It can be tough to figure out what to stream next in Netflix's vast library, but don't
worry.
From incredible underrated gems to timeless favorites that you haven't thought about in
years, we've rounded up some of the best movies on Netflix right now.
Some filmmakers fall flat on their faces when they make their first movie, but Duncan Jones
is one of the few directors who more than delivered the goods with his feature film
debut.
Titled simply Moon, Jones' debut is not just a staggeringly assured first outing, it's
also one of the best sci-fi films produced in the 21st century.
Set almost entirely on the lunar surface, the film follows a contract worker who's spent
the duration of his three-year contract in near-total isolation.
On the cusp of fulfilling his obligations and heading home to see his wife and daughter,
Sam's intensely isolated existence takes a surprising turn when he finds himself the
victim of a near-fatal mining accident.
Sam Rockwell delivers densely layered work that turns what's essentially a one-man show
into a complex, heartbreaking character study in the psychiatry of self, solitude, and science
run amok.
This stylized little film simply must be seen to be believed.
It's hard to believe that over 20 years have passed since David Fincher terrorized the
moviegoing public with this brutalist tale of biblical morality run amok.
But somehow, the decades haven't dulled the soul-crushing impact of Fincher's alluring
detective tale.
In fact, it's possible that Seven may be even more disturbing today than it was when it
hit theaters in 1995.
"Oh god!
Oh god!"
The film follows a rookie detective and his veteran partner on the hunt for a vicious
serial killer who's using the seven deadly sins as motive.
The murders figure prominently in Seven's nightmarish narrative, so before you press
play, please note that this film is not for the weak of heart.
"Come on, he's insane.
Look.
Right now he's probably dancing around in his grandma's panties, yeah, rubbing himself
in peanut butter."
Seven is the sort of movie that seeps into your skin and never really scrubs clean.
That's generally a good thing, because as difficult as Fincher's film can be to sit
through, it's a genuinely unsettling crime thriller crafted with undeniable skill and
uncompromising vision.
And once you watch it, you'll never see a Fed-Ex commercial the same way again.
"What will it bring?
An old friend."
Some movies aim to dazzle the eye, others to touch the heart, and others to move the
mind.
The best films do all of those things at once, and Guillermo del Toro has essentially specialized
in making movies that do exactly that.
Of all the director's features, few feel more personal or visionary than his 2006 masterpiece
Pan's Labyrinth.
Hoping to evade the violence of the Spanish Civil War, Ofelia, a bookish pre-teen, and
her mother are whisked off to an isolated estate.
Along the way, she meets a fairy that takes her to a centuries-old faun, a mythical creature
who informs Ofelia she's a princess, and can claim her throne only if she survives three
harrowing feats of bravery.
Del Toro pulls inspired performances from his cast, conjures images as thrilling as
they are terrifying, and finds untold depths of beauty within fantastical landscapes thus
making a film that dazzles the eye, touches the heart, and moves the mind in ways most
movies cannot fathom.
While there really isn't much we can say about Christopher Nolan's comic book masterpiece
that hasn't already been said, it's worth noting that people still talk about The Dark
Knight like it hit theaters last week, and still revere the film as the comic adaptation
that forever changed the game.
"The Dark Knight … It came!”
A limited edition $299 Dark Knight DVD with bonus footage special comments and a Christian
Bale autograph."
The good news is that the folks at Netflix have apparently recognized that, and have
re-added The Dark Knight to their long list of offerings.
That means you can once again bear witness to the pulse-pounding caper that introduces
the marvelous Joker to Gotham.
You can once again re-live the heartache and heroism that drives the Dark Knight to perform
increasingly death-defying deeds.
You can once again watch Gordon squirm through the right and wrong sides of the law, and
watch the unexpected birth of Two-Face in tow.
And you can once again give yourself over to the Batman movie that we needed and deserved.
Quentin Tarantino's eighth film, The Hateful Eight, takes place in the aftermath of the
Civil War.
We're introduced to eight people who get snowed in at a roadside pitstop, and as the title
asserts, none of them are particularly savory characters.
There's a lot of talking, a lot of bloodshed, and a lot of Tarantino-ness all around.
"You gotta kick it open...what?...
KICK IT OPEN!"
As a Western, sure, The Hateful Eight is no Fistful of Dollars.
But as Nerdist very effectively argues, it's not a Western at all — it's a horror movie.
For starters, as Tarantino himself explained, it was most directly inspired by John Carpenter's
1982 body horror film The Thing.
On top of that, the musical score includes tracks from The Thing and The Exorcist II,
deliberately adding to the sense that monsters are lurking, even if they turn out to be human
after all.
"Now I am calling you a liar, Señor Bob"
During the '90s, Wesley Snipes tried like crazy to get a big-screen version of Marvel's
Black Panther into production, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It never quite came together, but a couple of decades later, CGI technology advanced
enough to bring the radical, tech-centric world of Wakanda to life.
That's just what director Ryan Coogler accomplishes in Black Panther, delivering a vividly realized
vision of the fictional nation that appears advanced beyond our wildest dreams, but also
feels like human beings actually live there.
Coogler also ingeniously uses the setting as a plot device in a Shakespearean tale of
palace politics, tribal traditions, and ideological conflicts.
He populates that narrative with richly developed characters and propels it forward with some
of the most electrifying action sequences the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen.
That he also delivers a politically subversive film along the way is what qualifies Black
Panther as one of the best Marvel movies to date.
"Wakanda forever!”
“Wakanda forever!"
Robert Eggers' haunting folktale The Witch is one of the films that helped set the bar
for current horror trends.
Eggers' masterfully executed chiller wowed audiences at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival,
and actually made a few bucks in its initial theatrical release, even if it didn't exactly
set the box office on fire.
Behind marvelous critical buzz and equally solid word of mouth, The Witch has more than
found its audience after the fact, with many hailing it as the one of the best horror films
of the decade.
Eggers' film follows a 17th century family whose devoutly puritanical existence falls
apart under the weight of unspeakable tragedies, which may or may not be influenced by an evil
lurking in a nearby forest.
Eggers' film is a bleak, intensely atmospheric study in gothic Americana that features a
star-making turn from Anya Taylor-Joy.
It's the sort of film that you simply have to see to believe.
2016's Hush is definitely a movie you can't miss.
The premise is simple: Maddie, a deaf and mute author, is staying in her isolated house
deep in the Alabama woods when a masked killer appears at her window.
While that concept could easily devolve into another run-of-the-mill suspense flick, Hush
has no problem upping the thrill factor with deft camera work, unrelenting suspense, and
a truly amazing performance from actress Kate Siegel.
She portrays Maddie as strong, capable, and intelligent — a breath of fresh air for
a female role in a horror movie.
Of course, the sound design in Hush is top-notch.
Director Mike Flanagan uses Maddie's disability to keep the constant threat of danger looming.
He never gets gimmicky with his portrayal of Maddie's deafness, giving us exactly as
much as we need to feel the fear of never knowing what's behind us.
With 1998's The Truman Show, funnyman Jim Carrey's oddball layers were stripped away
to reveal a serious actor who could be both silly and sincere.
He stars as Truman Burbank, a quiet, everyday guy who just so happens to be the star of
the world's largest reality show.
The catch?
Truman doesn't know he's on a show.
Since birth, every moment of his life has been filmed and broadcast to the world.
All his neighbors and friends — even his wife — are actors in the show.
He's never left his hometown, because his hometown is a giant film set.
"Good morning!
...Morning!...
Good morning!...
Oh and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night."
Couple Carrey's remarkable depth with beautiful direction and a heartfelt story, and The Truman
Show is easily one of the best movies of the late '90s, and one of the best on Netflix
right now.
So here's the formula for the 2015 film Room.
You take a room.
You put two people in it.
And then you center it all around a thrilling, emotional struggle that builds until the entire
audience is questioning everything they thought they knew about life, family, and love.
Once Room starts going, it never slows down.
The beauty of the film comes unquestionably from Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay, who play
the mother and son locked in a room.
They're visited periodically by a mysterious man with unpleasant motives, and the rest
of the time they occupy themselves by playing games, telling stories, and for Larson's character
trying not to focus on the hell of spending the rest of their lives in the room.
"Why don't we try your cake?”
“No!”
“Jack.
Let’s try a bite of it.”
“I said no!"
It's their bond, with all its ups and downs, that anchors the movie and drives everything
that happens.
If you've been on the fence about Room, queue it up now and don't worry.
It won't disappoint.
Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman teamed up for 2006's Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind.
Equal parts quirky sci-fi farce and heartfelt romantic drama, the film follows a man and
woman who each have memories of their relationship scientifically removed from their brain after
a rocky breakup.
In lesser hands, it may have been silly.
With Gondry and Kaufman guiding the narrative, Eternal Sunshine instead plays out as a near-flawless
mix of genres that seamlessly blends Gondry's lo-fi craftsmanship with Kaufman's grounded,
insightful romantic fable.
Anchored by powerful lead performances, Eternal Sunshine is a bold, funny, endlessly creative
little film that manages to be wildly romantic and anti-romantic in equal measure, and somehow
satisfies emotionally on both fronts.
One of the more unsung films in A24's lineup is the harrowing mindbender of a thriller
Enemy.
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a revelatory dual performance, the film follows a quiet man
who unwittingly finds his doppelgänger and proceeds to have a full-blown crisis of identity.
Along the way, the pair's lives become a tangled web of secrets, obsessions, and lust that
threatens to upend each of their existences.
Enemy is an artistically and narratively ambitious film worthy of the sort of in-depth examination
typically reserved for great works of literature.
It's one of the most hauntingly ambiguous thrillers you'll ever see, with a bold blend
of stark visuals and a near-suffocating sense of atmospheric dread.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.