Credit: Netflix

Nothing makes a film more captivating than watching a character realise they have officially run out of good options. That is the thread running through this week’s Netflix picks.

We’ve picked movies where each character reaches a point where backing off is no longer possible. At one point, you might question every decision they make, but hey, that’s part of the drill.

And the best part is, these five films take all different routes to get there, and that way, you know that there is guaranteed variety.

So this weekend is all about people being pushed past the point where they can ignore the problem. Once that happens, every choice counts.

The five best movies to watch on Netflix this weekend

The Guilty (Antoine Fuqua, 2021)

We have to inform you beforehand that Jake Gyllenhaal spends nearly all of The Guilty stuck inside a 911 dispatch centre, and on paper, that sounds like it should be a bit… well, dull. Except it absolutely is not. That cramped setup is the whole trick played by Antoine Fuqua. Gyllenhaal plays Joe Baylor, a police officer temporarily shoved onto emergency calls, but before he knows it, he gets pulled into what looks like an abduction. The more Joe interferes, the less he actually seems to know. Doesn’t look ideal, does it? At one point, it feels like you are basically trapped in that room with him.

The film remakes Gustav Möller’s 2018 Danish thriller, but Gyllenhaal gives this version a much more combustible pulse. Riley Keough and Peter Sarsgaard are mostly heard rather than seen, so the voices had to do an exceptional job, and they did. Sounds quite tense. This one is a proper thriller, so make sure you’re in the right mood before you dive in.

Advantageous (Jennifer Phang, 2015)

That feeling of thinking you have options and then realising, actually, you really don’t, gets much more real in Advantageous. Jennifer Phang’s 2015 science-fiction drama started out as a 23-minute short before Phang and co-writer Jacqueline Kim expanded it into a full-length feature, using material from the original as part of the foundation. Kim also stars as Gwen, a mother trying to secure some kind of future for her daughter in a society where work and appearance have somehow become tangled. And this is where it gets a bit sinister.

In Advantageous, Phang uses the future to poke at pressures that already feel far too familiar, especially the ones placed on women as they age. Even the futuristic buildings were designed around ideas of female expression. It is a small film dealing with very big anxieties, and Gwen’s predicament never feels, you know, theoretical. You can see exactly why she feels cornered.

Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie, 2023)

Now we are talking about pressure in a very different currency and quite literally in this case. Dumb Money follows Keith Gill, better known online as Roaring Kitty, whose enthusiasm for GameStop helped fuel the extraordinary 2021 short squeeze. Paul Dano plays Gill as an ordinary investor posting online who finds himself at the centre of a movement, with retail traders going head-to-head with hedge funds betting against the company. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing or everything.

And thankfully, this Netflix movie does not drown you in market jargon. It sticks with the people making the trades, and that very feeling of smaller investors finally rattling institutions used to calling the shots. Can you blame them? It is funny, yes, but the anger enters the picture once shit gets real.

Hustle (Jeremiah Zagar, 2022)

Hustle swaps stock charts for basketball courts, but nobody here is taking the safe route. Adam Sandler plays Stanley Sugerman, a Philadelphia 76ers scout who discovers Bo Cruz, an unknown Spanish player he is convinced has NBA potential. Stanley basically puts his professional future on the line for him, while Bo has to prove that raw talent is not enough to get through the door. Huh, someone’s keen. Netflix calls it an underdog story, and fair enough.

The casting of Juancho Hernangómez is where it gets even better. He was an NBA player, not an actor, when he took the role of Bo and originally had little interest in acting at all. His siblings helped him record the audition, and Sandler later praised how natural he was on camera. The film also brings in real NBA figures, which gives the whole sporting world a very authentic credibility.

Project Power (Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, 2020)

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s 2020 action film imagines a drug that gives you a superpower for five minutes. Sounds brilliant, right? Hang on. You have absolutely no idea what power you are getting until you swallow it. Jamie Foxx plays a former soldier hunting for the source of the drug; Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a New Orleans police officer using it himself. It also has Dominique Fishback as Robin, a teenager dragged into the same mess.

The premise of this Netflix watch could have become another superhero free-for-all, but that five-minute limit is what gives it teeth. Power comes with uncertainty, so having an advantage does not mean you have control. The production reportedly cost around $85million, and yes, you can see plenty of that money on screen, but Fishback keeps the whole thing human, and that’s what gets you. By the end, you are wondering how much you are actually willing to risk for five minutes of power.