Picture the scenario. You're seated on the sofa after a hard day at work, all cozy and ready to pop anything on on Netflix. You're browsing, scrolling, scrolling... and suddenly it's 10pm, your drink's gone cold/warm, and movie night is cancelled. A common scenario, we're sure. But not any longer, folks – your friendly neighborhood Empire is here to help. There’s a whole wide world of underrated gems, perennial comfort watches, and all-time canonical bangers out there in the streamer's library just waiting to be explored — and our list of the best movies on Netflix UK has been carefully curated to help you make the most of your precious movie-watching time.
And therefore, from crackling comedy and thumping blockbusters to intellectual criminal thrillers and feel-good injections of pure serotonin, heart-stopping horrors to brave new Netflix originals and the best of the international cinema crop, look no further – we’ve got you covered. So what are you waiting for? Feast your eyes on our selection of Netflix UK greatest features (presented in no particular order), and get your next big night in sorted.
Carry On
An absolutely fantastic 90-minute movie trapped in the body of a still pretty darn fine two-hour one, Carry-On — which is not a bawdy British sex comedy set at an airport (unfortunately) but rather a rollicking high-concept jewel — is an amazing delight. A single location, seasonally set thriller that pits Taron Egerton’s TSA agent Ethan against a nameless, nefarious, Jason Bateman shaped baddie, this sure-fire future Christmas classic wears its Die Hard aspirations on its sleeve and wipes said sleeve on a juicy cat-and-mouse caper pulled straight from the Hitchcock playbook. Directed with gobs of panache and an infectious sense of joie de vivre by Jaume Collet-Serra, a filmmaker who has perhaps felt a touch bogged down and diluted by a number of studio contracts in recent years, Carry-On offers a remarkable return to form for the Spanish-American. Every minute might be a misery for Egerton’s unhappy TSA agent, but for us it’s the gift that keeps on coming. Carry-On 2: Keep Calm And Carry-On, anyone? Anyone?!
The Batman
Sure, Matt Reeves' The Batman may be another moody, grimdark take of the Dark Knight, but his three-hour epic is, well, epic. Reminding us all that Bats is canonically the World's Greatest Detective by casting him in a crime thriller that pits an early career caped crusader against the serial-killing Riddler (a terrifying Paul Dano), Reeves' movie — as indebted to Seven and Zodiac as to The Long Halloween and Year One comics — takes us to a permanently drenched Gotham (hats off to DP Greig Fraser for his lugubriously lit, oozingly atmospheric camerawork) barbed with danger at every turn. Robert Pattinson — as R-Battz — makes a good debut here as a less polished Batman and a more openly traumatized Bruce Wayne, while Zoë Kravitz and Colin Farrell take it in turns to dominate sequences as Catwoman and The Penguin respectively. With The Batman Part II still a while off, make the most of some additional time to get Bat-ter acquainted with this one.
Pig
Taken with Bacon. Pigatouille. Farmed & Dangerous. By the time the first trailer appeared for Michael Sarnoski's Oregonian adventure Pig, just about everyone had a pun ready to pre-memeify a movie that, in fairness, did essentially sound like John Wick involving an abducted pig and a deranged Nic Cage. What nobody could've predicted however was the sorrowful, gloomy, oh-so-delicately observed character study of a damaged man re-entering the world after years spent in solitary that we really received. Drawing on Greek mythology and fueled by an emotionally intense yet very restrained Cage center performance, Sarnoski's directorial debut is the type of film you watch on a whim and then think about every day for a year. An unforgettable voyage through love, grief, and the underbelly of New Orleans' gourmet food culture, Pig is, in a word, oink-redible.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
The canon of excellent coming-of-age movies is rarified. Stand By Me, Eighth Grade, Boyhood, Lady Bird, The 400 Blows, Submarine, Moonlight — you get the picture. And Kelly Fremon Craig’s brilliantly observed, genuinely affectionate adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal 1970 novel about a 12-year-old American girl’s coming of age more than merits a place in that canon. Bringing you seamlessly into the world of Margaret (Abby Ryder Fortson), a pre-teen who feels as if her own existence rests on cup-sizes and the threat/promise of oncoming menstruation, Are You There God? Is a delicately crafted depiction of family and becoming. Driven by Fortson’s winningly earnest central turn and buoyed by some of the loveliest supporting work you’ll ever see from ultimate mom-dad-grandma combo Rachel McAdams, Benny Safdie, and Kathy Bates, this is the kind of film that transcends all preconceptions to deliver something wonderful, personal, and yet entirely universal all the same. If you haven’t seen this previously, don’t miss your opportunity now - it’s a lovely..
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Rebel Ridge
If witnessing extremely talented folks perform under great duress is your thing, then go no further than Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge. The Green Room filmmaker’s latest — a 21st century riff on First Blood shot through with all the relentless intensity of Uncut Gems (or indeed any of Saulnier’s own films for that matter) — centres around former Marine Terry Richmond (a magnetic Aaron Pierre), who finds himself facing off against a small-town police department when a pair of corrupt cops confiscate his cousin’s bail money. Far from simply the bone-crunching one-man-against-the-system movie you may be expecting (although bones do be getting crunched here, make no mistake), Saulnier’s latest nimbly navigates systemic and institutional racism, police corruption, and the insanity of civil asset forfeiture both as a concept and as an actionable legal framework, all whilst managing to crack wise and provide white-knuckle thrills at every turn. The Aaron Pierre for Bond campaign starts here.
His Three Daughters
It's frequently remarked that there's no right or wrong way to grieve the loss of a loved one. And scarcely ever has that edict proven truer than in His Three Daughters, the beautifully tender and very weepy newest work from French Exit director and mumblecore maestro Azazel Jacobs, which follows Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon's estranged sisters Christina, Rachel, and Katie as they reunite to care for their dying father (Jay O. Sanders). Acutely capturing the purgatorial state that precipitates the loss of a loved one, Jacobs’ film — ostensibly a chamber piece driven by Olsen, Lyonne, and Coon’s richly textured, career best performances — is in turns tender and confrontational as we watch these siblings work through their shared baggage in a uniquely tense situation. And through it all, there’s a compassion and a patience in Jacobs’ directing and writing that makes for genuinely therapeutic viewing.
