The 30 best movies on Netflix UK right now

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik

It’s the first non-English movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture and the highest-grossing Korean film ever in several countries, but those accolades don’t reflect just how thrilling, funny and fucked-up Bong Joon-ho’s genre-mashed class satire truly is. An impoverished family cons their way into the home of a wealthy one, until the scheme inevitably goes sideways, in some ways predictable, others very much not. If you haven’t seen it in awhile, or not at all, take advantage – it’s one of the 21st century’s best.

Director: Edward Berger

Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Aaron Hilmer

A 2023 Oscar nominee in practically every non-acting category, this visceral adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel is actually built on the quality of its actors. Sure, the Great War battle scenes – great blasts of blood-flecked carnage filmed at the tip of a bayonet – are thunderous, the central three-note musical motif underpins it all with deep foreboding and its two storylines are expertly stitched together. But it’s newcomer Felix Kammerer as raw recruit Paul Bäumer and Albrecht Schuch as his pal Kat who’ll stay with you: perfect embodiments of haunted young men under fire.

Director: Martin Scorsese 

Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro

Yes, it’s long, but so is your all-day Peaky Blinders rewatch. And yeah, the much-ballyhooed ‘de-aging’ technology is not particularly effective when Robert De Niro still walks (and kicks) like a man in his late ’70s. Still, a three-and-a-half-hour crime epic from the undisputed living master of the crime epic is worth the investment, particularly in the case of this sprawling biography of Frank Sheeran, the career gangster who may know a thing or two about the ‘mysterious’ disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. If you must, there are ways to break it up into smaller chunks so it plays like a miniseries. However you want to watch it, just do it. 

Director: Celine Song

Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro 

Celine Song’s slow-motion heartbreaker about unrealised romance is more romantic than many movies where love comes to full flower. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are former childhood sweethearts trying, and ultimately failing, to reconnect in adulthood, impeded by geography, individual ambitions and the relationships that bloom in the interim. Pour one out for John Magaro as Lee’s husband, who quietly realises he’s the third wheel in his own marriage.

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio 

Richard Linklater’s most purely entertaining film since School of Rock stars Glen Powell as a mild-mannered college professor who stumbles into a second career impersonating hitmen in undercover police stings. Oh, yeah, like that would ever happen. Except, apparently, it did. Anyway, Linklater isn’t one to let credulity get in the way of a humdinger performance. Powell finally gets to prove he’s more than just a set of dimples, convincingly playing a cool romantic lead, an anxious nerd, a redneck, a Russian assassin and Tilda Swinton (basically), all in the same movie.

Director: Spike Lee

Cast: Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Chadwick Boseman

A powerful tale of brotherhood on the battlefield, Spike Lee puts the focus on the Black Americans who sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War for a country that would just as soon erase them from history. But Da Five Bloods isn’t just a political screed but a gripping thriller with a search for lost treasure driving the action and some incredibly poignant performances – most notably from Delroy Lindo and the late Chadwick Boseman – at its centre.  

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada

How did the best Godzilla movie ever come along 70 years after the original? Set in the direct aftermath of World War II, the big lizard rises from the ocean to stomp the rubble of an already decimated Japan. He looks more badass than ever, but what really makes the film stand out is the unusually compelling human story at his giant feet, involving a disgraced kamikaze pilot (Kamiki) in search of redemption.

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Ed Norton, Janelle Monáe

Everyone seems to be having a blast on this sun-kissed murder-mystery that sticks a gentle knife into the back of the careless super rich and the odd tech baron. That is not always the sign of a good film, but here writer-director Rian Johnson keeps a willing, fun cast (Kate Hudson, Ed Norton, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe) note-perfect so that the tone – part comic caper, part spoof, part thriller – lands throughout. And the plot? Well, someone gets offed and Daniel Craig’s Southern sleuth Benoit Blanc turns up to find out who did it. 

Director: Charlie Kaufman 

Cast: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette

A young woman and her new boyfriend drive out to the country to visit his parents – and that’s about as far as this Charlie Kaufman brain-scrambler gets before the confusion sets in. Characters assume different names. Hallucinations occur. Scenes of a janitor cleaning a high school interrupt the main narrative. Disorientation is Kaufman’s signature, but his third film as writer-director nudges into Lynchian territory. And like Lynch, it’s best to think of it not as a puzzle in need of solving but a dream to be experienced.

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard

Olivia Colman is quietly devastating in this psychological drama, which also marks an assured directorial debut for Maggie Gyllenhaal. While vacationing on a small, somewhat claustrophobic Greek island, Leda (Colman) grows increasingly fixated on a young mother (Dakota Johnson) whose struggles have her flashing back to her own difficulties adjusting to being a parent. Few films have ever observed the mental hardships of motherhood with such frankness. 

