I waste too much time watching Netflix, but ultimately I’m okay with that. What I take umbrage with is the number of hours I waste looking for something worth watching on Netflix. I have even invented a term for it – Netflux:
Netflux (noun)
If you find yourself in a state of netflux, you have been searching aimlessly for something worth watching on Netflix for an agonisingly long amount of time, so long in fact you no longer have time to watch that something if you ever did find it.
As well as the endless in-app trawling and IMDB cross-referencing, I have read all the top 10, best 50, ultimate 100 movies on Netflix articles going. Ultimately, they waste more of my time and heighten my frustration with their pop-ups, ads, and maddening unresponsive pages when what I really want is a list of half decent decent films that are on Netflix.
So here it is… my wholly subjective list of the best Films on Netflix UK. I’ve included a rough genre, a short summary and a ‘if you enjoyed this, try this’ of films also on Netflix.
Netflix UK Films Worth Watching
Amelie
Genre: Romantic
Summary: French twee loveliness with Audrey Tautou turning Paris into a magical place where anything is possible.
Like this, try: Annie Hall
Annie Hall
Genre: Comedy drama
Summary: Woody Allen’s finest – a brilliantly scripted, witty and warm-hearted look at love and relationships.
Like this, try: Manhattan
Apocalypto
Genre: Action
Summary: Bonkers, violent and visually rich, this Mayan ‘history’ movie is almost as batshit crazy as its director Mel Gibson.
Like this, try: Battle Royale
Big Lebowski
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Brilliant caper from the Coen brothers, complete with Nihilists, ‘Jesus’ and a stellar cast that includes John Goodman, Julianne Moore and Jeff Daniels as ‘the Dude’.
Like this, try: Raising Arizona
Big Short, The
Genre: Drama
Summary: An entertaining and well acted film, which is somewhat surprising given that it charts the origins of the financial crash.
Like this, try: Louis Theroux (numerous series on Netflix UK)
Capote
Genre: Biopic
Summary: Seymour Hoffman is fantastic as Capote in this biopic that focusses on the writer’s relationship with the killers from In Cold Blood.
Like this, try: Vertigo
Cinema Paradiso
Genre: Drama
Summary: This charming Italian film is a love story, full of nostalgia and a true appreciation for the power of cinema to move people.
Like this, try: Amelie
City of God
Genre: Drama
Summary: Powerful and visually arresting film about two boys growing up in Rio de Janeiro and choosing different paths in life.
Like this, try: Top Boy (two series on Netflix)
Clueless
Genre: Drama
Summary: High school drama based on Austen’s Emma – this is witty, catty and always good fun.
Like this, try: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (two seasons on Netflix)
Django Unchained
Genre: Western
Summary: Tarantino turns his hand to the Western genre with entertaining results. Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio are good, Christoph Waltz fantastic.
Like this, try: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Genre: Black Comedy
Summary: Peter Sellers seems to be having lots of fun in Kubrick’s dark satire about nuclear war.
Like this, try: Big Lebowski
Ex Machina
Genre: Thriller
Summary: Alex Garland (him who wrote the Beach) writes and directs this intelligent and well-paced exploration of Artificial Intelligence.
Like this, try: Under the Skin
Fading Gigolo
Genre: Comedy
Summary: The masterful John Turturro writes, directs and plays a gigolo in this gentle comedy, which also stars Woody Allen as a pimp.
Like this, try: Manhattan
Fargo
Genre: Thriller
Summary: Coen brothers at their best – a tightly plotted crime thriller that unfolds in several memorable scenes and features some fantastic turns from the cast.
Like this, try: Fargo (TV Series – two seasons on Netflix)
Home Alone
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Best Christmas film ever. One of the best films ever.
Like this, try: Hunt for the Wilder People
Hunt for the Wilder People
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Big hearted NZ film about a wayward kid on an adventure with a delightfully grumpy Sam Neill.
Like this, try: Nebraska
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Genre: Crime
Summary: Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood are great in this ‘indie’ vigilante revenge flick. Fast-paced, darkly funny and even touching.
Like this, try: Raising Arizona
Jackie Brown
Genre: Crime
Summary: Tarantino at his best. Tightly plotted and brilliantly scripted crime adaptation of Elmore Leonard novel. Great performances from the big name cast.
Like this, try: Fargo
Kingsmen, The
Genre: Action adventure
Summary: Entertaining, silly and surprising spy romp with Colin Firth. It’s just good fun.
Like this, try: From Dusk Till Dawn
Let the Right One In
Genre: Horror
Summary: The original Swedish version of this vampire film is all the right types of eerie and suspenseful. Beautifully shot too.
Like this, try: Under the Skin
Looper
Genre: Sci-fi action
Summary: Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in Rian Johnson’s noir time-travelling sci-fi film.
Like this, try: Drive
Manhattan
Genre: Drama
Summary: Another classic from Woody Allen who, with the help of Diane Keaton, delivers a paean to New York.
Like this, try: Annie Hall
Nebraska
Genre: Drama
Summary: Bruce Dern plays a cantankerous old man that sets about on a road trip. A powerful and touching exploration of a father-son relationship.
Like this, try: Fading Gigolo
Raising Arizona
Genre: Comedy
Summary: Nick Cage is actually good in this Coen brothers’ film about an ex-con and a cop who steal a baby.
Like this, try: Big Lebowski
Star Trek Into Darkness
Genre: Action
Summary: Entertaining reboot of the Star Trek franchise that delivers some impressive action sequences. Benedict Cumberbatch makes for a good baddy.
Like this, try: Looper
Under the Skin
Genre: Dark sci-fi
Summary: Eerie, innovative and beautifully shot and scored film starring Scarlett Johansen and directed by Jonathan Glazer.
Like this, try: Ex Machina
Vertigo
Genre: Thriller
Summary: A retired acrophobic detective, played brilliantly by Jimmy Stewart, finds himself battling with obsession in this Hitchcock classic.
Like this, try: Rear Window
Whiplash
Genre: Drama
Summary: Jazz drumming, scary shouty man and a shed load of tension in this gripping exploration of ambition.
Like this, try: Drive
Wrestler, The
Genre: Drama
Summary: Mickey Rourke is brilliant as a burnt out wrestler looking for redemption in this powerful turn from Darren Aronofsky.
Like this, try: Requiem for a Dream
