The great conundrum of the streaming age is that dozens, if not hundreds, of movies are available at your fingertips to stream—but the best movies on Netflix can be extremely hard to decide on. Let this list be your guide as you navigate Netflix’s catalog of feature films. hese 25 movies feature something for everyone—comedy, adult drama, Oscar winners, animation, Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington, Greta Gerwig. From some of the best movies of recent years to a few stone-cold classics, you’re sure to find plenty worth checking out without wasting half your life on a never-ending scroll.
Release Year: 1984
Director: Milos Forman
Notable Cast: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Simon Callow, Christine Ebersole
The Oscars of the 1980s have a reputation for stuffiness that is sometimes deserved, sometimes not. But don’t let anyone fool you into thinking Milos Forman’s adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s play about a reckless young talent named Mozart is anything but a kick. Hulce gives his best performance as the title character, whose utter heedlessness in the face of the talent he’d been bestowed makes for the perfect counterpart for a jealous mentor. F. Murray Abraham won the Oscar for his role as the jealous and petty Salieri, a perfect instance of a villain taking over a film from its hero. This being Forman’s second Oscar win for best picture, it’s fun to compare Amadeus to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which only recently left Netflix. Hopefully you were able to make this double feature happen.
Release Year: 1973
Director: George Lucas
Notable Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Harrison Ford
Nostalgia has never been quite so powerful on film as it was in this 1970s movie about a group of friends in 1962, whiling away the last night of the adolescent real summer of their lives. On the other side of this night wait jobs, responsibilities, and Vietnam. It’s amazing to watch George Lucas (along with producer Francis Ford Coppola) play out all these humanistic storylines now that he’s so eternally tied to the space opera of the Star Wars universe, but American Graffiti really pulls you into its vibe of characters yearning to crest that hill, not knowing the value of the heedlessness they’re currently enjoying. Standout performances by Dreyfuss and Phillips especially, but it’s Cindy Williams — Shirley from Laverne & Shirley herself — who gives the film’s strongest turn.
Release Year: 1991
Director: John Singleton