It’s been a while since I did a round-up of the better movies on Netflix, the streaming service everybody subscribes to but isn’t sure why, but the Friday leading into a long holiday weekend seems a propitious time. Families converge on households and multiple generations must be entertained, sometimes en masse and sometimes piecemeal. My standard process involves combing through the 4,008 feature films (as of this week) offered by Netflix and, after dodging the many, many Bollywood and Chinese titles that I can’t profess to being an expert in, assembling a list of films that I can guarantee are good to great. Following are 70 films you can pretty much bet on, with 20 broken out as specific recommendations. All title links are to the films’ trailers on YouTube.
(Note: My Best of 2023 list will post next week. Have a lovely holiday.)
“99 Homes” (2014) – Ramin Bahrani’s acrid moral drama is probably the best fictional work to come out of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis. Andrew Garfield plays a blue-collar contractor who loses his home only to be seduced into the house-flipping trade by the devil who took it. Michael Shannon plays the devil, which is all you need to know. (My original Boston Globe review is here.)
“Bardo” (2022) – Lost in the shuffle of last year’s Oscar race was this Netflix “original” from Alejandro G. Iñárritu (“Birdman,” “Babel,” “The Revenant”), a stridently Fellini-esque romp through the life of a superstar journalist (Daniel Giménez Cacho) who may or may not be his own ghost. It’s a self-conscious haul, but the visuals are astounding, and there’s a world-weary humor that is most welcome.
“Burning” (2018) – One of the best movies of its year, Lee Chang-dong’s powerfully ambiguous drama adapts a Haruki Murakami short story and turns it into South Korean Patricia Highsmith. Steven Yeun (Netflix’s “Beef”) is mesmerizing as a smooth young high roller who’s possibly a psychopath. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Carol”
“Cinderella Man” (2005) – One of the best things Ron Howard has ever done, and one of the least-known. Russell Crowe is at his most sympathetic as James J. Braddock, a boxer laid low by the Great Depression who gets a last-ditch chance. Given the subject, it’s remarkably gentle while not shying from the very real hardness of hard times – a true-life fairy tale for the whole family. With Paul Giamatti, aces as always.
“The Dig”
“Dolemite Is My Name” (2019) – If you haven’t already seen this ribald bio-pic about comedian Rudy Ray Moore and his creation of the 1975 bad-movie classic “Dolemite,” know that it’s the best thing Eddie Murphy has done in years. And if you want to know where “The Holdovers” director Alexander Payne found Da’Vine Joy Randolph, watch the unexpectedly moving bar scene that introduces her character, Lady Reed. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Downsizing” – Speaking of Alexander Payne, his previous film was a critical and commercial dud that nevertheless merits a second look. Matt Damon plays a nice-guy schlub who gets miniaturized into a tiny society that’s supposed to be better than the one he grew down from. Spoiler alert: It isn’t. Bonus points: With the appearance of Hong Chau, a star is born. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Fair Play” (2023) – Two young hedge fund types (Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich) are living together despite their company’s no-romance policy. Then she gets promoted and he doesn’t, the bile starts simmering, and things escalate until – but I can say no more. Slick high-end dramatic-thriller trash, good for watching while you’re wrapping those last presents and arguing about the next morning.
“Get Out”
“The Hand of God” (2021) – From Paolo Sorrentino (“The Great Beauty”), a lovely, careworn memory play about a boy’s youth in Naples and his love for both his parents (Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo) and football star Diego Maradona. Not necessarily in that order. Sumptuous and sensuous – a feast for the eyes and soul. (My Watch List review is here.)
“I’m Thinking of Ending Things”
“It Ain’t Over” (2023) – Sean Mullin’s entertaining documentary makes the convincing case that Yankees catcher Yogi Berra wasn’t just a font of folksy baseball malapropisms but was in fact one of the greatest players in the history of the game. But, yes, the funny-money quotes are here.
“The Killing of a Sacred Deer“
“The King”
“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
“Living” (2022) – Another feel-good drama for a Christmas Eve watch. The great Bill Nighy plays an uptight London civil servant who learns he has months left and quietly sets about enjoying a life as yet unlived. It’s not up there with the film it’s remaking – Akira Kuroswa’s “Ikiru” – but it’s pretty damned good.
“Lucy” (2014) – Highly enjoyable sci-fi nonsense from France’s Luc Besson in which Scarlett Johanssen plays a not-so-bright young woman who accidentally ingests a new drug that activates the 90 percent of the brain we don’t use (yes, that old canard) and gradually becomes the Earth’s alien overlord. Audacious, ridiculous, good fun. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Maestro” (2023) – Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein bio-pic is still in theaters but has already come to Netflix. It’s a classic Oscar-season example of warts-and-all hagiography, and the real reason to see it is for Carey Mulligan’s performance as Felicia Montealegre Bernstein, so vibrant at the start and so weary at the end that your heart cracks open for her. (My Watch List review is here.)
“May December” (2023) – One of the year’s best: A psychological chess game between two queen bees and Grade-A narcissists. Julianne Moore plays a woman still in denial 20 years after her national scandal and Natalie Portman plays the actress hired to play her. Todd Haynes pitches it perfectly down the line between melodrama and satire. (My Watch List review is here.)
“Minari” (2021) – If you missed this heartfelt drama about a South Korean family trying their hand at farming in 1980s Arkansas, gather the tribe and enjoy. Steven Yeun (see “Burning” above) further proves his versatility, and Youn Yuh-jung won hearts and an Oscar as a crusty grandma. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Monty Python’s Life of Brian”
“Mutt”
“Nyad” (2023) – Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and Jodie Foster as her friend/coach Bonnie Stoll. It’s a portrait of an outsized personality and the people who put up with the aggravation because they know how few us dare to live that big. (My Watch List review is here.)
“Passing”
“The Rat Catcher” (2023) – The best of the four short Netflix films adapted by Wes Anderson from Roald Dahl short stories (the others are “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” “Poison,” and “The Swan”). It stars Ralph Fiennes as a creepy, dark-eyed pest removal expert, and it is short, sour, funny, and memorable.
“Rush” (2013) – Another one of Ron Howard’s best (for a list of the worst, send me an email), it dramatizes the real-life rivalry of 1970s auto racers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) with wit and speed. Written by Peter Morgan (“The Crown”). (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Rustin”
“Sausage Party” (2016) – The most morally indefensible movie on this list: A scurrilous, foul-mouthed, extremely funny animated movie that does for grocery items what “Toy Story” did for toys. Except R-rated. Seth Rogen voices a hot dog named Frank, Kristen Wiig is his girlfriend Brenda Bun, Salma Hayek is a lesbian taco, and so on. With a final food orgy that pushes the envelope in ways not seen since the heyday of Mel Brooks. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Sly”
“Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis” (2022) – Calling all rock dads: Famed photographer Anton Corbijn directed this freewheeling documentary about the graphic design firm that came up with every album cover you ever pondered after your third bong hit in 1977. It’s the story of one obstreperous genius, one enabling partner, and a lot of rock stars with gigantic marketing budgets.
“Tully”
“What Happened Miss Simone?” (2015) – A straightforward bio-doc of singer Nina Simone that doesn’t need any frills once you hear That Voice. Simone had the luck to come up as early TV was desperate for programming, and to see her silence the revelers on Hugh Hefner’s “Playboy Penthouse” with a spooky midnight version of “I Loves You, Porgy” is a revelation. Gather the grown children for this one. (My Boston Globe review is here.)
“Whiplash”
“The Wife”
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