The 25 Best Movies on Hulu Right Now

This post is updated regularly as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

Still considered largely a streaming service for television fans, Hulu has struggled to carve out its own reputation as a home for movie lovers too. To that end, they have become one of the most prominent supporters of recent arthouse cinema, particularly critical darlings like The Banshees of Inisherin, Broker, All of Us Strangers, and more. They also have an interesting revolving door of beloved recent films of all genres, mostly from 2010 and beyond. Take the time you were going to use to catch up on your latest sitcom and check out one of the films below in this list that will be updated as titles come and go, starting with our pick of the week.

This Week’s Critic’s Pick

*Thelma

Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: Josh Margolin

A wonderful homage to the filmmaker’s actual grandmother, this Independent Spirit nominee stars the irreplaceable June Squibb as the title character, a woman who gets conned by a phone scam. Rather than just let it happen, Thelma gathers her best friend (the excellent Richard Roundtree, in his final role) and seeks vengeance. It’s funny and surprisingly moving. It will make you want to call your grandma.

How We Pick Our Films

Critic Brian Tallerico watches and writes about movies and TV every day. To curate this list, he dives into Hulu’s catalogue to surface acclaimed, surprising, or otherwise noteworthy titles — using his taste and a lifetime of cinema study as his guide, instead of whatever the algorithm happens to be pushing. After triple-checking to make sure they’re still available, he watches each, organizes them by category, then writes his recommendation. We highlight more than just Oscar winners or popcorn flicks: These films present interesting ideas, made an impact on cinema, and changed our culture. Read on to find something to watch.

Drama

Ad Astra

Year: 2019
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: James Gray

James Gray’s best film charts the journey of an astronaut (played by Brad Pitt in one of his best performances) into space to find his estranged father, played by Tommy Lee Jones. More of an emotional journey than a sci-fi-thriller, it’s a powerful parable about the dynamics between fathers and sons.

All of Us Strangers

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m 
Director: Andrew Haigh

One of the best films of 2023 is exclusively available on Hulu thanks to the relationship between the company and Fox Searchlight—both owned by Disney, essentially. Andrew Scott is stunning as a man who essentially travels in time to visit the parents (Jamie Bell & Claire Foy) who died when he was young, all while starting a relationship with one of his neighbors (Paul Mescal). Imagine getting to say what you never could to those you lost and allowing them a chance to see how you’ve changed too. It’s a beautiful, moving piece of work.

Anatomy of a Fall

Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 31m
Director: Justine Triet

The latest Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay is already exclusively on Hulu thanks to their relationship with Neon. The great Sandra Huller stars as a woman whose husband dies from a fall at their home. Was it suicide or murder? More than a mere courtroom drama, this is a dissection of a marriage that’s raw, brutal, and real.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Sidney Lumet

The masterful director of 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, and so many more American classics ended his career with a banger in this intense thriller featuring performances from Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney that stand among their best. A chronological puzzle of a film that would impress Christopher Nolan with its structure, this is one of the best films of the 2000s.

Dead Poets Society

Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 9m
Director: Peter Weir

“O Captain, My Captain.� A generation who was just the right age when Peter Weir’s coming of age drama came out will forever remember the power of those words. Set in a Vermont boarding school in 1959, this is the story of an English teacher who inspires his students to seize the day, and it features one of the career-best performances from Robin Williams.

Ferrari

Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Michael Mann

Michael Mann’s first film in eight years wasn’t given nearly the theatrical attention it deserved, which means people can now catch up with it on Hulu! A masterful dissection of obsession and ego, Ferrari stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, captured here in 1957 as he juggles a collapsing personal life with a drive to win the 1957 Mille Miglia. Driver is underrated here, but that’s because Penelope Cruz drives off with the movie, giving one of the best performances of the last few years.

The Last Duel

Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 33m
Director: Ridley Scott

Based on a true story, this underrated drama is set in medieval France and tells the same story from three different perspectives. Adam Driver, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Jodie Comer star in a powerfully written and directed piece of dramatic filmmaking, a story with themes of sexual violence and bodily autonomy that’s relevant today.

Nomadland

Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 48m
Director: Chloe Zhao

The Oscar winner for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, this 2020 drama is one of the most moving films of the young decade so far, and it’s exclusively on Hulu thanks to the company’s relationship with Fox Searchlight (they’re both owned by Disney). Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a woman displaced by the loss of her husband and job, sending her out on the road. Blending non-fiction filmmaking choices like the use of non-actors telling their own stories with a deep sense of character-building, this is a phenomenal film.

Poor Things

Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Emma Stone took home a second Oscar for her fearless portrayal of a Bella Baxter in the latest mindfuck from the director of The Lobster and The Favourite. Bella is the Frankenstein-esque creation of a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe), who teaches her the way of the world, until she discovers sex and her own identity. Visually stunning, it’s like nothing else on Hulu. Or anywhere really.

Y Tu Mamá También

Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Alfonso Cuaron

Have you been watching Disclaimer over on Apple? It’s a reminder that Alfonso Cuaron is one of our best living filmmakers. Go back and watch this deeply personal, gorgeous film. Two teenage boys – Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna (recently appearing in La Máquina on Hulu) – fall for an older woman who has a secret. It’s a sweet, moving film from a modern master.

