The best movies you need to watch on Netflix this month

Netflix is the biggest streaming platform on the planet — and it’s packed with some genuinely great movies. The trick is actually finding them.

Between the homepage pushing the same handful of titles and endless scrolling that ends with a comfort rewatch, the platform doesn’t always make its best films easy to spot.

That’s where we come in. If you’ve already burned through the best movies of 2025 and need something new, you’re in the right place.

The best films on Netflix

15. The Life of Chuck

• Genre: Drama
• Year: 2025 (on Netflix from January 5)
• Director: Mike Flanagan
• Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Jacob Tremblay

What it’s about: Charles “Chuck” Krantz, an ordinary man, experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes within all of us from childhood to adulthood.

Why to watch: A Stephen King adaptation unlike any other, The Life of Chuck may be a little too mellow and sweet for some viewers. However, for those who can attune themselves to its sense of melancholic hope, it may just be the life-affirming balm they need.

14. Tick Tick Boom

• Genre: Musical
• Year: 2021
• Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Vanessa Hudgens
• Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda
• Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes

What it’s about: Jonathan Larson, an aspiring playwright, hopes to write the next great American musical. But with his 30th birthday drawing near and the AIDS epidemic ravaging the artistic community, he struggles to handle the pressure.

Why to watch: Lin-Manuel Miranda created Hamilton. It’s fitting then that he’s the only person who could direct a (semi-)biopic about Larson, the mind behind Rent, and his tortured process with such resonance and empathy. The songs are great (’30/90′ is a banger), Garfield is at his peak, and it may even convert musical skeptics.

13. The Founder

• Genre: Biography, Drama
• Year: 2016
• Cast: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch
• Director: John Lee Hancock
• Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes

What it’s about: Ray Kroc, a struggling salesman, stumbles on a burger joint that wants to revolutionise the drive-thru industry: McDonald’s. Its owners agree to let him expand their operation, but ambition and greed drive him to take control of their dream.

Why to watch: The Founder, a McDonald’s biopic that didn’t make much money, has been clipped to death on TikTok for years. That may seem like an inane observation, but there’s a real takeaway: its bite-sized, absorbing structure (and Michael Keaton’s performance) makes it extremely (re)watchable. Just don’t expect a biopic on The Social Network’s level; it’s jauntier and more modest.

12. Wake Up Dead Man

• Genre: Crime, Drama, Comedy
• Year: 2025
• Director: Rian Johnson
• Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin
• Runtime: 2 hours 24 minutes

What it’s about: In Benoit Blanc’s darkest and most dangerous case yet, he finds himself in a small, religious town after a murder rocks the local congregation. Jud, a young priest, is the main suspect – but there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye.

Why to watch: Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc has already entered the pantheon of all-time great fictional detectives, and Wake Up Dead Man is an extraordinary testament to not only him, but the Knives Out series. This is the best story in the trilogy; emotionally wise, sharp, and unpredictable. It looks incredible, too.

If you’ve already watched it, read our breakdown of Wake Up Dead Man’s ending.

11. 50/50

• Genre: Comedy, Drama
• Year: 2011
• Director: Jonathan Levine
• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard
• Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

What it’s about: Adam, a radio journalist, is diagnosed with spinal cancer. As he tries to make sense of his condition and come to terms with what could happen, he learns the value of friendship and love.

Why to watch: 50/50, rather remarkably, never gives into the temptation to trivialise Adam’s condition or make light of it for the sake of a laugh. It’s hilarious, but amazingly sensitive; a tear-jerker that you’ll find yourself recommending to other people for years to come.

10. Catch Me If You Can

• Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
• Year: 2002
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Runtime: 2 hours 21 minutes

What it’s about: Frank Abagnale Jr pulls off audacious cons for a living, posing as a pilot, doctor, and lawyer and cashing cheques worth millions of dollars while evading the FBI.

Why to watch: One of Steven Spielberg’s gentlest and most affectionate movies, Catch Me If You Can is a breezy, jazzy, yet exhilarating caper that proved to be the perfect vehicle for the post-Titanic era of Leonardo DiCaprio’s career. It’s impossible to not enjoy it, in our eyes.

9. KPop Demon Hunters

• Genre: Animation, Action
• Year: 2025
• Cast: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim
• Director: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
• Runtime: 1 hour 40 minutes

What it’s about: When they aren’t performing for thousands of fans, K-Pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey fight demons and protect people from supernatural threats. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet: a rival boy band of demons in disguise.

Why to watch: Netflix may be the biggest streaming service, but unlike its TV shows, its movies never become pop culture reference points. KPop Demon Hunters is the first exception, and deservedly so.

Produced by Sony Pictures Animation (which made the Spider-Verse films), there’s vibrant, dynamic artistry in each frame. It’s a brilliant two-hander: it pokes fun at Korean culture, but it’s also made for fans and complete noobs. Plus, its soundtrack could turn anyone into a K-pop fan.

8. Creep

• Genre: Horror
• Year: 2014
• Cast: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice
• Director: Patrick Brice
• Runtime: 1 hour 17 minutes

What it’s about: Aaron, an aspiring videographer, agrees to film a day in the life of Josef, an eccentric loner who’s dying from an inoperable brain tumour. However, as the day unfolds, his behaviour grows more unusual and perverse.

