We're into a new year and a new month, and while that means many things, for Netflix U.K. subscribers, it also means a fresh batch of movies has landed on the streaming service.
January 2025's additions to the platform include some shocking horror from Ti West, tense thrillers, and an acclaimed road movie from award-winning Mexican filmmaker, Alfonso Cuarón.
All the movies on our list of recommendations have scored at least 85% or higher on the review aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes. While that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the perfect fit for your Netflix watchlist, that does mean they're generally well-received by critics. As such, it's a good bellwether to help you determine whether to make time for one movie or another in your busy life.
Below, you can find a little bit more info about each of the five movies that have recently landed (or are coming to) Netflix U.K. in January that we think are most worth watching.
'Don't Breathe' (2016)
Before helming "Alien: Romulus", director Fede Álvarez brought us the tense home invasion thriller, "Don't Breathe," a movie that flips the genre on its head for some truly shocking results
We follow three Detroit-based thieves — Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette), and Money (Daniel Zovatto) — who sustain their lives by breaking into the homes of the wealthy and selling off their stolen goods. On one fateful evening, they break into the wrong house, the home of blind veteran Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang). Trapped inside, they soon learn that Nordstrom is far less helpless and far more dangerous than they first thought.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Watch on Netflix UK now
'Inside Man' (2006)
Need a high-stakes crime thriller to occupy your time this month? Spike Lee's "Inside Man" is the movie to watch. The movie revolves around a bank heist in Manhattan. The facility's been stormed and seized by a gang of masked robbers (a hit which career criminal Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) proclaims the perfect bank job at the start of the movie).
NYPD hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is drafted in to handle the case but is seemingly one step behind the robbers at every turn. Worse still, the bank's own chairman has hired his own negotiator, Madeleine White (Jodie Foster). Cue a suspenseful, thrilling and twisting crime caper that'll keep you guessing on what comes next.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 86%
Watch on Netflix UK now
'Missing' (2023)
Will Merrick and Nicholas D. Johnson's "Missing" was a standalone anthology movie set in the same universe as the 2018 mystery thriller "Searching". The latter saw a father trying desperately to track down his missing daughter online, but "Missing" flips that relationship on its head. Here, we watch 18-year-old June Allen (Storm Reid) using all the tech at her disposal to try and find her single mother, Grace (Nia Long), who disappears after going on holiday with her boyfriend, Kevin. The story might run away from itself just a tad, but this internet-age thriller is still worth making time for.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Watch on Netflix UK from Jan. 20
'Pearl' (2022)
Horror fans can look forward to streaming the second part of Ti West's "X" trilogy, "Pearl", on Netflix UK this month. This slasher prequel takes us back in time to 1918, where it introduces us to the titular young woman who would go on to become the first film's killer. Pearl (another winning turn from Mia Goth) hates life on her family farmstead and would love nothing more than to escape and pursue her dream of becoming a performer or movie star... an obsession that drives Pearl to commit some truly unspeakable acts.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
Watch on Netflix UK from Jan. 19
'Y tu Mamá También' (2001)
Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-nominated, 18-rated 2001 coming-of-age movie "Y tu mamá también" sees boastful teen friends Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael García Bernal) at a crossroads.
Bored without their girlfriends, Tenoch and Julio find themselves trying to impress twenty-something Luisa Cortés (Maribel Verdú) at a family wedding with stories of a made-up road trip to a beautiful beach. When she asks to join them, they hastily set off on their now-real trip, learning an awful lot about life, love, and one another in the process in a movie that also makes space for political unrest and more.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Watch on Netflix UK now
More movies to consider watching
If you don't like the sound of any of those picks, here's a small sample of some of the other new movies coming to Netflix that don't quite reach our threshold, but you may still want to stream:
- "Cocaine Bear" (2023) — offbeat adult action comedy about a bear that's devoured a discarded shipment of narcotics, streaming on Netflix UK from Jan. 11
- "Champions" (2023) — sports comedy starring Woody Harrelson as a hot-headed basketball coach doing community service by coaching "The Friends", a minor-league team comprised of players with intellectual disabilities
- "Elvis" (2022) — Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley biopic starring Austin Butler as the King of Rock and Roll, streaming now on Netflix UK
