61 of the best films on Netflix UK this week
Stuck for a good film on Netflix? Here's our pick of the best Netflix movies to feast your eyes on, updated weekly
Netflix has plenty of movies to watch but there's a real mixed bag on there. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. This is particularly the case now Netflix's film rating system is a percentage rather than a numerical rating. So, to help you in this most important of tasks, we've compiled a list of the good films on Netflix.
If you decide you're in more of a TV mood, head over to our best Netflix TV series or picks of the best documentaries. We have a whole separate list of the best sci-fi movies, the best films on Amazon Prime UK and the best Disney+ movies.
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Chadwick Boseman's final film before his untimely death is one set almost entirely in a sweaty recording studio in 1920s Chicago. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom centres around the mother of blues, played by Viola Davis, as she clashes with bandmates and white producers whilst trying to record an album. Davis delivers a stellar performance, perfectly reflecting the tensions of the time. But it's Boseman who is completely electrifying on-screen, stealing every scene he's in. The actor truly couldn't have done any better for his final outing as trumpeter Levee.
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By Amit Katwala
NICO TAVERNISE/NETFLIX © 2020
If you are not an American boomer, the juxtaposition of the city of Chicago and number seven might mean little to you, but the formula stands for one of the causes célèbres of the Sixties. As anti-war, civil rights, and general hippie activists involved in the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Seven (theoretically eight) were picked as convenient scapegoats after the unrest was crushed at the behest of mayor Richard Daley, and arraigned before a judge whose views and demeanour put him to the right of Vlad the Impaler. Happening at the very end of the LBJ era – with the US reeling from the Kennedys and King assassinations and Vietnam still devouring thousands of youths – the trial came to encapsulate, in a pithy courtroom-drama formula, the tensions tearing the country's social fabric asunder. Director Aaron Sorkin takes a lot of liberties with historical facts (and leaves out some hilarious bits that would have made for a showstopper, such as poet Allen Ginsberg's testimony) but The Trial of the Chicago 7 generally succeeds in conveying the sense of generational score-settling the court battle came to signify – and boffo acting by Eddie Redmayne and (albeit laughingly miscast) Sacha Baron Cohen seal this as a nice watch.
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Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You is a film of two halves. Cassius 'Cash' Green (Lakeith Stanfield) starts a new job as a telemarketer and soon finds that he has much more sales success when he uses his "white voice" on the phone. While he rises rank to become a fabled Power Caller, his teammates strike for fairer pay and Cash finds himself stuck between loyalty to his friends and the draw of capitalism, with his new position offering more money to work for increasingly evil clients. Just as you're wondering how much further the plot can go, things get… weird. Without giving too much away, prepare for a journey with a touch of the fantastical that'll leave you feeling deeply uncomfortable. It certainly makes an impression.
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Just when you thought you'd seen enough Spider-Man, they go and make the best one yet. To be quite honest, 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a rare gem of complete perfection - hilarious, stunning and thrilling, the animated caper is simply superhero storytelling at its best. It's a familiar story: Boy gets bitten by radioactive spider, boy gets spider-like super abilities and tasks himself with fighting crime in his home city of New York. But this time, Peter Parker is out and graffiti-obsessed Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is in. Well, that's until he meets alternate versions of himself (including a washed out Parker) and gets embroiled in an epic battle to save the multiverse. Spider-Verse plays on that old origin story to introduce something we all thought was lost from the start of this superhero's story: originality. Besides having a fun geek out about this sheer creativity, even the biggest superhero-skeptics will enjoy Spider-Verse's fresh animation style and Nicholas Cage's excellent turn as Spider-Man Noir.
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Game-obsessed couple Max and Annie (Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams) and their group of friends are thrown quite the curveball when Max's brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) rolls into town and offers to host their weekly game night. Instead of the usual Pictionary white board, Brooks has organised for one person of the group to be abducted, leaving the rest to track them down. But as the night goes on, it soon becomes obvious that this 'abduction' might not be a game at all. Game Night is a fun watch but is certainly helped by an all-star cast seemingly having a lot of fun. Jesse Plemons as oddball neighbour Gary is an absolute standout, meanwhile Billy Magnussen, Sharon Hogan and Chelsea Peretti also shine.
