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The best movies on Hulu right now (March 2024)

A woman bows her head in court in Anatomy of a Fall.
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Oscar season may be over, but Hulu is adding two of 2023’s top nominees to this month’s movie lineup. Poor Things is already available to stream, and on March 22, it will be joined by the French legal thriller Anatomy of a Fall. As you can also see by looking over the new titles on Hulu, March is a very strong month for movie lovers. But for this list, we’re throwing the spotlight on Christopher Nolan’s Inception and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi.

That’s just the beginning of the best movies on Hulu right now. Keep reading for more of our picks, which feature a great lineup of Hulu originals mixed in with acclaimed films from all over the world.

Subscribe to a different platform? Not only do we have a guide to the best shows on Hulu, but we’ve rounded up the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Netflix, and the best movies on Disney+.

Recently added to Hulu

Poor Things (2023) new

Poor Things
88 %
8.1/10
r 142m
Genre Science Fiction, Romance, Comedy
Stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Emma Stone won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Bella Baxter in Poor Things. Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) falls for Bella before he learns that a mad scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), brought her back to life with a newborn’s brain. That doesn’t dissuade Max from wanting to marry Bella, but she has other ideas.

Bella runs away with a lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), so she can experience everything that the world has to offer her. Much like Max, Duncan’s influence over Bella only goes so far before she starts setting the agenda for herself, and no one is prepared to accept that.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023) new

Anatomy of a Fall
86 %
7.8/10
r 152m
Genre Thriller, Mystery, Crime
Stars Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner
Directed by Justine Triet

Anatomy of a Fall was a five-time nominee at the Oscars, and the winner for 2023’s Best Original Screenplay. The story revolves around the death of Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) and the discovery of his body by his son, Daniel Maleski (Milo Machado-Graner). Did Samuel fall from the attic in his home, or was he pushed?

The police soon openly suspect that Samuel’s wife and Daniel’s mother, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), attacked Samuel and pushed him to his death. Even Daniel doesn’t quite know what to think when the truth about his parent’s strained marriage is brought out to the open. Affairs and resentment are only a small part of why Sandra and Samuel were estranged. But it looks damning when one of the leading characters in Sandra’s new novel contemplated killing her husband in a similar manner.

Inception (2010) new

Inception
74 %
8.8/10
pg-13 148m
Genre Action, Science Fiction, Adventure
Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe
Directed by Christopher Nolan

Prior to Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy tended to have only supporting roles in Christopher Nolan’s movies. For Inception, Murphy played Robert Fischer Jr., a man whose rival want him to dissolve his father’s business empire. Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a thief who enters people’s dreams and steals their secrets, is hired to plant an idea in Robert’s head to make him think that breaking up the business was his own idea. That’s the inception in Inception.

Robert’s mind and body are well-defended, which is why Dom has put together a team to handle the mind heist as well as someone to watch over them in the real world. The problem with Dom’s dreams is that even in this scenario, he’s haunted by the specter of his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), who doesn’t want him to get away.

Life of Pi (2012) new

Life of Pi
79 %
7.9/10
pg 127m
Genre Adventure, Drama
Stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon
Directed by Ang Lee

Life of Pi is not a fantasy, but there’s a touch of magic in director Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s hit novel. The film and the book are the story of Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel (Suraj Sharma), a teenager who accompanies his family and their zoo animals as they travel by sea to immigrate to Canada. Tragedy strikes when the boat sinks, killing Pi’s family and most of the animals.

Only a handful of animals make it off the ship with Pi, including a large Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. Soon, it’s just Pi and the tiger as the former attempts to find a way to co-exist with Richard Parker without being eaten or attacked. Because the boy and the tiger need each other to survive while stranded in the open waters of the sea.

Suncoast (2024)

Suncoast
61 %
6.6/10
r 110m
Genre Drama, Comedy
Stars Nico Parker, Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson
Directed by Laura Chinn

Laura Chinn’s Suncoast is largely based on true events that happened to her and her family, but the movie does take some dramatic license with the story. Nico Parker stars as Doris, a teenager who is overwhelmed by the brain cancer afflicting her brother, Max (Cree Kawa), and from her attempts to deal with their mother, Kristine (Laura Linney).

