Skip to main content

The 10 Best Netflix Original Movies to Watch Right Now

For many, Netflix is the default streaming service. It’s become synonymous with TV for some, but the service has also put plenty of money behind producing original movies. Netflix movies run the gamut from children’s entertainment to sophisticated, artistic movies, achieving varying levels of success.

Of the many films they make, some of them really stand out. Sure, they win Oscars, but other times, they’re great for reasons that have nothing to do with the prestige that the Oscars brings with it. Read on to see our round-up of the best Netflix movies streaming right now.

Related Videos

We’ve handpicked a list of the best series to stream right now to help you spend more time on Netflix bingeing shows. You can also check out our list of the best Hulu series, best Amazon Prime series, best Disney+ series, and best Netflix movies for more options.

Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)
Bo Burnham: Inside
98 %
8.6/10
r 87m
Genre Comedy
Stars Bo Burnham
Directed by Bo Burnham
Few comedians have the same artistic skill as Burnham, who filmed Inside over the course of COVID-19 lockdown alone in his guest house. The special features plenty of songs and the self-reflexive humor that Burnham has become known for, but it’s also an examination of what being alone does to a person’s brain. Inside is painfully funny, but sometimes, it’s willing to emphasize the pain as much as the funny.

Read more: Best Comedy Movies on Netflix

The Dig (2021)
The Dig
73 %
7.1/10
pg-13 112m
Genre Drama, History
Stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James
Directed by Simon Stone
An underseen gem released in the first months of 2021, The Dig is about excavating the past and allowing it to inform the present. The film stars Carey Mulligan as a wealthy landowner who hires an amateur excavator (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate the mounds of dirt on her property. Although the film is ostensibly about archaeology, its 1930s setting transforms it into a riveting depiction of England on the verge of World War. The Dig is a subtle, humanistic film about the small part individuals have in the enormous swath of history, and the beauty and pain of being alive.

The Irishman (2019)
The Irishman
94 %
7.8/10
r 209m
Genre Crime, Drama, History
Stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese is one of the world’s greatest living filmmakers, and The Irishman is proof that his movies translate to the small screen. The film, which stars Robert De Niro as a gangster who dedicates his life to organized crime, is really about the hollowness of that life. It features terrific supporting turns from Joe Pesci and Al Pacino and feels like the culmination of the gangster films that have been the cornerstones of Scorsese’s career. If Goodfellas is about the wild ride, The Irishman is about the wreckage that ride leaves behind.

Private Life (2018)
Private Life
83 %
7.2/10
r 123m
Genre Drama, Comedy
Stars Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Kayli Carter
Directed by Tamara Jenkins
There are plenty of dark, heartbreaking movies on this list, but Private Life may be the most quietly devastating. The movie follows Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn as a New York couple who are trying to have a baby. After numerous, expensive attempts at IVF, they decide to use a surrogate, even as they fight to keep their marriage from falling apart. Private Life is a small, intimate film about the pains of wanting a child, and it’s beautifully performed by its two leads, who don’t get to flex these muscles as often as they should.

Marriage Story (2019)
Marriage Story
94 %
7.9/10
r 137m
Genre Drama
Stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern
Directed by Noah Baumbach
The obvious joke about Marriage Story is that it’s very poorly named. The movie opens with divorce and chronicles the messy legal battles that come when two people decide to stop sharing their lives. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play the couple on the road to divorce, and the movie chronicles their uncoupling as it becomes more and more acrimonious. Even as they battle with one another, though, director Noah Baumbach makes sure both characters remain sympathetic and human. These are not monsters at war. They’re people who are trying to reorient their lives in the wake of a relationship that’s come to its end.

Mudbound (2017)
Mudbound
85 %
7.4/10
r 135m
Genre Drama
Stars Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell
Directed by Dee Rees
Carey Mulligan is the queen of the period piece, and Mudbound is another great team-up between the actress and Netflix. Mudbound tells the sprawling story of two families, one white and one Black, as they attempt to work and live together in rural Mississippi around the time of the Second World War. The film takes on multiple perspectives and is unflinching about the racism that was so common in the South at that time. Mudbound is a bracing, difficult watch, but a rewarding one. It’s a reminder of all the good things humans are capable of, and all the petty resentments that often stand in the way of common decency.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)
To All the Boys I've Loved Before
64 %
7/10
pg-13 100m
Genre Comedy, Romance
Stars Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish
Directed by Susan Johnson
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is not weighty or particularly serious. Its premise, which features the release of an introverted, romantic girl’s secret love letters to the world, is as silly as they come. What makes the first entry in the To All the Boys series work, though, is that it’s a deeply effective teen romantic comedy about allowing yourself to be open and vulnerable, even if it means you might get hurt. Featuring star-making performances from Noah Centineo and Lana Condor, the film is remarkably well directed, and it’s a sensitive portrait of the beauty and frustrations of young love.

Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Da 5 Bloods
82 %
6.5/10
r 156m
Genre War, Drama
Stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters
Directed by Spike Lee
Netflix has been able to poach some of the world’s biggest filmmakers in the years since it began making original films, and getting Spike Lee to make Da 5 Bloods for them was one of their biggest coups to date. The film follows four Black Vietnam veterans who reunite in Vietnam 50 years after the fighting to dig up a treasure they buried in the countryside long ago. From there, the personalities and politics of each member of the ensemble begin to unravel their bond, even as Lee makes salient points about the way Black soldiers are used and thrown out by their country. Delroy Lindo didn’t even get an Oscar nomination for his work in the film, and that in and of itself was an injustice worthy of protest.

Roma (2018)
Roma
96 %
7.7/10
r 135m
Genre Drama
Stars Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Diego Cortina Autrey
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Over its years of dominance, Netflix has put money behind plenty of questionable projects. For every Kissing Booth movie, though, there’s something like Roma, Alfonso Cuarón’s deeply personal movie about a housekeeper to a wealthy family living in Mexico City during the 1970s. Roma is not a movie filled with plot, but it sweeps you up in part through the verve of its direction. Cuarón is one of the best directors working today, and his dedication to this small-scale story is what really makes it sing.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
78 %
6.6/10
r 135m
Genre Drama, Mystery
Stars Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette
Directed by Charlie Kaufman
First as a writer and now as a director, Charlie Kaufman has always made films that felt both experimental and deeply personal. The writer behind Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind knows how to weave a compelling, moving story, but those stories take plenty of weird turns along the way. In I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Kaufman focuses on the relationship between two characters played by Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemmons as Buckley’s character contemplates a breakup. Things spiral out of control from there, creating a kaleidoscopic film about the impossibility of ever really knowing someone else.

Looking for more things to watch? We’ve also found the best documentaries on Netflix as well as the best underrated movies on Netflix.

Editors' Recommendations

Movie images and data from:
The 18 best true-crime documentaries on Netflix right now
These true-crime documentaries will keep you up at night
Netflix logo on tv with red back lighting

For the last 10 years, few things have been guaranteed to reel in more viewers than true crime documentaries. Netflix has been in on that wave of true crime fascination since the beginning, and in the years since, it has developed a vast library filled with revelatory documentaries on cases you may be familiar with, and a few you've never heard of before. Because Netflix has produced so many over the years, it can be hard to determine which are the best true crime documentaries.
Thankfully, we've got you covered with a rundown of the Netflix documentaries you definitely shouldn't skip. These are the documentaries most likely to keep you trapped on the couch all day, eager to start the next episode, or furiously searching the internet to find more information on which details are true. In short, these are the Netflix true crime documentaries that are most worth obsessing over.

If you're eager to find other types of content on Netflix, be sure to check out our lists of the best Netflix shows, and the best Netflix movies.

Read more
The 10 best Simpsons episodes of all time, ranked
These early episodes of the Simpsons are all the proof you need that the show deserves its extended run

Wherever you look in the streaming ear, you're likely to find a great animated series to watch. Some of those series are serious, while others are basically sitcoms with animated characters. That latter category is entirely indebted to The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted series in TV history.

The difference between The Simpsons and many of the other great comedies in TV history (animated or no) is that The Simpsons at its best was always pushing its own limits. Although the show has famously had its ups and downs over the years, few shows in TV history can stand up against what The Simpsons was doing when the show was at its best. Generations of viewers grew up with Homer, Marge and their family, and they grew to love the characters, even if they didn't reliably tune in every week. In its way, the show has become an institution.

Read more
The 10 best Jake Gyllenhaal movies, ranked
More than just that guy Taylor Swift sang about, Gyllenhaal is a Hollywood staple with a storied career
best jake gyllenhaal movies nightcrawler

He may still be hunting for his first Oscar, but Jake Gyllenhaal has already more than proven that he's one of modern Hollywood's greatest leading men. What's made his career so fascinating is that he's mostly shied away from the biggest projects that were offered to him, barring the occasional video game adaptation.

Gyllenhaal's best performances speak to the wide array of roles he's willing to take on and how different his approach seems to be from project to project. He's not the kind of actor who repeats himself, and that makes every one of his performances a revelation. These are the best Jake Gyllenhaal movies over the span of his long and winding career.

Read more