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Yes, it's yet another take on Sherlock Holmes, but this time the brooding detective takes a backseat as the plot focuses on his teenage sister Enola, played by Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. Faced with her mother's mysterious disappearance, Enola goes to London in an attempt to track her down - while running away from other Holmes brother Mycroft and his threats of boarding school. It's a jaunty, family-friendly adventure with some fun action scenes and a feel-good, if rather unnuanced, moral. Henry Cavill's Sherlock is a man of few words and many meaningful looks, while Helena Bonham Carter makes for a sprightly and unconventional mother figure. The film seems to wholeheartedly embrace its tropes rather than getting too mired down in them, and the costumes and locations make for very enjoyable viewing.
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2018's Venom shows that Sony can make Marvel adaptions work. Tom hardy plays the lead character Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who learns of a project keeping alien lifeforms – discovered in an earlier space exploration mission – alive in human hosts. While trying to expose and investigate the project, Brock accidentally transfers superhuman powers to himself. Whenever anyone tries to attack or remove the alien components from Brock he transforms, you guessed it, into Venom. Combined, Brock and Venom need to determine whether they will use their powers for good or evil.
Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX
Much like his previous films Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, director Charlie Kaufman has created quite the head spinner with his latest Netflix drama, I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Lucy (Jessie Buckley) is traveling with boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents for the first time at their secluded farmhouse, but all the while Lucy narrates her desire to end things with Jake, and questions why she's going on this trip in the first place. Queue an incredibly uncomfortable dinner with parents Toni Collette and David Thewlis (both excellent) and a confusing journey that flits through the time. It should be noted that you simply won't understand all (or frankly, any) of the elements of this mind-bending film, it really should be accompanied by a YouTube video with 'ENDING EXPLAINED' in the title. But once you get all the answers it's hard not to admire and appreciate the complexities of loss and loneliness Kaufman has imbued in this drama.
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In this 2016 drama, Viggo Mortensen plays Ben Cash, a single father raising his six children in the depths of the American wilderness. Shunning the school curriculum and establishment way of life, Cash trains his children to be athletic and tough and teaches them to think critically about society, history and life itself. But upon the death of Ben's wife and the kids' mother, Leslie, the family are slowly forced to engage with modern life, some for better and others for worse. Captain Fantastic is an emotional watch, though Mortensen's grieving portrayal is central to that, George Mackay as his son Bo also gives an incredible performance.
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Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies is based on the true story of an extraordinary hostage exchange that took place at the height of the Cold War. Lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks) becomes the US government's unwilling envoy in East Germany when he is asked to swap his client, an accused Russian operative called Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), for an American pilot held by the Soviet Union. So far, so straightforward: a spy for a spy. Only as the Berlin Wall went up, a young American student found himself captured by East German forces. Can Hanks manage to exchange one man for two? The tense negotiations, marked by double-crossings and scheming on all sides, make for a magnificent cold-war thriller. One thing's clear: if you ever time-travel to 1950s war-torn East Berlin, remember to bring an extra coat – and an extremely good lawyer.
Roadside Attractions/Armory Films/Netflix
On paper, The Peanut Butter Falcon looks like a sickeningly schmaltzy film. Zack Gottsagen plays Zak, a young man with Down's syndrome who busts out of the care home he has found himself in to pursue his dream of attending a wrestling school run by his hero. Along the way, he runs into Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) who is escaping from his own sad backstory, and the pair buddy up to take a raft trip along North Carolina's Outer Banks. The powerful chemistry between the two leads elevates this film far above its cheesy road-trip roots and the swampy hinterland provides a sweat-drenched backdrop to the action as Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) follows hot on Zak's trail. The lead role was written for Gottsagen, who delivers a persuasive central performance that turns this dramedy into a something far more emotionally engaging.
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Twentieth Century Fox / Larry Horricks
Well deserving of a spot in the spy spoof canon, Bridesmaids director Paul Feig's 2015 movie lets Melissa McCarthy loose on some CIA in the casino action with a camp Rose Byrne and a cheeky Jason Statham putting in just as funny turns. So it's not the kind of prestige film that you'll brag about on Twitter but it is just an extremely fun two hours and definitely the McCarthy com to pick over say, Identity Thief and Tammy.
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Former US army captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) regrets taking on the responsibility for training the newly created Imperial Japanese Army when he is captured during its first battle. But instead of killing Algren, his samurai capturers spare his life and send him to live in their village. Over time Algren earns the respect of the samurai and comes to understand their way of life. He becomes a staunch defender of Japanese tradition and rallies against attempts to radically modernise society by standing alongside samurai soldiers in battle.
