Spotting a little red “N” logo in the Netflix library isn’t exactly a guarantee of quality. To be blunt, more often than not Netflix original movies miss the mark. Or at least, the high-profile ones tend to be of pretty lower quality.
Case in point, the streaming service’s upcoming flagship blockbuster flick, “The Electric State,” has pulled a miserable 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Even more frustrating, often when Netflix does offer subscribers a great movie, it won’t enjoy the same level of attention as woeful efforts like “The Union,” “Atlas” and “Uglies (all three went straight to No. 1). Over the past 12 months, I’ve watched dozens of Netflix movies, and while the majority ranged from lackluster to lamentable, there were a few that stood out.
From “His Three Daughters” to “The Piano Lesson” there have been some fantastic Netflix original movies in the past 12 months, and I’m betting most subscribers haven’t seen them. So, these are the best Netflix movies released in the past year, you need to go and stream right now.
‘The Beautiful Game’
Football (soccer if you really must) is the world’s most popular sport for good reason. It offers a level of drama and excitement that no other ball game can match, but it’s also a powerful force for uniting people.
It’s that element of football that “The Beautiful Game” aims to celebrate. It’s a largely conventional sports drama, you know how these underdog stories go, but it hits all the right emotional beats, and includes a strong supporting performance from Bill Nighy.
Based on the real-world Homeless World Cup, the movie sees manager Mal (Nighy) pull together a ragtag team of British football players, all of whom have fallen on hard times and are currently homeless, for the tournament in Rome, Italy. The team’s secret weapon is the ultra-talented Vinny (Michael Ward), but while he may be a maestro with the ball at his feet, he’s also a maverick character. “The Beautiful Game” is simple but hugely enjoyable.
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‘His Three Daughters’
“His Three Daughters” is a Netflix movie I’ve been champing since its debut. To this day, it continues to frustrate me that it made a negligible impact on the streaming service’s top 10 charts, as it really did deserve so much more attention.
It’s one of the best-written movies of 2024, centering on three compelling characters, and explores the tight, but also occasionally burdensome, bonds of family. It’s a deeply moving masterpiece.
It should have been a player at the recent 2025 Oscars (it would have been a much more worthy nominee in the Best Picture field than “Emilia Pérez”), and I would have loved to see its trio of phenomenal women (the eponymous daughters) scoop a few acting awards each.
The small-scale drama sees estranged three sisters (Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen) come together to care for their ailing father, and while cooped up under the same roof old resentments surface, but the siblings also develop new understandings of each other's struggles.
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‘Joy’
Not be confused with the 2015 Jennifer Lawrence movie of the same name, “Joy” is a biographical drama that chronicles the efforts of a trio of British scientists as they attempt a seemingly impossible mission of developing the world’s first "test tube baby."
This is another historical biopic that doesn’t break the mold but it’s cozy and comforting and packs three strong leads in the form of Billy Nighy, James Nortin and especially Thomasin McKenzie.
McKenzie plays the point-of-view character, Jean Purdy, and through her eyes, we watch the trio struggle not only to achieve such a difficult scientific breakthrough but also face intense media scrutiny as people around them question the ethics of in vitro fertilization (IVF). It’s easy to get invested in the team’s plight, and their efforts certainly deserve to be celebrated, which the movie does with aplomb. Overall, “Joy” is an earnest crowd-pleaser.
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‘The Piano Lesson’
I was rather surprised “The Piano Lesson” didn’t make more of a splash when it landed on Netflix last November. Based on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play by August Wilson, and starring John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, this drama had quite a lot going for it, but unfortunately, it barely registered.
That’s a shame because its theatrical pacing, strong performances and engaging family drama had me gripped from the start.
The movie centers on the Charles family, more specifically it sees Boy Willie (Washington) visiting the home of his sister Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and Uncle Doaker (Jackson), but this is no simple family reunion.
Willie has come to sell the family’s grand piano passed down from their father. But Berniece has no intentions of letting the instrument leave the family’s possession, and what follows is an exploration of heritage, heirlooms and hauntings.
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‘Delicious’
“Delicious” is the newest movie on this list, and only debuted on Netflix last week (on March 7). Perhaps it still needs a little time to find its audience, but as of writing, it’s yet to chart on the platform’s most-watched movies list.
Hopefully, it picks up steam soon, as I think this dark thriller with clear similarities to Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” is a twisting ride worthy of your watchlist. It does lose some steam in the third act but it all builds to a very memorable finale.
The directorial debut of German filmmaker Nele Mueller-Stöfen, "Delicious" sees a young woman hired by a rich family as their domestic helper during their summer vacation in southern France. The woman, named Teodora (Carla Díaz), quickly integrates herself with the family and becomes more than just a worker but also a confidant and eventually a full-fledged family member. But her intentions are darker than anybody could have imagined.
Watch on Netflix now
