This post is updated regularly as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Still considered largely a streaming service for television fans, Hulu has struggled to carve out its own reputation as a home for movie lovers too. To that end, they have become one of the most prominent supporters of recent arthouse cinema, particularly critical darlings like The Banshees of Inisherin, Ghostlight, All of Us Strangers, and more. They also have an interesting revolving door of beloved recent films of all genres, mostly from 2010 and beyond. Take the time you were going to use to catch up on your latest sitcom and check out one of the films below in this list that will be updated as titles come and go, starting with our pick of the week.
This Week’s Critic’s Pick
*Small Things Like These
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Tim Mielants
Cillian Murphy can do anything. Coming off his Oscar-winning work in Oppenheimer, he shifts gears radically in this film about an average man in a small Irish town in the ‘80s who discovers that the church in town is doing something very wrong. Murphy gives a stunningly nuanced performance, selling so many emotions behind his eyes. It also has maybe the best final scene of last year.
Drama
Anatomy of a Fall
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 31m
Director: Justine Triet
This Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay is already exclusively on Hulu thanks to their relationship with Neon. The great Sandra Huller stars as a woman whose husband dies from a fall at their home. Was it suicide or murder? More than a mere courtroom drama, this is a dissection of a marriage that’s raw, brutal, and real.
Anora
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 19m
Director: Sean Baker
The last Oscar winner for Best Picture, Actress, Director, and Original Screenplay just dropped on Hulu, only a couple weeks after it won all the awards. Mikey Madison is incredible as a sex worker who gets entangled with the selfish rich kid of a Russian oligarch. Funny and moving, it’s a dramedy that will stand the test of time.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Sidney Lumet
The masterful director of 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, and so many more American classics ended his career with a banger in this intense thriller featuring performances from Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney that stand among their best. A chronological puzzle of a film that would impress Christopher Nolan with its structure, this is one of the best films of the 2000s.
A Complete Unknown
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director: James Mangold
Timothée Chalamet landed his second Oscar nom for playing Bob Dylan in a film that was also nominated for Best Picture and Director. Avoiding most of the traps of the music biopic, James Mangold’s film tells the story of Dylan’s rise in the early to mid-’60s in the New York folk scene, a music movement that he would change forever.
Ferrari
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Michael Mann
Michael Mann’s first film in eight years wasn’t given nearly the theatrical attention it deserved, which means people can now catch up with it on Hulu! A masterful dissection of obsession and ego, Ferrari stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, captured here in 1957 as he juggles a collapsing personal life with a drive to win the 1957 Mille Miglia. Driver is underrated here, but that’s because Penelope Cruz drives off with the movie, giving one of the best performances of the last few years.
Ghostlight
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan
The real-life couple behind the excellent Saint Frances returned in 2024 with a masterful drama about forgiveness. Keith Kupferer will break your heart as a man who gets involved with a community theatre production of Romeo & Juliet, only to discover that Shakespeare is the way to heal the grief in his life. It’s a beautiful tearjerker.
Y Tu Mamá También
Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Have you been watching Disclaimer over on Apple? It’s a reminder that Alfonso Cuaron is one of our best living filmmakers. Go back and watch this deeply personal, gorgeous film. Two teenage boys – Gael Garcia Bernal & Diego Luna (recently appearing in La Máquina on Hulu) – fall for an older woman who has a secret. It’s a sweet, moving film from a modern master.
Documentaries
Bad Axe
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: David Siev
This charming documentary about a family living in Michigan during the pandemic and all the things that came after it is one of the most empathetic and moving pieces of filmmaking about the 2020s to date. The Siev family own a family restaurant in Michigan, but it threatens to go under after the restrictions put in place by the pandemic. That is followed by divisions within the community that arise during the Black Lives Matter movement that same summer. Bad Axe is a phenomenal piece of work that you probably haven’t seen.
Summer of Soul
Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
It’s unfair how talented Questlove is. The drummer for The Roots proved to have an incredible touch with documentaries, too, when this future Oscar winner premiered at Sundance 2022, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. It’s the story of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an unforgettable display of creativity and passion that was almost forgotten, the footage buried in a basement for generations. Watch this one loud.
Comedy
The Banshees of Inisherin
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Martin McDonagh
One of the best films of 2022 and a multiple Oscar nominee last year, this dark comedy is already on streaming services, less than a year after its release. Colin Farrell does career-best work as a hapless Irishman who discovers that his best friend, played by Brendan Gleeson, doesn’t want to talk to him anymore. A film about how neighbors become enemies feels particularly timely in the currently fractured world, and this one is brilliant, funny, and moving.
Little Miss Sunshine
Year: 2006
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s Sundance comedy is one of the most notable breakthroughs in the history of the Park City event. It went all the way from its premiere in Utah to become a multiple Oscar nominee and brought in over $100 million along the way. People were drawn to a story that encourages them to just be who they want to be, along with an incredibly likable supporting cast that includes Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, who won the Oscar.
Nightbitch
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Marielle Heller
Amy Adams gives one of her best performances as the unnamed protagonist of this dark comedy about a stay-at-home mom who may actually be turning into a dog. Heller adapts the novel by Rachel Yoder into a surreal commentary on the pressure on mothers in American society, and Adams is ably supported by a great turn from Scoot McNairy too.
