With so many streaming options available to you every week, it can be difficult to know which movies to actually spend your weekend watching. That is why we have made this list.
Netflix‘s film library may be vast and, frankly, a bit overwhelming, but some of the streamer’s best current options include a World War I epic with a visual gimmick that works far better than it should and a Palme d’Or-winning 2018 drama that is guaranteed to grab hold of your heart and never let go again. In addition to those two films, Netflix also has an understated drama starring Saoirse Ronan that not nearly enough people saw when it was quietly released in late 2024.
Here are the three best movies you can watch on Netflix this week.
“1917” (2019)
Director Sam Mendes’ Oscar-nominated World War I epic “1917” is a thrilling exercise in cinematic technique and a frequently moving meditation on the cost of violence. Shot by esteemed cinematographer Roger Deakins, “1917” follows two young British soldiers (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) as they are sent on a solo mission across wartorn France to deliver a message about an attack that is doomed to fail.
The film follows its heroes in single, unbroken takes, which are seamlessly edited together to create a real-time illusion across the movie’s entire 119-minute runtime. It is a trick that works better than it has any right to, which is thanks in no small part to Deakins’ reliably stunning cinematography and Chapman and MacKay’s deeply felt, exhausted lead performances. It is an engrossing wonder, and one that feels strangely underrated seven years after its release.
“Shoplifters” (2018)
“Shoplifters” is one of the greatest films that Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has ever made. A Palme d’Or-winning portrait of unorthodox family, “Shoplifters” follows a found family of social outcasts who rely on small-time shoplifting to cope with their shared life of poverty in contemporary Japan.
One of the most moving and measured films of this century, “Shoplifters” is littered with moments of astonishing, observational humanity and empathy. Kore-eda is no stranger to films about unlikely, strained familial bonds, but rarely has he explored such complicated relationships with the same balance of authorial control and deserved tenderness that he demonstrates throughout “Shoplifters.” It will take your breath away.
“The Outrun” (2024)
The most tragically underseen film on this list, director Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun” is based on the 2016 Amy Liptrot-penned memoir of the same name. Anchored by one of the best performances of Saoirse Ronan’s increasingly storied film career, the non-linear drama follows a young woman struggling with addiction who relocates from London to Scotland’s Orkney Islands to try to come to terms with her own past mistakes and childhood demons.
Unvarnished but visually mesmerizing, “The Outrun” movingly charts the difficult but necessary process of rediscovering yourself, and not just within yourself but within the physical world around you. It is an affecting, quietly profound gem, and Ronan is as commanding onscreen here as she has ever been.
The 5 Best Movies to Stream on Tubi in July