Ever sat down for a nice pleasant evening of Netflix-and-chilling – only to buckle under the pressure of choice? Fear not! Your friends at Empire have picked out – in no particular order – 50 of the finest movies the streaming service has to offer. Some are classics, some deeper cuts; all are worthy of your sofa time.Annihilation (2018)
Alex Garland follows up the excellent Ex_Machina with this similarly smart sci-fi brimming with beautiful visuals and compelling questions. Natalie Portman’s Lena joins an expedition into ‘The Shimmer’, a mysterious ‘infected’ zone on the American coast where her husband and his troops went missing on a mission. It nods to genre classics but feels striking and original, boasting an elliptical final half hour that’s bound to be talked about for decades to come.
God’s Own Country (2017)
The debut film from Francis Lee is as beautiful as its Yorkshire countryside setting, as isolated farmhand Johnny finds his lonely and bleak existence start to get a little brighter when Romanian worker Gheorghe comes to assist him. Intricately drawn with engrossing performances from Josh O’Connor and Alec Secareanu, it’s one of the best British films of recent years.
The Wailing (2016)
God a hard skin for horror? This Korean epic is truly terrifying (with odd bouts of knockabout humor) as a seemingly demonic presence manifests in a small rural community. It all starts innocuously enough, before spiralling into evermore nightmarish territory. Line up something light-hearted to watch afterwards.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Like all of Richard Linklater’s best films, Dazed and Confused is a snap-shot in time. Summer. The 1970s. The end of adolescence. Teenage rebellion. Massive parties. It’s all here, wittily and lovingly observed without shying away from unsavoury hazing rituals. There’s not much of a plot to speak of, but it’s packed with star-making turns (Parker Posey, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey all mad appearances), an incredible soundtrack, and scrappy teen spirit.
Deadpool (2016)
Marvel’s most meta mercenary finally got the film he deserved in 2016 — an inventively foul-mouthed origin story that rips apart superhero tropes in real time as you watch it. Wade Wilson’s search for an unorthodox cancer treatment leads him into the path of Francis ‘Ajax’ Freeman, whose dangerous and disfiguring procedures give him mutant abilities. Vowing revenge, Wilson tools up and deploys the greatest superpower of all: relentless sarcasm. Ryan Reynold is perfect in this X-Men spin-off that doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as shatter it into tiny pieces.
The Martian (2015)
Matt Damon. Mars. Potatoes. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi features all three, but isn’t solely about allotments on the red planet. When an accident leaves astronaut Mark Watney (Damon) stranded – and assumed dead by his crew – he has to keep his panic at bay and instead use his ingenuity to find a way to contact Earth. Boasting an amazing cast (Jessica Chastain! Jeff Daniels! Chiwetel Ejiofor! Sean Bean!) and a lot of disco music, this big budget book adaptation is the perfect combination of drama and laughs.
Schindler’s List (1993)
Close Encounters may be his most groundbreaking, and Raiders Of The Lost Ark his most entertaining, but by most accounts, Schindler’s List is Steven Spielberg’s ultimate masterpiece. Agonising for years over whether he had the head for such heavy-going Holocaust material, the director ultimately reached a maturity in his career here, juggling deeply emotional storytelling with rigorous historical accuracy – and all at the peak of his artistic powers, as that stark, gobsmacking black-and-white photography proves. It’s a tough watch, and at 184 minutes, sometimes gruelling, but it demands to seen.
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
The pairing of director Rob Reiner and writer Nora Ephron results in one of the best romantic comedies of all time, asking the ultimate question: “can men and women every just be friends?” Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are the titulasonr couple who drift in and out of each other’s lives, while the late, great Carrie Fisher steals scenes as the duo’s friend Marie. Best enjoyed with a pastrami deli sandwich.
La La Land (2016)
Just when you’d stopped whistling the infectious ditties from this Oscar winner, it appears on Netflix. Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to Whiplashswaps drums for tap shoes and J.K. Simmons for, well, J.K. Simmons in a much less-scary role this time around. Watch as Seb (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) sing and dance their way across Los Angeles whilst trying to achieve their respective dreams. It’ll make you laugh, it’ll make you cry – just please don’t attempt to recreate the opening highway song and dance on your way to work.
