Trying to find the best movie to watch on Netflix can be a daunting challenge. We’ve all been there. You've decided you’re going to watch something. You have the entirety of Netflix at your disposal, including even a pared down list of films you’ve already bookmarked to watch at a future date. But then there’s the choosing. You’ve gotta find something that fits your mood, or something you and your friend/significant other/couch companion can agree on. You spend hours browsing, and by the time you stumble on something you think maybe is the one, it’s too late, you’re too tired, and indecision has won out.

Never fear, though, because we here at Collider have a guide to help you find the perfect Netflix movies available in the U.S. We’ve thumbed through the library and assembled a list of some of the best films currently available for streaming, from classics to hidden gems to new releases and beyond. This list of the best movies on Netflix is updated weekly with all-new choices, so be sure to return the next time you're looking for something great to watch.

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The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Director: Mike Rianda

Writers: Mike Rianda and Jeff Rowe

Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen, and Beck Bennett

You’ve seen a zillion animated family comedy movies, but is undoubtedly one of the best. Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and originally made by Sony Pictures Animation – the studio behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – the film finds a father and daughter struggling to connect, and follows the family as the father decides they should take a road trip to send her off to college where she’s studying to be a filmmaker. Along the way, the robot apocalypse occurs, forcing them to work together to make it through. At every turn The Mitchells vs. the Machines is surprising. It puts in the work so that the emotional scenes hit hard, but it’s also wildly colorful and beautifully artistic as Mike Rianda pushes the boundaries of visual expression. On top of all that, the film is hilarious, bringing to mind the colorful comedy of Lord and Miller’s other films – most notably Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This movie will have you cackling and crying in equal measure, and it’s one of the best films of 2021 full stop. – Adam Chitwood

Crimson Peak

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writers: Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Charlie Hunnam

The first thing to know about Guillermo del Toro’s misunderstood 2015 film is that it’s a Gothic romance, not a horror movie. There are ghosts to be sure, and definitely spooky parts, but the film is more inspired by Jane Eyre or Rebecca than it is The Conjuring. And that’s why it’s so great. Set in 1901, the story follows an aspiring author (Mia Wasikowska) who meets a dashing English gentleman (Tom Hiddleston) and falls in love. The two quickly marry, and she moves to a remote part of England to live in an aging estate with her new husband and his icy sister (Jessica Chastain). The estate ends up being full of ghosts, and twists abound as our young protagonist finds herself in over her head. It’s a haunting, romantic, and chilling ghost story that’s lovingly crafted by one of the best filmmakers working today. – Adam Chitwood

Back to the Future

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writers: Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale

Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover

The 1985 classic is a lot of things at once: a comedy, a sci-fi movie, a teen movie, a touching family drama. The fact that it works so well on so many different levels is a testament to Robert Zemeckis’ talent as a storyteller, as is the fact that it still feels relevant to what it’s like to be a teenager 25 years after it was released. The story basically posits what would happen if you went to high school with your parents, as teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is sent back in time to prevent a catastrophic event, only to continue running into his parents at their high school. It’s one of the most fun and purely entertaining films ever made. - Adam Chitwood

Rush

Director: Ron Howard

Writer: Peter Morgan

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Pierfrancesco Favino

Once upon a time, the creator of The Crown teamed up with legendary director Ron Howard and two Marvel stars to make an exciting, racing drama – and nobody saw it. 2013’s is a criminally underrated film, and it features one of Chris Hemsworth’s best dramatic performances as daring Formula One driver James Hunt. The film chronicles Hunt’s rivalry with Austrian driver Nikki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl), with each actor getting pretty even screentime as Howard crafts a story of two very different men who were driven to be the best at what they do. The 1970s aesthetic is tangibly conjured by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and the racing scenes are wildly exciting. – Adam Chitwood

Brokeback Mountain

Director: Ang Lee

Writers: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

Cast: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, and Anne Hathaway

Winner of three Oscars including Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Original Score (and it should have won Best Picture), remains a towering, tragic romantic drama. Based on the novel of the same name by Annie Proulx, the film stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two strangers who meet in 1963 when they’re hired to herd sheep through the summer. During their tenure they develop a passionate sexual relationship that turns romantic, only for the complexity of their feelings – towards each other, and towards themselves – to haunt them as the years go by. It’s a deeply sensitive and emotional story, boasting a pair of powerful performances by Ledger and Gyllenhaal that will linger long after the credits have rolled. – Adam Chitwood

Training Day

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Writer: David Ayer

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Denzel Washington, Scott Glenn, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eva Mendes

The film that won Denzel Washington his first Best Actor Oscar also still holds up pretty well as a nail-biting crime thriller. follows an LAPD officer named Jake (Ethan Hawke) on his first day as part of an evaluation by an esteemed narcotics officer named Alonzo (Denzel Washington), but as the day goes on Jake discovers that not only is Alonzo corrupt, but the entire day is a set-up for which he could take the fall. Washington give a phenomenal performance as an antagonist who is both charming and terrifying at the same time, while Hawke hods his own opposite the veteran actor. The third act is still a bit incredulous, but the film is worth watching for Washington’s performance alone. – Adam Chitwood

