If you thought that Hulu was only for watching FX shows the morning after they premiere, think again. From newer hits to must-see classics, Hulu has a solid list of movies waiting just a few clicks away. Here are the 25 best movies Hulu has to offer right now.
25. Deep Water
Year: 2022
Cast: Ana de Armas, Ben Affleck, Tracy Letts, and Lil Rey Howery
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 115 minutes
Director: Adrian Lyne
Trailer: Watch here
Divisive? Yes. This thriller is dripping wet with divisiveness, but where else are you going to get your 1990s sleaze fix nowadays? To wit, this psychological marriage thriller brought Adrian “Fatal Attraction” Lyne out of a 20-year retirement, and while it’s not nearly as steamy as his previous work, it offers up a lot of the same bodily motions. Melinda and Vic have a unique matrimonial union: they stay together for the kids, and Melinda gets all the lovers she wants. Sadly (and predictably), Vic gets more than a little jealous, and one-night stands go a little missing. But is Vic really to blame? And if he is, and Melinda is into it, is that super duper weird? Affleck channels big Gone Girl energy, and his work alongside de Armas will challenge you not to yuck someone else’s yum.
24. Rosaline
Year: 2022
Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Kyle Allen, Sean Teale, Minnie Driver, Bradley Whitford, and Christopher McDonald
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 95 minutes
Director: Karen Maine
Trailer: Watch here
As most everyone in a high school literature class might remember (or be plagued by), Rosaline is the “immature” love that Romeo sloughs off in order to pursue the forbidden hottie he spied across the crowded party. Real mature. Now, she gets her due in an excellent rom-com that injects some well-trod Shakespeare with Dever’s deadpan and scorned woman revenge. It’s a genuine delight with 2020’s sarcasm stuffed into gorgeous period costumes, utilizing the most familiar story in the Western canon to let us imagine how the side characters must have felt when the spotlight drifted away from them.
23. Hellraiser
Year: 2022
Cast: Jamie Clayton, Odessa A’zion, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Aoife Hinds, Jason Liles, Yinka Olorunnife, Selina Lo, and Zachary Hing
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: David Bruckner
Trailer: Watch here
It’s usually easy money to bet against a horror remake, especially one as revered as Clive Barker‘s 1987 gore masterwork. However, this is one time you’d lose your wager and at least a pound of flesh. Proving that his V/H/S and Southbound horror shorts were no fluke, Bruckner imbues this reimagining with profound reverence for the original while making the new breed its own thing. That largely means dropping the beloved video nasty saturation for the slick polish of high-tech filmmaking, giving the Hannibal treatment to scenes of exquisite torment. This time around, it’s a young woman trying to solve what happened to her brother after he gets nicked by the blade inside a hellish puzzle cube that summons otherworldly sadists. As a bonus, Jamie Clayton absolutely owns as Pinhead.
22. Hell Or High Water
Year: 2016
Cast: Ben Foster, Chris Pine, Dale Dickey, Katy Mixon, Gil Birmingham, and Jeff Bridges
Genre: Neo-Western, Crime, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: David Mackenzie
Trailer: Watch here
In case you weren’t sure about it, robbing banks with a chaotic neutral partner is not a great idea. That’s what Toby has to put up with while stealing FDIC-insured money with his hyped-up brother Tanner. Their sibling dysfunction is the bad news. The badder news is that two Texas Rangers are on their trail, but Toby and Tanner are doing all the marauding for a good reason: to save the family farm from disclosure by using the bank’s money to pay what they owe. Mackenzie’s direction is confident and potent, but screenwriter Taylor Sheridan is the one who used the success of the film to launch an emergent career of crafting your dad’s favorite modern movies. It’s revitalized the genre enough that Yellowstone would not exist without it.
21. The Assistant
Year: 2019
Cast: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfayden, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Alexander Chaplin, and Juliana Canfield
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Kitty Green
Trailer: Watch here
Green’s incisive film came on the heels of the 2017 reinvigoration of Tarana Burke’s MeToo movement. With its unseen, abusive film producer boss, it’s about Harvey Weinstein without being about Harvey Weinstein. But more than a single bad apple, it’s about the spoiling of the whole bunch, straight from the tippy top on down to the assistant class who is bullied into absorbing their demeaning existence with the slim hope of “hitting it big.” The entire film is on Julia Garner’s shoulders, and she carries it beautifully, starring as a junior assistant with a serial sexual harasser boss. When she takes a complaint to HR, she’s given a lesson in real power and who has it (read: not her). It’s a tough, amazing movie.