When Max enters hospice care, Doris befriends Paul (Woody Harrelson), an activist who is fighting to keep a woman named Terri Schiavo hooked up to life support despite her persistent vegetative state and the wishes of her husband. As for Doris, she has to face the very real possibility that her brother will never come home from hospice.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

12 Years a Slave
96 %
8.1/10
r 134m
Genre Drama, History
Stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o
Directed by Steve McQueen

The final fate of Solomon Northup has been lost to time, but his harrowing account of being sold into slavery two decades before the Civil War was adopted for the big screen as 12 Years a Slave. In 2013’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, Chiwetel Ejiofor portrays Solomon, a free Black musician in the North who is kidnapped and forced into slavery in the South.

Solomon’s first owner, William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), at least has some compassion for him. The same can’t be said about Solomon’s next master, Edwin Epps (The Killers Michael Fassbender), a cruel sadist who abuses Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o), one of his female slaves. With each passing year, Solomon despairs that his chances to regain his freedom are slipping away until he finally meets someone willing to risk their own life to help him.

Heat (1995)

Heat
76 %
8.3/10
r 170m
Genre Action, Crime, Drama
Stars Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Directed by Michael Mann

Michael Mann’s Heat has the distinction of featuring The Godfather Part II’s Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together for the first time in the same scene. But they play very different characters in this thrilling crime drama. Pacino portrays Lieutenant Vincent Hanna of the LAPD, a man determined to catch an elusive thief, Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), and bring him to justice.

McCauley and Hanna actually have some measure of respect for each other, but not enough to back down from their impending showdown. McCauley has more immediate problems when a heist goes wrong, and his attempt to sell his stolen goods back to their owner, Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner), only earns him another deadly enemy.

The Lost City (2022)

The Lost City
60 %
6.1/10
pg-13 112m
Genre Action, Adventure, Comedy
Stars Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe
Directed by Adam Nee, Aaron Nee

The Lost City plays a bit like a mixture of Argylle and Uncharted, while casting Sandra Bullock as Loretta, a wildly successful romance novelist who is still mourning her late husband. After being pushed into going on a book tour with her cover model, Alan (Channing Tatum), Loretta is kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire, Abigail Faifax (Daniel Radcliffe), who is convinced that the research of Loretta’s husband can lead him to a hidden treasure.

Alan, having already fallen for Abigail, mounts a rescue mission alongside Jack Trainer (Brad Pitt). But when Jack goes down, Alan and Abigail are left on their own as they attempt to escape from Fairfax and his men. 

Uncharted (2022)

Uncharted
45 %
6.3/10
pg-13 116m
Genre Action, Adventure
Stars Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali
Directed by Ruben Fleischer

Fans of the Uncharted video games may have done a double take when the MCU’s Spider-Man, Tom Holland, was cast as a much younger version of adventurer Nathan “Nate” Drake. The Uncharted movie is an alternate take on Nate’s origin story and how he formed a partnership with Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a treasure hunter who claims to have been the partner of Nate’s missing brother, Sam Drake (Rudy Pankow).

In the way of Nate and Sully’s first expedition is Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), a very wealthy man who hires Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) and her mercenaries to take out anyone in their path. Nate and Sully only have Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) to call upon for help, but even she may be less than trustworthy.

The King of Comedy (1982)

The King of Comedy
73 %
7.8/10
pg 109m
Genre Drama, Comedy
Stars Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott
Directed by Martin Scorsese

You may notice some intentional parallels between The King of Comedy and Joker, both of which featured Robert De Niro in leading roles. Except in Martin Scorsese’s film, De Niro is the one playing a mentally ill man, instead of a famous talk show host. Rupert Pupkin (De Niro) is absolutely convinced that he’s got what it takes to be a stand-up comedian. He’s also deluded about his “friendship” with late-night TV host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis).

Rupert eventually meets Marsha (Sandra Bernhard), a woman who has her own delusions about being romantic with Jerry. Together, they hatch a scheme to get everything they want. All they have to do is take Jerry hostage and hold him for ransom.

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)

Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
83 %
7.6/10
r 162m
Genre Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
Directed by Quentin Tarantino

If Quentin Tarantino is serious about making only one more movie, then his penultimate film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will go down as one of his best pictures. In this alternate version of history, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a faded Hollywood star, and his best friend and bodyguard, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), is a dangerous man with a murky past. Rick is desperate for a comeback, and his opportunities are drying up.

