17 Must-Watch Movies on Netflix Right Now (May 2025)
This May, Netflix is quieter than usual. While the streamer has already premiered high-profile shows like The Four Seasons with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, its movie slate is comparatively lighter and less filled with stars.
That's not to say that Netflix didn't add any good movies to watch this month. On the contrary, there are more good films to stream than ever — you just have to dig a little deeper in the streamer's library to find them.
At the top of the list is Past Lives, a lyrical romance about the past, present and future loves of one woman. There's also an action-thriller with Bradley Cooper, an underrated comic book adaptation and a comedy about life, loss and lasagna.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the 20 Must-Watch New Movies on Netflix, HBO and Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and More, Great Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now, Best Action Movies on Netflix Right Now and Best Rom-Coms on Netflix Right Now.
Nora (Greta Lee) is a writer who is happily married to Arthur (John Magaro). Yet when an old childhood friend she once shared a romantic connection with back in her native South Korea visits her in New York City, she begins to reconsider her feelings for both men. Is it possible to love two people at the same time?
Past Lives has an outline of a standard love triangle story, but it's anything but. Director Celine Song navigates the delicate lines between love and friendship, and how subtly friends can realize their soulmates and vice versa. Nora's feelings are complicated, and Lee's masterful, elliptical performance beautifully conveys the depth and ambiguity of her character's emotions. The ending is a beautiful heartbreaker, and you won't soon forget it.
Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood) is a man with few options left in life. He's pushing 80, he's estranged from his family and his finances are a mess. Desperate for cash, he agrees to become a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. Because of his age and friendly demeanor, the cops don't suspect him at all and — for a while — he's good at being a drug mule. But his success draws the attention of DEA agent Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper), who wants to stop Earl and the cartel he's working for. With no way out, Earl will have to make some hard choices if he wants to see his estranged family again.
A surprise hit when it was released in 2018, The Mule is a classic Eastwood thriller that features everything you like about the legendary actor-director: a lead character who is mostly silent and conflicted; a tight story that gets more tense as it progresses and a supporting cast featuring some of the best actors working today. The Mule isn't a crime drama like Sicario — it's quieter and subtler, but it's just as great as that Denis Villeneuve picture.
Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) aren't the brightest people around, but they're ambitious. When they find a mysterious disc belonging to a CIA analyst at their gym, they decide to blackmail him for money. But their attempts fail spectacularly, and soon, the Russian embassy and the CIA become involved. Linda and Chad are way in over their heads, and they may face a punishment that's worse than prison for their crimes.
Directed by the Coen Brothers, Burn After Reading is a comedy that's closer to Raising Arizona than The Ladykillers. Linda and Chad are dimwits, and their comical attempts for financial gain lead to shocking scenes of violence that are also incredibly funny. The movie's ending is deliberately anticlimactic — as Peggy Lee once crooned, 'Is that all there is?'
Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) just lost his mother, and his grief has left him spiritually empty. Looking for a purpose, he opens an Italian restaurant on Staten Island. But it's no ordinary restaurant, though, as the cooks are a quartet of Italian grandmothers. Are these no-nonsense nonnas the key for Joe to regain his mojo and make a little money as well?
Nonnas is a broad comedy that isn't afraid to pull at the heartstrings. While the plot is nothing new, the cast is better than you might think. Vaughn is effective as the morose Joe, while Susan Sarandon, Talia Shire and Brenda Vaccaro are massively appealing as the grandmas who bicker with each other as much as they make pasta.
Lou Jean and Clovis (Goldie Hawn and William Atherton) are deadbeat parents with nothing to lose except their only son. When he's taken away from them, they kidnap a sheriff in a feeble attempt to reunite with their child. But their criminal act inadvertently creates a media circus that follows the outlaw couple as they ride across the Lone Star State. Can they reach their son in time before the cops catch up with them?
Made at the high point of 1970s American cinema, The Sugarland Express is a bit like Bonnie and Clyde, only less violent and more comedic. The Steven Spielberg film is a gentle satire of media's obsession with crime, but it's also a loving ode to working-class people who enjoy the crime spree spectacle. It's less celebrated than the director's blockbuster hits like Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's just as great and memorable.
A spear that pierced Jesus Christ is being used to unlock the gates of Hell, and the only person to stop it is John Constantine (Keanu Reeves). But his time on Earth is almost over due to a nasty smoking habit that's metastasized into terminal lung cancer. Constantine strikes a deal with the archangel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) for more time to investigate, but will he find the mysterious person before it's too late?