Creep (2014)
Yes it's found-footage, but this psychological ordeal from co-writers, directors and stars Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice is more than worth its unassuming 77 minutes of your time. Brice is the videographer who answers Duplass' advertisement for a documentarian to chronicle a day in his life. But as we get past the initial 24 hours it becomes clear that the real agenda is something altogether different. A masterclass in WTF-is-going-on tension, Creep also manages to be funny. There's now also a Creep 2 (also on Netflix) continuing the good work.
Mean Streets (1973)
The film that announced Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel as cinematic talents who might be worth keeping an eye on, actually. Mean Streets is not Scorsese’s best crime film (that honour surely goes to Goodfellas) but it laid the groundwork for his later career – and in hindsight, the mafia genre as a whole. To witness the slow-motion bar entrance of Robert De Niro’s Johnny Boy is to witness the advent of a new era.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
The MCU’s most emotionally complex hour comes in this epic showdown, with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers caught on opposite sides of an Avengers-splitting decision. Should Earth’s Mightiest Heroes be forced to sign the Sokovia Accords and submit to government control? There are no easy answers here, but there are incredible fight scenes — especially Cap and Bucky’s escape in a stairwelll and that Berlin airport brawl — and brilliant new additions in Black Panther and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
Prisoners (2013)
Before he went on to make Arrival and Blade Runner 2049, director Denis Villeneuve directed this sobering and gripping drama-thriller. Hugh Jackman stars as Keller Dover, a man who takes matters into his own hands when his six year-old daughter and her friend go missing. But in his attempt to find the kidnapper, has he found the right person?
Good Time (2017)
Robert Pattinson is nearly unrecognisable in the Sadie Brothers’ crime-drama Good Time as Connie, a peroxide-blonde criminal who attempts to bust his learning-disabled younger brother out of Rikers Island jail when their attempted bank robbery goes awry. Vibrant and visionary, the film was a hit at Cannes and features an award-winning soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never.
Selma (2014)
Despite being one of the most important and influential figures in modern US history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has not received as much big-screen attention as perhaps he deserved. That changed in 2014 with Ava DuVernay’s soaring film about the Selma civil rights marches, the events which directly spurned President Johnson to enact the historic Voting Rights Act. In the end, it took a British actor – David Oyelowo – to portray a complex American hero acting during a shameful chapter in the history of a country still learning difficult lessons.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Director Mike Flanagan manages the near-impossible task of making Stephen King’s (almost) single-setting survival thriller impressively cinematic. Carla Gugino’s Jessie is left fighting for her life when her husband has a heart attack in the middle of a sex game, leaving her handcuffed to a bed in a secluded house. Outside, a wild dog starts to sniff out fresh meat, while Jessie’s grip on sanity starts to slip. It’s a thriller set-up with true horror execution — including an astonishingly gory finale just waiting to burn itself into impressionable minds.
Network (1976)
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!” With that rousing rallying cry to the masses, Peter Finch’s furious news anchor kicks off a landmark satire from director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. Brutally and brilliantly skewering the culture of the time while also proving horrifyingly prescient, Networkset a high watermark for the 1970s new wave of American cinema.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Like a classic ‘70s prog-rock song, Guardians of the Galaxy is a total cosmic jam. Visually and tonally distinct to anything in the MCU that came before it, it’s packed with colourful characters (often literally) and ranks among the funniest entries in the mega-franchise. Chris Pratt is Peter Quill, attempting to brand himself as Star-Lord, who teams up with a ‘bunch of a-holes’ including the green-skinned Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer and tree-man Groot on an intergalactic adventure. Subversive fun, with a killer soundtrack.
Back To The Future trilogy (1985-1990)
Robert Zemeckis' original Back To The Future remains an absolutely nailed-on classic: clockwork precise in its complex storytelling while never for a moment leaving the audience behind. Michael J. Fox is Marty McFly, the skate-kid who, for reasons unexplained (possibly to do with the building of a large guitar amp) is best friends with Christopher Lloyd's mad scientist Doc Brown. the Doc invents a time machine in a De Lorean. Marty gets stuck in 1955 and... ach, you know all this. Still thrilling come the end, even when you know what happens. And while the sequels aren't quite up to the first film's standard, hanging out with Marty and Doc is never less than a blast.