Meanwhile, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) is on the rise as a prominent actress, unaware that the Manson family’s violent ambitions may mean the death of her. Tarantino creates so much tension whenever the Mansons menace any of the three leads in this film that the inevitable violence is almost cathartic when it finally arrives.

EverAfter (1998)

EverAfter
66 %
7.1/10
pg-13 121m
Genre Drama, Romance, Comedy
Stars Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott
Directed by Andy Tennant

True to its name, Ever After: A Cinderella Story is a riff on Cinderella. But there’s no Bibbidi‐Bobbidi‐Boo, talking mice, or fairy godmothers to be found here. The heroine isn’t even called Cinderella. Instead, her name is Danielle de Barbarac (Drew Barrymore), a young woman who is treated like a slave by her stepmother, Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent (Anjelica Huston), and her stepsister, Marguerite de Ghent (Megan Dodds). Danielle’s second stepsister, Jacqueline de Ghent (Melanie Lynskey), isn’t quite so wicked.

After years of servitude, Danielle comes across Prince Henry (Dougray Scott) as he attempts to flee his arranged marriage. Danielle and Henry have a definite spark, but she may need a little help from Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) to break free of her stepfamily and romance the prince.

Quiz Lady (2023)

Quiz Lady
58 %
6.7/10
r 100m
Genre Comedy
Stars Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell
Directed by Jessica Yu

Quiz Lady features a unique pairing of Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as sisters Annie and Jenny Yum, respectively. When their mother flees the country to avoid a gambling debt, the struggling Jenny moves back home with her younger sister. While Annie effortlessly answers the questions as she watches a TV game show, Jenny films it and later posts it online where it goes viral.

This attracts the wrong kind of attention to Annie’s talent, as a criminal kidnaps the family dog to blackmail Annie into going on the game show in order to cover her mother’s debt and get their pet back. What Annie doesn’t realize is that Jenny also has other ulterior motives to get her sister on TV.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

A Haunting in Venice
63 %
6.6/10
pg-13 104m
Genre Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Stars Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin
Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot is accustomed to murder mysteries, but less so to ghosts in A Haunting in Venice. Just two years after World War II, Poirot is ready to put his life as a detective in the past. However, Poirot just can’t resist the opportunity to unmask a fraud when he is invited to attend a seance held by Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh).

It doesn’t take Poirot long to figure out how Joyce pulls off her supposedly supernatural tricks. But much to Poirot’s alarm, someone soon tries to murder him before Joyce’s body is discovered. Now, Poirot has to figure out if he is dealing with a conventional murderer, or something more sinister from beyond the grave.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
58 %
6.9/10
pg-13 119m
Genre Adventure, Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black
Directed by Jake Kasdan

The curse of Jumanji returns for a new generation of characters in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Now transformed into a video game, Jumanji entices four teenagers – Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Anthony “Fridge” Johnson (Ser’Darius Blain), Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman), and Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner) – into playing without fully understanding the consequences of their decision.

Suddenly, the group finds themselves physically transported into the game, with Spencer in the body of Dr. Xander “Smolder” Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar (Kevin Hart), Bethany as Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon (Jack Black), and Martha as Ruby Roundhouse (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s Karen Gillan). Each of the kids has only three lives to escape from Jumanji. But first, they have to locate the fifth player in their group.

No One Will Save You (2023)

No One Will Save You
60 %
6.3/10
pg-13 93m
Genre Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Stars Kaitlyn Dever, Elizabeth Kaluev, Zack Duhame
Directed by Brian Duffield

Kaitlyn Dever stars in the Hulu original movie No One Will Save You as Brynn, a young woman who lives a solitary existence in large part because she is a pariah in her small town. That’s one of the reasons why Brynn has no one to turn to when an alien invades her home. In the aftermath, Brynn finds no support from her fellow humans, and she discovers just how alone she really is.

No One Will Save You barely has any dialogue at all, but Dever’s expressive and earnest performance carries the entire film. It also goes a long way toward making little gray men scary again, especially when Brynn meets the more horrific aliens.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Nightmare Alley
70 %
7.0/10
r 150m
Genre Crime, Thriller, Drama
Stars Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Despite its name, Nightmare Alley is not a horror story, and also one of director Guillermo del Toro’s most grounded drama to date. Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, a con man who has a gift in getting people to believe that he can physically speak to their loved ones who have died.