Is the American Reeves miscast as the very British John Constantine? Yes. Does it matter? Not really. The movie is still an entertaining horror thriller with fun performances by Swinton as a sarcastic angel and Rachel Weisz as a LAPD detective investigating the gruesome death of her twin sister. The plot is playfully kooky, but it's all in good fun, and some of the film's images are horrifically evocative.
In the mood for an intense action movie with death-defying stunts and a cynical lead hero? Then Havoc is for you. Tom Hardy stars as Walker, a jaded detective who is in a lot of trouble. A drug deal has just gone bad and he's on the run from a gun-happy crime syndicate that wants him dead and some dirty cops who don't want their criminal side hustles exposed.
To make matters worse, he has to protect a crooked politician's son who was involved in the drug deal and knows more than he's letting on. Can Walker save the boy and not be killed in the process?
The plot isn't anything new, but Havoc is worth watching just for the stunts alone. The movie was directed by Gareth Evans, who made the modern action classics The Raid and Gangs of London, so there are a lot of gunshots, explosions and face-smashing fights. Hell, there's even a chase scene where someone throws a washing machine onto a pursuing cop car.
In other words, Havoc rocks, and it makes you want to see Hardy and Evans collaborate again on another crazy action movie like this one.
The premise is irresistible: Cooper (Josh Hartnett), a firefighter and devoted dad, takes his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a pop concert in Philadelphia, but he quickly realizes it's an elaborate setup by the authorities to catch him. Why? Well, he's actually a serial killer named 'the Butcher,' and he's holding his latest victim hostage in a basement miles away. As Cooper realizes he's caught in a trap, he must figure out a way to evade the authorities without letting his daughter know who he really is.
Trap's premise is absurd, illogical and completely superficial, but once you get past that, the movie is all kinds of fun. Director M. Night Shyamalan specializes in making the ridiculous somewhat plausible, and he actually makes you root for a protagonist who is both really evil and a good father. As Coop, Hartnett is all too convincing as the charismatic killer, and by the end, you actually want him to get away with it.
Australian teenager Mia (Sophie Wilde) goes to a friend's party and is coerced into playing a parlor game called 'Talk to Me,' which involves holding a supposedly cursed severed hand and allowing a spirit to possess them. But Mia quickly realizes this is no game as the spirit that possesses her begins to take over her life. Can she find a way to get rid of this unwanted demonic presence without losing her friends, family and sanity?
A sleeper hit in 2023, Talk to Me takes its out-there premise seriously. Far from an Exorcist knock-off, Talk to Me is more of an A24 'trauma horror' movie that uses jump scares to explore Mia's fractured emotional state. The movie can be heavy, but it's also scary as hell, with an ending that will leave you wanting a sequel. (One's on the way in the near future.)
On February 9, 2020, Parasite shocked Hollywood by winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But anyone who saw the movie wasn't really surprised — it's an instant masterpiece, one that's both fascinating to ponder and entertaining to watch.
In Seoul, South Korea, a lower-class family cons their way into the circle of a wealthy family who has everything they desire: a big house, a fancy car and plenty of food and drink to consume. But as the poor family grows closer to their benefactors, class lines begin to blur and soon a buried secret threatens both families.
To say more would be a crime, as Parasite's twisty narrative is best enjoyed unspoiled. The director, Bong Joon-ho, has something to say about how class works in his home country and how the rich really are just the worst. But Parasite also works as a purely entertaining thriller, with a denouement that just might break your heart.
Aubrey Plaza is cursed with being too good at what she does. She's best known for her comedic work on Parks and Recreation and her nuanced turn on season two of The White Lotus, but she's also quietly a great dramatic actress, and the best role she's arguably ever had was in the underrated Emily the Criminal, a 2022 thriller that isn't funny at all.
Plaza plays Emily, an Angeleno who is drowning in student loan debt and can't find a good job to pay it off. In desperation, she joins a credit card fraud organization and starts to make money by stealing from others. Everything has a price, though, and soon Emily discovers her life as a criminal isn't as satisfying as she'd like. Can she go back to her life as an honest worker who gets paid low wages? Or is the appeal of a life in crime worth the risk?
Before he was Willy Wonka and Bob Dylan, Timothèe Chalamet was a king — King Henry V, to be exact. Buried in a great year that included such releases as 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Little Women (which also starred Chalamet), The King deserves more respect and attention than it's received. A historical epic that feels raw and visceral, it features not only a great lead performance by Timmy but also a scene-stealing turn by Robert Pattinson as a foppish French royal and a stirring score by Nicholas Britell.
