Tag: Best Movies on Netflix Right Now

For as many streaming services as there is currently are, Netflix remains possibly the premiere platform to watch movies and television shows. The first mainstream streaming service there was, it’s a platform that continues to boast some of the finest and most noteworthy movies you’ll find anywhere.

With a streaming catalog mixed between Netflix original movies and endless amounts of well-known movies like It, La La Land, and The Lord of the Rings, there’s no shortage of potential viewing options when it comes to Netflix’s impressive lineup of movies.

Here are some of the movies you can currently find streaming on Netflix that we’d recommend checking out.

Updated: February 4.

Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Since JRR Tolkien’s fantasy classic, The Lord of the Rings, was first published in 1954, film studios have tried time and time again to adapt the series onto the screen. It would take five long decades before audiences finally saw a decent adaptation that lived up LOTR fans’ expectations, but when Peter Jackson finally did release The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, it was well worth the wait.

When the mythical Ring of Power ends up in his possession, a hobbit (Elijah Wood) embarks on an epic quest with wizards, Elves, Dwarves, humans, and his closest friends to destroy the One Ring and prevent the Dark Lord Sauron from returning to Middle-Earth.

Using state-of-the-art special effects, an incredible soundtrack, excellent direction, and superb acting, The Lord of the Rings became the fantasy equivalent of Star Wars, garnering the same widespread attention as George Lucas’s space opera decades prior. On a whole, the trilogy is a modern masterpiece, but even when looked at individually, each film in the series is a ceaselessly entertaining epic in its own right, as seen with The Fellowship of the Ring.

Horror: It

With how many movies based off of Stephen King’s books there have been over the years, it seemed like filmmakers couldn’t strike any new ground when it came to adapting King’s stories. In 2017, though, director Andy Muschietti produced not only the scariest film adaptation of King’s work, he also created one of the most horrifying films of all time with his supernatural horror movie, It.

In the small town of Derry, Maine, children are preyed upon by a sadistic, inhumane monster that feeds off of fear and takes the form of a demonic clown (Bill Skarsgård). Realizing the threat posed by the creature, a group of miscast outcasts band together to hunt the monster down.

Tweaking elements of King’s story just enough for an easier translation, It managed to remain both entirely true to its source material while just distancing itself slightly to scare even those familiar with King’s original novel. Relying on some naturalistic acting from its young cast and a bone-chilling performance from Skarsgård, the film was quickly (and accurately) named one of the best horror movies in recent memory.

Musical: La La Land

If Damien Chazelle’s feature-length debut, Whiplash, is a musician’s worst nightmare, La La Land is a music-filled dream, a whimsical fantasy tale of love and romance with nods to everything from Singin’ in the Rain to Rebel Without a Cause.

As they each pursue their individual artistic careers in Los Angeles, a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) and an aspiring actor (Emma Stone) meet and fall in love with each other, their romance threatening to become undone by their plans for the future.

In both Whiplash and La La Land, Chazelle excels at creating conflicting portraits of artists desperately clinging to their hopes, all the while struggling to reconcile their dreams with reality. At once destined to be together but constantly pushed apart by their individual ambitions, Gosling and Stone deliver devastating performances as the two leads, possessing a chemistry not seen since the likes of Leo and Kate in Titanic.

Comedy: Julie & Julia

Needing an outlet to express herself, New Yorker Julia Powell (Amy Adams) starts a blog, walking through her experiences cooking through Julia Child’s (Meryl Streep) famously difficult cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

In the early days of the Internet, amateur writer Julie Powell managed to turn her love for cooking into a project of large-scale proportions. Documenting her experience cooking through Child’s cookbook, Powell earned the love and encouragement of hundreds of readers who tuned in every day to see her progress.

Adapted from Powell and Child’s separate memoirs, Julie & Julia illustrates the connection that might exist between an artist and an aspiring talent influenced by said creator’s work. As seen at the end of the film, the two cooking personalities may not have always agreed with one another, but their shared passion for cooking helped them escape the monotony of their everyday lives, a lesson many of us could learn from this film.

Drama: Roma

It’s been a few years now since we’ve seen a film from director Alfonso Cuarón, the last movie from the man behind Gravity and Children of Men being his Oscar-nominated 2018 drama, Roma. However much we miss him, the superior quality of Roma is more than enough to sustain viewers until Cuarón’s return, the movie serving a tender slice of life that transports audiences to its historical setting.

Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) works as the maid of an upper-middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City. Soon, her peaceful life is interrupted when the patriarch of the family runs away with his mistress and Cleo finds herself pregnant.

Inspired by Cuarón’s childhood upbringing in Mexico City, Roma is both an authentic and stirring film that explores mundane issues in a brilliantly insightful way. Slower-paced movies like this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Cuarón still manages to present an emotionally engaging story that feels achingly personal (because it actually is).

Documentary: Pamela: A Love Story

In the 1990s, Pamela Anderson was the decade equivalent of Marilyn Monroe. Adored by fans across the globe, she was the kind of universal sex symbol that comes around only so often, her public image forever emblazoned on promotional material for Baywatch or on the cover of glamor modeling magazines.

With Netflix’s most recent documentary, Pamela: A Love Story, Anderson relives the course of her career in her own words, sharing illuminating stories about her past and rise to fame.

Particular points of interest that crop up are some of Pamela’s many troubled romances, her treatment in the eyes of the media, as well as the notorious release of her sex tape with her husband Tommy Lee. Candid, straightforward, and rarely mincing words, Pamela allows Anderson to explain her life story, complete with previously unseen footage and interviews.

Family: Flushed Away

Flushed Away doesn’t tend to rank as highly as other DreamWorks movies, but at the end of the day, it’s still a fresh, funny, and visually striking film that utilizes a wholly underused animation technique (stop-motion) and a memorably great cast.

Roddy (Hugh Jackman) is an upper-class pet mouse used to the finer ways of living in his luxurious London apartment. After being accidentally flushed down the toilet, Roddy teams with a resilient, street-smart mouse (Kate Winslet) to evade a criminal toad (Ian McKellen) and return to the surface world.

Possessing DreamWorks’ signature humor and Aardman’s penchant for stop-motion storytelling, Flushed Away is a wondrously underrated movie that’s an ideal option for family movie night. The emotions may not be as front and center as they are in Shrek or Puss in Boots, but the movie’s delectable comedic style is enough to make Flushed Away worth a watch.

War: Apocalypse Now Redux

It’s not often that a director releases not one, but two films that become undisputed classics in their respective genres. After having established the tone for the modern crime movie with The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola set the standard for war films with his hypnotic, surreal, nightmarish epic, Apocalypse Now.

On a secret mission to assassinate a demented former military commander (Marlon Brando), an elite Special Ops soldier (Martin Sheen) travels up the Nùng River with a small Navy crew, witnessing the horror and chaos of the Vietnam War firsthand.

Re-edited with about 49 minutes of additional footage inserted in, Redux is the ultimate way to watch Apocalypse Now, as Coppola originally intended. At a numbing three and a half hours, it’s not exactly a light film to watch on a lazy afternoon, but it’s certainly a movie that should be experienced at least once in your lifetime, much like The Godfather.

Teen: Edge of Seventeen

Not to be confused with the equally enjoyable 2016 film, The Edge of Seventeen, 1998’s Edge of Seventeen covers much of the same ground as other teen films of its day, but goes one step further by exploring issues related to the LGBTQ+ community.

In 1980s Sandusky Ohio, a troubled teenager (Chris Stafford) comes to terms with his sexuality, pining after a college student (Andersen Gabrych) he works with at the local Cedar Point amusement park.

Putting its historical settings to good use, Edge of Seventeen follows a young man as he takes his first tentative steps towards embracing his sexual identity, as well as the fear and uncertainty he feels revealing his true self to his family and friends. It’s a wonderful film with issues and explorations well ahead of its era, brilliantly personified by its talented young cast.

Underrated: Arctic

Mads Mikkelsen is an actor who never fails to disappoint, even when the movies that he appears in are less than great or are overlooked by mass audiences. Five years after its release, one of Mikkelsen’s most exciting movies — Arctic — has been steadily climbing the Netflix’s most-watched list this past week, proving his continuing rise to popularity among a larger viewership.

Following a plane crash in the Arctic Circle, a survivor (Mads Mikkelsen) must decide whether to wait for rescue or journey across the freezing tundra to search for help.

The most ingenious part of Arctic is its realistic nature. There’s no ravenous wolves hunting Mikkelsen, no horrifying monsters lurking in the outer reaches of the Arctic plains. There’s simply a man trying his best to survive against the elements, making for one of the most grounded yet exciting thrillers streaming on Netflix right now.

This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.