So many titles at the click of a button!
There is tons of content on Netflix streaming service which at times makes it difficult to choose an option to play. Sometimes you find yourself flipping through the titles and end up wasting a good chunk of your time and the dinner goes cold. Here is a curated list of the best movies on Netflix you can watch in USA.
The movies are from some big names and contain stellar performances, some oscar worthy notes, and make for great entertainment. All titles including warner bros movies are mentioned and are a must-watch.
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1. The Irishman
IMDB rating: 7.8
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Steven Zaillian
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci
A Martin Scorsese’s three and half hour long masterpiece if you enjoy a good cinematic mob story. It’s a life story about a hitman Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro that touches on lessons of regret, age and bad decisions. The film is about getting caught between friends, just friends with guns and some brutal mobster action. The movie is not just another mob movie but in fact one of the best works of Scorsese that helps you reflect about all choices you have made in life.
2. 22 July
IMDB rating: 6.8
Director: Paul Greengrass
Writer: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Jon Øigarden, Thorbjørn Harr, Jonas Strand Gravli, Ola G. Furuseth, and Ulrikke Hansen Døvigen
The story is about the harrowing details about the bombing and massacre carried out by Anders Behring Breivik on 22nd July 2011 killing 70 people. Paul Greengrass’ movie is not about the terrorist and his political agenda but about a boy who was shot in the head and
has a long journey of recovery ahead of him. The movie tells a contrast of the human element of a terrorist who was captured and jailed versus the boy who represents hope and courage in the face of absolute evil.
Recommended: Best Romantic Movies on Netflix in USA
3. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
IMDB rating: 7
Director: George C. Wolfe
Writer: George C. Wolfe
Cast: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo
A true celebration of black artists and what they brought to the blues music industry. Based on the play by Pulitzer Prize-winning African playwright August Wilson Set in Chicago, 1927, Ma Rainey (played by Viola Davis) goes head to head with ‘white wash’ management over the rights to her music, a eager trumpeter played by non other than Chadwick Boseman wanting to start his solo career. This was Boseman’s last performance and he was Oscar nominated for it.
4. Alive
IMDB rating: 7.1
Director: Jo Il-Hyeong
Writer: Matt Naylor, Jo Il-Hyeong
Cast: Yoo Ah-In, Park Shin-Hye, Jeon Bae-Su, Lee Hyun-Wook
A fight for survival, mysterious virus, and isolation, the Korean siege movie draws painful contrasts to the pandemic if set in a zombie apocalyptic world. Jun-u and Yu-bin, two apartment tenants, and the main leads of the movie shut themselves indoors and fight the survival battle between flesh eating zombies hordes, scarcity of food, and emotional burnout. Alive is a must watch suspenseful zombie thriller romantic drama that delivers superbly on the horror, carnage with human feels of hope. There are more thriller movies on Netflix you’ll love to watch in USA.
5. The Outpost
IMDB rating: 6.8
Director: Rod Lurie
Writers: Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson
Cast: Scott Eastwood, Caleb Landry Jones, Orlando Bloom,Jack Kesy ,Cory Hardrict, Milo Gibson, Jacob Scipio, Taylor John Smith.
The Outpost is based on the Battle of Kamdesh 2009 in which a small unit of 53 American soldiers got trapped at the Camp Outpost Keating. The post was at the bottom of steep mountains just 14 miles from Pakistan. The soldiers were greatly outnumbered against the 400 Taliban fighters who took them for an easy mark. The movie drops the hammers on how human lives are lost because of political stupidity and military pomposity.
6. There Will be Blood
IMDB rating: 8.2
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. Connor
Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a vindictive oil miner in an Oscar winning performance in the movie There Will be Blood which is set at the turn of the 20th century. The movie is about the power hungry Daniel who stakes everything for it, including his young adoptive son. He cons people into selling him their properties for a pittance but is soon suspected by the local pastor about his evil doings which begins long hostility. The movie is heavy and rich on themes, the characters are deep and you have to be in a mood to connect.
