(Credit: Netflix)

The glitz and glamour of the entertainment capital will forever attract those who live outside of it. It’s just the way it is. But Hollywood is not just a rolling stone of showbiz extravaganza; it is made of the voices of people from every walk of life, even those beyond. This month, the digital world celebrated Pride Month to honour every such personality who believed in love without labels. And right now, it’s picking up pace to commemorate Juneteenth with five ultimate Netflix picks.

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the US, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. Observed annually on June 19th, it marks a pivotal moment in the nation’s history, acknowledging the long journey towards freedom and equality. While systematic injustices and disparities persist, Juneteenth serves as a powerful reminder of the progress made and the ongoing struggle for true justice.

Showbiz hasn’t been short on representation. But Netflix? It has made it its mission to capture the ethos of Black Lives Matter through every content reshuffle. Countless Netflix titles celebrate and elevate the Black community, highlighting their struggles, whether you’re looking for documentaries, series, or films. However, Best of Netflix is here to ease the Juneteenth binge marathon for you.

It’s a day of fulfilment. And to get you going, we’ve picked five perfect must-watch Netflix movies to watch this Juneteenth.

Five Netflix movies to stream on Juneteenth 2025:

5. Barry (Vikram Gandhi, 2016)

The Juneteenth binge session on Netflix would be incomplete without Vikram Gandhi’s Barry. The Netflix film tells the story of the 44th President, Barack Obama, also the first African-American President in the nation’s history, when he was studying at Columbia University in 1981. Obama was a transfer student from Occidental College. Academically, he was quite dedicated. However, what the film highlights the most is the uncertainty within him and whether he truly belongs in the city.

His experience isn’t similar to every other college-going student, and somehow, politics doesn’t interest him. But following Charlotte’s insistence, a girl he met during his political science class, it increasingly haunts him whether this is the place for him. The feeling of ambiguity heightens when he notices the difference of living as a Black person in Harlem and New York City. However, he completely shuts himself off to Charlotte, who wants nothing but to know him a bit better.

From engaging in a violent altercation over societal presumptions to the raised eyebrows ogling when he goes out with Charlotte, Barry sees it all. As a result, he pushes even those who accept him. The film is a layered projection of living as a Black person in America. But it isn’t just the visible discrimination and self-doubt that hurt Barry. It’s the lack of acknowledgement from others around him.

However, a timely intervention from a mixed-race couple at Charlotte’s wedding finally convinces him that, regardless of what people say or even if they make him feel like an outsider, he is an American.

4. Mudbound (Dee Rees, 2017)

Trigger Warning: Mudbound isn’t an easy watch. The film revolves around two World War II veterans, one Black and one white, who were initially neighbours in the Mississippi Delta. The movie begins with a flashforward scene where a moment of hesitation invites curiosity. During a rainstorm, Henry and Jamie, two white brothers, struggle to bury their deceased father, and the Jacksons, a Black tenant farmer kin, happen to pass by. The discomfort between Henry and the Jacksons’ father, Hap, is palpable. But it isn’t until the last that you realise why.

Henry’s family and the Jackson family were not really strangers. They helped each other from time to time, but never in front of Henry and Jamie’s racist father, Pappy. When World War II commences, Ronsel, the eldest of the Jacksons, and Jamie join the US Army and the US Army Air Corps. The war was traumatic for both, but Ronsel found the love of his life there, a white German woman. Upon their return, the sufferings are different but abundant. Ronsel struggles with coming to terms with the racism in the Mississippi Delta, and Jamie has PTSD. Despite Jamie’s father’s repeated warnings, they grow a close bond.

And Jamie even reveals how a Black fighter pilot had saved his life. But one fine day, Ronsel receives a letter from the German woman, who informs about giving birth to a biracial child. He shows the photograph to Jamie while on his truck, but Pappy finds out. Unfortunately, Pappy also discovers the photograph that Ronsel left accidentally in that truck. Not only is he picked up and beaten black and blue by Pappy and the Ku Klux Klan, but the father even brings Jamie to watch him suffer for having a child with a white woman.