20. Plan B
Year: 2021
Cast: Kuhoo Verma, Victoria Moroles, Mason Cook, Rachel Dratch, and Jay Chandrasekhar
Genre: Comedy, Coming-Of-Age
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
Director: Natalie Morales
Trailer: Watch here
This uproarious comedy sees two teenagers in South Dakota in an epic road trip trying to hunt down an elusive Plan B pill to ward off a potential unplanned pregnancy. It was released almost exactly a year before the Dobbs decision, so it’s become even more relevant (while staying just as funny). Like Harold and Kumar getting continually sidetracked from their beloved White Castle, Lupe and Sunny just can’t seem to get the help they need, bouncing off a series of hilarious characters either helping or hindering their quest. Firmly in the realm of Book Smart and Blockers, it’s another worthy addition to the well-informed teen sex comedy genre.
19. I, Tonya
Year: 2017
Cast: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Caitlin Carver, McKenna Grace, Julianne Nicholson, and Paul Walter Hauser
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Biopic
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Craig Gillespie
Trailer: Watch here
In 1994, professional figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked after practice, presumably with the intent to make her physically incapable of competing in the U.S. Championships. Screenwriter Steven Rogers was inspired to write I, Tonya after interviewing beset figure skater Tonya Harding and her attach-plotting ex-husband Jeff Gillooly to discover that both had very, very different views on how the infamous scandal all went down. The result is a gonzo ride through identity, the lengths the ego will go to defend itself, and the ultimate question of how the public chooses to believe or not believe rumors about celebrities. Margot Robbie is dynamite (as is the rest of the cast). She was also four when the scandal broke and grew up in Australia, so she had no idea that it was based on real events until after reading the script.
18. Alien
Year: 1979
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, Bolaji Badejo, and Helen Horton
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi,
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Trailer: Watch here
Is it one of the best sci-fi films of all time, or one of the best horror films of all time? Yes. Seven crewmembers on a spaceship are returning to earth when they investigate a beaten-up alien ship filled with a bunch of adorable glowing eggs. They leave them alone and enjoy an uneventful trip back home. Just kidding! They do not leave them alone, and the ship is threatened by terrifying beings trying to eat and/or lay eggs in them. It’s a classic that every human being should see (if just for its educational safety message), and if you’ve only seen it a dozen time, why not dive in for a thirteenth viewing.
17. Die Hard
Year: 1988
Cast: Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Alan Rickman, Paul Gleason, and William Atherton
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Director: John McTiernan
Trailer: Watch here
When NYPD cop John McClane travels to LA for Christmas, he’s hoping to reconcile with his wife Holly and spend some time with their kids. Instead, he has to defeat a band of German terrorists while running barefoot through a labyrinth of skyscraper floors. The action flick that redefined the genre and launched a decades-spanning franchise that eventually spat in the face of physics before Dom Toretto ever could, Die Hard is so good that it quenches the thirst of action fans while being taught at prestigious film schools. There’s more that unites us than divides us, cinephiles. That’s the biggest lesson of this Christmas-set tale, with the second biggest being that making little fists with your feet is the best way to wind down from a stressful flight.
16. I Am Greta
Year: 2020
Cast: Greta Thunberg, Pope Francis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Claude Juncker, and other documentary subjects
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: Nathan Grossman
Trailer: Watch here
It’s rare to see Pope Francis on a cast list (other than his cameo in Die Hard), especially considering he’s a minor player here. The young woman in the spotlight is Greta Thunberg, the climate activist who has risen from solo protests to international acclaim by telling people that they should really be panicking a lot harder than they have been. For those not sold on taking action to alter the current course of human-made climate change, this documentary offers loads of insight into why Thunberg has dedicated her relatively short life to the cause. To those who are already on her side, it will be a rallying cry to get reinvigorated.
15. The Town
Year: 2010
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, and Pete Postlethwaite
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 125 minutes
Director: Ben Affleck
Trailer: Watch here
Four Charlestown-bred BFFs plan one last heist at Fenway Park, while one of their number starts to have a conscience and a budding romance with a bank teller who they took hostage during a clunky robbery attempt. Ben Affleck’s second outing as a director is a muscular, mature crime drama that showed a clear path forward from the excellent Gone Baby Gone to the Oscar-worthy Argo. It was proof of his staying power as a director, as well as a leap forward for almost all the other actors involved, minting stars and statue-holders from up-and-comers. It also had the distinctive honor of premiering at the very baseball field that the crew planned to rob in the movie.
14. Blue Velvet
Year: 1986
Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Brad Dourif, and Dean Stockwell
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: David Lynch
Trailer: Watch here
While cutting across a vacant lot, college kid Jefferey stumbles upon a severed human ear that draws him deep into a bizarre mystery of sado-masochistic sex, extortion, and a dangerous madman with an affinity for huffing an unnamed gas. It’s unlikely that David Lynch fans haven’t already seen this one, so this is more of a public service announcement than anything else, but for the rare, uninitiated who are willing to take a trip into a singularly weird filmmaking mind, this is your opportunity to be immersed in one of the most shocking cinematic visions of the 20th century. An enduring enigma that dares you to see it again and again.