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly

Think you’re too left-wing to stand up and cheer for a glorified military recruitment video disguised as a big-league blockbuster? Well, strap in, hippie, we’re going dogfighting! A sequel to a movie that was already cheesy back in 1986 probably shouldn’t have been the film to save Hollywood from the post-pandemic doldrums, but that’s why you never doubt Tom Cruise. With bracing flight sequences and Cruise slipping back into the cockpit as the older but ever-confident Captain Maverick, it’s simply undeniable entertainment. 

Director: Jeymes Samuel

Cast: Jonathan Majors, Regina King, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo, Zazie Beetz and LaKeith Stanfield

Each member of The Harder They Fall’s cast is a headturner on their own, so imagine the rush of seeing them as dueling posses. But the red-hot ensemble is just one of the draws of Jeymes’ hyper-stylized, ultraviolet Black western, which is chock full of kinetic camera work, frenzied action, expertly deployed needle drops and desert landscapes painted crimson amid heavy gunfire. This isn’t your daddy’s oater. It’s the western wrested from its more contemplative roots and reinvented as something it hasn’t been in decades: fun. 

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens

If the phrase 'a musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda' makes you nauseous, please, take an antacid and consider giving this Lin-Manuel Miranda musical a shot. Adapted from late Rent scribe Jonathan Larson’s semi-autobiographical play, it eschews big, over-the-top song-and-dance numbers for more realistic performances favouring narrative over flash. But it’s Andrew Garfield, playing a young Larson struggling to finish his first play, who really ties the whole thing together. 

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern

At this point, Marriage Story might be more widely remembered for the ‘Adam Driver banging on a wall’ meme – 2019 was, after all, several lifetimes ago now. But Noah Baumbach’s heartbreaking slow burn about a dissolving relationship represents the apex of Netflix’s original projects. It’s among the most nuanced and realistic depictions of the emotional toll of divorce ever put to film, and contains career-highlight performances from both Driver and Scarlett Johansson.

Director: Juel Taylor

Cast: John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, Jamie Foxx

Is the title a spoiler? Maybe, but it’s only one of several twists you won’t see coming in this hyper-original mash-up of sci-fi and Blaxploitation from first-timer Juel Taylor. A wonderful John Boyega is a drug dealer who seemingly dies in a motel shootout, only to wake up at home the next day. Enlisting the help of a local pimp (Foxx) and sex worker (Parris) to figure out what happened, he uncovers much more than he bargained for. 

Director: SS Rajamouli

Cast: NT Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan Teja, Ajay Devgn

It’s almost a shame to have to watch this Telugu-language epic at home – it begs to be seen in with an audience, to witness everyone losing their minds in unison. But it’s a must-watch no matter how it’s watched. A crazy, sweeping blast of historical fiction, it focuses on two revolutionaries who defended India against British colonialists in the 1920s. It truly has it all: musical numbers, over-the-top action sequences, lavish set design. Just make sure to take your shoes off, because you’re certain to end up leaping up and down on your couch. 

Directors: Michael Rianda

Voice cast: Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Colman, Maya Rudolph 

Imagine Clark Griswold driving his family straight into the robot uprising from The Terminator – only with less swearing and nuclear blasts blowing people’s skin off – and you get this wildly imaginative, legit funny animated comedy. Danny McBride voices Rick, patriarch of the Mitchell clan, who shoves his wife and kids into the station wagon for one last family road trip before his daughter (Jacobson) goes off to college, only to encounter a digital apocalypse along the way. It’s insanely fun, which you can guess just by looking at the voice cast – and that doesn’t even include some of the truly awesome cameos.

Directors: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie

Cast: Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox, Idina Menzel

Calling the Safdie brothers’ feature-length panic attack a ‘thriller’ is like describing a plane crash as ‘a little nerve-wracking’. Adam Sandler, in his best-ever dramatic role, is a jeweller with severe risk addiction, who starts the film juggling several dangerous debts, then decides the only way out is to add a few more. He’s not easy to root for, but really, you spend most of the movie just hoping to survive the ordeal yourself.

Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen

Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, Tom Waits

The Coen brothers’ comedic Western felt like another of their patented silly diversions designed to placate audiences before the arrival of another ‘serious’ work, but with the future of the siblings’ partnership up in the air, it could end up being their swan song as a duo. Told in six parts, the film contains both the odd laughs and existential drama the brothers are known for, along with their signature stylisation. Honestly, there are worse notes to go out on. 