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Netflix's The Old Guard is breaking records – fast. It's one of the streaming service's most watched original films ever, with it reaching a whopping 72 million households in its first four weeks. But just how good of a watch is it? Charlize Theron leads a group of immortal mercenaries who use their self-healing powers to help those in need. But when a new immortal joins their crew, they find themselves being chased down by scientists who want to experiment on them. The Old Guard's action scenes are its strongest, Theron and new recruit KiKi Layne have some serious fun dishing out and taking their fair share of hits. So though it may not be especially original in its plot, The Old Guard is a solid action film that certainly entertains.
You can't look away but you can't look. Alejandro Landes' Monos is about as far as you can get from a 'Netflick'. It's a frenetic war thriller about a cult of guerrilla child soldiers in Colombia that's as unsettling as that description suggests. There's debate over an underlying allegory but just know there's edge of your seat hostage and rebellion plots and some stunning mountaintop and jungle visuals. But most of all: the teens are terrifying.
We know what you're thinking: Netflix commissioned a bunch of short films in lockdown, avoid at all costs. Well, we couldn't make it all the way through the Kristen Stewart entry – seemingly an homage to Personal Shopper – but a few of the 7 to 11 minute shorts are just perfect. Pablo Larrain's nursing-home-Zoom film is hilarious, Maggie Gyllenhaal directs her husband Peter Sarsgaard to sci-fi weirdness in the woods, Ana Lily Amarpour shows us locked down LA and Paolo Sorrentino somehow manages to achieve his signature melancholy, humour and majesty with figurines of the Pope and the Queen placed around his house.
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In this two-hour-long satire, actor-director Yvan Attal stars as himself – a French Jew ranting to his psychoanalyst about his worries over France's creeping antisemitism. The film's structure is episodic: each antisemitic trope Attal complains about – Jews are too rich, they "are everywhere", they killed Jesus – is immediately explored in a short comedic vignette. In one, for instance, a Jew-hating politician (a veiled caricature of erstwhile far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen) discovers that her husband is Jewish; in another, Israel's Mossad ships a hitman, via time-machine, to dispatch baby Jesus and nip Christian antisemitism in the bud. Some gags land better than others, but the acting is uniformly good, and the film speaks to a very real debate currently ongoing across La Manche.
After finding Oscar success with BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee is back with an even more powerful, violent, anguished take on another aspect of America's history with racial injustice. This time we're in Vietnam, where four black veterans have returned to find the remains of their fallen squad leader and a gold fortune that they left behind. The film is a multi-layered analysis of the racism suffered by the black soldiers who were were defending a country that simply did not value their lives and the brutality the Vietnamese people were subject to in the long, painful and as it's known as in the film, American War. As you would expect, a film that focuses so closely on these difficult themes is no easy watch, and there are moments of intense brutality. But at the heart of Da 5 Bloods is an incredibly human story of friendship, humanity and the inherited trauma our main characters experience. Delroy Lindo gives a particularly gut-wrenching performance; still heavy with the burden of fighting in the war, at the peak of his character's disassociation with the world around him, Lindo gives an unforgettable Shakespearean-esque monologue that rocks you to your core.
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If you Google the cult classic that made Alicia Silverstone a 90s icon, the most-typed question is this: "Is Clueless a good movie?". Let all doubt be cast aside – it really is. This loose interpretation of Jane Austen's Emma drops us into the life of spoiled 15-year-old Cher Horowitz (Silverstone); a privileged, beautiful and popular girl who seemingly has it all. Armed with unspeakable wealth and privilege, her life is dominated by power-shopping, cell phones and semi-successful matchmaking. Alongside her friend Dionne (Stacey Dash), she dominates her 90210-esque school with clichéd yet witty one-liners that have aged surprisingly well. When Cher gives grungy transfer student Tai (Brittany Murphy) a makeover, she triggers her own downfall. The film's iconic wardrobe may have inspired decades of fashion, but the quotes are just as memorable: "You are a snob and a half", "Ugh, as if!" and "He does dress better than I do. What would I bring to the relationship?" will live on forever as internet gifs.
Jonah Hill's directorial debut is far from the comedy hits like The Wolf of Wall Street and 21 Jump Street that made his name in Hollywood. Mid90s is the touching story of Stevie, a lonely 13-year-old who becomes skateboard-obsessed and finds friendship in a group of older skaters. But Stevie's idolising of the group comes at a price, in longing to find a sense of community, he starts to grow up a little fast for his age and is soon faced with some very adult realities. Sunny Suljic gives a touching performance as Stevie, and the rest of the cast give equally nuanced turns. Mid90s a very human story that uses subtlety to progress the plot and its characters. Hill has managed to layer in themes of racism, poverty and self-harm in a film that on the surface looks to be about skating bros, but in reality is about the small details of life that can make or break us.