13. Fresh
Year: 2022
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jojo T. Gibbs, Charlotte Le Bon, Andrea Bang, Dayo Okeniyi, and Brett Dier
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Mimi Cave
Trailer: Watch here
This delightful terror from Mimi Cave has a lot of the markings of a rom-com: the struggling single 20-something fed up with dating apps, the loving best pal with harsh truths, and the meet cute with the handsome guy who’s a little rough around the edges. When lovelorn Noa hits it off with the dashing Steve (can a “Steve” be “dashing”?), it should be a matter of time before they’re in rom-com heaven, except for the hard left turn into horror town. If you think you know what happens, you’re probably only about 34% correct as this terrific film twists and turns down a dark rabbit hole filled with excellent surprises.
12. Nightmare Alley
Year: 2021
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, Rooney Mara, and David Strathairn
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 150 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here
Guillermo del Toro has emerged as the rightful heir to Hitchcock without all the personal baggage. He’s a wondrous filmmaker with a boundless imagination, and his love for genre means that he’s a loving encyclopedia in front of the page and behind the camera. In Nightmare Alley, Cooper plays a carnival-trained psychic pitching himself to the wealthy and powerful in order to move up in the world. When his act has devastating consequences, he spirals into a psychological fit of despair, but he’ll have to fight his depression while trying not to lose everything else he’s got.
11. Spencer
Year: 2021
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Jack Farthing, and Stella Gonet
Genre: Drama, Biopic
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Pablo Larrain
Trailer: Watch here
From The Crown to a handful of documentaries, there’s been a burst of renewed interest in Princess Diana. With all that competition, it’s difficult to say who’s crafted the definitive performance, but Kristen Stewart certainly gave it her all in this laser focused drama. Unlike other projects that want to tell the full story or capture Princess Diana as a symbol for something larger, Spencer homes in on one Christmas in 1991 when she contemplates seriously divorcing Prince Charles and leaving the royal family. How do you weight a choice like that? It’s a stirring film, made outstanding by Stewart’s humane take on the real-life role.
10. Crimes Of The Future
Year: 2022
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, Scott Speedman, Kristen Stewart, and Lihi Kornowski
Genre: Horror, Drama, Sci-Fi
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
Director: David Cronenberg
Trailer: Watch here
How many ears is too many ears? In this new work by body horror master David Cronenberg, Mortensen plays a performance artist who has his organs removed in each foray only to have new ones grow back due to an experimental genetic process. It’s a (not so far off) future where computers interface with body implants, but these performances push the boundaries of thought and taste even for this plastic surgery numbed crowd. Originally planned for 2003, this long-gestating project has been through many incarnations and is absolutely worth the wait. It’s one of the best films of 2022, raising more questions than it answers and offering a potentially prescient look into one possible direction for body modification.
9. Black Swan
Year: 2010
Cast: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, and Barbara Hershey
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Trailer: Watch here
In 2008, Aronofsky released The Wrestler, a drama about a has-been looking for one last taste of pure perfection in the ring. He followed it up with a companion story about a ballerina seeking the same. Nina Sayers is a young dancer in the world-renowned New York City Ballet, striving to score the lead role in a performance of Swan Lake while managing an infantilizing, over-protective mother and a frenemy who may or may not want to take Nina’s place. It’s a phantasmagoria of obsession and the violent lengths some might go to in order to reach an artistic pinnacle.
8. Triangle Of Sadness
Year: 2022
Cast: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Buric, Iris Berben, Vicki Berlin, Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Sunnyi Melles, and Woody Harrelson
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 147 minutes
Director: Ruben Ostlund
Trailer: Watch here
The less said about the plot of this wealthy-skewering black comedy the better, because it’s jaw-dropping surprises are worth staying in the dark. Suffice it to say that a famous couple and a bunch of richie rich types are on a private luxury cruise where things do not go according to plan. In addition to a Best Picture nomination, Triangle of Sadness has earned a slew of nominations and awards, primarily for its performances and its deft satire of people who should be taxed into oblivion. Funny and shocking, it makes a wonderful companion to The White Lotus.