While this skill gets him out of the carnival, it also sets Stan up for a fall when Judge Kimball (Peter MacNeill), a former skeptic who wants to speak with his dead son. Stan also appears to have met his match with Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a con artist who is even more ruthless than he is.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

The Banshees of Inisherin
87 %
7.7/10
r 114m
Genre Drama, Comedy
Stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon
Directed by Martin McDonagh

There are few things more heartbreaking than when your best friend suddenly decides they don’t like you anymore. Writer and director Martin McDonagh explores this idea in his dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin. Colin Farrell stars as Pádraic Súilleabháin, an ordinary man living on Inisherin, who is absolutely bewildered and hurt when his best friend, Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson), abruptly ends their relationship.

Pádraic assumes that he’s somehow offended Colm and bends over backwards to apologize … to no avail. Even the efforts of Pádraic’s sister, Siobhán Súilleabháin (Kerry Condon), fail to reconcile Colm and Pádraic. And soon, Colm threatens to take drastic actions if Pádraic doesn’t stop trying to speak with him.

Flamin' Hot (2023)

Flamin' Hot
65 %
5.8/10
pg-13 99m
Genre Comedy, Drama
Stars Jesse Garcia, Annie Gonzalez, Dennis Haysbert
Directed by Eva Longoria

What do you do when there’s a true story that may not be true? As was famously said in the 1962 Western classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” The story of Flamin’ Hot is truly inspirational regardless of whether these events actually played out this way in reality. The film is based on the memoir of Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia), the man who claims that he created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. And he didn’t do it alone.

With the support of his wife, Judy Montañez (Annie Gonzalez), and his co-worker, Clarence C. Baker (Dennis Haysbert), Richard rises from the rank of janitor and works up the nerve to pitch his Flamin’ Hot ideas to Frito-Lay executive Roger Enrico (Tony Shalhoub). From there, a snack food legend is born.

Something in the Dirt (2022)

Something in the Dirt
r 116m
Genre Science Fiction, Mystery
Stars Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Sarah Adina Smith
Directed by Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson

An exciting example of the kind of narrative ingenuity that only a worldwide pandemic can foster, Something in the Dirt is the latest film from writer-director duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (The Endless, Synchronic), and is arguably the most primitively fascinating work of these two collaborators. Shot over the course of a year with a crew of just 12, our story follows Levi and John, apartment-dwelling neighbors who decide to make a documentary about a range of supernatural events occurring in their Los Angeles residence. But as the two men discover that these kinds of extraordinary happenings are taking place all over L.A., their findings lead them to a combative exchange of theories and calculations.

The Valet (2022)

The Valet
pg-13 124m
Genre Comedy, Romance
Stars Eugenio Derbez, Samara Weaving, Max Greenfield
Directed by Richard Wong
In The Valet, Eugenio Derbez and Samara Weaving star as Antonio and Olivia, a dedicated valet driver and a Hollywood starlet that “hires” Antonio to act as her new boyfriend when the actress is accidentally photographed with the man she’s actually seeing (New Girl‘s Max Greenfield), who just so happens to be married. As the mass media aims the spotlight more and more at the fake couple, it’s only a matter of time before the news breaks that the romance is fabricated. It’s a heartfelt comedy with attention paid to character development and earnest performances, something that is often lacking in many of today’s bigger-budget comedies.

War Dogs (2016)

War Dogs
r 114m
Genre Comedy, Crime, Drama
Stars Miles Teller, Jonah Hill, Ana de Armas
Directed by Todd Phillips
Co-written and directed by Todd Philips, and based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article and Efraim Diveroli’s 2016 memoir Once a Gun RunnerWar Dogs stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as a pair of longtime pals who have the opportunity to rake in gigantic piles of cash by becoming multinational arms dealers. Enjoying their lives of newfound riches, reality comes crashing down on the boys after they land a $300 million contract to supply Afghan troops with weaponry. A fun thrill ride concerned less with authenticity and more with narrative bravado, War Dogs is the kind of movie that excites at every turn, even if what we see on-screen is only a fragment of the true story the film is based upon.