Every now and again a foreign film transcends its boundaries and becomes an international hit. Japanese animation Your Name isn't quite Parasite, but Makoto Shinkai's wistful melodrama about a teenage city boy and a country girl who magically switch bodies without warning was a surprise hit outside its native country, and a genuine phenomenon within it. The girl in a boy's body, boy in a girl's body theme is played for some predictable (but effective) laughs and there's an infectious feelgood energy throughout, even when events turn more serious. It's worth watching to see there's life beyond Miyazaki in Japan's prodigious animation industry and while the themes and execution are quite different to the master's, there's no less joyful escapism. Predictably, there's a western live action remake in the works, produced by J.J Abrams, but don't let that deter you from watching the charming and fun original first.
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Kiki is a witch. She runs a delivery service. So starts and ends the plot to Kiki's Delivery Service, a film that is perhaps one of the most joyous animations ever made. This is a coming of age film where complex themes are handled with confidence and style. The animation is classic Studio Ghibli: rich, detailed and fascinating, while the characters of Kiki, and her sarcastic cat Jiji, are impossible not to like. It's the perfect slice of escapism.
Big Night
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The owner dishes out risotto from sharing platters, a woman reclines on the table, everyone's dancing and the chef kisses his timpano pasta dish for luck as it leaves the kitchen. No it's not a fever dream of your favourite dinner spot, it's Big Night, a cosy, 90s foodie movie. It stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two Italian brothers relying on one spectacular dinner to drum up business for their failing Jersey shore restaurant. A no reservations endorsement.
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Look on helplessly as Mark Zuckerberg unleashes The Facebook on an unsuspecting world. Jesse Eisenberg gives an uncanny portrayal – both physically and behaviourally – of Zuck, the flawed entrepreneur. Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is all quick dialogue and lingering, artful frames. And, as the horror unfolds, you realise that Facebook's unstoppable rise was pretty much all your fault. Is it totally accurate portrayal of events? Certainly not. But it's hard to look away.
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"You talk about penance and you send this through the door." This being Robert De Niro's Johnny Boy. He's tucking his shirt in and slow motion sauntering into a red-lit bar with a girl on each arm, towards Charlie (Harvey Keitel), all to the sound of the Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash. MARTY. This early (1973) Scorsese is more shambolic than most Scorsese's but you won't be able to take your eyes off this Little Italy flick. With Goodfellas and The Irishman also both on Netflix right now, you've got the makings of a Marty marathon. Sadly Casino has gone walkabout.
Flight opens with one of the most spectacular air crash scenes ever put to film – it's worth watching the first 15 minutes alone if you've never seen it. But what follows is equally worthy. Denzel Washington plays the genius pilot responsible for saving hundreds aboard his flight, but his predilection for booze and drugs is tearing his life apart and makes him a target for investigators. Washington excels as the arrogant, flawed pilot who is determined to avoid the truth about himself.
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So what if none of Space Jam is in space? Your eyes will literally pop right out of your head – doiinnnngggg – as Michael Jordan plays baseball and namechecks 90s brands for 90 minutes. Oh and gets yoinked into a game of b-ball to help the Looney Tunes take on some small then big then small theme park aliens. So what if there's no Mel Blanc on voices, for a $80m movie it's fairly slapdash and Jordan can't act? The charisma of the 'Tunes makes up for it and this goofy go-to, that you can stick on while you wait for more episodes of The Last Dance documentary, is in many ways the perfect kids film. Welcome to the jam.
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Almost all Studio Ghibli films are now available to watch on Netflix, and Princess Mononoke should definitely be near the top of your list. Released in 1997, the film follows a young prince who is cursed by a demon boar and leaves his village to search for a cure — and try to find out what is causing upset to the forest and its creatures. His travels draw him into a conflict between the animals and spirits of the forest and the human inhabitants of a nearby mining town, with the eponymous princess existing somewhere between the two. Director Hayao Miyazaki is known for environmentalist themes, and Princess Mononoke explores the relationship between humans and the planet with a greater level of complexity than some of his other works. The film has an adult sensibility, with a fair amount violence and death, but there are plenty of cute animated creations too.
