The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
Netflix keeps dropping new titles every week, but let’s be honest, we all know that the best ones rarely trend. They sit somewhere in the corner of your recommendations and patiently wait to be discovered, while the loud blockbusters hog all the attention. That is why the real fun is in finding the ones that don’t scream for attention.
This weekend, it’s your chance to skip the predictable picks and check out the ones that deserve your attention. These are films that don’t rely on big twists or billion-dollar effects. They are simple stories that remind you why cinema still feels personal when it slows down.
These films are not “perfect”, but that is what makes them work. Every one of these movies carries a story you might have seen or experienced. And the characters – you meet characters of these films on a daily basis, and that is what makes it so real.
So here are five movies that deserve your weekend. These beautiful, strange little stories are the ones that will be perfect for this weekend.
The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
The Peanut Butter Falcon (Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz, 2019)
Are you craving a film that feels like a hug? If yes, The Peanut Butter Falcon is your answer because it is warm and hopeful without trying too hard. It follows Zak, a young man with Down syndrome who runs away from his care home to chase his dream of becoming a wrestler. On his way, he meets Tyler, a fisherman with a messed-up past, and the two end up on this scrappy little adventure down the North Carolina coast.
What makes it special now, you might ask? The answer isn’t the story but the fact of how gently it’s told. There’s no pity or overdone inspiration. It’s just a simple movie with people finding connection when life has been too cruel for too long. Shia LaBeouf and Zack Gottsagen have incredible chemistry, and Dakota Johnson is the bond that ties it all together with the softness that makes the whole thing wholesome.
Kodachrome (Mark Raso, 2018)
This movie will break you in a way where you think you are fine until you are just… not. Kodachrome is about a dying father who drags his son on one last trip to develop a few rolls of film before the lab shuts down forever. It sounds tiny, right? But it’s really about that ugly father-son tension where every conversation feels like a fight waiting to happen. Ed Harris plays the dad with so much ego you want to throw something at the screen, and Jason Sudeikis spends most of the film trying not to lose his mind.
What’s something to be loved about this film is how nothing feels staged. No “big moment”, no dramatic speech that fixes everything. Just two people trapped in a car, realising way too late that they actually needed each other. Elizabeth Olsen pops in as the only sane person between them, like emotional duct tape, trying to keep the whole thing from collapsing. If you like cinema that is raw and honest, Kodachrome is designed for you.
The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach, 2017)
This one is a little weird, so watch it at your own risk. The Meyerowitz Stories is about a messy New York family that argues like it’s a hobby and loves each other only when no one’s watching. Dustin Hoffman plays the self-absorbed father who has spent years being impossible, and his kids, played by Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller (you can imagine the level of fun), are still trying to untangle all the damage that came with it.
What’s fun is that everyone is kind of terrible, but you still root for them anyway. Sandler, especially, and by the way, he is brilliant here. There is no comedy here, which is what he is known for, just a man trying to be seen for once. And it shows his range, that he is so much more than just the comic roles. The film smoothly jumps between frustration and tenderness, and it looks so effortless, like watching a story and more like eavesdropping on a family argument.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi, 2016)
Taika Waititi really does have a way of making trouble look good, and it shows in his 2016 directorial, Hunt for the Wilderpeople. This film is about a cranky old man and a rebellious kid who accidentally become fugitives in the New Zealand bush. Kind of like a reverse Up. It starts with bad luck and worse decisions, but then it takes a surprising turn and turns into this sweet, hilarious road trip through the wilderness.
What makes it so addictive is how it balances pure silliness with real emotion. One minute you’re laughing at ridiculous dialogue, the next you are hit with something tender, and you have no idea how it happened. Sam Neill’s perfection shows in his grumpiness, and Julian Dennison steals every scene. Of course, you have Waititi’s sense of humour keeping it all alive.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 2019)
Netflix doesn’t talk enough about this film, and that is wild because it is, in fact, one of the most moving films on the platform. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind will take you through the story of a young boy in Malawi who figures out how to build a wind turbine to save his village from famine. So an inspirational story with an amazing motive? Count us in.
Maxwell Simba, who plays the boy, carries the whole thing with this brilliant strength that is admirable. Nothing about it feels staged. You see the hunger, the exhaustion, the tiny moments of belief that keep people alive when everything else has fallen apart. It’s one of those filmss that stays with you and will keep on reminding you of the hardships people face in their lives.