Ultrasound (2022)

Ultrasound
55 %
5.8/10
r 103m
Genre Science Fiction
Stars Vincent Kartheiser, Chelsea Lopez, Breeda Wool
Directed by Rob Schroeder

In director Rob Schroeder’s Ultrasound, Mad Men alum Vincent Kartheiser stars as Glen, an unassuming everyman who just so happens to encounter some car trouble on a dark and stormy night. Seeking some help, he knocks on the door of a perfectly kind stranger named Arthur (Bob Stephenson), leading the former down an uncanny rabbit hole of deceit and mind control. Presenting a nail-biter of a story without diving into carnage and other typical screen grabs, Ultrasound does its best work as a quietly curious foray into a world that’s hard to pin down.

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

The Worst Person in the World
90 %
7.8/10
r 128m
Genre Drama, Comedy, Romance
Stars Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum
Directed by Joachim Trier
In The Worst Person in the World, Renate Reinsve stars as Julie, an Oslo-based medical student, and it follows the course of four years throughout her personal life and career. It’s the kind of meditative and hard-talking dark comedy that only comes around once in a while, but The Worst Person in the World is one of those rare cinematic home runs that doesn’t need to act big and tall to stand out from the crowd. And thanks to Reinsve’s down-to-earth performance, it’s a film that’s easy to get on board with.

The Last Tourist (2021)

The Last Tourist
7.3/10
84m
Genre Documentary
Stars Elizabeth Becker, Sangduen Lek Chailert, Costas Christ
Directed by Tyson Sadler
When traveling somewhere tropical and off-grid, we typically view these vacations as nothing more than personal getaways for us and those we love. But there’s a whole other side of the tourism coin that doesn’t get talked about — until director Tyson Sadler came along, that is. Through his eye-opening documentary The Last Tourist, Sadler paints a much different picture of tourism’s impacts on the parts of the world that need extra care and protection from humanity’s grip, while also discussing the positive aspects of worldly excursions. In the end, the audience is left with an important message that may have you thinking twice about your next venture to somewhere distant and remote.

Hellraiser (2022)

Hellraiser
r 121m
Genre Horror, Mystery
Stars Odessa A'zion, Jamie Clayton, Adam Faison
Directed by David Bruckner

It’s about time the world of Hellraiser received some much-needed reimagining. For years now, the franchise has seen sequel after sequel, and while Cenobite fans are always pleased to see Doug Bradley donning his Pinhead garb, the series has certainly run into its fair share of cinematic duds. But director David Bruckner has come along to get the saga on track once more. The 2022 remake stars Odessa A’zion as Riley, an on-the-mend drug addict who comes into the possession of a runic puzzle box — a mysterious device that summons an armada of hellish entities. Led by the Hell Priest (Jamie Clayton), Odessa is plunged into a fight for survival when the demonic visitors begin wreaking havoc in the real world. Bruckner’s Hellraiser reboot may not satisfy all of the saga’s diehards, but when you consider it as a gruesome yet polished homage to Clive Barker’s source novella and first batch of films, the 2022 version more than gets the job done.

I Think We're Alone Now (2018)

I Think We're Alone Now
51 %
5.7/10
r 100m
Genre Science Fiction, Drama, Mystery
Stars Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning, Paul Giamatti
Directed by Reed Morano
Have you ever heard of the classic Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last” about a book-loving bank teller who finds solace in a post-apocalypse rid of humanity, but filled with plenty of excellent reading material? While the “last man on Earth” narrative has received plenty of cinematic attention over the years, each stab at the formula may be traced back to Burgess Meredith’s Twilight Zone episode, with 2018’s I Think We’re Alone Now serving as yet another homage to it. Peter Dinklage stars as Del, a man who embraces a life of solitude in the wake of a global pandemic that has seemingly eradicated the rest of mankind. That is until one fateful day, when a woman named Grace (Elle Fanning) arrives, disrupting Del’s idyllically quiet day-to-day. In I Think We’re Alone Now, director Reed Morano creates a world where isolation is less a curse and more a blessing, where companionship begins as an adversarial force and slowly unravels into something potentially more meaningful.

Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself (2020)

Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself
82 %
8.2/10
pg-13 90m
Genre Documentary
Stars Derek DelGaudio, Hal Schulman, Marina Abramović
Directed by Frank Oz
We all ponder over the great existential questions of life from time to time. Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going next? And while cinema is often used as a philosophical medium through which we can explore such inquiries through fiction and nonfiction lenses, such introspection has never been captured like it has in Derek Delgaudio’s mesmerizing documentary/stage spectacle In & Of Itself. Directed by Frank Oz, Delgaudio’s work combines elements of traditional stage performance and unconventional narrative structure to deliver a filmic spectacle that is hard to describe but impossible to forget.

This Mountain Life (2018)

This Mountain Life
7.2/10
77m
Genre Documentary
Stars Simon Beck, Martina Halik, Tania Halik
Directed by Grant Baldwin
This Mountain Life is the kind of documentary film that exposes viewers to treacherous, isolated environments where geographically remote livelihoods are par for the course and tundra survival is as second-nature as putting milk in your cereal. Released in 2018, director Grant Baldwin’s thought-provoking film explores the lives of British Columbia residents living in and around the region’s mountainous landscapes. The subjects include a mother and daughter pairing who are looking to undertake a significant traversing of the local Coast Mountains area. A philosophical deep-dive into what it takes to be one with your land and hills, This Mountain Life is up there with the best deeply-pondered Herzog nature docs and National Geographic specials.

Dinner in America (2022)

Dinner in America
80 %
7.2/10
r 106m
Genre Comedy, Drama, Music
Stars Kyle Gallner, Emily Skeggs, Pat Healy
Directed by Adam Rehmeier
It’s not often that you see the punk rock music genre getting any kind of cinematic limelight (sans films like Her Smell and Green Room), but even less so when the film genre of choice is an indie rom-com. Such is the case, though, with writer-director Adam Carter Rehmeir’s 2020 film Dinner in America, and the results are pretty great. Starring Kyle Gallner and Emily Skeggs as a singer and his band’s devoted fan, our story follows the star-crossed lovers as they travel around the lesser-seen suburbs and pervading urban sprawl of the American Midwest. If you’ve seen Garden State or Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, picture these two films being tossed into a blender with a healthy bit of rated-R this and that for extra punch, and you’re probably at least halfway to the look, feel, and budgetary, off-the-cuff sensibilities of Dinner in America.

Pig (2021)

Pig
82 %
6.9/10
r 91m
Genre Drama, Thriller
Stars Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin
Directed by Michael Sarnoski
In Pig, Nicolas Cage stars as Robin Feld, a truffle forager living off the grid in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. With a day to day composed of seeking out and selling rare fungi to a local restaurant supplier named Amir (Alex Wolff), Feld is content to go about a simple life of living off the land, that is until a posse of malcontents steal his truffle-foraging swine. Teaming up with Amir to track down the thieves, Robin must go to great lengths to infiltrate the locales and social circles he left behind to regain the animal he loves. A stirring blend of arresting performances and a unique narrative, Pig is the kind of independent film that makes a quiet but powerful impact before fading into the greater ephemera of bigger-budget pictures. That being said, catch it while you can — you won’t be disappointed.

Prey (2022)

Prey
79 %
7.3/10
r 100m
Genre Science Fiction, Action, Thriller, Horror
Stars Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
Serving as a centuries-ago prequel to the 1987 film Predator, Prey gives us the story of a Comanche warrior named Naru (Amber Midthunder) who aspires to be the mighty protector of her Great Plains tribe. One day, a powerful new foe descends on her clan, forcing Naru and her fellow Comanche to summon up all their wits and strength to thwart the combatant extraterrestrial. Prey is a propulsive and blood-soaked nail-biter of an action film, and one that could effectively stand alone as a singular entity. But in this case, it’s a new entry in a much-loved franchise, and it’s one we’re betting will make plenty of fans happy.

Flee (2021)

Flee
91 %
8/10
pg-13 89m
Genre Documentary, Animation
Stars Amin Nawabi, Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Flee is one of those movies that fully commands the power of documentary filmmaking to tell an unbelievable true story. With jaw-dropping animation as our visual medium of choice, director Jonas Poher Rasmussen unpacks the emotionally arresting past of one Amir Nawabi, a refugee from Afghanistan (operating under an alias) who recounts his experience of fleeing his native country close to two decades ago. Heartfelt, beautifully constructed, and filled with frame after frame of immersive imagery, Flee is an important bit of storytelling you don’t want to miss.

