Best Movies to Watch: Your Ultimate Guide to New Releases & Streaming

Fear Street: Prom Queen

Netflix adapted Goosebumps author RL Stine’s slightly more mature horror series into a successful trio of interlinked movies. Now comes a stand-alone set in the same universe. In the late ’80s, a campaign for prom queen at a local high school is disrupted by an unexpected contender – just as the frontrunners start mysteriously disappearing. 

Watch Fear Street: Prom Queen now on Netflix

I’m Still Here

A surprising but deserved Oscar nominee, director Walter Salles’ true-life drama stars the great Fernanda Torres (who earned a Best Actress nomination on her own) as the matriarch of a Brazilian family rocked by the politically-motivated ‘disappearance’ of her ex-congressman husband in the 1970s. It’s a film that manages to be deeply moving while avoiding weepy melodrama. 

Watch I’m Still Here now on Netflix

Becoming Led Zeppelin 

Other than the Beatles, no rock band has had their history pored over and mythologized like Led Zeppelin. So what’s the hook here? It’s the first time the surviving members have participated in a documentary – and the live footage kills, ‘natch.

Watch Becoming Led Zeppelin on Netflix starting June 7

Piece By Piece 

Rivalling Better Man as a clever flip of the usual musician biography, in this film from Morgan Nelville (20 Feet From Stardom), legendary hip-hop producer Pharrell Williams tells his life story… using Legos. It’s a decision that turns a straightforward career retrospective into a bright, energetic musical fantasia – an appropriate choice, given the subject.

Watch Piece By Piece on Netflix starting June 7

Summer of 69

An inexperienced high school senior (newcomer Sam Morelos) recruits an exotic dancer (Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman) to be her ‘sex coach’ as she makes a last-ditch attempt to seduce her crush in the directorial debut from writer-actor Jillian Bell. Sure, the title pun is a groaner, but the world needs more raunchy comedies, and this one looks equally sweet and filthy.

Watch Summer of 69 now on Hulu

The Last Showgirl

Pamela Anderson earned an unlikely Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of an aging Vegas showgirl in this drama from Gia Coppola. The film itself is uneven, but Anderson is excellent, showing strength and vulnerability in the sort of role she’s never really been afforded.

Watch The Last Showgirl now on Hulu 

Presence 

A first-person ghost story, told from the perspective of the ghost, the more experimental of Steven Soderbergh’s two films this year isn’t precisely horror – more of a family drama with a spiritual dimension. But what it lacks in traditional scares it makes up for in emotion and formal invention.

Watch Presence on Hulu starting June 3

Predator: Killer of Killers

With 2022’s Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg hit upon a winning formula for the Predator franchise, tracking the titular race of intergalactic sport hunters as they challenge humanity across centuries. He expands the idea in this animated anthology – a precursor to the next live-action entry in the series, Predator: Badlands, coming later this year – pitting the alien beings against a Viking, a ninja and a World War II fighter pilot. 

Watch Predator: Killer of Killers on Hulu starting June 6

The Brutalist

Brady Corbet’s Best Picture hopes may have been dashed by a spurious AI controversy, but his third film is still a remarkable achievement, a sweeping story of immigration, artistic ambition and the American Dream, with an Oscar-winning Adrian Brody performance at its center and astounding production design. Sure, it’s crazy long and the back half wobbles a bit, but it’s a movie cinephiles will still be talking about decades from now. 

Watch The Brutalist now on Max 

Mickey 17 

Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi followup to Parasite flopped at the box office, but it’s already finding a wider audience on streaming. It’s not the director’s best work, but it’s pretty high up there for star Robert Pattinson, awesomely off-kilter as a slacker screw-up who stumbles into a chance for redemption on a distant planet.

Watch Mickey 17 now on Max

Mountainhead

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong makes his directorial debut with a satire about four tech billionaires – Steve Carrell, Ramy Youssef, Jason Schwartzman and Cory Michael Smith – who come together in a mountain chalet to ‘solve’ an ongoing global financial crisis. Surely, Armstrong will treat the 1 percent with the respect and dignity they deserve. Surely! 

Watch Mountainhead on Max starting May 31

A Minecraft Movie 

Parents, brace yourselves, but the movie event of a generation is already arriving on streaming, meaning Jack Black, Jason Momoa and an army of square-shaped pig-men are about to take up residence in your living room. Remember to lay out some newspaper to make it easier to clean up all the popcorn afterward.

Watch A Minecraft Movie on Max in June, release date TBA

Black Bag

Monogamy has never looked hotter than in this sleek Steven Soderbergh spy thriller. Michael Fassbender is the Wife Guy version of James Bond, a covert operative simultaneously investigating suspicions his fellow secret agent spouse (Cate Blanchett) has sold out her country while working to clear her name by any means necessary. 

