The 55 best Netflix original films

1. 1922 (2017) – ★★★★☆ 

An un-flashy but still disturbing adaptation of the Stephen King tale of Nebraskan farmer Wilfred James looking back at the year he murdered his wife, and how he failed to prosper from the dead. An excellent Thomas Jane anchors the whole endeavour. Read our 1922 review

2. The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) – ★★★★☆ 

Adam Sandler gets his best role for a long time in this comedy about three generations of a semi-bohemian New York Jewish family wriggling through a knot of crises. An acutely observed portrait of the simultaneous warmth and tension of family life. Read our The Meyerowitz Stories review

3. Mudbound (2017) – ★★★★☆ 

An adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s 2008 novel telling the story of two families, one white, one black, and their travails in Second World War-era Mississippi. An astute use of motifs, some standout performances, and a brutal but necessary climax mean Mudbound has much to say to modern race relations too. Read our Mudbound review

4. Annihilation (2018) – ★★★★★

Alex Garland’s follow-up to his directorial debut didn’t disappoint. Five women enter the quarantine zone where the so-called “Shimmer” resides, an anomaly which unimaginably mutates the DNA of any who encounter it. One woman is the wife of its only survivor – and she’s hoping to find him a cure. Sublimely distinctive visuals; one of Natalie Portman’s best performances. Read our Annihilation review

5. The Other Side of the Wind (2018) – ★★★★★

Orson Welles’ last movie, filmed from 1970-1976, ran into legal and financial troubles in the final stages, so was only finally completed 33 years after Welles’ death. Astonishingly prescient, it’s about a legendary director whose final work seems doomed to remain unfinished. Hallucinogenically crazy and scorchingly un-PC. Read our The Other Side of the Wind review

6. Outlaw King (2018) – ★★★★☆ 

A retelling of the rise of Robert the Bruce, spanning the 11 years from the oath of fealty sworn by Scottish nobility to Edward I of England in 1296 to the nations’ Battle of Loudoun Hill in 1307. A firm grip on historical accuracy; a nuanced, compelling hero played superbly by Chris Pine; and bold, plentiful violence. Read our Outlaw King review

7. 22 July (2018) – ★★★★☆ 

Based on a Norwegian journalist’s book about the 2011 Norway terror attacks in which 77 people died, we see the real life events through the eyes of the far-right terrorist responsible, a teen survivor, and the defence lawyer. Unsparing, unsensationalised frankness makes it really hit home. Read our 22 July review

8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) – ★★★★★

A Coen brothers anthology film, telling six offbeat tales from the old American west. All share a common moral (life is cheap, death is certain) but each has its own take, with the cinematography adeptly adapted to match. With attention to detail, and the Coens’ signature eccentric humour to boot: it’s a real success. Read our The Ballad of Buster Scruggs review

9. The Kindergarten Teacher (2019) – ★★★★☆ 

Maggie Gyllenhaal is earnest and intense as teacher Lisa who wants to nurture the poetic abilities of a five-year-old prodigy, Jimmy, in her class. It’s a complex, curious central relationship – with Lisa’s reasoning dubious, and Jimmy having a strangely precise understanding of Lisa’s emotional life. Read our The Kindergarten Teacher review

10. The Laundromat (2019) – ★★★★☆ 

Based on a book about the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, in which a Panamanian law firm laid bare the money laundering and tax dodging of the rich and famous, Steven Soderbergh’s film follows a number of characters from all walks of life somehow involved in the racket. Boasting a stellar cast, including Meryl Streep and Gary Oldman, it’s a clear, cutting analysis of human greed. Read our The Laundromat review

11. The Irishman (2019) – ★★★★★

Scorsese’s half-century-long dive into the life of Mafia fixer Frank Sheeran and his increasingly conflicted ties to the union leader Jimmy Hoffa and crime boss Russell Bufalino. Leads Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are stunning in this slow-build mob epic, which uses elegantly done de-aging technology to mark time’s passage. Read our The Irishman review