Sundown (2022)

Sundown
70 %
6.6/10
r 82m
Genre Drama
Stars Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Iazua Larios
Directed by Michel Franco
In Sundown, Tim Roth is Neil Bennet, the emotionally and financially domineering patriarch of a high-class family. Vacationing in Mexico with his sister Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her two children (Samuel Bottomley and Albertine Kotting McMillan), Alice receives distressing news about a death in the family. Planning to travel home, Neil makes up an excuse at the last second to stay in Acapulco, where he indulges in a series of cheap thrills in an effort to distance himself from his sister, the death, and anything else that could pester the quiet and miserly gentleman. A bleak drama, Sundown is propelled by the chameleon-like performance of Tim Roth at its center, portraying a man who has it all but would seemingly give it all up if it meant disappearing was a possibility.

Three Identical Strangers (2018)

Three Identical Strangers
81 %
7.6/10
pg-13 97m
Genre Documentary
Stars David Kellman, Robert Shafran, Lawrence Wright
Directed by Tim Wardle
Joining the ranks of Hulu’s jaw-dropping documentaries, Three Identical Strangers traces the story of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, identical triplets who were separated at birth and reunited years later after a chance meeting in New York. After spending time together and learning about each other’s lives, the three brothers unravel a deep-seated mystery that changes everything they knew about each other, themselves, and the clinical details of their adoptive upbringings. This is a documentary that screeches into huge hairpin turns, forcing its viewers to question the nature of reality and what it means to have your life altered without your knowledge or consent. 

Fresh (2022)

Fresh
67 %
6.7/10
r 114m
Genre Horror, Thriller
Stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jonica T. Gibbs
Directed by Mimi Cave
Noa (Daisy-Edgar Jones) is sick of swiping through dating apps to find a true companion. Lucky for her, she seems to have run into the man of her dreams, Steve (Sebastian Stan) at the local grocery store. After quickly warming up to each other, Noa’s new suitor invites her on a weekend retreat. But it’s not long before the idyllic, romantic outing devolves into a horrific fight for survival. A brilliantly brutal riff on the horror-comedy, Fresh is a bombastic amalgamation of familiar genre tropes that we can’t get enough of.

Spencer (2021)

Spencer
76 %
6.6/10
r 117m
Genre Drama
Stars Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Sally Hawkins
Directed by Pablo Larraín
Spencer offers a fresh take on the introspective turmoils of Princess Diana, portrayed by the grounded and  arresting Kristen Stewart. With her marriage to Prince Charles in a tumultuous place, the two nobles have agreed to keep the peace through the Christmas season. But as the holiday festivities ensue, Diana’s inner demons begin to boil over, as she considers what life could be as an ex-communicate of the royal family. A moving character study with powerful performances and thoughtful storytelling at its core, Spencer does its due diligence in paying homage to the tragic Princess through a lens of harmonious self-discovery.

No Exit (2022)

No Exit
54 %
6.1/10
r 96m
Genre Horror, Thriller
Stars Havana Rose Liu, Danny Ramirez, Dennis Haysbert
Directed by Damien Power
When Darby (Havana Rose Liu) discovers her mother is in critical condition, she escapes from her rehabilitation center, hoping to return home to tend to her ailing parent. But when a powerful blizzard puts a monkey-wrench into Darby’s homecoming, she’s forced to take shelter at a highway rest-stop. There she meets a group of fellow travelers, all stranded by the storm. After wandering outside, Darby discovers something in a parked van that initiates a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between her and the rest stop’s other inhabitants. A taut thriller that treads familiar waters, No Exit moves forward, full-steam ahead, dropping one thrill after the other.

Deep Water (2022)

Deep Water
53 %
5.4/10
r 116m
Genre Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Stars Ben Affleck, Ana de Armas, Grace Jenkins
Directed by Adrian Lyne
A Hulu original, Deep Water stars Ben Affleck and Mary Ana de Armas as Vic and Melinda Van Allen, a married couple that has entered an unsettling part of their relationship. As their love wanes, the troubled husband and wife engage in a tantalizing set of mind games with each other, a psychological battle that ropes in more casualties than just the wedded pair. Based on the 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name, Deep Water is a slow-burning thriller with blistering performances from both Affleck and de Armas. They’re cinematic waters that have certainly been trodden before, but director Adrian Lyne delivers a rich, if at times troubled, adaptation of Highsmith’s source material.