7. Wildlife
IMDB rating: 6.8
Director: Paul Dano
Writers: Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ed Oxenbould, and Bill Camp
The movie is an intensely eye-opening narration of a marriage coming to splits and as witnessed by the couple’s young son. It is based on the book of the same name by Richard Ford, Wildlife takes place in 1960. The couple is played by Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jeanette and Jerry — a housewife and a golf pro) who move to Montana with their teenage son. Soon the father loses his job and finds work here and there and goes on and off to fight wildfires to find his purpose leaving the wife and the all to soon grown up son to take care of themselves.
8. Marriage Story
IMDB rating: 7.9
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, and Ray Liotta
This one is a nerve-wrecking emotional ringer and you need a box of tissues by your side! Marriage Story is Noah Baumbach’s stellar take on what makes and breaks a marriage and a perspective of both sides. The movie shows the couple navigating divorce, with brutal hostilight, custody battle of their son and how people in love fall out of it. Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver deliver outstanding performances in this heart breaking account of divorce and what it puts a family through.
9. The Trial of Chicago 7
IMDB rating: 7.8
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Writer: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, and John Carroll Lynch
A stellar screenplay by none other than Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of Chicago 7 is a movie based on the events of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in which Vietnam War Protesters were accused of inciting riots. The trial begins and the judge outright is quite biased and the trial is white washed. The film is a striking contrast to the political climate of America today and it tugs at the question of power, race, justice and equality. The entire cast has delivered on a rousing performance and it makes for a must watch.
10. Mudbound
IMDB rating: 7.4
Director: Dee Rees
Writers: Dee Rees and Virgil Williams
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell. Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, Jonathan Banks
This one is not only an original by Netflix but also went ahead to win four Oscar nominations. The film follows Laura McAllan who is trying to raise her children on her husband’s Mississippi Delta farm, a place she finds unwelcoming. Two young men return from war to work on the farm, one white and one black. Jamie McAllan, Laura’s brother-in-law, is fighting PTSD, while Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, battles racism and prejudice. The movie is a raw lens into the story centered on the fear, the humiliation, horror, black people face in the South by white folks.
11. Miss Sloane
IMDB rating: 7.5
Director: John Madden
Writer: Jonathan Perera
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John Lithgow, Alison Pill
This one is a slight older pick but still makes for an awesome romantic drama movie. Miss Sloane, played by Jessica Chastain is about a highly sought after lobbyist in Washington DC who refused to oppose a bill imposed on regulations of firearms. Her stance leads her down the road of threats to her career, mockery and getting targeted by powerful enemies. Chastain’s performance is outstanding and the pace of the movie keeps you hooked with unexpected twists. The cast is diverse and multifaceted characters give it enough bite to enjoy to the very ends.
12. The Devil All The Time
IMDB rating: 7.1
Director: Antonio Campos
Writers: Antonio Campos, Paulo Campos
Cast: Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Harry Melling, Eliza Scanlen
Based on the debut novel by the American Writer Donald Ray Pollack, ‘The Devil All the Time’ is set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia. The film revolves around fascinating and outlandish characters and how their lives are tangled in depravity at the end of World War II in the 1960s. The story unfolds across generations, families, and how two wars shaped their individual stories. Another theme discussed in the movie is how sin and traumas are often passed from one generation to the other.
13. Hillbilly Elegy
IMDB rating: 6.7
Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Antonio Campos, Paulo Campos
Cast: Amy Adams, Glenn Close, Gabriel Basso. J.D. Vance · Haley Bennett. Lindsay · Freida Pinto. Usha · Bo Hopkins. Papaw
Based on the memoir Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance, the movie largely focuses on the virtues of hard work and perseverance of the American welfare state. The movie follows a Yale Law student who goes back to his Appalachian hometown and ponders over his family’s history and what his future holds for him. Hillbilly Elegy is an Oscar-friendly movie star-studded with A-listers and tearful sad monologues. Fans of the memoir will recognize how the film adapts scenes and relationships to the screen quite smoothly.
14. Pieces of a Woman
IMDB rating: 7.1
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Writer: Kata Wéber
Cast: Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Ellen Burstyn, Iliza Shlesinger, Benny Safdie, Sarah Snook.