Batman Begins

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer

Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, and Ken Watanabe

Before he crafted the masterful sequel The Dark Knight, filmmaker Christopher Nolan had to first reinvent the Batman franchise from the ground up with the “gritty reboot” . This movie came on the heels of the exceedingly goofy Batman & Robin and thus had to prove to audiences a grounded, realistic Batman story was one worth watching. Casting Christian Bale in the lead role helped, but Nolan’s sprawling, Gotham-centric story feels more in line with a compelling character drama than a superhero movie—and that was by design. Batman Begins spawned not only two direct sequels but a trend in Hollywood of revitalizing franchises with the “gritty reboot” treatment, and this wholly influential redo still holds up over a decade later as a terrific Batman origin story. – Adam Chitwood

The Dark Knight

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writer: Jonathan Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine

One of the best superhero movies ever made, full-stop, is a masterpiece. Christopher Nolan successfully introduced the world to the idea of a “gritty reboot” with Batman Begins, but for the follow-up he crafted an epic, surprising, and downright thrilling story of escalation. Heath Ledger’s take on The Joker is iconic, offering up an enigmatic villain who consistently throws Christian Bale’s Batman for a loop. Then you have Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, as The Dark Knight crafts a meaty, fulfilling, and heartbreaking arc for this Bruce Wayne foil. On top of all of that, Nolan is essentially making a film about the post-9/11 world—one in which fighting “the bad guys” only leads to bigger and more severe devastation. How do you confront an enemy that just wants to watch the world burn? There’s a reason The Dark Knight has lingered in the public consciousness for a decade, and it still holds up as the best of the best in the face of the bevy of superhero movies that soon followed. – Adam Chitwood

Bad Trip

Director: Kitao Sakurai

Writers: Dan Curry, Eric Andre, and Kitao Sakurai

Cast: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, and Tiffany Haddish

is outrageously juvenile, and will make you laugh incredibly hard. The film is a cross between Jackass and a traditional road trip comedy, as Eric Andre and Lil Rel Howery play a pair of friends who drive from Florida to New York so that Andre’s character can track down the girl of his dreams. Hot on their tale is Howery’s characters sister, fresh out of a prison break and played by Tiffany Haddish. But every scene in the film is shot as a prank, with unwitting strangers serving as the background and supporting characters throughout the movie. It’s silly and embarrassing, but also singles out how ridiculous some of the tropes in traditional romcoms are – like when Andre breaks out into song in the middle of a mall, surrounded by strangers with “WTF?” looks on their faces. And be warned, this is insanely R-rated. – Adam Chitwood

Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Laeta Kalogridis

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, and Max von Sydow

What happens when a master filmmaker like Martin Scorsese decides to make a twisty little thriller? You get , a great and underrated movie in Scorsese’s vast filmography. Based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as a pair of U.S. Marshals who arrive on the titular island to investigate a disappearance at an enigmatic psychiatric facility. From the get-go something feels off, and Scorsese delights in following DiCaprio’s character around this island through the darkness, revealing twists and turns along the way. It’s the kind of dramatic thriller you immediately want to watch again once it’s over, and DiCaprio gives a terrific as a man who seems to be unraveling. – Adam Chitwood

ParaNorman

Directors: Sam Fell and Chris Butler

Writer: Chris Butler

Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, John Goodman, Alex Borstein, Leslie Man, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, and Tucker Albrizzi

If you’re looking for a fun family movie that’s also genuinely spooky and has a surprising message, I urge you to check out . The stop-motion animated film hails from LAIKA, the same studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, and it’s absolutely one of their best films. It revolves around a young kid named Norman who has the ability to see and speak with the dead, which comes in handy when his small Massachusetts town is overrun by terrifying ghosts. The story draws heavily from iconic 80s movies like The Goonies and E.T. but never feels derivative, and actually carries with it a surprising and emotional message about bullying and anger, and the complexity of emotions that kids can sometimes feel. It’s also just a ton of fun. – Adam Chitwood

Enola Holmes

Director: Harry Bradbeer

Writer: Jack Thorne

Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Louis Partridge, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, and Helena Bonham Carter

is one of the best and most charming Netflix original movies released thus far. Based on the book series of the same name by Nancy Springer, the period mystery follows Millie Bobby Brown’s titular character, who is the youngest Holmes sibling and has been raised nearly in solitude by her single mother. But when she awakes one day to find her mother is missing, she takes matters into her own hands and sneaks into London to solve the case. The film is tremendously fun as Enola fearlessly follows leads and hunts for clues, but it’s also a surprisingly touching mother-daughter story with legitimately feminist themes. The script actually takes time to consider what it means to be a woman in a man’s world in a way that’s organic (and important) to the story at hand. It’s one of Brown’s best performances, but Henry Cavill is also a delight as Sherlock Holmes himself. Once the movie ends you’ll be begging for Netflix to make many more sequels. – Adam Chitwood

