The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
Lo and behold, Netflix has been stocking the cupboards again, and for once, there are rather a lot of movies worth noticing. Over the past few weeks, it has added several sizeable films to its catalogue, including a feature-length farewell to a much-loved romance and a blockbuster musical sequel. Not bad going, is it?
The latest arrivals are hardly all cut from the same cloth, either. Different moods, different tastes and, as the saying goes, the more the merrier.
Better still, the catalogue has enough variety to spare you the usual scroll. Some choices are simple weekend watches, while others demand a bit more attention. Either way, there is plenty here to get stuck into.
So, what genuinely deserves your weekend? We have sifted through the recent additions and picked five films that earn their place. Let’s get stuck in.
The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend
Heartstopper Forever (Wash Westmoreland, 2026)
So, Nick is off to university, and Charlie’s staying behind. That’ll be fine, won’t it? Of course it will. Except, well, distance has a way of making promises feel a bit wobbly. Heartstopper Forever picks up as the pair begin wondering what happens when love has to fit around separate lives. Kit Connor and Joe Locke know these characters inside out by now, and it shows. A pause here, a look there: Job done.
Alice Oseman wrote the screenplay and directed the film herself. She could have handed it over and called it a day, but no, she saw Nick and Charlie through to the bitter end. Yasmin Finney and Will Gao return, while Anna Maxwell Martin joins the cast. The film also draws from Oseman’s final graphic novel, so this is not some flimsy little add-on. Do me a favour. It is the proper farewell. You will be made up to see everyone again, then probably gutted when it is over. That’s the way of it.
A Quiet Place: Day One (Michael Sarnoski, 2024)
Anyway, from young love to aliens tearing through New York. We know it’s a bit of a leap, but there we are. A Quiet Place: Day One rewinds the series to the first hours of the invasion, when nobody has a clue what is happening. Lupita Nyong’o plays Sam, an ill poet stranded in the city with her cat, and then she meets Eric, a law student. They have no map, no plan: straight out of there. Nyong’o is brilliant. Proper brilliant. She hardly says a word at times, yet you know exactly what is going through Sam’s head.
Now get on this. Nyong’o was frightened of cats before filming and reportedly asked whether Frodo could be replaced. She underwent exposure therapy and got past the fear and later adopted a cat herself. What a result, truly! Frodo was played by two cats, Nico and Schnitzel, while much of Manhattan was recreated in London. As if! You genuinely would not know. They have absolutely smashed it.
Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu, 2024)
Wicked: For Good picks up after Elphaba has been declared an enemy of Oz and forced into hiding. She is still determined to expose the Wizard and defend the Animals, while Glinda has become the public face of his regime. Not ideal, is it? Especially when the two of them still care about each other, despite now standing on opposite sides.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande return as Elphaba and Glinda, with Jonathan Bailey back as Fiyero. The film covers the second half of the stage musical, bringing the story closer to the events of The Wizard of Oz. It also includes new songs written for the film, alongside the musical’s best-known numbers. Despite being a spectacular watch, what matters the most is the friendship at the centre of the film. That is what gives the film its weight.
Ordinary Angels (Jon Gunn, 2024)
After all that, Ordinary Angels brings you back down to earth and takes you into a devastating real story. It follows Sharon Stevens, a Kentucky hairdresser whose own life is in a bit of a state. She hears about Ed Schmitt, a widowed father whose daughter desperately needs a liver transplant, and decides she is helping. Does Ed ask her to? Not really. Is she put off? Not a chance. Hilary Swank plays Sharon while Alan Ritchson brings Ed to life.
And the true story behind it? It might sound made up, but it’s not. During the brutal winter of 1994, heavy snow threatened the transport of a donor organ. So local residents came out and cleared a landing area for a helicopter. An entire community, just getting stuck in. Absolute scenes. You would think Hollywood had tarted that up for effect, wouldn’t you? Give over. It really happened. Sometimes people do something genuinely decent. Nice to be reminded, isn’t it?
A Private Life (Rebecca Zlotowski, 2025)
Last up, A Private Life starts with Jodie Foster playing Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist living in Paris whose patient dies unexpectedly. Lilian thinks something is off. Everyone else more or less tells her to leave it alone. So does she? Of course she doesn’t. Before you know it, she is poking around with her former husband and getting herself into a right old mess. The deeper she digs, the less she trusts anybody. Herself included.
Foster performs almost entirely in French, by the way. No word of a lie. Though before anyone starts shouting “show-off”, she attended a French-language school and has dubbed many of her own films for French audiences. So, yeah, she knows what she is doing. Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, the film premiered at Cannes in 2025 and also stars Daniel Auteuil. Note that this one will keep you guessing.