In the 10 years since releasing its first original film Beasts of No Nation, Netflix has evolved into a power player in the movie scene, earning honors at award shows like the Oscars and Golden Globes.
The streaming giant received 18 Oscar nominations in 2025 and took home three: two for Emilia Perez and one for best documentary short with The Only Girl in the Orchestra. Popular action films and comedies such as Sicario, Carry On and The Old Guard have also helped make Netflix a destination for reliable, fun hits (hot tip: The Old Guard 2 comes out this week!). But titles often come and go on the platform, so check out our list for recommendations on what to watch before they leave the platform, and browse to see which great titles have just arrived!
Whether you love drama, comedy, blockbusters or quiet, independent films, check out what we consider to be the best movies you can watch on Netflix right now. If you'd rather go with a series, peruse our picks for the best TV shows to watch on Netflix.
Read more: Where to Watch All the 2024 Oscar Winners
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Netflix The Old Guard (2020) Based on the comic book by Greg Rucka, the action-fantasy The Old Guard stars Charlize Theron as one of a group of immortal mercenaries who are able to regenerate even after being killed. When they're tracked down and hunted by a pharmaceutical company that intends to study them, they fight back in an effort to protect themselves. The first film, released in 2020, was such a success that a sequel, The Old Guard 2, premiered this week and features Uma Thurman as Theron's newest adversary.
Photo credit: David James, David James Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) Netflix just released the first five movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and while we really enjoy them all, 2015's Rogue Nation is one of our favorites. Rogue Nation was the first film in the franchise to be directed by Tom Cruise's frequent collaborator Christopher McQuarrie and it's the film that brings Cruise's Ethan Hunt together with ex-MI6 agent Ilsa Faust, played by series regular Rebecca Ferguson. All five M:I films arrived on Netflix July 1 and are the perfect lead-up to watching The Final Reckoning, which is still in theaters.
Barbie (2023) They said it couldn't be done, but Greta Gerwig did it. The writer-director of Barbie managed to make a movie about a doll into a musical feminist manifesto that audiences of all ages could appreciate. While casting Margot Robbie as Barbie seemed like an uncanny stroke of genius, she and the rest of the cast, including Ryan "I Am Kenough" Gosling, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell and more, are perfectly suited for the film's message about toxic masculinity and the fact that we should all be wearing Birkenstocks. If you haven't watched yet, you should hurry -- Barbie is leaving Netflix July 15.
New Line Cinema Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter One (2024) Genre: Western
Rating: R Horizon: An American Saga -- Chapter One is the first of four planned films that Kevin Costner has been developing since the late 1980s. After a brief theatrical release, the film arrived to Netflix in late December. A three-hour epic, Chapter One stars Costner (who also co-wrote and directed) alongside Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Giovanni Ribisi as settlers in Horizon, a town in the newly established Arizona Territory. You might want to catch Horizon: An American Saga -- Chapter One now; it's leaving Netflix July 15. Watch Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One on Netflix
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