The Conjuring

Director: James Wan

Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Mackenzie Foy, Joey King, Hayley McFarland

James Wan had already made a name for himself in the horror genre with mega-franchise starters SAW in 2004 and Insidious in 2010, and he pulled off the impossible once again with the 2013 pic, . This is a film that was “so scary and intense” at the time that Warner Bros. slapped it with an R rating despite the fact that there was no blood, gore, excessive violence, or profanity. I can remember a convention hall full of people muttering to themselves and shifting nervously as the “clapping game” scene played out, to gasps and thunderous applause. You can relive the same terrifying experience in the comfort of your own home. The Conjuring introduces Ed and Lorraine Warren (Wilson and Farmiga), based on the real-life paranormal investigators. They attempt to help the traumatized Perron family whose farmhouse harbors a dark and deadly presence. The Warrens themselves soon discover that this is no mere hoax, but something much more sinister. The Conjuring is a fantastic addition to the horror genre and the start of a solid franchise. – Dave Trumbore

Rain Man

Director: Barry Levinson

Writers: Barry Levinson and Donald Bass

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and Valeria Golino

Oscars Won: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Hoffman)

was the film that was supposed to finally land Tom Cruise his Oscar, but in the end he didn’t even get nominated. The film itself was a success—it notably won Best Picture, Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Dustin Hoffman—but in hindsight while Hoffman’s role is more showy, what Cruise is doing here is wildly impressive. The film tackles 80s yuppie selfishness in a unique way, as Cruise plays an entitled and abusive younger brother who discovers that his estranged father has died and left everything to his older, mentally challenged brother (Hoffman). Cruise’s character breaks Hoffman out of a health facility and sets about using him to gain the money, but throughout their eventful road trip he comes to love and care for his brother. This is a road movie to be sure, but it’s anchored by a complicated story tackling complicated emotions. – Adam Chitwood

Hook

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writers: Jim V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo

Cast: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, and Charlie Korsmo

While was critically derided when it hit theaters in 1991, with criticisms of its tame approach leading Steven Spielberg to directly go all-in on terror with 1993’s Jurassic Park, the film was actually a huge success… for kids. Spielberg taps into something special here in his retelling of the Peter Pan story, and while it’s hard to put a finger on—many still maintain it’s one of Spielberg’s worst movies—the impact it had on an entire generation of children . Robin Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan who’s forgotten all about his time in Neverland, until Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) steals his children and forces Peter to go back. It’s a struggle, as Peter keeps trying to deny any semblance of magic, and indeed at heart this is a story about reconnecting with your inner child. Perhaps that’s why it works so well for kids. Well that and the tremendous production design that brings Neverland to life in vivid fashion. Watch this one with your children and they won’t be disappointed. It’s also lowkey one of John Williams’ best scores. – Adam Chitwood

Superbad

Director: Greg Mottola

Writers: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

Cast: Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Emma Stone, Seth Rogen, and Bill Hader

was pretty much a coming-of-age classic as soon as it hit theaters in 2007, as writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, director Greg Mottola, and producer Judd Apatow crafted a high school comedy that was equal parts heart and humor. While the comedy is indeed R-rated, there’s a sweetness to the friendship between Michael Cera and Jonah Hill’s characters that elevates this above your average raunchy comedy. It’s as much a story about a kid being afraid he’s gonna lose his friend at college as it is a story about trying to score alcohol for a high school party, and the surprising twists and turns make it all that much more memorable. – Adam Chitwood

Casino Royale

Director: Martin Campbell

Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Tobias Menzies

Considered by many to be the best Bond movie of them all, introduced the world to Daniel Craig’s 007 -- a gritty, swaggering post-Bourne Bond who can rough and tumble with the best of them. GoldenEye director Martin Campbell returns to the iconic spy franchise, bringing a bit of old school to the new generation, perfectly toeing the line between the classic must-have Bond moments (fast cars, shaken martinis, beautiful women, etc...) while elegantly updating the material at the same time. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd is easily one of the most memorable Bond women, afforded a compelling and intimate relationship with the superspy beyond the standard seduction and Mads Mikkelsen’s villainous Le Chiffre is equally memorable (pretty sure some men are still wincing from that torture scene.) The perfect balance of classic and modern, Casino Royale is one of the best spy movies ever made, jam-packed with stunning set-pieces and all the best bits of the Bond legacy. – Haleigh Foutch

Sherlock Holmes

Director: Guy Ritchie

Writers: Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, and Simon Kinberg

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, and Eddie Marsan

In the months following Iron Man’s blockbuster success, Robert Downey Jr. doubled-down by filming a very different kind of iconic role: that of Sherlock Holmes. Filmmaker Guy Ritchie brings his tough guy sensibilities to this 2009 adaptation , which positions Holmes as a bit of a superhero using slow-motion camera techniques and a punishing sound mix that makes you feel every punch landed by this surprisingly buff detective. The story finds Holmes (Downey) and Watson (Jude Law) investigating a plot to control Britain by supernatural means, with Rachel McAdams proving to be a bright spot as Irene Adler. This one’s fun. – Adam Chitwood