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In the 90s, Tonya Harding was at the top of the figure skating game. She was a world silver medallist and was recognised as the first female skater to successfully land a triple axel in competition. Then it all went wrong. Her ex-husband orchestrated an attack on a fellow skater to try and get her to the Winter Olympics and Tonya was banned from skating for life. Margot Robbie plays the lead role in this part-mockmentary, part-dramatisation of the events that transpired. Alison Janney won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her role as Tonya's mother.
Ferris decides he doesn't want to go to school one day so tricks his parents into believing he's sick. He convinces his friend Cameron to borrow his dad's Ferrari and hatches a plan to drag his girlfriend out of school. They head to Chicago for a fun day out, but the school principal is hot on their scent. Ferris' classmates all believe that he has come down with a life-threatening illness, when in reality he is singing 'Twist and Shout' in a parade. Ferris Bueller is an 80s classic with pure feel-good energy, starring Matthew Broderick as Ferris and Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) as his sister.
Mari Gilbert is at war with the police. Her daughter is missing and because of their bias against sex workers, they aren't being of help. Mari decides to start her own investigation, which leads her to the discovery of more than a dozen unsolved murders of sex workers. She joins together with their families to start a campaign to make sure these girls aren't forgotten, and she holds the police to account. Lost Girls is based on a tragic true story and shows how hard it is to get the police to help when they simply don't want to listen to you.
Pennywise the clown is back to haunt a new generation of children in this 2017 remake of It. Based on the novel by Stephen King, It is about the small town of Derry, Maine being terrorised by an evil presence. It causes people to see the thing they fear the most – evil phantoms, fountains of blood and Pennywise himself. Seven children join together to try and stop It despite not being believed by the adults of the town. It stars Sophia Lillis, who recently played Sydney in I Am Not Okay With This, and Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard.
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Colin Firth plays a stutter-prone King George VI in this heart-warming story of the monarch's struggles to overcome being suddenly thrust into the limelight after the abdication of his older brother. Geoffrey Rush is electric as the King's speech therapist, and the heart of the movie is in the interactions between the stiff, solemn royal and the loose, thespian Lionel Logue. The Crown has changed things, but in 2010 this level of insight into Britain's ruling family was unusual – and the film picked up four Oscar wins, including Best Picture.
Ingrid Goes West
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In the age of Instagram, you can feel like you're good friends with someone you haven't ever met. Ingrid, played by Aubrey Plaza, takes this one step further, and uses what she learns from her latest obsession's Instagram to move to California and integrate herself into her life. Her mother has recently passed away, so Ingrid uses her inheritance to rent an apartment, dye her hair and recreate herself. But as the lies mount up, it becomes harder to maintain the cool-girl facade and things start to crumble. This black comedy cracks open that classic Los Angeles narcissism and shows that you should be careful what you post online.
At first glance, The Two Popes is not a gripping proposition: a film where two very old men in dresses talk a lot, walk around a little bit, and then talk some more. But two top-notch performances from Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins and a stellar script from Anthony McCarten turn this prosaic premise into a film worth watching. Set in the wake of the Vatican leaks scandal and loosely inspired by true events it follows Cardinal Bergoglio as he tries to convince Pope Benedict XVI to accept his resignation. The two men couldn't be more different – Benedict is an archconservative desperate to cling to tradition while Bergoglio is seen as a dangerous liberaliser who might erode the Church's authority. While the two men battle out their differences, the future of Catholicism hangs in the balance.
If you've written off Adam Sandler as the doyen of crass, forgettable comedies then prepare to have your pigeonhole well and truly blown apart. The actor puts in a career-best performance as Howard Ratner, a charismatic, fast-talking New York jeweller who is certain he's about to pull off the biggest deal of his life. All he needs is his precarious plan to go off without a hitch. What follows is a frenetic whirl of a film that careens deliciously between chaos and mirth, taking in an arresting film debut from former NBA player Kevin Garnett. You'll finish the film exhausted, entertained and exhilarated.
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A Senegalese romance, a story of construction workers turned migrants and a paranormal revenge tale; Mati Diop's genre-busting Atlantics won the Grand Prix at Cannes last year. Netflix showed its impeccable taste in international films by picking it up. The first time feature director takes her time as she follows seventeen year-old Ada, who is in love with Soulemaine – one of the workers at sea – but obliged to marry another man and Issa, a police officer who gets mixed up in the lives of Ada and the women left behind in Dakar. Diop uses genre tropes and traditional folklore to get under the skin of families, corruption and class in urban Senegal.