Adventureland (2009)
The coming-of-age formula has rarely been executed as warmly or as likably as this quietly brilliant little comedy-drama from Superbaddirector Greg Mottola. Jesse Eisenberg is the nebbish high school graduate hoping to earn a few bucks in the summer before college; Kristen Stewart is the cynical-but-kind object of his infatuation who stands firmly on her own two feet. Together they negotiate an eccentric 1980s theme park, and their own awkward adolescent feelings, in a rollercoaster of emotions and amusements. Read Empire’s review here..
Cabin in the Woods (2012)
The opening 30 minutes of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s horror-satire is entirely predictable, before it veers into uncharted territory. A bunch of teenage archetypes (including a young Chris Hemsworth as a jock) roll up to a secluded cabin in the woods for a weekend of drunken fun, though it soon becomes clear that they’re not alone — and not necessarily in the way you might think. Go in blind (and with an open mind), and you’ll be treated to a funny and entertaining puzzle-box dissecting the best and worst of the horror genre.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Don’t know who Vincent Vega is? Then you haven’t witnessed John Travolta at his absolute best. This ultra-violent, ultra-intertwined masterpiece is one of five Tarantino films available on UK Netflix. Jackie Brown, From Dusk Till Dawn, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and – as mentioned earlier – Reservoir Dogs are also ready and waiting for you.
The Neon Demon (2016)
Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn applies his day-glo visual sensibilities to the horror genre in this satirical tale of vacuous models in Los Angeles. Elle Fanning is Jesse, a naïve teenager whose attraction to the bright lights of the fashion industry puts her in the crosshairs of her rivals. As ever with Refn, it looks striking and pushes the boundaries of taste, with a moody and dramatic pulsing synth score from Cliff Martinez.
The Big Short (2016)
A true story about collateralised debt obligations from the guy who directed Talladega Nights? The Big Short was always something of an incongruous proposition. But with effervescent scattershot direction, and dynamite performances from the likes of Christian Bale, Steve Carell, and a jacuzzi-dwelling Margot Robbie, it is at once instantly entertaining and extraordinarily disturbing. We follow three groups on the fringes of the financial industry during the mid-noughties as they slowly uncover the house of cards propping up the mortgage industry, just as it’s about to tumble. Comedy, and real-life horror, in the same gold-plated spoonful.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
J.J. Abrams brings Star Wars back for a new generation (and the old ones) in spectacular fashion – even if the extent to which it remakes the 1977 original is a bit of a surprise. The rollocking Episode VIIintroduces scavenger Rey, defected Stormtrooper Finn, dashing pilot Poe, adorable droid BB8, and new villains Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma and Supreme Leader Snoke, while still managing to find room for the old guard: or Han, Leia and Chewbacca, at least. The Force was with us again, after the lackluster prequels. Fanboys who hated The Last Jedi can revisit this nostalgically as a simpler, happier time before they knew what happened to Luke.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016)
Taika Waititi followed up his sublime vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows with this charming and hilarious adventure through the New Zealand bush, which plays like an Antipodean Up, casting Sam Neill as the irritable old man, and newcomer Julian Dennison as the precocious juvenile he learns to love. In 2016, the annual poll among Empire writers decreed it the best film of the year.Isn’t it about time you chose the skux life and saw what all the fuss was about?
Titanic (1997)
It may have become a punchline for cheesy melodrama, but to remain as the second highest-grossing film in history, two decades after its initial release, Titanic has to be doing something right. The plot is corny, the ending is predictable (spoiler: it sinks) and the Jack and Rose romance is as sickly sweet as a gallon of chocolate sundaes but James Cameron is a master of his craft and the end result is not only a disaster spectacle without peer but throws a hefty emotional body-blow as well.
Okja (2017)
Snowpiercer's Bong Joon-ho returns to the monster-movie proclivities of his earlier The Host. But Okja is a very different beast. An environmental fable, it's also a fantastical story of friendship between a young girl [Ahn Seo-hyun] and a strange, shy and introverted animal on a long journey together. Okja itself is a sort of hippo-pig, genetically engineered for the food industry by Tilda Swinton's shady multinational company. It;s not often you get dystopian sci-fi and wide-eyed Spielbergian movie magic in the same stew, but Director Bong and writer Jon Ronson somehow mix the disparate ingredients perfectly.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
The J.J. Abrams-produced found-footage monster movie Cloverfieldgot a last-minute spiritual sequel eight years later — and the most surprising thing about it is how it is. This time the camcorder is swapped for more a conventional shooting style, as Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Michelle wakes up in conspiracy theorist Howard’s (John Goodman) bunker after a car crash. He insists that a catastrophic invasion is happening outside, but Michelle suspects his fantasies extend more towards the kidnapping of young women. Taut, tense, and only tangential to the original.
