So you're sitting on the couch, staring at the Netflix menu, once again frozen with indecision.
Life shouldn't have to be this hard — and we're here to make it just a little easier.
From incredible underrated gems to timeless favorites that you haven't thought about in
years, we've rounded up the best movies on Netflix right now.
The Shining
What can you say about The Shining that hasn't been said, oh, 237 times before?
"Here's Johnny!"
Even though it's almost 40 years old, Stanley Kubrick's horror tour de force is still delivering
fresh chills and thrills to new generations.
Part of the reason is that homicidal psychosis doesn't age the way bad CG and monster suits
do — Jack's slow spiral into insanity at the Overlook Hotel rings just as true now
as it did in 1980.
Not only that, but The Shining is also just damn entertaining — it's one of Kubrick's
best movies, one of Jack Nicholson's best movies, and one of the best horror movies
ever made.
My Left Foot
Daniel Day-Lewis earned his first Academy Award for his performance in My Left Foot,
a powerful biopic about real-life writer Christy Brown, a lifelong quadriplegic who could only
write using his toes.
Day-Lewis masterfully portrays all the nuances and frustrations born of a life confined to
a wheelchair — no doubt thanks to the fact that he Method-acted the crap out of the role,
refusing to leave the wheelchair or break character between takes.
That's insane dedication, but it paid off — My Left Foot is an immensely emotional
movie about one man's triumph over the cruel hand dealt to him at birth.
Hot Fuzz
Edgar Wright's 2007 hit Hot Fuzz is arguably the best of the so-called "Cornetto Trilogy,"
which also includes Shaun of the Dead and The World's End.
The story starts with Simon Pegg's super-cop Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who's so
good at his job that he's making the rest of the department look bad.
To save their image, the brass reassigns him to a sleepy little town in the English countryside.
"If we let you carry on, running around town, you'll continue to be exceptional, and we
can't have that."
Of course, it's only a matter of time before he uncovers an insidious plot hiding beneath
the perfect façade.
Inspired by every action movie ever and packed with more jokes than a stand-up special, Hot
Fuzz is one of the best action comedies ever made, hands down.
Spotlight
Based on the true story of the Boston Globe's investigation into allegations of widespread
sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, Spotlight is one of those rare films that ignores the
sensational and dives straight into the heart of the story.
With a sharp script and brilliant cast full of scene-stealers, it's no wonder Spotlight
took Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 2016 Oscars.
Like the Pulitzer-prize winning reporting that inspired it, Spotlight is unflinching
and thorough in its take on a highly controversial subject.
Hush
Currently sitting on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94 percent rating as of the making of this
video, 2016's Hush is an ingenious, white-knuckle horror thriller that you can't miss.
The premise is simple: Maddie, a deaf/mute author, is staying in her isolated house deep
in the Alabama woods when a masked killer appears at her window.
Without saying a word, largely unknown actress Kate Siegel portrays Maddie as strong, capable,
and intelligent — a breath of fresh air for a female role in a horror movie.
Nightcrawler
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal in one of his most quietly sinister roles, Nightcrawler follows
Lou Bloom, a desperate young man who discovers that he can make some quick cash by filming
crime scenes and selling the footage to the local news stations.
Bloom gets sucked into the seedy world and begins an ambitious, grueling climb to become
top dog in a world of bottom feeders.
"With Los Angeles crime rates going down, I think that makes items like mine particularly
valuable, like rare animals."
Gyllenhaal is fantastic, and first-time director Dan Gilroy captures the grimy underbelly of
Los Angeles perfectly, evoking a sense of disquiet and barely-concealed rage that surges
just beneath the surface of both the city and its inhabitants.
No Country For Old Men
Based on the 2005 Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, 2008's Oscar-sweeping No Country
For Old Men takes place in the 1980s in Texas, where a blue-collar worker named Llewelyn
Moss, played by Josh Brolin, stumbles across the aftermath of a violent drug shoot-out
in the middle of the desert.
Moss helps himself to a briefcase full of cash, unwittingly putting himself in the sights
of Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh, a killer sent to track down the missing money.
Bardem is truly chilling as the ruthless psychopath — just one of many standout performances
in a masterful film from cinematic visionaries Joel and Ethan Coen.
The Prestige
Christopher Nolan took a short break from Batman in 2006 and released a movie about
a rival pair of stage magicians struggling to stay relevant in the late 1800s.
If that sounds like a total departure from Nolan's usual work, rest assured — it isn't.
The Prestige feels almost like a bridge connecting Nolan's earlier, low-key films like Memento
and Insomnia to his later, visually stunning extravaganzas.
Sometimes disturbing, always enthralling, and woven throughout with threads of pure
cinematic magic, The Prestige might be the best movie Christopher Nolan's ever made — and
that's saying a lot.
Chicken Run
Is it the most original animated animal adventure?
Not by a long shot.
Is it the best?
Well, that's that's definitely open to debate.
Helmed by the team behind Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run revels in
the same style of goofy stop-motion animation paired with witty writing that made those
series such hits.
Featuring a rare voice acting turn by Mel Gibson, it's one of those rare non-Disney
or Pixar animated films that stands up nearly twenty years after its release as a family-friendly
classic.
Boyhood
Filmed over the course of 12 years with the same cast, Boyhood tracks a child's life as
he develops from a young boy to a college-bound adult.
The boy, Mason, is played by Ellar Coltrane, who was seven when filming started and 19
by the time of its release.
You literally watch him age onscreen as the story progresses.
Similarly, his parents, played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, age alongside him.
The runtime can be a little intimidating — it clocks in just under three hours — but Richard
Linklater's groundbreaking and heartbreaking Boyhood is well worth the investment.
"I wish I could use the bumpers."
"Bumper are for kids, y'know?
What are you, two-years-old?
You don't want the bumpers.
Life doesn't give you bumpers."
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