Vanessa Kirby and Shia LeBouf play expecting parents whose lives come to a devastating turn when they lose their child amidst home birthing. Kirby’s intense performance is palpable through the screen and viewers get to see a woman teetering on the edge of her sanity as her marriage unfolds. The movie is about child loss, grief, pain and mourning. The accounts are achingly raw and the movie makes audiences identify with and feel the anguish of losing a baby.
15. The Dig
IMDB rating: 7.1
Director: Simon Stone
Writer: Moira Buffini
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Ken Stott, Archie Barnes, and Monica Dolan
Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes lead the cast of ‘The Dig,’ a Simon Stone’s period best drama which is based on the true story of Edith Pretty, a wealthy landowner who in the 1930s hired an archeologist Basil Brown to investigate mounds on her vast property in England. The excavation of the burial ground unearths a king’s ship from the dark ages. A story of hope, history, discovery and sacrifice.
16. Extremely Wicked ,Shockingly Evil and Vile
IMDB rating: 6.7
Director: Joe Berlinger
Writer: Michael Werwie
Cast: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Kaya Scodelario, Haley Joel Osment, Jim Parsons, John Malkovich, James Hetfield
Based on the book ‘The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy’ written by Elizabeth Kendall who was the girlfriend of America’s most notorious serial killer and refused to accept the reality of him as a killer. It chronicles his crime based on her memoir with some fictional screenplay license. Zac Efron plays Ted Bundy while Lily Collins as Liz Kendall. The movie is very unsettling and dares to ask the question of who is Ted Bundy.
17. The Florida Project
IMDB rating: 7.6
Director: Sean Baker
Writers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Valeria Cotto, Christopher Rivera, Caleb Landry Jones
Sean Beaker’s indie take on a story of a 6-year-old Moone and her two best friends go on their daily adventures in a largely downtrodden part of Florida, amidst the shadow of the Disney World. Moonee’s Mom is a struggling Motel Manager and tries her best to protect the kids from the bleak reality of life. The Florida Project is a slice of life best drama that is simple but a very humbling watch.
18. Lost Girls
IMDB rating: 6.1
Director: Liz Garbus
Writer: Michael Werwie
Cast: Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke, Oona Laurence, Dean Winters, Miriam Shor, Reed Birney, Kevin Corrigan, Gabriel Byrne
Based on the non-fiction book ‘Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery’ by Robert Kolker, the film brings forth to the screen some of the harrowing stories of the victims of ‘Long Island Serial Killer’. The director has done a great job of taking the limelight away from ‘gruesomeness’ of the crime and instead reflecting it on victims and their treatment. The lead is played by Amy Ryan as Mari Gilbert who draws attention to how not all people get the same police attention when they get killed, like prostitutes and sex workers.
19. Mank
IMDB rating: 6.9
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Jack Fincher
Cast: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Arliss Howard, Tom Pelphrey, Charles Dance
A David Fincher’s best, co-written with his late Father the movie is about the Old Holywood and highlights its derisive and venomous side instead of painting it with rosy feels. Mank is a black-and-white movie that is nothing short of technical brilliance, unique subplots and on spot acting. The lead is played by Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz who is an alcoholic screenwriter trying to finish his movie “Citizen Kane.”
20. Horse Girl
IMDB rating: 6
Director: Jeff Baena
Writers: Jeff Baena, Alison Brie
Cast: Alison Brie, Debby Ryan, John Reynolds, Molly Shannon, John Ortiz, Paul Reiser, Matthew Gray Gubler
Alison Brie stars in the lead as Sarah, who is suffering from depression. Her lucid dreams take over her life. The movie is an excellent narrative of how depression looks like as Sarah takes you on a personal journey in the entire film. With 103 minutes of running time, an unsettling music score, and brilliant editing, Horse Girl delves too deep into Sarah’s view of depression and explores uneasy and disturbing ideas. The movie’s ending is also a debate, and everyone can interrupt their version of it.
Closing thoughts
Have you watched any of these best drama movies on Netflix in USA? What did you think? Did you enjoy them? Which movies should have made the list? Drop us your comments below.