Pride (2014)
One of the most genuinely feel-good films of recent years, Pride tells the true story of a group of gay activists who offered solidarity to the plight of Welsh miners during the strikes in 1984. Matthew Warchus’ comedy-drama is open-hearted, quietly powerful, and properly funny, while the best-of-British cast (Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West, Paddy Considine, Andrew Scott, George MacKay, Joe Gilgun) is an embarrassment of riches.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Kathryn Bigelow's controversial follow-up to The Hurt Locker is all about the hunt for terrorist overlord Osama Bin Laden. The true-life tale was sent back to the drawing board, to some extent, when real events overtook it and Bin Laden was finally located and taken out. But the fundamentals of Bigelow's story - of the small CIA team dedicated to tracking down the terrorist leader in a hunt that spanned a decade - remained the same. Its political and moral issues are thorny, but this is far from the hoo-ra, pro-torture disaster its critics tried to label it. The awesome cast includes Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Mark Strong, Chris Pratt, Harold Perrineau, Kyle Chandler, Mark Duplass, Scott Adkins, James Gandolfini, Jennifer Ehle and Jason Clarke.
The Revenant (2015)
Find your warmest blanket, cook up a hearty feast, and prepare to watch Leonardo DiCaprio freeze in the American wilderness and munch on bison livers to stay alive in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s survivalist frontier drama sees DiCaprio play real-life explorer Hugh Glass, who was left for dead by fellow fur trapper John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) after being mauled by a bear. It’s gruelling stuff, and finally won DiCaprio that elusive Best Actor Oscar.
1922 (2017)
Zak Hilditch directs this Stephen King adaptation, from a novella in the author's Full Dark, No Stars collection. Thomas Jane stars as a Nebraska farmer whose wife (Molly Parker) wants to sell her land and move to the city. The argument ends in violence, after which Jane is increasingly plagued and haunted by the aftermath – although it's never clear how much is real and how much in his head. Don't take that to mean an onslaught of horror, however; this is slow-burn American gothic at its finest, with great characters and strong performances.
Bridge Of Spies (2015)
In 1957, with the Cold War in full swing, artist Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested on spying charges. Keen to show due process, the American government lines up James Donovan (Tom Hanks) to defend him. Later, when U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) crash-lands in Soviet Russia, Donovan and Abel become key to his release. Steven Spielberg directs this sombre Le Carre-ish spy drama, given added quirk and dry humour by a Coen Brothers screenplay.
Annie Hall (1977)
Annie Hall is Peak Woody Allen; the zenith of the filmmaker’s career, at the mid-point between his earlier, zanier comedies and his later more sober, philosophical work. All of the usual Woodyisms are in there: a postmodern treatise on romance; Allen’s nebbish, Jewish protagonist pseudo-intellectualising; and Manhattan looming large in the background and foreground. Roger Ebert once called it "just about everyone's favourite Woody Allen movie”; watch it and see why.
John Wick (2014)
Keanu Reeves makes a triumphant return to the action fold as John Wick, a retired hitman who makes a deadly comeback when a gangster’s son steals his car and kills the puppy gifted to him by his dead wife. Bad move. Directed by Reeves’ former Matrix stunt doubles, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, John Wick’s cleanly-shot and sharply-choreographed fight scenes are its greatest strength, especially the patented ‘gun-fu’ combat style.
Blackfish (2013)
In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s documentary profiled the orca named Tilikum, kept in SeaWorld Orlando and ultimately responsible for three people’s deaths. The message here was clear: SeaWorld was committing animal cruelty on an industrial scale. Following the film’s release, attendance to the park began to fall; revenues began to fall; sponsors wary of bad publicity ended partnerships; and in 2015, SeaWorld announced it would phase out its orca shows. This is cinema as genuine, tangible, real-life change.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
More than 30 years after leaving Max in the wasteland, George Miller returns to his signature series with results that can conservatively be called extraordinary. On paper it doesn’t sound like much – Max (Tom Hardy, replacing Mel Gibson) and Furiosa (Charlize Theron) escape from somewhere and then go back again. But it’s the insane assemblage of post-apocalypse desert freakery and mechanical carnage that elevates Fury Road to an incredible, visceral, experience. Fury Road takes notes from John Ford’s Stagecoach and Sergio Leone’s Dollars films while forging its own route, and sits alongside the previous Max films while paying no attention to continuity whatsoever. This is filmmaking as myth, legend, campfire tale. Sequels have been mooted but it’s hard to imagine ever experiencing anything like Fury Road.