American Son
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Don't pay attention to the reviews – American Son is well worth a watch on a rainy afternoon when you can't afford tickets to the theatre. This stage adaptation of a black mother's anguish over her missing son has changed little from a traditional play: it is claustrophobically contained inside the waiting room of a police station, which serves as the main setting for the show. Kerry Washington is masterful as Kendra, a mother openly desperate to find out where her 18 year old son is and blocked at every turn by an openly racist police officer. It tackles segregation, racism, sexism and police brutality in one hour and 30 minutes in a way that will make your stomach churn. The film, like the play before it, generated a wealth of critics that felt its one note of anger and sometimes laboured dialogue failed to adequately tackle modern day racism. Does it fail as an important look at race relations? Yes. But it provides plenty to think about in a way that sticks in your mind long after it's over – and you'll watch a play in the the best seat in the house.
Warner. Bros.
Christopher Nolan is but one man orchestrating this Dunkirk evacuation but he's also got the stunning work of cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema on the ground and composer Hans Zimmer soaring overhead. Suitably daring, both visually and conceptually, the cast is a mix of Nolan regulars (Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy) young faces you probably won't recognise and Harry Styles doing just fine. This is a tense World War II retelling, which sees the writer-director permitting the warmth and compassion of Dunkirk into his cold, intellectual heart. And in an age where every film seems to clock in at way over two hours, kudos to Nolan for bringing his three interweaving Operation Dynamo strands to an affecting close in one hour and 45 minutes.
Dolemite Is My Name
Netflix / François Duhamel
After the credits roll on Dolemite Is My Name, we guarantee you'll be 10,000 times more likely to go out and stage a horndog nude photo shoot for your next cult comedy record. The only person having anywhere near as much fun as Eddie Murphy, playing real life club comedian/singer Rudy Ray Moore, is Wesley Snipes, goofing around as the actor-director D'Urvill Martin. Together with a madcap crew, they make a truly terrible 1975 Blaxploitation kung fu movie based on Moore's pimp alter ego, Dolemite. A brash, OTT showbiz movie with a heart of gold, there's shades of The Disaster Artist and music legend biopics. And with the cast flexing in Ruth Carter's glorious costumes – the suits! – and a couple of triumphant sex and shoot out scenes, it's a wild ride, whether you know the original story or not.
Claudette Barius/Netflix
How did a Panamanian law firm orchestrate the biggest global tax evasion operation of all time? In The Laundromat, Steven Soderbergh takes an incredibly dry (yet important) real story and makes it into one of the weirdest films released in the last year. Antonio Banderas and Gary Oldman play Ramón Fonseca and Jürgen Mossack, the despicable scoundrels running a scandal-ridden Panamanian law firm as it slowly collapses. Meryl Streep plays a widow turned amateur detective whose husband could not collect insurance because it was tied to a shell company that doesn't exist – then bizarrely dresses up in disguise as a Panamanian employee. If you don't know about the scandal this film won't help to explain it, but it's certainly entertaining.
Netflix / WILSON WEBB
Things seem rosy for all of five minutes in Marriage Story, which follows the protracted and heartbreaking divorce of a theatre director (Adam Driver) and his actor wife (Scarlett Johansson). Driver and Johansson put on a masterclass in emotionally honest acting, so it's little surprise the film has picked up nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress as well as a Best Supporting Actress nod for Laura Dern and further nominations for Best Screenplay and Original Score.
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Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon all star in this Coen brothers adaptation of a 1968 novel by Charles Portis, which became a classic. It follows Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old (played by Hailee Steinfeld) who hires a US Marshal (Bridges) to track down her father's killer (Brolin) and seek vengeance. The film, which stuck closer to the events of the book than the 1969 movie adaptation starring John Wayne, received widespread critical acclaim, including ten Oscar nominations.
Colin has three days left on his probation and he's trying to stay out of trouble. In this genuinely funny, yet incredibly tense indie film from 2018, Colin and his best friend from childhood Miles, played by writers Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Rafael Casal, are our guides to the rapidly gentrifying Oakland, California. Like a couple of low key Spike Lees, Diggs and Casal take on police brutality, racial and cultural identity and green juice-drinking hipsters with surreal set pieces and violent confrontations interspersed with hip hop interludes. There's no cardboard cut-out characters and Blindspotting puts as much care into the comedy scrapes – selling used hair straighteners in a salon – as it does the complicated issues in need of this kind of social commentary.
