The Best Movies on Netflix Right Now!

Every serious movie-watcher knows the feeling of being at the mercy of a film that slowly reveals itself to be a dud. Well rest assured, nothing on this list will make you feel that way.

Whether you’re looking for something new, a familiar favorite or some background noise while you chill with a romantic prospect, just know that these are the best movies that history’s most convenient and comprehensive streaming service has to offer.
—————————
******Okja (2017)*****
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Stars: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Ahn Seo-hyun, Byun Hee-bong, Steven Yeun, Jake Gyllenhaal

In an effort to make a more efficient livestock, a meat corporation led by twin sister CEOs (both played by Swinton) breeds 26 super-pigs in a laboratory and releases them to different locales to make them seem more natural. 10 years down the line, Mija, a young girl, lives in the South Korean countryside with her beloved Okja when they’re visited by a deranged zoologist, Dr. Johnny Wilcox (Gyllenhaal), who lets Mija know her pig is the best of the 26 and will be the star of their big unveiling of the new meat. She then meets an animal freedom fighter (Dano) that want to plant a recording device in Okja to record the cruelty of the slaughterhouse. Thanks to some translation deception, Mija appears to agree to it. Distraught at the error, she follows Okja to New York where the big pig gets raped by a steroidal member of her species and has bits of her eaten alive by Wilcox. Eventually, Okja gets taken to a mass killing plant, where Mija attempts a daring rescue amid the red, dripping slaughter. It takes a special type of director to combine all the elements that Joon-ho does in this film, blending sadism with sweetness, magical realism with science fiction and a child-animal friendship story mixed with a scathing critique of capitalism and the industrial food complex. After this, you’d have to be some kind of monster if you still feel that the lone carnivorous argument of “I like to eat meat” is fully sufficient.

*****Moana: (2016)*****
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker
Stars: Auli'i Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison.

With Moana, Disney delivers a princess that saves rather than one that needs to be saved. Set on a Polynesian island, the heir to the throne, Moana, chafes at the cloistered nature of her island kingdom, yearning to go the forbidden waters beyond the reef. Her father and mother refuse this request. But eventually, after a blight caused by ancient evil lava god causes the island’s fish and vegetation to die, Moana fulfills her destiny by setting sail alongside Maui, a demigod that’s essentially a more influential Hercules of the Pacific. The pair have their share of trials and tribulations—most amusingly against Tamatoa, a humongous, gilded crab voiced by Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords—as they set out to save the islands from the wrath of the lava god, who turns out to have a much softer side. The film works because of its excellent animation, solid, but not unctuously catchy soundtrack and a beyond-charismatic cast of characters that blend plucky unknowns (Auli'i Cravalho) with mega-stars (Johnson, who does a game job with his musical number). It also proves that drawing from new cultures and putting strong female leads at the front of films isn’t just good for appeasing woke bloggers—it just leads to good, more original movies.

*****Closet Monster (2015)*****
Director: Stephen Dunn
Stars: Connor Jessup, Aaron Abrams, Isabella Rosselini

Gay coming of age films may feel a bit overdone at this point (you can find at least 20 on Netflix alone) but Closet Monster is a refreshing take on the genre. It follows teenager Oscar (Connor Jessup, American Crime) as he copes with witnessing a homophobic hate crime as a child, his parents’ divorce, and his budding sexuality. The movie inventively uses body horror and surrealism as a handy metaphor for internalized homophobia and self-loathing, is sleekly directed, and boasts strong performances, especially from Jessup.

*****Sleeping With Other People (2015)***
Director: Leslye Headland
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Alison Brie, Adam Scott, Jason Mantzoukas, Natasha Lyonne

Director Leslye Headland said her film is like When Harry Met Sally, but for “assholes.” In it, Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star as a couple who used to hook-up in college, but then went on to become serial philanderers who ruin all of their relationships. They meet outside of a sex addiction class and sparks start to fly even as they insist on remaining just friends. Okay, yeah, sure, totally. Also starring, there’s Jason Mantzoukas and Natasha Lyonne as a happily married, very sexually open couple and Adam Scott as a contemptible, straight-faced OB-GYN, who routinely cheats on his wife with Brie. A modern and confident take on the genre, Sleeping With Other People leans on strong writing, a talented comedic cast and a clear vision of what love is like for people who are bad at it

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)
Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson

Call it Noah Baumbach’s take on The Royal Tenenbaums. The Meyerowitz Stories finds Noah Baumbach reaching back to his thorny beginnings as he creates a portrait of an extremely cranky upper class New York family as they gather to celebrate the artistic work of their father (Dustin Hoffman). While the genre of “neurotic family drama” is a bit overstuffed, Baumbach brings out subtle complexities and strong performances from all the leads, including Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Marvel, and Adam Sandler, who hasn’t been this good in at least a decade.

*** Rogue One (2016) ***
Director: Gareth Edwards
Stars: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed

The flaws of the Star Wars franchise—a lack of diversity, grittiness and moral ambiguity—gets rectified in this missing link between the prequels and the originals. In it, Jyn Urso (Jones) watches her father get captured by the Empire, which forces him to build the Death Star. Meanwhile, Urso links up with a warlord Saw Guerra (Whitaker), then a ragtag bunch of rebels that include a fully committed captain (Luna), a sassy robot (Tudyk) and the beefy protector (Jiang) of a blind Jedi (Yen, who absolutely fucking crushes his role). While the Empire ruled by Lord Vader rampages around with the Death Star, a defector pilot (Ahmed) lets the rebels know that Urso’s father has hidden a weakness within the planet-killer and they all embark on a suicide mission to transmit the blueprints that Luke ends up using to earn his eternal glory. The relatively small-scale of the conflict lowers the stakes in a refreshing way, allowing for deeper examination of the charming relationships that develop between the characters. Never before has Star Wars felt so real as it details the costs of opposing a force of unimaginable evil.

*** The Jungle Book (2016)
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Neel Sethi

The original Jungle Book was a light-hearted romp that was more trippy than frightening. But Jon Favreau’s live-action reimagining cranks the realism to 11, crafting a perfect action film for children that same age, and a slightly hokey, but still enjoyable film for anyone older. Essentially, a fearsome panther, Bagheera (Elba), doesn’t trust the presence of humans—and rightly so considering our impact on basically any habitat. Wanting to kill Mowgli, he tosses the leader of the boy’s protective wolf pack right TF off a cliff. Traumatized, Mowgli escapes into the jungle. There, he meets Baloo (Murray), who provides some much needed levity and croons “Bear Necessities” with a delicate touch. Eventually, they come up against a gigantic Orangutan, voiced with haunting excellence by Christopher Walken doing a sort of Apocalypse Now type thing. Eventually, there’s a big showdown between Mowgli and his foes and let’s just say it doesn’t end with Bagheera gnawing on the little boy’s tibia.

————————————-

Those are my opinions on the best movies out on Netflix right now. If you feel theres any that i missed I would love to know down in the comments!