7. Heat
Year: 1995
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, Ted Levine, Diane Venora, and Tom Sizemore
Genre: Crime, Action, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 170 minutes
Director: Michael Mann
Trailer: Watch here
One of the best crime films of all time, Michael Mann‘s cat-and-also-cat story about a thief and LAPD detective has aggressive staying power. First, it’s Mann at his grisly best with the unbeatable duo of Pacino and De Niro. The rest of the cast is absurd, and the script is as tight as a snare drum. It’s a thrilling, endlessly quotable movie worthy of (at least) an annual rewatch. It pulls exactly zero punches, placing an immovable object in the way of an unstoppable force and planting a truckload of fireworks next to them. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself the favor of scratching it off your To See List pronto.
6. The Shape Of Water
Year: 2017
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Fish-Based Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 123 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here
Another beautifully weird del Toro flick, The Shape of Water forced the Academy Awards to reckon with the forbidden love between a woman and some kind of fish monster. There’s just no way that del Toro wasn’t inspired to make this film by his time working on Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies, but instead of diving headlong into superhero action, he chose romance. Sally Hawkins plays a mute custodian working at a secret government lab where the humanoid amphibian thing (Doug Jones, naturally) swims around and, ultimately, learns to love. Sadly, the government isn’t super into these two being together, so they have to race against the powers that be in order to secure their fishy future.
5. Nomadland
Year: 2020
Cast: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Bob Wells, Peter Spears, and a cast of dozens
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 107 minutes
Director: Chloe Zhao
Trailer: Watch here
Shortly after her husband dies, Fern loses her job at a gypsum plant and dumps all of her savings into a van so she can finally see the country. Boy does she see it. This film is largely a showcase of Frances McDormand‘s peerless acting talents, as well as a series of interwoven vignettes about the weird Americans you meet on the road. All of it is wrapped inside a drama about how hard it is to be poor in the United States, viewing through Fern the limited choices people get to make when they have to navigate without a safety net. It’s easy to see why it won Best Picture at the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, and the Indie Spirit Awards.
4. Prey
Year: 2022
Cast: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Stormee Kipp, Michelle Thrush, Julian Black Antelope, Stefany Mathias, and Bennett Taylor
Genre: Action, Adventure, Horror, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Trailer: Watch here
Just as he took Cloverfield in an intimate, powerful new direction, Dan Trachtenberg has reimagined the slumping Predator franchise into something fresh, ground-level, and fun as hell. Leaping hundreds of years back from our first Schwarzenegger-soaked encounter, Prey focuses on a young Comanche healer who wants to be a warrior. She gets her chance when the iconic alien hunter tries to take out her tribe. Filled with fantastic performances and more depth than a Predator film maybe deserves, it’s the truly refreshing late-franchise film that wins by being serious about being different than what came before.
3. Pig
Year: 2021
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Brandy the Pig, Alex Wolff, Adam Arkin, Nina Belforte, Gretchen Corbett, and David Knell
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Trailer: Watch here
Rob Feld is a truffle hunter living in an isolate cabin in Oregon. He’s attacked, and his prized truffle pig is stolen, launching him on a challenging quest to get it back. While everyone was making gags about Cage being an unhinged actor, he made this raw, quietly profound story (in between performances that are, let’s not joke, truly unhinged). The point is that Cage has absolutely phenomenal range that has only broadened and deepened with age. Think of this as Okja meets John Wick without all the gunplay.
2. Palm Springs
Year: 2020
Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Peter Gallagher, Camila Mendes, June Squibb, Meredith Hagner, and Tyler Hoechlin
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi, Rom-Com, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director: Max Barbakow
Trailer: Watch here
Groundhog Day was so good at what it did that the idea of a repeated-day plot seemed impossible for years. That’s changed recently, with a handful of inventive, successful movies (like Happy Death Day) which spun the concept into new territory. Palm Springs hits that sweet spot beautifully, dumping two wedding guests into an endless cycle that challenges them to break loose, live honestly, and solve the mystery of why they’re perpetually at an annoying reception. Samberg and Milioti are a killer pair here, ignoring Bogey and Bacall style chemistry for more sardonic flair that nonetheless makes you want to root for them as individuals and as a romantic team. It’s also funny, strange, and very sweet.
1. Parasite
Year: 2019
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, Lee Jung-eun, and Park Myung-hoon
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Trailer: Watch here
The Kim family are struggling in every way possible. They live in squalor, can’t keep jobs, and squabble. When their son pretends to be a university student to take over his friend’s tutoring gig for a wealthy family, he draws the rest of the Kim clan along for the ride, earning them dubious positions as driver, housekeeper, and art therapist, using deception to get the original post-holders fired. It’s a scammers paradise, until the ram-don hits the fan. Anchored by a perfect cast, Bong Joon-ho‘s satire of wealth and lies pulls off the impossible task of delivering every emotion, huge laughs, and legitimate tears, while never feeling false or clunky. It’s a smooth ride through a forehead-slapping slew of scenarios where everyone has a secret.