Why to watch: Creep raises laughably strange questions; why does Josef want to be filmed in a bath, and why does he have a werewolf mask? It’s profoundly awkward, but an air of menace creeps in with every passing scene, thanks to Duplass’ demented performance. This isn’t like any found-footage movie you’ve seen: the camera doesn’t flinch, right to its shocking end.

7. Prisoners

• Genre: Thriller
• Year: 2013
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Paul Dano
• Director: Denis Villeneuve
• Runtime: 2 hours 33 minutes

What it’s about: When Keller’s daughter goes missing, he grows frustrated with the police’s inability to find her and their reluctance to arrest a suspect. So, despite Detective Loki’s warnings and continued efforts to find her, he takes matters into his own hands.

Why to watch: What would you do if your child vanished? Is there a limit to what you would do to find them?

Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve’s hard-boiled, grim whodunnit, takes distressing turns to show just how depraved a desperate person can be. You have never seen a Hugh Jackman performance like this.

6. The Iron Claw

• Genre: Drama
• Year: 2023
• Cast: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Holt McCallany
• Director: Sean Durkin
• Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes

What it’s about: The Von Erich brothers make professional wrestling history in the early 1980s, driven by their father’s ambition. Behind the spectacle, tragedy and loss haunt the family’s pursuit of glory.

Why to watch: Wrestling’s heyday has been and gone, but you don’t need to be a WWE fan to watch The Iron Claw. It’s ultimately a story about brotherhood (and a painful one, at that), beautifully performed by Zach Efron and the rest of the cast. A word of warning, though: you’ll probably only watch it once, unless you want to keep crying.

5. Godzilla Minus One

• Genre: Sci-fi, Action, Drama
• Year: 2023
• Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki
• Director: Takashi Yamazaki
• Runtime: 2 hours 5 minutes

What it’s about: Years after the US military’s nuclear tests in the Pacific, a gargantuan creature emerges from the depths to inflict its wrath on the people of post-war Japan.

Why to watch: Godzilla is cinema’s most iconic monster (sorry, King Kong), and Minus One is the greatest movie the franchise has ever produced. This is a devastating, awe-inspiring film, painstakingly directed and envisioned by Takashi Yamazaki.

Hollywood and its goofy MonsterVerse should be embarrassed; this is the Kaiju’s finest hour.

4. Get Out

• Genre: Horror
• Year: 2017
• Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
• Director: Jordan Peele
• Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes

What it’s about: Chris, a young Black man, agrees to meet his white girlfriend’s parents at their estate in upstate New York. Over the course of the weekend, insidious racial tensions emerge as Chris uncovers a horrifying secret.

Why to watch: Perhaps only rivalled by Hereditary, Get Out may be the best horror movie of the past 10 years.

Who’d have thought that Jordan Peele would be known as the new master of horror? In his directorial debut, a sharp, frightening satire that confronts racial tensions, he showcased his deft handle on the absurd – especially when it’s not funny. It’s the perfect choice to watch in your own sunken place: your couch, probably hiding under a blanket.

3. Rebel Ridge

• Genre: Action, Thriller
• Year: 2024
• Cast: Aaron Pierre, AnnaSophia Robb, Don Johnson, Emory Cohen
• Director: Jeremy Saulnier
• Runtime: 2 hours 13 minutes

What it’s about: Terry arrives in Shelby Springs with one goal: posting bail for his cousin and leaving before he gets into more trouble. However, when the crooked police force illegally seizes his money, he’s forced to take matters into his own hands.

Why to watch: Rebel Ridge might be Netflix’s best thriller yet — a lean, clinical blend of Reacher’s Dad-coded charms and Jeremy Saulnier’s precise direction.

It feels like a modern heir to First Blood: grounded, fuelled by righteous and controlled anger, with a star-is-born, hulking performance from Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson as his smarmy, loathsome foe.

2. Warrior

• Genre: Drama
• Year: 2011
• Cast: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
• Director: Gavin O’Connor
• Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes

What it’s about: Tommy, an ex-Marine, returns home under mysterious circumstances to train for the world’s biggest martial arts tournament. Elsewhere, his estranged brother is at risk of losing his home, so he decides to get back in the cage to make ends meet.

Why to watch: Warrior is the best sports movie ever made. Yes, better than Rocky.

It is a foolproof movie. Unabashedly macho, yet shamelessly sentimental, with some of the most bruising and emotional combat sports scenes put to film. It doesn’t matter if you have a heart of stone: you will cry, and then you’ll recommend it to everyone, and so the Warrior cycle continues.

1. Uncut Gems

• Genre: Thriller, Crime
• Year: 2019
• Cast: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Kevin Garnett, Lakeith Stanfield
• Director: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
• Runtime: 2 hours 15 minutes

What it’s about: Howard Ratner, a jeweller and compulsive gambler, risks everything on a bet that could pull him from the depths of his debts. But his addiction pushes him closer to ruin and graver consequences than anything he’s ever faced.

Why to watch: Uncut Gems isn’t just the best movie on Netflix. It’s one of the most viscerally affecting films of the past 10 years; a feature-length panic attack that could be weaponised as a stress agent.

That may not sound like a reason to watch it, but it is. Plus, it boasts a legendary performance from Sandler that should have won him an Oscar. Whether it’s now or in 30 years, it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the greatest movies of all time.

Read more: Why Friends has been removed from Netflix and will never come back

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