Fargo (1996)
With two series of FX’s Fargo done and dusted, now is as good a time as any to catch up with the source material. As Jerry Lundegaard’s (William H. Macy) plan to get rich quick falters at every turn, he soon finds himself pursued by the very persistent – and very pregnant – police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). Sublime.
The World’s End (2013)
It’s beer, brawls, and blue blood everywhere when perma-adolescent Gary King (Simon Pegg) cajoles his old school friends into re-enacting a legendary pub crawl in his home town. The final part of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy has a bittersweet taste — not as outwardly hilarious as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz but twice as emotional, with Scott Pilgrim-esque brawls and a smart story structure. The Beehive pub punch-up is one for the ages.
Capote (2005)
Another list, another great Philip Seymour Hoffman performance. Hoffman’s first and only Oscar was for his spookily accurate portrayal of writer Truman Capote. As a story about the murder of a Kansas family turns into his most famous book (In Cold Blood), Truman finds himself fascinated by one of the men responsible. You only need one incentive to add this to your watchlist: Philip. Seymour. Hoffman.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Don’t be fooled by the golden-hued chocolate box first hour of Mel Gibson’s Second World War film — you’ll need a strong stomach to survive its relentlessly brutal second half, as pacifist medic Desmond Doss heads to the frontline in Okinawa to save the lives of wounded soldiers. It’s a remarkable true story with a stellar lead performance from Andrew Garfield, and Gibson stages the battles with impressive clarity among the carnage.
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
Racially-divided Alabama is rocked by lawyer Atticus Finch when he defends a young black man accused of rape in this adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Finch’s young children Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) find their childhood bliss turned on its head in a film that earned more than ten times its budget and made Atticus Finch one of cinema's greatest characters.
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
Paul Newman and Robert Redford – Butch and The Kid, respectively – abscond to Bolivia after one too many US train robberies bring them to the attention of the law. Leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, the pair are actually very cordial, despite their profession. As the authorities close in on them, the duo find themselves in a bit of a sticky situation. Possible side effects include having Burt Bacharach’s Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head stuck in your brain for a fortnight.
It Follows (2014)
One of the best horror films of recent years, It Follows never really discloses what the ‘It’ is, or why it’s following – except that it’s a mysterious entity that’s somehow sexually transmitted, manifesting as a variety of shuffling injured strangers, or sometimes as people known to the victims it inexorably pursues. It’s an interesting twist on the slasher movie "promiscuous teens get killed" trope, with the wrinkle that if you find yourself affected, you can just shag someone else and get rid of it, like a chain letter. That rule takes the film to some very dark places.
In Bruges (2008)
When a mob-linked murder goes wrong, contract killers Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) hide out in the historic Belgian city of Bruges to await further instructions. Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black hitmen-on-holiday comedy boasts a sharp-shooting script, balancing near-the-knuckle humour with a deep undercurrent of guilt and sadness. Come for the beautiful locations and so-wrong-it’s-right dialogue, stay for the moving ruminations on mortality.
13th (2016)
Ava DuVernay’s follow-up to Selma is a sobering, articulate and timely documentary about the American justice system and prison-industrial complex, drawing clear connections between slavery and the overwhelming incarceration of black men in the present day. Compellingly argued, propulsively told, and hugely relevant.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
You can name The Magnificent Seven - well, at least six of them - but can you list The Breakfast Club? John (the criminal), Claire (the princess), Andy (the athlete), Brian (the brain) and Allison (the basket case) are sent to Shermer High School's answer to Guantanamo on a fateful Saturday morning in March 1984 and emerged changed for ever... along with most of the rest of us. John Hughes' knack for portraying teens in a way that was insightful, generous and sensitive, while never missing a good boob-and-lippy based party trick, was basically supernatural. True fact: at no point does anyone eat breakfast
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