12. Roma (2019) – ★★★★★

Director Alfonso Cuarón’s childhood in a middle-class Mexico City neighbourhood inspires this tale of housekeeper Cléo (based on his childhood nanny), trapped between belonging and not belonging to the family she works for. Filmed in crisp black and white, the visual and sonic detail is astonishingly vivid – as is the rendering of the tensions, earthquakes and riots of early 70s Mexico. Read our Roma review

13. Marriage Story (2020) – ★★★★★

A thinly veiled memoir about director Noah Baumbach’s divorce, it’s full of laser-sharp comic detail, both about the divorce process, and the couple’s literati life split between New York and LA. Delivered exceptionally well by Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, the screenplay is brilliantly attuned to how the banal frustrations of life can toxify a relationship over time. Read our Marriage Story review

14. Uncut Gems (2020) – ★★★★★

Adam Sandler plays Howard, a compulsive gambler perpetually treading the line between glory and ruin, who plans to sell a smuggled diamond at auction for a seven-figure sum. When the diamond goes missing, it creates one of the tensest films you’ll ever see. A vivid portrait of NYC, and a stonkingly good performance from Sandler. Read our Uncut Gems review

15. Extraction (2020) – ★★★★☆ 

Chris Hemsworth plays a hard-bitten Australian mercenary with a tragic past who’s called in to rescue an Indian drug-baron’s son when kidnapped by a Bangladeshi rival. Full of delightfully pacey setpieces, such as a 12-minute single take shoot-out, knife fight and car chase rolled into one, it’s a stylish action film, led with panache by Hemsworth.  Read our Extraction review

16. Da 5 Bloods (2020) – ★★★★☆ 

Spike Lee’s expansive film follows four of the Five “Bloods”, black American soldiers who fought in Vietnam, who reunite to find the US gold bullion they buried (out of spite they were fighting for freedoms they didn’t have back home) and repatriate their fallen fifth team member’s remains. Delroy Lindo in particular stuns as a proud MAGA proponent. Read our Da 5 Bloods review

17. Project Power (2020) – ★★★★☆ 

Jamie Foxx is former soldier and black op Art, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Frank, a New Orleans cop. They dive into a mystery of a new street drug in New Orleans, “Power”, which temporarily grants the user a superpower – exactly which one, you don’t find out until after you’ve taken the pill. Brimming with explosions, overturned cars, and actors having fun. Read our Project Power review

18. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) – ★★★★★

Charlie Kaufman’s thriller provides the story of Lucy and her earnest intellectual boyfriend Jake, driving through a blizzard to visit his parents in rural Oklahoma. But at every turn, something is always, uncannily, not quite right. The central cast – Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, David Thewlis – commit entirely to the delivery of this unsettling film. Read our I’m Thinking of Ending Things review

19. The Devil All the Time (2020) – ★★★★☆ 

Spanning the aftermath of the Second World War to the midpoint of Vietnam, this novel adaptation follows the lives of two rural communities 100 miles apart, in West Virginia and Ohio. With a lecherous preacher and a serial killing couple, it’s dark and gripping, with standout performances from Robert Pattinson and Riley Keough. Read our The Devil All the Time review

20. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) – ★★★★★

Aaron Sorkin’s courtroom drama about the tumultuous trial of a motley crew of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators marshals an enormous ensemble (Mark Rylance; Eddie Redmayne; Sacha Baron Cohen, to name a few) vividly and with ease. It asks questions about protest applicable to our own day – if dissent is demonised, what other recourse do citizens have? Read our The Trial of the Chicago 7 review

21. Pieces of a Woman (2020) – ★★★★☆ 

The Crown star Vanessa Kirby gives an Oscar-nominated performance in this tale of a young American couple trying to adjust to life after the death of their daughter during a traumatic home birth. The immersive, single take opening labour scene sets the tone – this is a frank, unflinching treatment of an essentially taboo subject. Read our Pieces of a Woman review

22. Mank (2021) – ★★★★★

This tale of the alcoholic screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz and the making of Citizen Kane is a masterpiece. Shot in monochrome like an Old Hollywood noir and led dizzyingly well by Gary Oldman, with a stunning Jazz Age score and glittering screenplay, it’s a magnificent return for director David Fincher, after six years off from feature-making. Read our Mank review

23. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

Adapted from an August Wilson play and award-winning for its costume, make-up and hair design, blues singer Ma Rainey and her backing band, in the summer of 1927 in Chicago, tussle with their label over the group’s next move. The late Chadwick Boseman plays his final role, and reminds us of the tragedy of losing such a formidable talent. Read our Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom review

24. The White Tiger (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

Aravind Adiga’s 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel, the basis of this film, follows Balram (Adarsh Gourav), a kindly-faced young man willing to do anything to escape his humble peasant life in his dusty Indian village. His story serves as a darkly comic thriller-parable about India’s breakneck economic rise. Gourav is a revelation. Read our The White Tiger review

25. The Dig (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

This period piece adapted from a novel about the Sutton Hoo discovery and excavations, which happened just before the Second World War, muses doubly about the nation’s past and its at-that-point uncertain future. A terrific cast – Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Johnny Flynn – knows its characters well-drawn idiosyncrasies inside out. Read our The Dig review

26. News of the World (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

In this old-fashioned Western book adaptation, Tom Hanks plays a Civil War veteran-turned-newsreader who happens across a young girl (Helena Zengel) left alone after a wagon crash, and takes it upon himself to deliver her to her nearest living relatives. Hanks is switched-on and reactive, and the magnificent Zengel is, rightly, Golden Globe-nominated. Read our News of the World review

27. Love and Monsters (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

In this doomsday comedy, Dylan O’Brien is Joel, a beta male nerd who somehow made the 1% of humanity to survive radioactive fallout. Fed up with his loved-up alpha bunker-mates, he sets off on the 85-mile journey to find his childhood sweetheart Aimee, who things were just hotting up with before the apocalypse. Some decent twists, a refreshing new take on the genre, and a smashing lead help Love and Monsters hit home. Read our Love and Monsters review

28. The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021) – ★★★★★

In this animated film, a father of a family at odds decides to turn his daughter’s move to college into a road trip for the whole Mitchell clan, a last-ditch attempt at bonding. But unfortunately, it coincides with an army of AI personal assistants going rogue, their commander hilariously voiced by Olivia Colman – who the Mitchells must defeat. Genuine fun for all the family. Read our The Mitchells vs the Machines review

29. Army of the Dead (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

Las Vegas has become a walled-off wasteland overrun by zombies, what’s to be done about it a constant talking point on cable news. The city is also still awash with cash – so a shadowy billionaire enlists a motley crew of mercenaries to grab it. Full of big thrills and great casting choices – Ella Purnell and Tig Notaro to name a few. Read our Army of the Dead review

30. Passing (2021) – ★★★★★

British actress Rebecca Hall makes an excellent writer-director debut with this 1929 novella adaptation about two black women during the Jazz Age – one has been passing as white, even fooling her racist white husband; the other is married with kids and living in a well-to-do Harlem neighbourhood. Its greyscale, 4:3 silent cinema ratio is marvellously attentive to detail. Read our Passing review

31. Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021) – ★★★★☆ 

Lin-Manuel Miranda directs this musical film about Jonathan Larson, who wrote the landmark 1996 show Rent, and tragically died aged 35 the night before its first preview. Miranda’s film, however, expands Larson’s lesser-known first musical, a confessional monologue about his painfully prescient fear of not making a mark. Andrew Garfield charms in the lead role. Read our Tick, Tick... Boom! review

32. The Lost Daughter (2021) – ★★★★★

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut thoughtfully adapts an Elena Ferrante novel about the most unsayable aspects of motherhood: resentment; remorse; what-might-have-been. Olivia Colman is troubled literary translator Leda on a solo trip to an eerie Greek resort; Dakota Johnson is the pretty, enigmatic young mother she forges an uneasy friendship with there; and Jessie Buckley is terrific as Leda’s younger, new mother self. Read our The Lost Daughter review

33. The Power of the Dog (2022) – ★★★★★

Jane Campion’s magnificent western, adapted from a 1967 Thomas Savage novel, follows the completely opposite brothers Burbank, cattle ranchers George (Jesse Plemons) and Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch). George’s marriage to a nervy woman and her spindly son gets Phil’s hackles up – for reasons that gradually become clear. Cumberbatch is astonishing. Read our The Power of the Dog review

