Faithful readers of the Watch List know of my longstanding exasperation with Netflix, the one service everyone has that’s also the one service with the weakest movie line-up (by far). Every six months or so I like to take stock of what’s actually on Netflix besides in-house series, international series, crappy movies from other countries, and Jim Gaffigan stand-up specials. The service features around 3,500 feature films at any given time, all but a handful from the last decade and bewilderingly few of which you’ve ever heard of. Allow me to assist: Following are the 127 movies on Netflix that are worth a damn, arranged alphabetically within rough genre approximation and with each title linked to its trailer on YouTube.
By “worth a damn,” I mean watchable in the “no harm, no foul” sense, because sometimes you just want a half-decent storyline and attractive actors to get you from supper to bedtime. Those movies I consider actually quite good and are therefore especially recommended are in bold. Your mileage may vary – and I expect to hear from most of you in due course – but at the very least this should give you a start.
DRAMAS
All Quiet on the Western Front
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (above)
Christine (above)
Sankofa (above)
COMEDIES
Emily the Criminal (above)
The Forty-Year-Old Version (No, that isn’t a typo.)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
DOCUMENTARIES
The Battered Bastards of Baseball
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
CLASSICS (or Netflix’s definition thereof)
Croupier (above)
ACTION/HORROR/SCI-FI/SUSPENSE
Crimson Peak (above)
ROMANCE
UNCATEGORIZABLE
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
I Lost My Body (above)
Richard Pryor Live in Concert
Thoughts? Don’t hesitate to weigh in.
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I’m glad an esteemed film critic has finally recognized Road House as a classic. I also agree that it is.
Excellent list! But I must disagree about "The Imitation Game". Benedict Cumberbatch played Alan Turing in his typical obnoxious prick style, while the actual Turing was genial and social. He was quirky, but barely eccentric by British standards. Hollywood likes the myth of the lone autistic genius, but the great majority of them aren't. Turing certainly was a genius, but he wasn't autistic, and had the good fortune to work with other brilliant people on decryption at Bletchley Park during WW II and on early computers at London and Manchester afterwards. People like Turing are not generally remote and rude - they are fascinating to be around and usually a pleasure to work with.