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People complain all the time that there’s nothing good to watch on Netflix, but the truth is, that’s just because we usually like to complain more than we like to do a little work.
In reality, there are tons of good movies to watch on Netflix, you just have to do a little digging to find them.
For instance, here are 20 movies, ranging from good to great, that just got added to their streaming service recently. No digging required.
Click on the films’ titles to be taken to their Netflix page so you can add them to your queue. Happy vegging.
Pick of the Month: The Long Goodbye (1973)
Probably the best compliment a movie can receive is Joel and Ethan Coen citing it as an influence, so seeing as the brothers Coen have gone on record as saying that Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye is a big influence on their The Big Lebowski—which is one of the best movies ever—you know that it’s got to be something special. And it is. Not only is this modern-for-the-early-70s adaptation of the classic Philip Marlowe story full of interesting characters and great acting, it’s also absolutely gorgeous to look at, infinitely quotable, and it tells a story that somehow manages to be completely engaging in its mystery while ultimately being astonishingly simple when it comes to the details of its plot.
When you talk about the hall of fame of Altman movies, generally the movies you’re talking about are things like MASH, Nashville, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park, but for my money The Long Goodbye blows all of them out of the water and makes its star Elliott Gould an absolute icon of film noir, neo or otherwise. The fact that it doesn’t seem to get mentioned much or re-watched all that often these days is an absolute crime, so how about we take its addition to Netflix’s streaming service as an excuse to do something about that? Dare you to watch it without Googling “Curry brand cat food” afterward.
As Good as It Gets (1997)
It seems to me that As Good as It Gets is one of those movies that’s received a good deal of backlash over the years, likely because of all the success it saw when it first came out. Its Oscar hype was huge, the fact that it was a return to form for Jack Nicholson was turned into a talking point and driven into the ground, and seeing as the film is actually little more than a slightly fancied up romantic comedy, it has understandably gotten the reputation of being overrated. It should be remembered that this movie is actually funny though, and Oscar winners Nicholson and Helen Hunt really are great in it. Plus, it heavily features an always likable Greg Kinnear, and it’s pretty dang hard to find a reason to complain about that. Why not give it another shot with fresh eyes now that nobody is talking about it anymore?
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Bad News Bears isn’t the sort of movie that could get made these days. Oh, sure, it got remade back in 2005, but that Richard Linklater-directed, Billy Bob Thornton-starring pretender didn’t have half of the grit or bite of this Michael Ritchie-directed, Walter Matthau-starring original. Or half of its charm. The Bad News Bears may be best remembered because it’s a dark comedy that went all the way in regards to letting its young characters behave badly (they drink beer, for the love of Mike!), but one should keep in mind that it’s also one of the best-loved underdog sports stories of all time, and that’s because of just how lovably ill-mannered this ragtag group of kids was, and just how charmingly inept their coach proved to be. The film focused on character, and that made even the smallest bits of growth the players went through feel like true milestone moments.
Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)
If all you’ve heard about Blue is the Warmest Color is that it includes a handful of really hot and really lengthy sex scenes, then you haven’t gotten the full picture of what this movie is. It’s actually a really affecting and relatable story about youth on the verge of adulthood, anchored by an impressive lead performance from Adèle Exarchopoulos, which had to have been one of the most exhausting to film I’ve ever seen. This movie is long, it goes deep into every aspect of her character’s personal life, and director Abdellatif Kechiche keeps the camera shoved close in on her face for an absurd portion of its run time, studying her reactions for every little insight they might reveal. There are few characters in cinema you get to know as well as you know Adèle, and the process of getting there is a pure joy. The super-hot sex scenes just end up being the cherry on top.
Capote (2005)
The main reason to make it a point to watch Capote is clearly to take in the performance Philip Seymour Hoffman gives as the titular lead, especially now that we’ve been given all of the Hoffman performances that we’re going to get. He’s great here, playing an out-there character that required him to put on an affectation and do a crazy voice, but still managing to make sure that his portrayal of Truman Capote is always human and 100% relatable. Hoffman isn’t the only thing this movie has going for it though. It also benefits from its sense of focus. Too many biopics try to tell the whole story of a life from birth to death, and wind up giving everything short shrift in the process. Capote picks a very particular period of its subjects life and does its best to flesh that out so that it can represent everything you need to know about the man by itself. This is a much better strategy, overall.
Das Boot (1981)
It feels kind of rare, at least for people on this side of the world, to see a World War II movie told from the German perspective that isn’t trying to be a gimmick, but that’s exactly what Das Boot is, a World War II movie told from the point of view of the average German soldier, which makes it relatable to anyone who’s been caught up in the machinery of a huge, terrible organization. It’s also pretty much the quintessential submarine movie, and is pretty amazing as far as lived-in sets, claustrophobic situations, and amazing camera work that constantly runs from one end of the submarine to the other goes. Watching Das Boot is a visceral representation of how much it would suck to be a grunt soldier in war, and more specifically a grunt soldier stuck on a submarine. Just imagine all of that close-quarters humanity sealed in together airtight. Gross.