34. The Sea Beast (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

In this animated film, two young Hunters, who swear to rid the ocean of sea monsters for good, end up marooned after a particularly bad skirmish, forging an alliance with a young monster who makes them rethink their long-held heroes-versus-monsters worldview. It balances epic beasts and battles with real emotional heft, thanks to the capable voice cast. Read our The Sea Beast review

35. Blonde (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

Ana de Armas is extraordinary as Marilyn Monroe in this experimental study of the actress’ life. This decades-in-the-making adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ 2000 novel smashes Monroe’s life story into a series of fragmentary vignettes, each one as powerful and well-observed as the next. Read our Blonde review

36. The Good Nurse (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne are a pair of nurses on the night shift at an intensive care unit in New Jersey. In this dramatisation of the real life case of Charles Cullen, patients mysteriously start dying and it’s pinned on Chastain’s Amy – so she starts trying to puzzle it out for herself. The two leads consummately portray the central dysfunctional, shape-shifting relationship. Read our The Good Nurse review

37. My Father’s Dragon (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

This painterly animation from Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, scripted by an Inside Out co-writer based on a 1948 children’s book, has Jacob Tremblay as young boy Elmer, who runs off to the faraway Wild Island to rescue a dragon from a life of servitude. Elmer’s mother’s life back at home serves as an intriguing parallel plot. Imaginative, enigmatic and appealing. Read our My Father’s Dragon review

38. The Wonder (2022) – ★★★★★

This period mystery has Florence Pugh as Lib Wright, an English nurse given an unusual assignment in Ireland: 11-year-old Anna has gone without food for months, claiming to instead be nourished by “manna from heaven”. Lib is determined something is afoot, and is accompanied by a journalist also keen to investigate. Pugh is riveting in this drama about faith. Read our The Wonder review

39. The Swimmers (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

A rousing true story of the two Mardini sisters (played by actors who are sisters) who fled Syria, leading to Yusra’s participation as a swimmer in the refugee team at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Sally El Hosaini’s long-anticipated sophomore piece, scripted by Jack Thorne, is moving and immaculately crafted. Read our The Swimmers review

40. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

This gorgeous stop-motion take on the classic tale was a welcome contrast from the dead-eyed CG/live-action mash-up Disney released shortly before. It’s ingeniously relocated to Fascist Italy, where Mussolini is making puppets of a generation, and Tilda Swinton (as both twin sisters, life and Death) and Ewan McGregor (as Pinocchio’s companion Sebastian J Cricket) excel. Read our Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio review

41. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) – ★★★★★

In this Knives Out sequel, Silicon Valley magnate Miles Bron invites his oldest friends to his private Greek island for some lockdown entertainment. A genteel murder mystery dinner quickly turns more sinister – but the fun is working out exactly what’s amiss. A well-crafted, raucous cautionary satire, with Kate Hudson, Edward Norton and Daniel Craig standing out from an already stellar cast. Read our Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review

42. Matilda: The Musical (2022) – ★★★★★

A film adaptation of the staged musical version of Roald Dahl’s book, Alisha Weir is energetic and one to watch as Matilda, the little girl with superpowers who thwarts some truly awful grown-ups. Emma Thompson as villain Miss Trunchbull gives a masterclass in caricature. It’s sung with welly, and CG is used astutely to blow the moments of magic up to cinematic proportions. Read our Matilda: The Musical review

43. White Noise (2022) – ★★★★☆ 

Noah Baumbach takes an uncharacteristically madcap turn with this adaptation of the 1985 Don DeLillo novel about an academic (Adam Driver) and his family (including Greta Gerwig as wife Babette) weathering a pandemic. Post-2020, its comic jibes are deeply recognisable (like squabbles over what symptoms really count), and it skewers the US’s hapless approach to the Covid crisis. Read our White Noise review

44. All Quiet on the Western Front (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

This Bafta smash-hit German-language drama re-adapts Remarque’s great First World War novel, faithfully delivering its message of the futility of conflict in stunningly HD visuals. We follow 17-year-old German recruit Paul Bäumer across the span of the war. It has a haunted, dreamy feel, told in a fragmented series of vignettes. Read our All Quiet on the Western Front review