Jamie tries to save his friend, but is ultimately restrained. But that’s not all. He is forced to choose between three punishments, leading to Ronsel’s tongue being cut off. That night, Jamie kills his father.

3. American Son (Kenny Leon, 2019)

Not even a heart made of steel can escape the sentimental rollercoaster that American Son is. Based on Christopher Demos-Brown’s Broadway play, American Son follows the story of Jamal, his mother, Kendra Ellis-Connor, and their estranged father and husband, Scott Connor. American Son begins in a rainstorm in a Miami police station, where Kendra is frantically waiting for reports about her missing son, Jamal. When Scott arrives, who is also an FBI agent, the tension becomes more visible. But finally, they have some answers.

A police officer informs that Jamal had been stopped due to a bumper sticker perceived as promoting violence against law enforcement. This revelation sparks a deep and emotional exchange between Kendra and Scott as they grapple with the challenges of raising a biracial son within an affluent, white community. She voices concern over Jamie’s growing sense of isolation and identity struggles as one of the few Black students at his school.

Later, when the officer reveals that two other companions were detained for misdemeanour drug possession, another heated discussion ensues. This time, delving deep into the racial dynamics and systematic pressures that shaped their environment. While Scott expresses concern over Jamal’s choice of friends, Kendra slams back, it was Scott’s own actions that drove Jamal to seek connection elsewhere.

The tension further escalates when Scott receives a clip ending in gunfire. It’s ultimately revealed that the officer who pulled over Jamal and his friends was Black. When one of the suspects attempted to flee, one of the bullets tragically struck Jamal.

2. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee, 2020)

Da 5 Blood explores the trauma of the Vietnam War when four veterans return to the country in search of their fallen leader and to recover a locker of gold. When their leader was rendered lifeless during the counterattack, they couldn’t find the gold because of the missing landmarks. But in contemporary days, they reunite in Ho Chi Minh City, when a landslide reveals the tail of the crashed plane. After they step out to recover the gold, they find Norman’s remains. But determined to fulfil Norman’s desire that the treasure should be passed over to their Black brethren in the US, they embark on an almost impossible mission.

The war is over, but the betrayals aren’t. During their mission, they encounter countless roadblocks. But driven by the ethos of whatever it takes, the confrontations culminate in a bloodbath. Although most remain loyal to their community, in the face of insinuating tensions, sacrifices are made. Da 5 Bloods embraces a full circle, a poignant moment of revelation, but not without its cutthroat representation of twin trauma.

1. Straw (Tyler Perry, 2025)

Lastly, the Juneteenth watch that you should definitely not miss is Straw. The psychological crime drama is a layered projection of gendered and racial discrimination. It focuses on Janiyah Wiltkinson, a single Black mother, whose life is upended in a matter of a day. Straw pierces through every layer of injustice Janiyah faces from her job at a grocery store to being pulled over by a cop, only to get threatened. Her ailing daughter’s school authorities aren’t easy on her either.

But after losing her job, when she comes to confront her former boss, she gets caught up in a robbery situation. Although she outwits the robber, she is accused of complicity when the perpetrator reads her name from the name tag, convincing the boss that she was inevitably a part. Failing to persuade, she kills him. But it’s just the beginning of her trauma. All she had been doing so far was for her child. And in between all of this, the social services also took her away from her custody.

While she’s determined to step up and do something about it, during encashing her paycheck, the absence of a formal ID pushes her to take the bank hostage. Throughout the film, there’s not a single person who sympathises with Janiyah. But empathy is relative. It comes in the form of two other women: the bank manager and Officer Raymond, a former Army negotiator. Only these two characters are able to reach out to Janiyah, who’s shaken by everything that has been happening. Wonder why?

“The movie represents three different types of Black women, who are all the same Black woman, who are all different walks of life, different stages of success, but can all empathise with each other,” Tyler Perry said.