Dirty Dancing (1987)
Living somewhere inside of everyone is a squealing teenage girl who wants nothing more than to watch movies about inherently good characters who come out of their shell and achieve self-actualization through the power of putting together a pretty wicked dance routine, and everyone knows that Dirty Dancing is the absolute king of the dance movie genre. The problem with dance movies though is that, as satisfying as they can be, they seem to always show up carrying a pretty hefty load of schmaltz with them (I carried a watermelon?), so it can be kind of embarrassing to admit to people that you watch them. Because of that, there’s probably a whole generation of people who have wanted to re-watch Dirty Dancing but have been too ashamed to for years. Well, now you can discreetly check it out on Netflix, and nobody has to be any the wiser. Pull the shades closed, dance along in your living room, and rediscover why exactly it is that nobody puts Baby in a corner.
Donnie Brasco (1997)
This may come as something of a shock to anyone who has only seen the last 15 years or so of their careers, but Al Pacino and Johnny Depp used to actually act. That is, they used to actually portray real characters who felt like honest human beings, instead of just playing live action cartoon characters, and one of the last times either men did so was 1997’s Donnie Brasco. This isn’t the sort of movie that’s going to blow your hair completely back or anything, but it’s pretty fun for a crime drama that’s all about cops and mobsters and the blurred lines of morality that exist between them, and all of that usual crime/cop movie stuff. I mean, any movie that makes room for small roles for Paul Giamatti and Tim Blake Nelson is pretty much automatically likable, isn’t it?
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Stanley Kubrick is such a legendary director that it probably isn’t necessary to sell anybody on checking out his movies anymore. And Dr. Strangelove is such a highly regarded part of his canon that there certainly isn’t any need for me to urge you to check it out now that it’s on Netflix. Just watch it. Take in black humor that’s played so straight most people could probably sit through it and think that it’s a legitimate Cold War thriller. Marvel as Peter Sellers puts on a tour de force performance playing multiple characters. If there’s any better representation of what ridiculous children men remain, no matter how old they get or how high they climb in the world, I don’t think I’ve seen it.
Easy Rider (1969)
When you look at Easy Rider on paper, it seems like it’s one of those movies that shouldn’t have been successful at all. It was left-of-center for a mainstream-aimed film, it was directed by Dennis Hopper at a time when you’d have to be crazy to entrust Dennis Hopper with having any real responsibility at all, and it told a road story that was more meandering than it was taut and filled with conflict. Somehow it all came together well though, and it ended up being one of those pieces of art that tapped right into the zeitgeist, so everyone has seen it a million times by now. If you haven’t though, this is your opportunity. Not only does Easy Rider encapsulate the struggles the younger generation was going through to establish their place in history in the late 60s, but it also serves as a pretty solid template for the New Hollywood Movement of studio-funded though experimental pictures that launched the careers of so many important filmmakers going into the 70s.
Fright Night (1985)
Every once in a while one finds themselves in a mood where they’re craving a movie from the 80s, and absolutely nothing else will do. Well, the next time this familiar feeling sweeps over you, take comfort in the fact that you can simply fire up Netflix and watch the original Fright Night whenever you want. Two of the hottest genres coming out of the home video boom of that decade were creature features and teen comedies, and Fright Night is a film that manages to take equal parts of both in order to create a pretty entertaining romp. This one starts off with a Rear Window vibe, builds to vampire-hunting insanity, and features all sorts of old-school puppetry and fake blood special effects along the way. Plus Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell are a lot of fun playing a vampire and a vampire hunter—so much so that they almost take the bad taste of the wacky best friend character out of your mouth entirely. God, is that kid annoying.
The Ice Storm (1997)
With The Ice Storm, director Ang Lee has made one of the truly great white people humiliating themselves movies. The film focuses on two different camps of people, a pair of married couples whose relationships aren’t going along as smoothly as they’d like, and their children, who are just starting to explore their sexualities and are tending to do the exploring with each other. The ties that bind both groups are that everyone is childish, nobody has any idea what they really want, and all make destructive decisions that come to a head when their Connecticut town is hit by a giant ice storm. A huge ensemble including Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and many others star. A sleazy key party is thrown. Elijah Wood wears macrame clothing. This one is worth a watch.
Last Action Hero (1993)
Back when Last Action Hero came out in 1993, it was reviled by pretty much everyone other than 12-year-old me. Or at least that’s how it felt. Watching it with modern eyes now, it’s become clear that chubby-cheeked me was right and everyone else was wrong, wrong, wrong. This movie is a wildly entertaining sendup of 80s-era action movies, it’s full of quotable lines, and it’s only mildly ruined by the fact that it has a shrieking young kid as its lead. Were people’s expectations for this one so high because John McTiernan directed it and they weren’t expecting the greatest action director of all time to goof on his own area of expertise? Did everyone really want a serious movie about a magic theater ticket that allows you to travel inside the movie you’re watching? Do yourself a favor and give this one another chance. There aren’t all that many opportunities to hear Arnold Schwarzenegger make fart puns in this life, and you have to cherish them.