The Wife
Sony Classic Pictures
When Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) learns he has won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the self-satisfied writer takes his family with him on a trip to Sweden to receive his award. But while Pryce luxuriates in the adulation, his relationship with his wife Joan – played by Glenn Close – starts to unravel. Switching between the present-day and flashbacks to the beginning of the Castlemans' relationship in the 1950s, it quickly becomes clear that Joan had literary ambitions of her own before slipping into the role of gracious and accommodating spouse of a conceited rising star. But when a persistent biographer (Christian Slater) starts buttering up the couple in an attempt to write the author's biography, it emerges that Joan may be much more than the receding and supportive partner that she seems to be.
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Based on a novel of the same name, The Revenant is a story of revenge. Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is guiding a band of trappers through 1820s America. However things turn nasty when the group are attacked by an Arikara war party. After the attack Glass's son, Hawk, is brutally murdered. From here on, Glass sets out on a gripping adventure to avenge his child. Its Oscar record speaks for itself. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and came away with three wins, including the Best Actor gong for DiCaprio.
Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name and directed by David Fincher, Gone Girl is a masterful psychological thriller. Ben Affleck stars as an aimless and unfaithful husband who becomes prime suspect when his wife, played brilliantly by Rosamund Pike, goes missing. From the sociopathic lead characters to the hysterical response to the disappearance, Gone Girl is an unreal, unconformable and strangely compelling film with all the forensic style we've come to expect from Fincher's work.
Someone Great
A breakup movie that is really about the joy of female friendship and the pain of growing old, Someone Great is powered by the chemistry between its three lead actors: Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise. Rodriguez stars as Jenny, a journalist who simultaneously lands her dream job in San Francisco and breaks up with her boyfriend of nine years. To lift her out of her gloom, Jenny enlists her two best friends for one last adventure in New York City. Although the film sets itself up as a series of comic capers (like Superbad or Dazed and Confused), it really finds its heart in the relationship between the three leads and their mutual support as they attempt to muddle through life – it's like picking up with the cast of Booksmart and finding out they've really gotten into drugs in the intervening 13 years.
Based on a true story, Spotlight follows a team of investigative reporters at The Boston Globe newspaper as they uncover a horrific history of systemic child abuse and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church. Rather than casting the journalists as heroes, director Tom McCarthy details the painstaking process that it takes to break such a major story: cajoling sources, gathering information and taking first-hand accounts of abuse. The film is made all the more shocking by the fact that despite the child abuse going back decades, it took until 2002 – and only after the relentless determination of The Boston Globe – for the story to finally reach the public.
Witty, outrageous and at times chilling, The Big Short will reaffirm your cynicism of Wall Street. Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling to name a few, this comedy-drama was one of the more unexpected films to come out of 2015. Originally a book by Michael Lewis on the financial crash, this BAFTA and Academy Award winning adaptation brings to the screen the crisis of 2008 and its roots. Be prepared to be enlightened and enraged.
Written by and starring Ali Wong and Randall Park, Always Be My Maybe tells the story of two inseparable childhood friends whose lives veer dramatically apart after a grief-stricken rendezvous in their teenage years. Wong plays Sasha Tran, a superstar chef whose stratospheric career barely papers over the cracks in her faltering relationship. Park, meanwhile, plays Marcus Kim, whose ambitions have taken him no further than the local dive bar and his father's air conditioning firm. Fate – and a bizarre cameo from Keanu Reeves – conspire to bring the two leads back together in a film that at long last lifts Asian Americans outside of Hollywood's clichéd casting and into a thoughtful and hilarious romantic comedy.
Sport is really about data. That's the view of baseball manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who can't compete with the big budgets of rival clubs. To add salt to his wounds, three of his best players have just moved to a rival team. Instead of trying to raise more money, he decides to improve his Oakland Athletics side using statistics rather than tradition wisdom. The movie, which was nominated for six Oscars including Best Actor and Best Picture, is based on the real-life story, and book, about the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics baseball team.
You'll probably want to watch Birdman twice. On a first viewing, the film's cinematography – ingenious though it is – becomes a distraction. Under the guidance of Emmanuel Lubezki, the entirety of this cult fable appears to be formed from a single, elaborate tracking shot. Watch it a second time and the dazzling cinematography becomes a character of its own in the dreamlike narrative. This is a darkly comic tale of a man haunted by his past facing an unfolding existential crisis. And, four years after its cinematic release, it's still unlike almost anything else out there.
