Fall is finally here and with it come the usual ghouls and goblins. But this year, joining the party at the multiplex are Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Joker: Folie à Deux, two movies from Warner Bros. that will surely be the most talked about, if not the most successful, films by the end of this year.
A reliable alternative is to watch movies on the streaming platform of your choice. From new movies like Apple TV+’s Wolfs to classics like Ridley Scott’s Alien, these superb R-rated movies are available to stream on a variety of platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Max. You can’t go wrong with the 10 selections on this list.
Need more recommendations? We also have guides to the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, and the best movies on Max.
Wolfs (2024)
Genuine movie stars are rare to come by these days, so it’s a treat to get a movie that has not one but two of them. And while no one will argue that Wolfs is a great movie, it does allow lead actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt to do what they do best: look great and radiate charisma. Hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
Clooney plays an unnamed fixer, a kind of specialized hit man who “fixes” problems no one else will. Margaret (Amy Ryan) needs one after she finds a dead body in her hotel room. The only problem? The hotel has already called its own unnamed fixer (Pitt) who is tasked with the same job. The two men must work together as they find themselves in a plot that involves stolen drugs that might belong to the mafia.
Wolfs is streaming on Apple TV+.
His Three Daughters (2024)
Saying goodbye is always hard. For Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), it’s especially difficult, as the person she is saying goodbye to, Vinny (Jay O. Sanders), is her dad, and he’s just about to die from cancer. Her two stepsisters, Katie (Carrie Coon) and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), are estranged from her, but feel the need to be with her out of familial obligation. As they count the days before their father dies, the sisters will come to terms with their own relationships with each other and the father they are about to lose.
His Three Daughters sounds like a downer, and while it will jerk more than a few tears, it’s too good, and too resonant, to ignore. The movie’s Lower East Side NYC setting feels authentic, and the three lead actresses all strike the right notes as siblings who don’t really know each other. Lyonne in particular is outstanding, and deserves more awards attention than she will get later this year.
His Three Daughters is streaming on Netflix.
Challengers (2024)
Who knew tennis could be so exciting … and so erotic? That’s just what Challengers, the new film from Luca Guadagnino, serves up throughout its 131-minute runtime as the film uses a tennis match to probe the lives of three people caught in a very unusual love triangle. That these three people are played by Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist only makes the movie more pleasurable to watch in the moment, and more thoughtful to consider long after the credits have rolled.
During the final of a minor league tennis tournament in New Rochelle, New York, two longtime sports rivals, and former best friends, Patrick and Art, reflect on what led them to this point in their lives … and the woman, Tashi, who made it all happen. By cutting between the past, which shows the three meeting and falling in love with one another, to the present, which depicts their frayed relationships with one another, Challengers showcases how ambition can be both ruinous and save a person’s professional and personal life.
Challengers is streaming on MGM+.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
One of the biggest flops of the year is also one of the best movies of 2024. Furiosa didn’t quite connect with moviegoers when it was released in late May, making only $172 million against a $168 million budget. And since studios only keep half of the grosses, and the budget doesn’t factor in marketing and distribution costs, Warner Bros. lost millions of dollars on what many thought was a sure thing. Now that it’s streaming on Max, it’s time for many to discover a sure-to-be classic action movie.
Set years before the events in Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa chronicles the origin of its title character (Anya Taylor-Joy) from childhood, when she’s kidnapped and forced to watch her mother’s murder, to a young woman who is dead set on getting revenge. The only things in her way are Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), and countless postapocalyptical hoodlums who are all too willing to kill her. Featuring great performances by Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth and action sequences worthy of comparison to Fury Road‘s, Furiosa is a must-see movie for anyone willing to call themselves a movie fan.
Furiosa is streaming on Max.
Abigail (2024)
Vampire movies are pretty routine these days, which is why Abigail is even more fun than usual. The narrative is straightforward, yet catchy, and the cast, which includes another great silly Dan Stevens performance, knows what movie they’re in and has fun with it.
A band of criminals plan to kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of an underworld kingpin to net a $50 million ransom. The only problem? Little Abigail is a vampire. Whoops! As the criminals try to survive the night in a secluded mansion with the little monster, they soon discover they got more than they bargained for. Will anyone survive the night?
Abigail is streaming on Peacock.