Midnight Express (1978)
Back in the late 70s a movie called Midnight Express taught a whole generation of movie fans to be terrified of the idea of getting locked up in a Turkish prison. It turns out that the Turks are a cold, merciless people, and they don’t take kindly to outsiders taking drugs across their borders. That’s not all Midnight Express has to offer though. It’s also the movie that inspired one of Jim Carrey’s Cable Guy bits, and it features a Giorgio Moroderscore that inspired its own 80s professional wrestling tag team. That’s a pretty huge pedigree for a movie that I’m not sure very many members of the younger generation still catch up with. If you haven’t seen Midnight Express, give it a watch, because it’s a great piece of filmmaking from Alan Parker (Mississippi Burning).
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
If you’ve lived through the zombie craze of the last few years and have yet to watch George Romero’s 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead, which made the first spark that was eventually fanned into an undead inferno, then shame on you. It already included everything a good zombie story needs, and everyone else has basically just been doing variations on the same setup ever since. It’s true that Night of the Living Dead has a certain layer of 60s, low budget cheese laying over it when it’s looked at with modern eyes, but it’s also moody and gory, and it builds to a big finish that manages to be legitimately intense and terrifying. If you’re going out in public wearing The Walking Dead merchandise and you haven’t taken in this one yet, then it’s beyond time you get your homework done.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Now that everybody is raving about how great Hannibal is as a TV show, why not take a moment to go back and revisit the movie that introduced Hannibal Lecter to the mainstream as a lovable though disturbing culture connoisseur and devourer of human flesh (norms don’t remember that Michael Mann movie)? Does anyone really need to be sold on The Silence of the Lambs? This is the movie that introduced “it puts the lotion in the basket” to the world. It’s the reason everyone says that they’d like to “eat his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti” whenever they’re trying to be creepy. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you’re weird. If you haven’t seen it in a while, then check it out again soon, because it holds up, and it’s currently streaming.
Spider-Man (2002)
When people look back at Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, the story that seems to have developed over time is that the second movie got it right and the first and third ones are pretty bad. Call me crazy, but I actually like the first one, and seeing as it was one of the first truly huge superhero blockbusters, a lot of people back in the day must have liked it okay too. Its success is one of the main reasons we’re living in the superhero movie golden age we are today, so it probably deserves some respect. And, at the very least, it’s interesting to go back to this one and see how far superhero movies have come. The effects aren’t quite up to snuff, the tone is a little too silly, and some of the casting choices are questionable, but the movie was still able to stay pretty true to the comic, to keep the portions of it that were origin story engaging, and to build to an exciting finale. In many ways it’s the template for all the awesome movies that Marvel Studios is making today.
The Station Agent (2003)
Everyone loves Peter Dinklage, especially since his work on Game of Thrones, so its exciting that a Dinklage starring vehicle is now on Netflix. What’s more exciting though is that The Station Agent is a Peter Dinklage movie where he isn’t relying on his cocky charm to get him through the movie. This is actually a pretty slow-building character study where Dinklage is playing a sad, somewhat abrasive character, and he’s absolutely great at it. He’s injured, and he pushes everyone around him away, but you still want to stick with him throughout—and that pretty much serves to prove the depth of his acting talents. Bobby Cannavale is pretty great here too as the most lovable douchebag character ever conceived. Watch it for Dinklage though. It’s his movie and he makes it worthwhile.
Taxi Driver (1976)
What more needs to be said about Taxi Driver at this point? It’s one of Martin Scorsese’s greatest films, it’s one of Robert De Niro’s greatest performances, and it’s considered by pretty much everybody to be one of the most important movies modern cinema has created. It’s gripping and disturbing, it’s a terrifying snapshot of where the social consciousness was in the mid-70s, and it’s got Harvey Keitel dressed up like a greasy pimp. There is literally no end to the amount of times that one can revisit Taxi Driver, so now’s your chance to cancel all of your plans for the week and just put it on repeat.
True Grit (1969)
A lot of people saw and liked the remake of True Grit that the Coen brothers made in 2010, but if you haven’t seen the 1969 original, you might be a little bit surprised by how in need of an update this classic Western wasn’t. The dialogue here crackles with personality, John Wayne is giving what’s probably the most nuanced performance of his career as Rooster Cogburn, and little Kim Darby shows off a maturity well beyond her years. Plus, you get a couple of earlier career performances from legends like Robert Duvall and Dennis Hopper, and all wrapped up in one of the more interesting and affecting Western stories ever told. This one is a little more glossy and a little less quirky than the Coens’ version, but it’s got its own charms. If you haven’t discovered them yet, now is the time.
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