Only great things can come from the director of True Detectives, and with Beasts of No Nation Cary Fukunaga doesn't disappoint. A compelling war drama film starring Idris Elba and shot in Ghana, it follows a young boy called Agu who lives in a small village, and who is forced to become a child soldier as his country is ripped apart by a brutal civil war. This is a poignant depiction of the devastation that war can bring to a family.
This is without doubt one of the best children's films of the 1990s. Don't agree? Stop reading. Matilda is a dark, witty and touching adaptation of Roald Dahl's book of the same name. Danny DeVito is at his ludicrous, comic best, while Mara Wilson is a perfect fit for the understated but mischievous lead role. If you watched this film as a kid, it's a great trip down memory lane. And even if you're a bit too old for that, it's still a great family film today.
Carlos Somonte / Netflix
Roma, Alfonso Cuaron's newest release since Gravity in 2013, is very different from any film he's made before. Set against the backdrop of unrest in Mexico City in the early 1970's, the film follows Cleo (Yalitizio Aparicia), who works as a housekeeper for a young, well-off family. The specificity of the film arises from Cuaron's direction, as the film is based on the life of the nanny who raised him, Libo, and much of the mis-en-scene in the film is actually from his childhood. While the film is in black and white, and entirely in Chilango Spanish, it's incredibly moving and absorbing, especially given how gorgeous the cinematography and direction is. Fans of Cuaron who have watched Gravity or Children of Men might be surprised, but this side of Cuaron is worth watching, and Roma is already generating Oscars buzz.
A taut, clever crime thriller, Nightcrawler explores the world of 'stringers', freelance videographers who scour late night LA for violent events to film and then sell to local news TV stations. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou, who lucks into the trade and quickly discovers the profits to be made, especially when he bends the law for juicier material. Desperate to feed demand and ratings, a local morning news director (Rene Russo) doesn't care how the footage is obtained so long as it's good. An outstanding central performance from Gyllenhaal, who lost weight to portray the desperate Lou, drives the action forward and it features an early Hollywood appearance for Riz Ahmed as his sidekick, Rick.
Mudbound
Everyone in this period drama from director Dee Rees is trying to drag themselves out of the Mississippi mud, in one way or another. Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) moves his young family to a farm on the Mississippi delta, although his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) is less than pleased by the news that he's also bringing his horribly racist father to live with them too. The Jackson family are tenants on the farm, led by Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan) who hopes he can work his way out of sharecropping and own his own slice of land one day. When Hap's son and Henry's brother return to Mississippi from World War II, the two men find themselves locked in a struggle against the ugly oppression of Jim Crow America.
Writer and director Alex Garland won numerous plaudits for his directorial debut Ex Machina, including Oscar and BAFTA nominations for best original screenplay. Annihilation is his second feature as a director and it's another serious, enthralling sci-fi exploration that's much better than its 'straight to Netflix' status would suggest.
Channelling a sci-fi horror vibe reminiscent of Soviet-era mind trip Stalker, Annihilation's main antagonist is a slowly expanding zone called The Shimmer in which all life is undergoing rapid and inexplicable mutation. Natalie Portman travels with an all-female team of scientists to try and reach the centre of The Shimmer and understand what's causing it, and what happened to her husband after his own journey into Area X. Cerebral and dream-like, it's
Set in 1985 in Texas, a bigoted rodeo bull rider, Ron Woodroof, is diagnosed with AIDS. His refusal to accept his fate sends him on a journey to track down the drug AZT, the only known treatment. On his journey he meets a transgender business partner, who agrees to help him distribute the drug amongst the gay community. Based on a true story, Dallas Buyer Club is as harrowing as it is inspiring. Woodroof, played by Matthew McConaughey, subverts the macho man, making him an unexpected hero to a generation of gay men. McConaughey's celebrated performance won him an Academy award and Golden Globe for Best Male Actor.
The Fundamentals of Caring
This on-the road indie flick is many things at once. Based on a novel by Jonathan Evison, it's heartwarming, witty, thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud hilarious. The Fundamentals of Caring is lifted with just the right balance of dark comedy and drama making it both a poignant story and an easy watch. Paul Rudd stars as beaten-down Ben who decides to go on a course to become a carer after divorcing his wife, and Trevor (Craig Roberts) is wry, hilarious and complicated as the teenager Rudd begins caring for. It's refreshing to see disability presented in a way that feels honest without being afraid to address self-depreciation through comedy.
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