Documentaries

Bad Axe

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: David Siev

This charming documentary about a family living in Michigan during the pandemic and all the things that came after it is one of the most empathetic and moving pieces of filmmaking about the 2020s to date. The Siev family own a family restaurant in Michigan, but it threatens to go under after the restrictions put in place by the pandemic. That is followed by divisions within the community that arise during the Black Lives Matter movement that same summer. Bad Axe is a phenomenal piece of work that you probably haven’t seen.

Summer of Soul

Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Ahmir “Questlove� Thompson

It’s unfair how talented Questlove is. The drummer for The Roots proved to have an incredible touch with documentaries, too, when this future Oscar winner premiered at Sundance 2022, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. It’s the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an unforgettable display of creativity and passion that was almost forgotten, the footage buried in a basement for generations. Watch this one loud.

Comedy

The Banshees of Inisherin

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Martin McDonagh

One of the best films of 2022 and a multiple Oscar nominee last year, this dark comedy is already on streaming services, less than a year after its release. Colin Farrell does career-best work as a hapless Irishman who discovers that his best friend, played by Brendan Gleeson, doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. A film about how neighbors become enemies feels particularly timely in the currently fractured world, and this one is brilliant, funny, and moving.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Year: 2019
Runtime: 2h 42m
Director: Quentin Tarantino

It’s hard to believe it’s already been almost a half-decade since Quentin Tarantino’s last movie, one of the last greats of the 2010s. Wildly misunderstood during production (and even a bit after release), it’s way more than just a reclamation of the Sharon Tate murders, it’s a funny, scary, smart alternate version of Hollywood history with some of the career-best performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, and Oscar winner Brad Pitt.

Rye Lane

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 22m
Director: Raine Allen Miller

The best romantic comedy in years premiered at Sundance in January 2023 and is now on Hulu. David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah star in a film that’s reminiscent of Before Sunrise in the way it captures two people meeting and walking through a city as they slowly fall in love. Heartbroken, creative people, these characters are so incredibly likable in this film that has a sharp, brilliant screenplay, and stunning use of setting. The world around these people comes so vibrantly to life that it almost feels like a character.

The Worst Person in the World

Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director: Joachim Trier

The partnership between Neon and Hulu continues to pay off for subscribers as the streamer is the exclusive home of one of the most acclaimed films of 2021 in this Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee. Renate Reinsve is stunning as a young woman named Julie who navigates career, love, and life in a film that’s funny, moving, and true.

Horror

Alien

Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Ridley Scott

The one that changed everything. Alien didn’t just launch a mega-franchise or create an iconic character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It shifted the entire sci-fi/horror landscape forever. And what’s even more stunning about Alien is that over four decades later, it still rips. From beginning to end, it is one of the rare movies that could be called perfect.

Crimes of the Future

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: David Cronenberg

The master of body horror returned to the form for the first time in a generation and delivered one of the most mesmerizing films of 2022. Viggo Mortensen plays a man in a future where evolution has gone awry, creating new organs in human bodies. His is particularly active, and it draws the attention of characters played by Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux. It’s a fascinating film. You won’t be able to turn away.

The First Omen

Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Arkasha Stevenson

There’s no reason for The First Omen to be as good as it is. First off, most studio horror films don’t take anywhere near the kind of risks that this daring genre flick takes. Second, horror prequels are very rarely good. Nell Tiger Free (Servant) plays an American novitiate in Rome who discovers a vile plan to bring the antichrist to life. With stunning use of practical effects and an incredible lead performance, director Arkasha Stevenson crafted one of the best horror films of the 2020s.

The Fly

Year: 1986 
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg delivered one of the best remakes of all time when he tackled the classic tale of a scientist who slowly becomes a fly after an experiment goes very wrong. Eschewing cheese for true body horror, Cronenberg pulled arguably the best performance of the career of Jeff Goldblum as the poor guy at the center of this waking nightmare. It’s gruesome and timeless.

Action

Die Hard

Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: John McTiernan

Finally! Streamers have a habit of dropping parts of the Bruce Willis series but never the whole thing, until now! Watch from the masterful original through the abysmal A Good Day to Die Hard in one sitting, only on Hulu. The original is still the masterpiece, a film that truly rewrote the rules for the genre, shifting it more to everyman characters like Willis and away from muscular stars like Sly and Ah-nuld. It’s held up perfectly, as entertaining today as when it came out.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Wes Ball

The director of Maze Runner picks up the saga of Planet of the Apes for the start of another planned trilogy of films to continue the brilliance of Rise/Dawn/War. Set a couple centuries after the end of that last trilogy, Kingdom is a world in which different ape factions are fighting for dominance, most of them using the teachings of Caesar as a guide. When a young ape (voiced perfectly by Owen Teague) meets a human (Freya Allen), they discover they may have common goals. It’s a smart, ambitious blockbuster filmmaking that’s exclusively on Hulu.

*Speed

Year: 1994
Runtime: 1h 56m
Director: Jan de Bont

Jan de Bont directed one of the best movies of the ‘90s and gave dozens of imitators a template when he released this simple-but-fantastic flick. In fact, its simplicity is one of its charms. A bus is equipped with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour, and Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are the only people that can stop it.

True Lies

Year: 1994
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director: James Cameron

Remember when James Cameron made kick-ass action movie that weren’t set on Pandora? Those were the days. Cameron directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in this influential action pic about a family man who also happens to be a G-man. Co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, and Bill Paxton, it’s a perfectly paced film that’s easy to watch over and over again.

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