In the Earth (2021)

In the Earth
63 %
5.2/10
r 107m
Genre Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller
Stars Joel Fry, Ellora Torchia, Hayley Squires
Directed by Ben Wheatley
After a deadly virus has ravaged much of the world, Martin Lowery (Joel Fry), a scientist, and Alma (Ellora Torchia), a park ranger, are tasked with transporting equipment through the woodlands to a research center. En route, Martin sustains a serious injury after he and Alma are attacked at their campsite. Taken in by a man named Zach (Reece Shearsmith), Martin and Alma are thankful for the rescue — until they realize the mysterious man may have an ulterior motive for rescuing them. A hallucinatory indie sci-fi from the talented mind of writer-director Ben Wheatley, In the Earth landed in cinemas mid-pandemic, making for a perfect cinematic allegory on the state of the world and how we contend with disease and the madness of humanity.

The Obituary of Tunde Johnson (2019)

The Obituary of Tunde Johnson
58 %
5.6/10
r 104m
Genre Drama, Thriller
Stars Steven Silver, Spencer Neville, Nicola Peltz
Directed by Ali LeRoi
Blending cultural awareness with a sci-fi-laced narrative bedrock, The Obituary of Tunde Johnson follows the titular character (portrayed by Steven Silver), a gay Nigerian-American man. Out driving, Tunde is pulled over by a disgruntled police officer who pulls his weapon and ends Tunde’s life. Immediately after the trigger is pulled, Tunde awakens, finding himself trapped in a time loop with his inevitable death facing him repeatedly. Leaning on the big trope of such memorable hits as Groundhog DayThe Obituary of Tunde Johnson pushes the typical light footing of the time loop sub-genre aside in favor of a more character-driven approach, a feat more than accomplished by director Ali LeRoi and Steven Silver’s grounded approach to the lead role.

The Vigil (2020)

The Vigil
5.8/10
pg-13 88m
Genre Horror, Thriller, Mystery
Stars Dave Davis, Lynn Cohen, Menashe Lustig
Directed by Keith Thomas
In writer-director Keith Thomas’s The Vigil, Dave Davis stars as Yakov Ronen, a displaced Orthodox Jew residing in the Hasidic Borough Park area of New York. After accepting an offer from his former rabbi to be the overnight guardian of a deceased community member, a horrific entity begins haunting Yakov. Combining traditional Jewish folk influences and the glories of shoestring filmmaking, Thomas succeeds in building a dread-laden atmosphere with earnest performances, close-quarters cinematography, and clever storytelling.

Wander Darkly (2020)

Wander Darkly
66 %
5.8/10
r 97m
Genre Romance, Drama
Stars Sienna Miller, Diego Luna, Beth Grant
Directed by Tara Miele
After a traumatic incident, Adrienna and Matteo (Sienna Miller and Diego Luna), a struggling young couple, are sent to the hospital. Confined to rehabilitative quarters, the once-happy pair are transported to an otherworldly realm of surreal memories. While each of them is forced to confront the hazy beginnings of their fizzling romance, their out-of-body paths will cross in bizarre and unexpected ways. Visually, Wander Darkly lives in an elevated plane of awareness, but the emotionally laden performances of both Miller and Luna help to anchor the film in a grounded and often relatable reality.

Another Round (2020)

Another Round
79 %
7.8/10
117m
Genre Comedy, Drama
Stars Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg
With an original Danish title of Druk (“binge drinking”), co-writer and director Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round follows a group of four high school teachers with a wild plan. Facing unenthused students, trouble at home, and other midlife hardships, the foursome agrees to test the theories of psychiatrist Finn Skårderud in the workplace. More specifically, the colleagues want to see if maintaining a constant blood-alcohol level of 0.5 will improve their creativity and overall mood. Truly more than another midlife boozer flick, Another Round sees Mads Mikkelsen in top form as Martin, the de facto onscreen leader who attempts to gain more out of his day-to-day through mild intoxication. It’s funny, at times dark, and tactfully hard-hitting.

Editors' Recommendations

Movie images and data from:
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
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