Thanksgiving is over. The turkey has been eaten, those pumpkin pies are long gone, and now there’s a seemingly endless parade of football games, Black Friday deals that are just out of reach, and the scary prospect of traveling back home at one of the most crowded times of the year.
One positive aspect of this holiday season is that it gives you more time to watch all those movies that are sitting in your Netflix queue. Digital Trends has rounded up the 10 best movies (plus one additional one for the kids) streaming on Netflix right now. The list includes the latest from David Fincher, a 2023 rom-com you may have missed, and a classic sci-fi movie that is about to get a sequel in 2024.
The Killer (2023)
After nearly two decades in the works, David Fincher’s adaptation of the graphic novel The Killer by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon is finally on Netflix. Michael Fassbender stars as The Killer, a solitary, cold, methodical professional with no time for grudges — there’s nothing personal about his targets.
But after a near-miss, The Killer finds himself on the defensive in an international manhunt that tests his patience and his cool. With typically great direction from Fincher, The Killer is a stylish, intense action movie that also has a surprising comic bite. The score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, rips as well, and the movie is the perfect antidote to all those awful Hallmark movies playing on television right now.
The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)
Before Barbie and Marriage Story, director Noah Baumbach explored a timeless premise — the dysfunctional family. For the Meyerowitz family, that dysfunction stems, in large part, from elderly father Harold (Dustin Hoffman). A renowned sculptor, now long past his prime, Harold’s cantankerous personality and obsession with his art weigh on eldest son, Danny (Adam Sandler, in a rare dramatic performance), a musician who hung up his six-string to raise his daughter, Eliza (Grace Van Patten).
Danny and Eliza move in with Harold following the collapse of Danny’s marriage, and Harold’s other children, daughter Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) and favored son Matthew (Ben Stiller), enter the story. As the family reconnects, old tensions bubble up. The Meyerowitz Stories is a superb exploration of a family in distress, and how emotional traumas carry over through the decades.
Nyad (2023)
At the age of 60, former marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) redevoted herself to a lifelong dream: swimming the 110-mile stretch from Cuba to Florida, the “Mount Everest” of swims. Three decades after giving up the sport for a career in journalism, Nyad becomes obsessed with becoming the first person to finish the swim without a shark cage.
With the help of her best friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), and a dedicated sailing team, Nyad drops everything to doggedly pursue her elusive dream.
Love at First Sight (2023)
Love At First Sight is a bit of a misnomer, because Hadley Sullivan (The White Lotus star Haley Lu Richardson) and Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) don’t fall head over heels in love just because they’re two incredibly attractive people– although that certainly had to have helped things along. Instead, Hadley and Oliver briefly meet at the airport before sitting next to each other on a long flight to England. And during the flight, they form a bond that surprises both of them.
Their connection is so strong that Hadley makes the decision to pursue Oliver even though they both have family drama that they need to face before they can determine if they can make a relationship between them into a reality.
The Impossible (2012)
The Impossible is rising to the top on the Netflix movie chart, and not just because it’s the film debut of MCU Spider-Man actor Tom Holland. It’s also a harrowing tale of survival that is based on a true story. When the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami strike, Henry (Ewan McGregor) and Maria Bennett (Naomi Watts) are on vacation with their family in Thailand and are hit by a massive wave.
In the aftermath, Maria is severely injured and left with her oldest son, Lucas (Holland), while Henry finds his two other sons in a separate location. With so many injured and dead, the Bennett family will need a few small miracles to make it through as the Thai people come together in the face of tragedy.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Released over the summer, Across the Spider-Verse became an early favorite for the Best Animated Picture Oscar and was one of the biggest box office hits of the year. After the events of the first film, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) finds a rhythm in being his friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but he misses Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and his other Spider-friends.
So when he discovers that there’s a Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the existence of the Multiverse, he’s outraged to find that he seems to be the only one who didn’t know about it. But there’s a reason why … and it involves the expected demise of a close loved one.
Dune (2021)
If the timing had worked out better, Netflix would be adding Dune just in time for the sequel to hit theaters next month. But since the actors’ strike is still on, Dune: Part Two will have to wait until 2024. The good news is that Dune’s premiere on Netflix is allowing even more fans to see Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel fully realized on screen.
On Arrakis, the most important world in the Galactic Empire, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) has been given the near-impossible task of making peace with the native Fremen while maintaining the spice flow that allows humanity to travel in space. But when House Atreides is betrayed by the emperor and delivered to their rivals of House Harkonnen, Leto’s son, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), are forced to flee for their lives into the unforgiving deserts of Dune.
No Hard Feelings (2023)
No Hard Feelings is Jennifer Lawrence’s comeback movie after spending a few years away from the big screen. And she certainly makes a memorable impression as Maddie Barker, a woman who is on the verge of losing her home and her car over her money problems.
That’s why Maddie accepts a bizarre job offer from Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison Becker (Laura Benanti). If Maddie can seduce their son, Percy Becker (Andrew Barth Feldman), and bring him out of his shell before he goes off to college, then she can save herself from her financial black hole. Unfortunately for Maddie, Percy may be immune to her obvious charms.
Fair Play (2023)
Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) and Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) are secret lovers who work for a hedge fund in Fair Play. Their relationship is against company policy, which is why they’ve hidden it. However, their storybook romance starts to shatter when Luke believes that he’s getting a promotion that ultimately goes to Emily.
While Luke is initially supportive of Emily’s success, he soon displays his resentment both at home and at work. As Luke’s jealousy rises, he becomes more and more unstable, to the point where Emily can no longer be sure that she’s safe with the man she loves.
Munich: The Edge of War (2022)
Two college friends find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing war in this film based on Robert Harris’ 2017 novel Munich, which is set against the backdrop of the tense 1938 meeting in Munich of the European nations that would eventually find themselves embroiled in the second World War.
Jeremy Irons portrays U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, while George MacKay and Jannis Niewöhner play former Oxford University classmates who become reluctant spies.
Bonus movie for the kids: The Magician’s Elephant (2022)
Netflix took home the Oscar for Best Animated feature for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, but it’s got another great animated flick in its vast streaming libary. The Magician’s Elephant adapts Kate DiCamillo’s novel of the same name, and it tells the story of a young orphan named Peter (Noah Jupe).
Peter’s only wish in life is to find his missing sister, Adele (Pixie Davies), Through a fortune teller, Peter is told that he has to find a Magician (Benedict Wong) who will summon an elephant.
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