Netflix‘s film library is vast enough to contain movies of just about every genre, tone and style. Right now, the streamer’s best offerings include a 2006 historical epic from “Lost in Translation” writer-director Sofia Coppola that has rightly been reclaimed by cinephiles and filmmakers alike over the last 20 years. Netflix also has “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle’s stunning 2014 breakout film currently streaming on its platform, as well as a 1990s crime drama written and directed by Michael Mann, a sequel to which is in production right now.
Here are the best movies on Netflix you can stream this week.
“Marie Antoinette” (2006)
An epic, radical repainting of one of history’s most oft-reviled figures, writer-director Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” immerses viewers within the walls of Versailles in the years leading up to the French Revolution. The film follows its eponymous, real-life queen (Kirsten Dunst) as she is sent as a young woman from her home in Austria to France to marry Louis-Auguste (Jason Schwartzman).
In doing so, “Marie Antoinette” turns its subject’s life of gaudy abundance into a tragic coming-of-age story, one overflowing with empathy, wit, energy and bold auteurist swings. “Lost in Translation” may still be Coppola’s best film, but “Marie Antoinette” serves as a kind of artistic mission statement for her entire career. In that way, it is not just convincing but deeply affecting. Dunst, for her part, should have garnered awards attention for her career-best lead performance in it.
“Whiplash” (2014)
2014’s “Whiplash” is the film that put “La La Land” and “Babylon” writer-director Damien Chazelle on the map. An emotionally and psychologically brutal, relentless drama, the film follows an ambitious music student and aspiring jazz drummer (Miles Teller) who is pushed to the mental brink by his abusive, overbearing college instructor (J.K. Simmons). A searing treatise on the corrosive nature of ambition, “Whiplash” is awash in dazzling filmmaking technique.
Editor Tom Cross’ jazz-like, Oscar-winning editing is percussive and operatic. It works in tandem with Chazelle’s assaultive, muscular filmmaking style to turn “Whiplash” into a visceral, invigorating and stressful piece of work. The film itself may arrive at a decidedly bittersweet final note, but it does so with so much style and vigor that your only response will be to applaud.
“Heat” (1995)
1995’s “Heat” sees “Collateral” and “The Insider” writer-director Michael Mann operating at the absolute peak of his powers. A three-hour crime epic, “Heat” follows a jaded, obsessive Los Angeles police detective (Al Pacino) as he attempts to take down a crew of ruthless bank robbers led by an equally formidable, unflinching career criminal (Robert De Niro).
A 170-minute clash between two of cinema’s greatest-ever screen titans, “Heat” finds poetry in violence and beauty in hard-edged masculinity. The film’s midpoint coffee shop meeting between Pacino’s Vincent Hanna and De Niro’s Neil McCauley is oft-referenced for a reason. It is the high point of a film that never, ever seems in danger of being overwhelmed by the sheer, sprawling scope of its story. It is one of the greatest crime films Hollywood has ever produced.
