Netflix spends billions on content. Yes, billions with a B. This year alone, it was expected to spend $15 billion on original content—more than the gross domestic product of many countries.
Netflix not only makes a lot of stuff, it buys the rights to many films as well. This strategy fills Netflix to the hilt with hours upon hours of expensive video. It's ironic considering people complain when stuff leaves the service. But originals? They're most likely here to stay. Even if there are fewer movies than TV shows on Netflix, there are still so, so many options that it's impossible for Netflix to effectively market them all. Only word of mouth will truly work.
That's where we come in. Below, behold what we deem the 10 very best films on Netflix as of this writing. These aren't just films for geeks—that's a separate list. This is a look at pure quality, as close to Oscar-caliber as you can get with Netflix Originals. If we left your favorite off the list, head to the comments and start a fight. I know I can count on you.
Always Be My Maybe
Ali Wong, a stand-up comedian of prodigious talent (watch her Netflix specials for proof) wrote Always Be My Maybe with Fresh Off the Boat star Randall Park and Michael Golamco, who she's known since the 1990s. She and Park star in the film as childhood friends who had a disastrous teen love encounter and meet again as adults. It hits all the usual romantic comedy highlights but brings with it something more: true laughs, from the way they interact, to the ultimate cameo of the year 2019. (SPOILER: It's Keanu!)
Beasts of No Nation
Between Beasts of No Nation and First They Killed My Father, Netflix has two winners about a horrible subject: child soldiers. This one—Netflix's first big original film to garner some awards attention—may be the most harrowing. It stars Idris Elba as the commandant who takes young Agu (Abraham Attah) from his family. A hard but important watch.
Bird Box
Isn't it nice when a thriller can be a major blockbuster, a true scare fest, and a well-acted quality film? Sandra Bullock leads the cast in this post-apocalyptic tale that jumps back in time long enough to show the apocalypse happening in real time. It's not a realistic end of the world, but it's no more a wacky reason than some zombie tale. The conceit that people must never have their eyes exposed while outdoors (and birds in a box can alert them to danger) or risk literally killing themselves leads to many tense, harrowing blindfolded scenes for Bullock and co-stars like John Malkovich. That includes two small children she'll only call Boy and Girl, for reasons that make the utmost sense.
The Fundamentals of Caring
A coming-of-age road trip movie with Paul "Ant-Man" Rudd? Of course you want to see that. In The Fundamentals of Caring, Rudd stars as the caretaker of a sarcastic, caustic, wheelchair-bound boy (Red Oaks' Craig Roberts) on a road trip to meet the boy's father and a lot more.
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Melanie Lynskey—long overdue for leading lady status—leads this crime-dramedy about a woman at the end of her rope. Elijah "Frodo" Woods is her martial artist neighbor.
Marriage Story
In director/writer/producer Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson play a couple in the death-throes of their marriage, helped along by a marriage counselor played by Laura Dern. It's a couple of stunning performances that remind you these two are serious actors, not just Kylo Ren and the Black Widow. The film is already in the top 10 list from the American Film Institute for 2019, and is up for Critics' Choice and Golden Globes galore, to name just a few of the accolades pending and already won.
Mudbound
Nominated for Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), and Best Original Song ("Mighty River," sung by Blige), Mudbound is based on the Hillary Jordan novel about WWII vets—one black, one white—who return home to the land their families share. The men deal with their issues, the families deal with poverty, and they all deal with racism until it boils over.
Okja
One of the best Netflix Original films is an action-adventure fantasy with the desire to make the world a better place. Okja, Joon-Ho Bong's followup to the legendary Snowpiercer, is a sci-fi take on the worlds of animal activism and scientific ethics. Jake Gyllenhaal's role as a TV zoologist is epicly weird, and it never hurts to have Tilda Swinton as your villain, either. The real star is a "super-pig" CGI creation named Okja, which just may have you thinking better of your habits after you watch.
Tallulah
Tallulah (Ellen Page) is living out of her van, trying to get some money out of her ex-boyfriend's mom. While stealing food at a hotel, she stumbles on a kid, and, uh, kidnaps it. Not exactly a feel-good hit kinda setup, but Page and the always-amazing Allison Janney slap some comedy into this drama written and directed by Sian Heder, a writer on Orange is the New Black who once had to babysit for guests at a swanky Beverly Hills hotel. Netflix bought this one before it even got its Sundance premiere in 2016.
Roma
With Roma by Alfonso Cuarón, Netflix finally stepped into the world of high-end awards. He wrote, directed, shot, produced and co-edited the semi-autobiographical black & white film about life in early 1970s Mexico City. Letting such a gifted director—famed for films from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban all the way to Gravity—tell his life story led to a film that earned 10 Academy Award nominations. It won three, becoming the first Mexican film to win Best Foreign Language Film.
Other Top Originals
For more, check out our picks for the best original: