Netflix’s original series like Stranger Things, House of Cards, and Wednesday tend to get more attention than its films, but quite a few Netflix movies have also gained traction in the pop culture pantheon, especially in recent years. Here are the best Netflix Original films (so far).
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Pee-wee’s Big Holiday
After a stage show, two movies, and a television series in the 1980s, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday was the character’s comeback project. The Netflix original movie sees Pee-wee Herman go on an adventure that takes him from his small hometown all the way to New York City for his friend’s birthday party.
Of course, like the other Pee-wee movies, there are tons of wacky hijinks, and there are also several celebrity appearances, including Stephanie Beatriz, David Arquette, and Joe Manganiello, the latter playing a fictionalized version of himself.
Sadly, this turned out to be the final film to feature Paul Reubens as Pee-wee, as the actor passed away during the summer of 2023.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
One genre Netflix has become known for is rom-coms. This is especially true since rom-coms are now seen as more of a streaming genre than one “worthy” of being made for and seen in cinemas. Teen rom-coms in particular have become a Netflix staple, especially ones based on novels. So naturally, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was a major hit for the streaming service and has become a “Netflix classic” of sorts.
This 2018 movie starring Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, and Janel Parrish is based on the bestselling book by Jenny Han and tells the story of a high school girl whose private, not-meant-to-be-sent letters to her various crushes are secretly mailed out to all of them, leaving her to deal with the shock … and the consequences.
The popularity of this movie led to sequels based on the other two books in the series—To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and To All the Boys: Always and Forever— as well as a spinoff series on the platform, XO, Kitty. The Summer I Turned Pretty, another Jenny Han novel trilogy, has also been adapted into a series for Netflix.
Bird Box
Possibly the most iconic Netflix Original film (it was the most viewed Netflix Original at the time of its release), Bird Box, based on a novel by Josh Malerman, is about a woman and her two children struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic society in which anyone who lays eyes upon an unknown entity is moved to take their own lives immediately. Everyone must wear blindfolds while outside, which makes the protagonist’s task of transporting her children and the titular “bird box” to a safe haven extra complicated.
The film not only follows these characters in the “present”, but contains an extended flashback sequence showing what it was like for the protagonist when she was pregnant and the epidemic of mass suicides was just beginning.
The movie spawned a controversial social media trend known as the “Bird Box challenge” in which people would try to complete various tasks while blindfolded (which Netflix publicly condemned, warning people of the safety concerns associated with the challenge) as well as a spinoff, Bird Box Barcelona, released in 2023.
Roma
Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Roma is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on Cuarón’s upbringing in early 1970s Mexico. The central character, Cleo, deals with a fracturing family and unexpected pregnancy while living in Colonial Roma, a once-thriving district that is now struggling.
Cuarón made the bold choice of shooting Roma in 65mm black and white, in order to evoke the feeling of looking at old photographs; particularly fitting given the personal nature of the project. The script was also written and filmed in sequence, allowing the cast and crew to go on the journey of the film along with the characters in a way.
Roma received a lot of attention come awards season, and most notably has the distinction of being the first primarily streaming film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Dolemite Is My Name
This comedic biopic sees Eddie Murphy portray comedian Rudy Ray Moore—known as “The Godfather of Rap”—and focuses on the character Dolemite he created for his comedy routines and then went on to portray in several films.
Dolemite Is My Name shows the history of the first Dolemite movie and the lead-up to its inception and release. It’s an uplifting look at a key moment in Blaxploitation film, a genre whose importance to representation in cinema isn’t widely discussed in modern day.
The film was nominated for numerous major awards, including multiple Golden Globes, and led to what has been a prosperous 2020s for Murphy thus far with movies like Coming 2 America and the upcoming fourth Beverly Hills Cop installment.
Marriage Story
Marriage Story may have been largely reduced to an internet meme (you know, the one with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson screaming at each other) and while some truly hilarious content has come out of that, it really is a shame the movie as a whole is often overlooked because of it.
Loosely based on the real-life experiences of director Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story stars Driver and Johansson as a married couple going through a divorce. Both parties are creatives—he a director, she an actor—and while the divorce looks to be fairly amicable at first, tensions rise when Nicole (Johansson) moves to Los Angeles with their son for her career and hires a lawyer.
Said lawyer is played by Laura Dern, who delivers an epic speech about sexist double standards and won an Oscar for this role. The movie was also nominated for quite a few other awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture.
Da 5 Bloods
Following a group of Vietnam War veterans as they look for the body of their late leader, Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods is politically relevant and emotionally resonant, much like Lee’s other movies.
While the bulk of Da 5 Bloods takes place in present day, the story is about the group’s past during the war in the early 1970s, and the film really embraces the influence of that time period. All of the main characters are named after the members and manager of real-life musical group The Temptations and, like other Lee productions, the movie features some crucial songs for the story, including several from Marvin Gaye’s famous concept album told from the perspective of a Vietnam soldier, What’s Going On.
Da 5 Bloods is perhaps most known for being Chadwick Boseman’s final film released during his lifetime (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was released at the end of that year), as he passed away less than three months after the movie’s June 2020 release on Netflix.
Tick, Tick… Boom!
Based on the musical with lyrics and book by the late Jonathan Larson, Tick, Tick… Boom! takes the semi-autobiographical piece and adapts it for the screen.
Tick, Tick… Boom! is best known for getting Andrew Garfield an Academy Award nomination for his role as Jonathan Larson, as well as being the feature directorial debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was already well-known for his musical compositions for Broadway and film (particularly Disney movies) as well as his acting.
This movie version of Tick, Tick…Boom! is even more biographical with regards to Larson than its onstage counterpart; the movie depicts him working on the show that would become RENT, and even acknowledges that he did not get to experience the success of that project due to his untimely death just a few short years after the events of the film conclude.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix hit the jackpot upon purchasing the rights for the two planned sequels to 2019’s Knives Out from Lionsgate. Glass Onion brings back Daniel Craig as detective Benoit Blanc alongside a cast of entirely new characters, but maintains the fun and thrills for which its predecessor was so well-received.
Glass Onion takes place in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and follows Blanc as he goes to a murder-mystery party held by a tech billionaire and attended by his rich and powerful friends, only to find that the host appears to be confused as to why Blanc is there. Of course, it turns out there’s a real mystery afoot, and now Blanc must solve it.
There are a lot of big moments in this movie, whether they be funny (this movie ramps up the comedy compared to the first), thought-provoking (the title ends up tying in very well with the film’s overall themes), or heartstring-tugging (this was the final film appearance for both Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim, who both passed away prior to the movie’s release).
They Cloned Tyrone
They Cloned Tyrone is a look at anti-Black racism through a science-fiction lens; the story centers on a Black drug dealer discovering that white scientists have been cloning him and many other members of his community in order to conduct various experiments.
They Cloned Tyrone is the feature directorial debut of Juel Taylor. He also co-wrote the movie’s script, and is gaining grounds as a Hollywood screenwriter with previous credits on Creed II and Space Jam: A New Legacy along with writing partner Tony Rettenmaier.
While the subject matter certainly has a dark side, the movie is also a comedy, and both elements are delivered well by a cast that includes John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx. The film overall is an homage to the Blaxploitation genre that was prevalent in the 1970s, but has elements of several others mixed in to create its own vibe.
(featured image: Netflix)
