It’s never too late to watch the Oscars. So go ahead and view All Quiet on the Western Front, which generated a lot of buzz during the 2019 Academy Awards when it was named Best International Feature and nominated for Best Picture. (Fun fact: An earlier version of Erich Maria Remarque’s book won the Best Film award in 1930. It’s not surprising that there haven’t been many movies added to our list of the top Netflix movies to watch recently because Netflix is known for stacking their finest original films before award season voting. No, We Have a Ghost won’t receive a Best Picture nomination the next year.
This is a list of the top 7 Netflix movies available right now. We’re focusing on the top new releases, Netflix originals, and some of our personal favourites in order to keep the discussion current.
All Quiet on the Western Front
One of the top Netflix Original films of 2022, and the winner of the Best International Film Oscar at the 2023 Academy Awards as well as a Best Picture nomination, is this epic rendition of Erich Maria Remarque’s timeless and anti-war 1929 novel. A 17-year-old named Paul Bäumer (played by Felix Bammerer) enlists in the German army and witnesses firsthand the senseless, dehumanising carnage of World War I. It’s a heartbreaking movie that stands out in part because of the contemporary, impactful soundtrack by Volker Bertelmann.
Day Shift
In this bloody action-horror-comedy film, Jamie Foxx plays a dad from the Los Angeles region whose cover work as a pool cleaner is actually a vampire hunter. Foxx, though, is not the true star. The fight directors and stunt performers who pull off incredible acrobatics throughout the movie’s multiple bloodsucker brawls are the actual stars. The film is produced by the team behind the John Wick trilogy and is directed by J.J. Perry, a seasoned stunt coordinator and second-unit director who specialises in action scenes. It’s a lot of fun, and Snoop Dogg has a supporting part as an urban cowboy who kills vampires.
Do Revenge
This chic adolescent comedy-revenge is based on the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train, in which two strangers switch targets to get rid of the motivation and escape being discovered. This version sees high school seniors Drea (Camila Mendes of Riverdale) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke of Stranger Things) working together to deal with each other’s bullies. Jordan Hoffman comments in his review of the movie, “What it has going for it most is Maya Hawke, a really accomplished actor who carries herself through the comedy rather effectively.
Is That Black Enough for You?!?
This intelligent and meticulously researched documentary, which includes interviews with giants like Samuel Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Whoopi Goldberg, and others, investigates Black cinema by film critic and scholar Elvis Mitchell. Is That Black Enough for You?!? is a fascinating and enlightening cultural study that examines Black cinema from various perspectives, starting with the first depictions of Black people in films and giving careful attention to the blaxploitation era of the 1970s. This film ought to be mandatory viewing for all cinephiles, and the consistently excellent Mitchell outdoes himself.
Spiderhead
For a dystopian sci-fi thriller on Netflix, this pricey film has a grounding in the literature that is remarkably rich. Although some of the depressing story’s darkness has undoubtedly been filtered out, it seems like the source material would have to be significantly dumbed down to be turned into a Netflix movie. However, Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski actually kept it pretty smart. That is surprisingly cerebral for a Netflix hit. Chris Hemsworth plays the warden of an experimental jail where Jeff and Rachel are among the inmates who are subjected to tests for mystery drugs. As a result of their unique link, Jeff and Rachel experience some mind-bending, darkly humorous psychological delights.
The Tinder Swindler
You’ll want to track down this scoundrel yourself after seeing this terrifying video about a con artist who used Tinder to — you guessed it — scam unwary women into giving over their credit cards and taking out loans to route him money. This man would pursue ladies he met on the dating app and set them up to be his next source of income before vanishing into the internet and exotic destinations where he partied his ass off on their money. He did this by putting on a front of luxury, paid for by his current mark. Although the documentary is not very professionally constructed, the tale is compelling and the victims are portrayed with care.
The Harder They Fall
This Netflix hit is a far more spectacular action Western than you’re used to. Regina King, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors, Delroy Lindo, and Zazie Beetz are among the predominantly Black cast members of director Jeymes Samuel’s film, which features gorgeous violence, snappy dialogue, and a tried-and-true cowboy premise about a group of people banding together to exact revenge on those who killed their loved ones. The outcome is a hilarious experience and one of the genuinely greatest movies you’ll ever watch.