Director: Céline Sciamma

Cast: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel

Céline Sciamma’s smouldering romantic drama is the newest movie to place in Sight and Sound’s most recent critics poll of the greatest films of all-time, but that probably doesn’t mean much to the average streamer scroller. So just trust us: it’s a modern classic. An artist (Merlant) is commissioned to paint the official portrait of an 18th century aristocrat (Haenel), and the two find themselves entwined in an illicit affair. The story develops slowly, but when it reaches its crescendo, the emotions are overwhelming.

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Dance, Lily Collins, Tom Burke

In this behind-the-scenes dramatisation of the making of Citizen Kane, Gary Oldman plays screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz as a drunken, loudmouth force of nature, and he’s an absolute blast to watch. Other aspects of David Fincher’s moody, monochromatic biographical drama were polarising for both critics and audiences, but a few years removed from the buzz and it’s easier to see as a masterful depiction of Hollywood’s Golden Age that’s at once cynical and celebratory.

Director: Rahda Blank

Cast: Rahda Blank, Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin

This smart, zippy and meaningful comedy about finding a voice, breaking through and being true to yourself comes from the pen – and real-life experiences – of New Yorker Radha Blank. ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’ feels fearless, letting all the hang ups hang out when it comes to sex, success and hitting your fourth decade.

Director:  Alex Garland

Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac

In a rare example of Hollywood sci-fi-horror thoughtfulness, 'Annihilation' has grand concepts in mind, ideas about self-destruction and rebirth. The film follows cellular biologist Lena (Portman) as she ventures to The Shimmer, an anomalous electromagnetic field, to discover the truth about what happened to her husband Kane (Isaac), who visited The Shimmer and returned in poor health and his memory missing. 

Director: Simon Stone

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan

Just as olde-worlde feeling as you might expect when your main characters are called ‘Edith’ and ‘Basil’ (and they aren’t using codenames) – and all the better for it – ‘The Dig’ packs a stealthy emotional punch. Carey Mulligan (Edith) and Ralph Fiennes (Basil) are the wealthy widow and the amateur archaeologist that she hires to investigate the ancient burial site on her land. It turns out to be world-renowned Saxon site of Sutton Hoo, though we’re really here for gently profound musings on mortality and the passing of time. 

Director: JA Bayona

Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Agustín Pardella, Matías Recalt

JA Bayona really knows his way around a flare gun and a first-aid kit. The Spanish filmmaker broke through with tsunami drama The Impossible and his status as a kind of arthouse Irwin Allen gains more kudos with this gripping account of the 1971 Andes plane disaster. If you've seen Alive, the Hollywood version of the story, you'll know what to expect: a dwindling bunch of young men resort to cannibalism to stay alive in the mountains awaiting rescue. Bayona's version balances thrills with tragedy with real sensitivity. Grab a blanket and hold on tight.

Director: Mati Diop

Cast: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traoré

Young lovers are separated in this wistful, atmospheric first feature from Mati Diop, the first black female director to compete for the Cannes Palme d’Or. Soon after we meet spirited teenager Ada (Mame Bineta Sane) in Dakar, she is grinning at Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré) across the road as traffic whizzes past, his solemn, lovelorn face holding secrets she doesn’t yet know. Soon there will be an ocean between them, and she will be left to wonder if he is alive or dead, while marrying a wealthy man she doesn’t love.

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce

The title makes it sound like the world’s most unlikely buddy movie, and that’s essentially what this talky but endlessly likeable and thought-provoking adaptation of Anthony McCarten’s play is – like ‘The Odd Couple’ set in the Vatican. Welsh acting legends Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce share the screen for the first time as Pope Benedict XVI and the more liberal cardinal who might end up replacing him, Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Watching the two of them shooting the shit (our words, not theirs) is a pure pleasure, as their uneasy respect blossoms into an unexpected friendship. 

There’s a thin line separating a ‘passion project’ from a ‘deranged act of vanity', and Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic nuzzles up pretty close to it. Ultimately, though, it stays on the right side of the divide, predominantly through the writer-director-star’s remarkable transformation into the legendary composer, which goes far beyond his controversial prosthetic proboscis. He also deserves credit for avoiding both hagiography and a typical cradle-to-grave structure, instead focusing on his tumultuous marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Mulligan, also fantastic) and closeted bisexuality. 

Director: Harry Bradbeer

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, Sam Claflin

Proving that her Eggo-scoffing breakout turn in Stranger Things was no flash in the pan, Millie Bobby Brown single-handedly turns this Sherlock Holmes spin-off into a giddying, galloping delight. She’s Enola, the brainy but belittled sister of the great detective (Henry Cavill), who heads off a crime-solving escapade of her own to find her missing mum (Helena Bonham Carter) and demonstrates that strong-willed genius runs in the family. The dame is afoot!