It's the early 15th century, and England is at war with France. King Henry IV (Ben Mendelsohn) is already thinking about who will succeed him, and he ultimately chooses Henry V, or Hal, to take the throne after he dies. Yet his ascension to power creates friction among his family, and even Hal's closest friends aren't as trustworthy as they appear. Hal must find a way to win over those who doubt his ability to rule while also winning an impossible war with an enemy hellbent on taking over England.
2024 had its fair share of great animated movies like Flow, Memoir of a Snail and Inside Out 2, but some inevitably got lost in the shuffle. Orion and the Dark was one of those movies, and it's a future classic ripe for rediscovery. Based on Emma Yarlett's children's book of the same name, the movie chronicles 11-year-old Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) as he deals with his fear of the dark. One night, he's visited by Dark itself (Paul Walter Hauser), who takes the young boy on a magical journey where he meets other nighttime entities like Sweet Dreams (Angela Bassett) and Insomnia (Nat Faxon). But will Orion truly accept Dark, and all the fears associated with it, before Light comes and disintegrates the entity forever?
That's only part of the movie, but to spoil any more would ruin the experience of discovering all of its strange twists and turns. The movie was written by Charlie Kaufman, and his bizarro sensibility is evident in the movie's even stranger second and third acts. But it's the animation, produced by the French studio Mikros Animation, that truly impresses and makes Orion and the Dark a keeper for all generations.
1917 is one of the greatest — and most ambitious — war movies ever made. The film follows two British soldiers, Will Schofield (George MacKay) and Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), as they try to survive the horrors of World War I. They are tasked with delivering a message to another military unit to stop a scheduled counterattack against German troops that would endanger the lives of over a thousand men, including Tom's older brother. Since speed is of the essence, they have to venture into no man's land and face almost certain death to achieve their mission.
What sets 1917 apart from other films is the sheer skill and innovation involved in its production. The film is constructed so it seems like it's one continuous shot with no obvious edits, which immerses you into the action and brings an extra layer of intensity to every bullet flying by and bomb exploding in the distance. The score by Thomas Newman is one for the ages, and the ending will wring a tear from the most hardened viewer. It's a momentous achievement in filmmaking, and you feel it in your bones.
Saturday Night Live turned 50 in 2025, and the dramatic leadup to the half-centennial celebration included the release of a feature film depicting the legendary show's first episode. On October 11, 1975, neophyte producer Lorne Micheals (Cooper Hoffman) struggles to keep his Not Ready for Primetime Players, among them Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Dan Ackroyd (Dylan O'Brien), and Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun), focused and ready for the launch of his new show while also dealing with disapproving execs and a sullen writer (Rachel Sennott) who also happens to be his girlfriend. Can he hold everyone together, rein in all the egos and keep the naysayers away long enough to get his show off the ground?
Well, you know the answer. Director Jason Reitman opts to set his movie in real-time, more or less, which lends a frenzied, authentic feel to the whole thing. The movie's rich ensemble shines, particularly Sennott as Rosie Shuster, and it accurately captures the rush of improv and putting on a show. While it's not particularly deep, Saturday Night leaves you with a greater appreciation for a broadcast institution we all take for granted.
The Place Beyond the Pines stars Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper as two men on opposite sides of the law whose paths cross with tragic results.
Gosling plays Luke Glanton, a tattooed stuntman who robs banks to provide for his ex-girlfriend Romina (Eva Mendes) and their newborn Jason. But Luke's lifestyle gets him in trouble with the law, and soon he's on the run with determined cop Avery Cross (Cooper) in hot pursuit. Will Avery catch Luke before he can rob again? And is Luke willing to spend time in jail if Avery catches him?
The Place Beyond the Pines is one part crime movie and one part drama as the film takes an unexpected turn midway through and focuses on both Luke and Avery's personal lives. Cooper and Gosling are terrific as the ambitious cop and charismatic robber who have more in common than not, while the direction by Derek Cianfrance keeps the plot moving along nicely.
Cantor Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) has seen better days. His wife, Ruth, died a year ago and he's suffering a crisis of faith that's rendered him unable to sing. To get his musical groove back, he sees his old music teacher, Carla (Carol Kane), who wants him to help her study for her long-delayed bat mitzvah. As Ben becomes closer to Carla, both realize their growing feelings for one another could isolate them from their respective families.
Between the Temples (a reference to both their shared Jewish faith and their brain matter) is a comedy rooted in sadness, but it's not a downer. As the movie's unconventional couple, Schwartman and Kane have a chemistry you can't bottle, and the film's full of lively moments that make you giddy. It's a throwback comedy that recalls such classics as Moonstruck and Crossing Delancey, but its generous spirit will make you want to watch it again and again.
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