A Real Pain
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
This two-time Oscar nominee (and likely Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor) stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who take a tour to Poland to see where their recently deceased grandmother lived, and survived the Holocaust. It’s a funny, deeply moving study of grief, love, and history, a major announcement of Eisenberg as a filmmaker to watch.
Rye Lane
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 22m
Director: Raine Allen Miller
The best romantic comedy in years premiered at Sundance in January 2023 and is now on Hulu. David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah star in a film that’s reminiscent of Before Sunrise in the way it captures two people meeting and walking through a city as they slowly fall in love. Heartbroken, creative people, these characters are so incredibly likable in this film that has a sharp, brilliant screenplay, and stunning use of setting. The world around these people comes so vibrantly to life that it almost feels like a character.
Thelma
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: Josh Margolin
A wonderful homage to the filmmaker’s actual grandmother, this Independent Spirit nominee stars the irreplaceable June Squibb as the title character, a woman who gets conned by a phone scam. Rather than just let it happen, Thelma gathers her best friend (the excellent Richard Roundtree, in his final role) and seeks vengeance. It’s funny and surprisingly moving. It will make you want to call your grandma.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Year: 2013
Runtime: 3h
Director: Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for his amazing performance as Jordan Belfort, the financial criminal that rocked Wall Street and shocked audiences in one of Scorsese’s best late films. Arguments over whether or not this film glorifies a “bad guy” have become prominent—and could only really be made by people who haven’t actually watched it. Most of all, it’s a shockingly robust film, filmed with more energy in a few minutes than most flicks have in their entire runtime.
The Worst Person in the World
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 8m
Director: Joachim Trier
The partnership between Neon and Hulu continues to pay off for subscribers as the streamer is the exclusive home of one of the most acclaimed films of 2021 in this Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee. Renate Reinsve is stunning as a young woman named Julie who navigates career, love, and life in a film that’s funny, moving, and true.
Horror
Crimes of the Future
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: David Cronenberg
The master of body horror returned to the form for the first time in a generation and delivered one of the most mesmerizing films of 2022. Viggo Mortensen plays a man in a future where evolution has gone awry, creating new organs in human bodies. His is particularly active, and it draws the attention of characters played by Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux. It’s a fascinating film. You won’t be able to turn away.
Cuckoo
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Tilman Singer
Euphoria star Hunter Schafer rocks in this twisted horror flick about a teenager who ends up moving to the Alps with her father, stumbling into a truly dark and twisted corner of the world. Of course, Dan Stevens is there, giving one of his most truly demented performances.
The First Omen
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Arkasha Stevenson
There’s no reason for The First Omen to be as good as it is. First off, most studio horror films don’t take anywhere near the kind of risks that this daring genre flick takes. Second, horror prequels are very rarely good. Nell Tiger Free (Servant) plays an American novitiate in Rome who discovers a vile plan to bring the antichrist to life. With stunning use of practical effects and an incredible lead performance, director Arkasha Stevenson crafted one of the best horror films of the 2020s.
Action
Interstellar
Year: 2014
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Christopher Nolan
No one else makes movies like Christopher Nolan, a man who took his superhero success and used it to get gigantic budgets to bring his wildest dreams to the big screen. Who else could make this sprawling, emotional, complicated film about an astronaut (Matthew McConaughey) searching for a new home for humanity? It’s divisive among some Nolan fans for its deep emotions, but those who love it really love it.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Wes Ball
The director of Maze Runner picks up the saga of Planet of the Apes for the start of another planned trilogy of films to continue the brilliance of Rise/Dawn/War. Set a couple centuries after the end of that last trilogy, Kingdom is a world in which different ape factions are fighting for dominance, most of them using the teachings of Caesar as a guide. When a young ape (voiced perfectly by Owen Teague) meets a human (Freya Allen), they discover they may have common goals. It’s a smart, ambitious blockbuster filmmaking that’s exclusively on Hulu.
*Star Wars: The Original Trilogy
Year: 1977-1983
Runtime: Various
Director: Various
Maybe you’ve heard of it? Disney+ has decided to share part of its Lucas catalog with partner Hulu and dropped the original trilogy: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Check them out again and try to imagine that feeling of watching them for the first time, or what it was like to see them in theaters what is now almost a half-century ago.
*Strange Days
Year: 1995
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Largely unavailable in the United States for almost three decades, this has finally been surfing the streamers for the last couple years. It’s Hulu’s turn! A sci-fi masterpiece from the director of Near Dark and Point Break, this epic stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis in a vision of the end of the millennium that blends sci-fi and noir. A bomb when it came out, this is a flick begging for a reappraisal.
Tombstone
Year: 1993
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer starred in this beloved retelling of life in Tombstone, Arizona in the 1880s, when it happened to be populated with names like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. A smash hit, Tombstone is the kind of film that plays on cable just about constantly, but one you have to watch every time you stumble upon it. Now you can catch up with Wyatt on your own time, watching it whenever you want on Hulu. Watch it for Val.
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