The Best Streaming Movies of the Year (so Far)

After watching Chasing Happiness, I’m here to say that I’m a sucker for the Jonas Brothers. The Amazon documentary follows Joe, Nick, and Kevin Jonas’ journey from small-town musicians to international superstars, a rapid transformation that almost destroyed the brothers’ relationship. The sheer amount of archival footage in Chasing Happiness is astonishing, but it’s the doc’s emotional present-day moments that will leave you reeling. Plus, the soundtrack is filled with banger after banger, including a few singles off their new album, “Happiness Begins.” — Claire Spellberg

Stream Chasing Happiness on Prime Video

After a decade of anticipation, David Milch’s masterful HBO series finally got the ending it deserved in movie form. Picking up in 1899 as South Dakota is entering statehood, the film finds our favorite characters struggling to adapt with the times while coming to terms with their past transgressions as George Hearst once again tries to take over the town. Concise, ambitious, and ultimately satisfying,Deadwood: The Movie should be the push HBO needs to green light one more season—with a cast this good, the story possibilities are endless.  — Karen Kemmerle

Stream Deadwood: The Movie on HBO Go and HBO Now

This silly little gem from the The Lonely Island was such a pleasant surprise. Directed by Mike Diva and Akiva Schaffer, the comedically innovative “visual poem” follows the infamous Oakland A’s slugging duo of Jose Canseco (Andy Samberg) and Mark McGwire (Schaffer), collectively known as the “Bash Brothers,” as they rap about everything from baseball to kimonos to dating Madonna. The whole thirty-minute special is aces, but the Maya Rudolph-led girl group singing about “nasty butts” in the IHOP parking lot is one of the strangest, funniest moments of 2019.  — Josh Sorokach

Stream The Lonely Island Presents: The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience on Netflix

Though it didn’t quite make the same waves as Always Be My Maybe, Someone Great was another excellent romantic comedy from Netflix this year, starring Gina Rodriguez and LaKeith Stanfield. It’s a film that wasn’t flashy about its greatness: There aren’t any big set pieces or Keanu Reeves cameos, and some have mistaken the film’s unobtrusive nature for inconsequential. But look closer, because Someone Great had something new to offer the romantic comedy genre: A message that romantic love doesn’t—and can’t—always fix everything. That may, admittedly, not be quite as fun as a big romantic gesture, but it is more honest, and we could use more honesty, especially now. — Anna Menta

Stream Someone Great on Netflix

Hulu scooped Netflix on the Fyre doc front by releasing Fyre Fraud first, but that really didn’t hurt this one at all. The two formed a fascinating whole, complementing each other in unexpected ways–and lord knows there was enough debauchery and tomfoolery for two whole docs! Netflix’s stab at the experience/disaster was a beautifully shot rumination on hubris–and it introduced us to the first meme king of 2019, Andy King. — Brett White

Stream Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on Netflix

Elizabeth Holmes was poised to be Silicon Valley’s savior. She was one of the most valued CEOs in the tech world, a genius who promised to revolutionize the healthcare industry, and one of the industry’s very few highly valued female entrepreneurs. And almost everything that led to her success was a lie. Directed by Alex Gibney, HBO’s The Inventor explains exactly how one determined woman managed to swindle investors, top politicians, the press, and even Walgreens into believing in a product that never existed for almost a decade and a half. It’s a shocking documentary that wonderfully chronicles one of the most jaw-dropping con artist stories is modern history. — Kayla Cobb

Stream The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley on HBO Go and HBO Now

Netflix’s Knock Down the House is way more than simply an “AOC doc.” Sure, the superstar congresswoman’s shocking victory provides the narrative backbone of the film, but the real heroes of the film are all of the candidates, strategists, volunteers, and voters who are fighting for a new Congress. Knock Down the House isn’t just Alexandria Ocasio-Corez’s origin story; it’s a plaintive meditation on what democracy should really mean, and what it means to a group of women working hard to make change happen. — Meghan O’Keefe

Stream Knock Down The House on Netflix

If you were to drown me in nothing but Fyre Festival documentaries, I would die a happy woman. However, Hulu’s sneak-attack take on the iconic music festival disaster is the better of this year’s two competing docs. Whereas Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened does a great job showing the sorrowful human toll of this scam, Hulu’s Fyre Fraud better explains exactly what went wrong and how Billy MacFarland got away with so much deceit. Directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, this movie will leave you as dumbfounded as all the tourists who thought they were going to Pablo Escobar’s private island. — Kayla Cobb

Stream Fyre Fraud on Hulu

Like The Big Sick before it, Always Be My Maybe proved that romantic comedies can still be great when they’re put in the hands of very funny comedians. Ali Wong and Randall Park reminded us that movies can have jokes—like actual, real jokes with set-ups and punchlines, not just lazy action-hero quips—and be sexy, and be sweet, all at the same time. The fact that every main character was refreshingly non-white was an added bonus, but also not the focus of the plot. And let’s not forget Always Be My Maybe delivered us the absolute peak of the Keanu Reeves renaissance we’re in right now—even if you didn’t watch the film, I know you’ve seen that video of Reeves walking in slow motion to Awolnation’s “Sail.” (But you really should watch the rest of the movie, too.) — Anna Menta

Stream Always Be My Maybe on Netflix

There are other movies and then there’s Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé. Because it’s more than a film. It’s a concert and a documentary, sure. But it’s the capturing of a singular talent, one who has influenced much of the world and still is generous enough to share so much of her flawless self with us. It’s hard to believe we get to witness this woman in action, and even more, that we can do it over and over again on Netflix. — Lea Palmieri

Stream Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé on Netflix