45. Extraction 2 (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

This sequel starts with Chris Hemsworth’s black-ops mercenary Tyler Rake recovering after being left for dead in a river in Dhaka – but he’s soon out on another mission, this time to save his ex-wife’s sister and her two children, right from under the nose of her feared kingpin husband. Stunts galore and a central trio of characters (Rake and co) to root for. Read our Extraction 2 review

46. Fair Play (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

Chloe Domont’s sizzling debut feature follows Emily (Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich), young lovers, both high-fliers in the cut-throat world of New York finance. When Emily wins a big promotion, the sting of emasculation quickly inflames Luke’s life, and he takes Emily down with him. Both leads give finely calibrated performances respectively as the thwarted entitled male, and the woman in a man’s world. Read our Fair Play review

47. The Killer (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

David Fincher’s thriller, adapted from a graphic novel, casts Michael Fassbender as a blankly malevolent assassin, taking perfectionist pride in his work. But when one of his hits goes wrong, his girlfriend ends up the target of a payback attack – for which Fassbender’s hitman soon seeks revenge. It’s gripping to watch this cold, at times conflicted killer work. Read our The Killer review

48. Leave the World Behind (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are Amanda and Clay, a couple staying at a chic New York state retreat. A father-daughter duo suddenly turn up claiming the house is theirs, and they’ve come to stay the night. People pleaser Clay ushers them in, but Amanda soon smells a rat – and bizarre, unnerving events ensue. The dynamics play on broader US social tensions of race, wealth and sex, and Roberts has her best cinema role in at least 10 years. Read our Leave the World Behind review

49. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) – ★★★★★

This thrilling sequel to Aardman Animations’ Chicken Run (2000) follows adventurous teen hen Molly who makes a break from the flock, longing to explore the world – but accidentally ends up at a sinister battery farm in the process. A genuinely funny and energetic caper, with textured, squashy claymation that’s a pleasure to watch. Read our Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget review

50. Maestro (2023) – ★★★★★

This biopic of conductor Leonard Bernstein is Bradley Cooper’s first film as director since A Star is Born, and, with Cooper matched by an excellent Carey Mulligan, focusses on Bernstein’s complex marriage (he was gay). It’s in two halves, each shot completely differently: a greyscale classical Hollywood comedy for young adult life; and naturalism, autumnal colours and complex shots for later. But it’s always visually gorgeous. Read our Maestro review

52. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023) – ★★★★☆ 

Roald Dahl’s short story is brought delectably, hilariously to life by Wes Anderson in a tight 40 minutes. The tale – of a man seeking out a clairvoyant guru who can supposedly see without his eyes, so he might learn the same in order to cheat at gambling – is relayed to us as if it’s a play performed by a small company (Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and more). Read our The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar review

52. Society of the Snow (2024) – ★★★★☆ 

The infamous 1972 Andes plane crash gets its third adaptation, with Spanish director JA Bayona creating, in his native tongue, a wrenching, harrowing story, with a stunning score, and added gravitas coming from Uruguayan rising star Enzo Vogrincic’s emotive voiceover. Read our Society of the Snow review

53. Scoop (2024) – ★★★★★

Rufus Sewell and Gillian Anderson excel as Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis in this Netflix drama unpacking the origin story of the infamous Newsnight interview. You’ll clamp hand to mouth, aghast at how this trainwreck actually happened. Read our Scoop review

54. Godzilla Minus One (2024) – ★★★★☆ 

The latest in the Japanese franchise opens at the close of the Second World War (the title’s “Minus One” refers to Japan’s desperate state at that historical moment). An absconded kamikaze pilot’s new job as a minesweeper puts him at the frontline of Tokyo’s efforts to fend off Godzilla. Both frightening, and a moving state-of-the-nation piece. Read our Godzilla Minus one review

55. Hit Man (2024) – ★★★★☆ 

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell co-wrote this comedy thriller about Gary Johnson, an affable psychology lecturer with a second job investigating for the police embittered lovers planning to have their partners killed. While in his undercover persona, he catches the attention of a woman he’s investigating – thus creating a body-swap comedy. Read our Hit Man review

On Netflix.