the most viscerally affecting films of the past 10 years; a feature-length panic attack that could be weaponised as a stress agent.
That may not sound like a reason to watch it, but it is. Plus, it boasts a legendary performance from Sandler that should have won him an Oscar. Whether it’s now or in 30 years, it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest movies of all time.
Read more: 10 of the best ‘hidden gem’ TV dramas you can stream for free right now
