20 must-watch movies to stream on Netflix

Did you really need an excuse to watch The Blues Brothers? The peak of SNL sketches-turned-movies, this comedy about two dudes in Fedoras travelling around, raising money for their orphanage, and playing blues music is a radical delight. Car chases, dope music, delirious satire, and movie magic ensue.  

Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater are the cinematic equivalent of steak and red wine. They pair symphonically together--Linklater's direction provides the substance, the meaty portion of the meal, while Hawke adds the flavor. He certainly adds fruity notes to this film about a closeted playwright who spends most of the production cracking wise at a bar while his former director receives massive acclaim. Witty, wise, and with the best male acting performance of 2025, this movie deserves another curtain call.

Netflix has tons of movies from last year. In Jay Kelly , George Clooney plays a suave actor known for getting with models and struggling in his private life. In other words, it's George Clooney playing George Clooney! With Jay Kelly, you get a meta, meandering journey that is part Fellini, part The Player, part Clooney homage, and occasionally, partially great.

The serial killer genre has taken off in recent years, almost a decade after David Fincher released Zodiac. One of the best examples of the genre, Zodiac is a mysterious look at one of the most infamous real-life killers. A sprawling epic with a serious cast, this movie is a darkly fun journey down a deadly breadcrumb trail. 

This Godzilla looks a whole lot better than those O.G. Godzillas in cheap costumes. Winning the Best Visual Effects at the Oscars, Godzilla Minus One looks startlingly real, with a shockingly well-made human drama surrounding him. This is a monster movie that breathes fiery life back into the franchise. 

"Are you Steve Jobs? Are you the CEO billionaire founder of Apple? Then under no circumstances should you be wearing Sketchers!" Ryan Gosling's dashing Playboy-turned-lovely romantic is a hilarious breath of fresh air for the rom-com, as well as Steve Carell's depressed divorcee, who is the human embodiment of sweats, Ben and Jerry's, and depressed binge eating. In this extreme makeover-meets-hilarious-comedy, true love arrives in hilarious, heartwarming ways.

Did you think we were gonna leave Clueless off our list? As if! Amy Heckerling's high-school comedy reboots Jane Austen for the 20th century, with a spoiled, hot blonde setting up her friends. Clueless is a quotable, funny, and totally rad satire. 

Just when you weren't concerned enough about AI, you watch Alex Garland's Ex Machina. A deeply disturbing chamber piece about a robot with human features, Ex Machina excels at getting under your skin, asking existential questions, and eventually, when this visitor encounters the robot after he wins a raffle ticket and arrives at a tech genius's pad, it excels at making you question the future of technology. 

Somewhere between a line of cocaine, a half-naked Margot Robbie, a Wall Street party with a band of midgets, and enough prostitutes to fill an entire red light district, I started to ask myself: Is this the craziest movie ever made? It's certainly one of the most energetic. Martin Scorsese's tale of a stockbroker climbing the corporate ladder has more laughs, more shocks, more F-bombs, more quotable lines, and more memorable characters than most directors can cram into their entire careers — a maximalist joyride that takes movie crazy to a whole other level. 

Daniel Craig chews the scenery in this whodunnit like a handful of jambalaya. His Louisiana drawl, mixed with a highly fashionable wardrobe, makes him one of the most interesting cinema detectives since Hercule Poirot. Like those Agatha Christie adaptations, this is a whodunnit with a slice of camp, a cast of incredible actors, and a detective who susses out this murder of a pastor with ethereal silliness. 

There are tons of movies about growing up, finding yourself, and getting lost that are honestly terrible, but the late-great Rob Reiner made this movie with a truthfulness that similar movies struggle to match. His kids talk like kids, the scenery looks realistic, the venture to find a body in the woods is gripping, and the child actors all deliver the illusion that they aren't actors but real people right in front of you. It's a movie that I'll stand by for generations.

I'm still upset Roma didn't win Best Picture, but you can still enjoy this lyrical, sweeping epic from your couch. Graced with gorgeous visuals, the story of Alfonso Cuarón's maid in Mexico is pulsing with the emotion of memory and the director's vision to tell an intimate story on an epic scale.

You thought meeting the Fockers was bad--wait until you meet these white supremacist folks who are harvesting black bodies for themselves. Jordan Peele's breakout remains a sinister satire that crawls under your skin, taking you to a sunken place of surreal horror that'll have you gasping for your laughs.

Speaking of gasps, there might not be anything more gasp-inducing in all of cinema than Leatherface's furniture made of human bones. Grotesque, visceral,  a full-course meal of human limbs and intestines, Texas Chainsaw Massacre invented the slasher when a group of teenagers wanders into a countryside that just so happens to be the home of cannibals. 

Before she was directing Barbie , Greta Gerwig was one of the most luminous actresses in cinema. In Frances Ha , she brings ebullient energy to her character, who is trying to find herself, her career, and her place in this fantastic comedy that mixes Woody Allen with the French New Wave.

Don't think The Big Lebowski belongs on our list? Well, that's just like your opinion, man. For me, there aren't many funnier or more transporting films out there. The story of a hippie whose carpet is stolen and winds up in a conspiracy thriller--in between rounds of bowling, of course--this might just be the Coen Brothers' finest film.

The zombie movie crawled out of the grave and into existence with this gritty, darkly realistic indie. In George Romero's film, the zombies are slow-moving, hideous-looking creatures, but the final scene, one of the greatest endings ever, made the 60's question whether the monsters were themselves.

Forget the tissues, grab a towel for this divorce movie tearjerker. Torn between two powerhouse performances from Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson, Marriage Story is a brutally realistic yet beautifully directed melodrama.

You don't need to take a job at the airport for free flights; you can just scam your way into being a pilot and traverse the globe. That's how Leonardo DiCaprio's strapping lad does it, at least, in Steven Spielberg's immensely fun blockbuster about a man on the run.

We end this list on a wonderful note with Wes Anderson's lovely venture. Following two kids on the run, a sort of tween Bonnie and Clyde. This movie is bursting with childlike imagination, gorgeous visuals and set designs, and the freeing feeling that you are watching true love--and a director's true love of cinema--unfold with aplomb.