Anyone but You (2023)
Rom-coms aren’t usually racy enough to warrant an R rating, and maybe that’s why Anyone but You was a surprise hit in late 2023. The Will Gluck-directed movie, which is a very loose adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, stars Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick) and Sydney Sweeney (Madame Web) as Ben and Bea, who loathe each other because of a past botched one-night stand, and now must attend the same lavish wedding with their exes. They then decide to strike a deal to pose as a couple to try to win back their former lovers. Guess what happens in the process? Yes, they start to develop feelings for each other.
While Anyone but You isn’t all that original or surprising (especially if you know your Shakespeare), it’s still fun and genuinely funny. The film makes great use of its primary assets: the beautiful Australian setting, and the magnetic charisma of both its leading stars. When they share the screen together, Powell and Sweeney showcase palpable chemistry, and elevate a standard rom-com into a near-great one.
Anyone But You is streaming on Netflix.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Already being called director Christopher Nolan’s best movie, Oppenheimer is an epic biographical thriller that dramatizes the life of the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oscar winner Cillian Murphy stars as the theoretical physicist in the film, which chronicles his experiences in universities before being recruited to lead the Manhattan Project. It also depicts his downfall after World War II, with a 1954 security hearing condemning his part in the creation of nuclear weapons.
Oppenheimer quickly gained critical acclaim for its unique portrayal of the complicated historical figure’s story, with Murphy infusing his character with both brilliance and imperfections. Aside from the protagonist’s gory visions of his creation’s victims, Oppenheimer earned its R-rating for its straightforward portrayals of sex and nudity. A scene with Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock has even been censored using a CGI black dress in the Middle East and India, with the latter also censoring any scenes that show characters smoking.
Oppenheimer is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Loneliness is something not often depicted on-screen, and when it is, it’s often in a depressing context. That’s not necessarily true with All of Us Strangers, a 2023 drama that is both very sad and also incredibly uplifting. Andrew Haigh’s acclaimed film stars Andrew Scott (Ripley) as Adam, a single screenwriter living in a near-empty apartment building just outside of London. One night, he has a chance encounter with his mysterious neighbor, Harry (Gladiator 2‘s Paul Mescal), and starts a relationship that causes Adam to think about his long-dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), who appear to him as if they are alive.
No, this isn’t a ghost story — not exactly. All of Us Strangers is a lot of things: a sensual love story, a moody rumination of childhood trauma, and a generational portrait that examines the inherent chasm between parents and their children. Ultimately, though, the movie is a stellar drama that contains a quartet of fine performances from Scott, Mescal, Foy, and Bell. It’s movie you won’t soon forget, and you won’t want to after watching that devastating climax.
All of Us Strangers is streaming on Hulu.
Alien (1979)
Now that you’ve seen Alien: Romulus, go back to where it all began. Director Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien takes place in deep space aboard the commercial towing spaceship Nostromo. The ship’s crew, including warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), encounters a deadly extraterrestrial organism on an alien vessel. Little do they know that after they retreat back to the Nostromo, the alien has already infiltrated their ship. As the creature begins hunting the crew, they must fight for survival against an unknown and terrifying enemy.
The 1979 classic would go on to spawn the beloved Alien franchise, with the first movie best remembered for its clever use of silence and its claustrophobic setting. Scott focuses on the build-up, with the film containing very few shots of the actual alien killing its victims. It’s those moments, of course, that gave Alien its R rating, as well as intense and frightening ones like the iconic chest-burster moment.
Alien is streaming on Hulu.
The Godfather (1972)
Director Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a legendary mob drama that’s often called the best crime movie ever made. Based on Mario Puzo’s eponymous 1969 novel, the sweeping epic chronicles the Corleone crime family’s rise to power in post-World War II America. The story specifically follows Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his reluctant son, Michael (Al Pacino), who is drawn into the world of organized crime after his father is nearly assassinated.
The first in the award-winning trilogy sees Michael experience brutality and betrayal as he learns more about the family business. Its R rating was unavoidable, as the glimpse into the inner workings of the mafia comes with shootings, murders, physical fights, and more kinds of gore and violence. Despite premiering over half a century ago, The Godfather has lost none of its impact and is still celebrated for the way it set a new standard for the gangster genre and cinema as a whole.
The Godfather is streaming on Paramount+.