Watch Black Bag now on Peacock

Lisa Frankenstein

A decade after Jennifer’s Body failed to find the audience it deserved, writer Diablo Cody returned to horror-comedy in this flesh-eating romance – which was then promptly ignored once again. Still, certain viewers are sure to fall hard for it. Set in the ’80s, it stars Kathryn Newton as a lonely goth girl who finds true love in the form of a reanimated corpse from the Victorian era.

Watch Lisa Frankenstein now on Peacock

Dog Man

He’s half man, half canine, all crime-fighter. He’s Dog Man, a spinoff of the popular Captain Underpants children’s book series, and his inaugural big-screen jaunt is a surprisingly fun, energetic romp adults might even get a kick out of.

Watch Dog Man now on Peacock

Transformers One

Who needs Megan Fox, Shia LeBeouf and whoever was in the more recent sequels? This animated origin story, going all the way back to the youth of Optimus Prime and Megatron, is arguably better than any of the live-action movies, and boasts an impressive voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.

Watch Transformers One now on Paramount+ 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s animated Spider-films continue to be the best Marvel-related movies since Endgame. In the second instalment, from 2023, Miles Morales – the teenage heir to Peter Parker’s arachnid powers – and Gwen Stacy, aka Spider-Woman, travels across the Spider-Verse (cue Leonardo Dicaprio pointing meme) for assistance in dealing with a new threat called the Spot.

Watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse now on Disney+

Captain America: Brave New World

Marvel bottomed out with this overly convoluted entry in the Captain America saga, but at least Anthony Mackie, replacing Chris Evans as ol’ Cap himself, seems to be having a good time. And Harrison Ford as Red Hulk is pretty fun, even if the actor himself only seems dimly aware of being in the movie. 

Watch Captain America: Brave New World now on Disney+

Ocean with David Attenborough 

It’s 99-year-old David Attenborough waxing poetic about the sea and its inhabitants over characteristically stunning nature photography. Need we say more?

Watch Ocean with David Attenborough on Disney+ starting June 8

Another Simple Favour

Paul Feig’s brazenly campy mommy-blogger thriller was one of the leftfield hits of 2018. In the inevitable sequel, murderous con artist Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) is newly freed from jail and about to marry an Italian crime boss – and her arch frenemy Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) simply can’t turn down her invitation to the wedding.

Watch Another Simple Favour now on Prime

Fountain of Youth

John Krasinki and Natalie Portman are estranged siblings who reunite on a journey to find – you guessed it – the fabled fountain of youth in this Guy Ritchie-directed adventure. All those big names can’t disguise that this looks like a National Treasure knockoff, but those are some pretty big names, so it has a fighting chance to turn out better than it appears.

Watch Fountain of Youth now on Apple TV+

Bono: Stories of Surrender

In this adaptation of his one-man live show, the U2 frontman tamps down his messianic stage persona, sharing glimpses into his personal life for an intimate audience in between stripped-down renditions of hits like ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘Beautiful Day’, backed by classical musicians.

Watch Bono: Stories of Surrender now on Apple TV+ 

Echo Valley 

When her drug-addict daughter (Sydney Sweeney) shows up on her doorstep covered in blood, a Pennsylvania horse trainer (Julianne Moore) goes to great lengths to clean up her mess. Hey, that’s an intriguing twosome – and Domhnall Gleeson looks suitably skeevy as the guy who knows their secret, and has no qualms taking advantage of it.

Watch Echo Valley on Apple TV+ starting June 13

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Prepare for Ethan Hunt’s final mission by revisiting arguably the best entry in the series – although the entire franchise is now on Hulu, so you might as well make a marathon of it.

Streaming on Paramount+

Police Story (1985)

Jackie Chan’s daring stunt work reached new levels of insanity in this franchise-starter about a cop framed for murder – see his climatic three-storey freefall at a shopping mall. 

Streaming on Max

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Action Movies of All-Time

The Jerk (1979)

Steve Martin launched his movie career with this masterpiece of stupidity, starring as an adopted simpleton who leaves home to discover his ‘special purpose’.

Streaming on Netflix

Withnail & I (1987)

A seminal British cult classic following two down-and-out actors (Richard E Grant and Paul McGann) to the English countryside, where things only get worse – and weirder – for the both of them. 

Streaming on Max and Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Comedy Movies of All-Time

Attack the Block (2011)

Teenage hoodlums band together to save their South London tower block from an alien invasion in the movie that insta-launched John Boyega as a movie star.  

Streaming on Hulu

The Endless (2017)

Two escapees from a UFO death cult return years later seeking answers, only to fall into a vortex of all-new mysteries. A top-shelf example of low-budget ingenuity.

Streaming on Peacock

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Science Fiction Movies of All-Time

See Time Out's full list of the Best Fantasy Movies of All-Time

Get Out (2017)

Sketch comedian Jordan Peele came out of nowhere to establish himself as a modern master of popcorn horror with this ‘social thriller’ about a young African-American man who travels to meet his white girlfriend’s parents and discovers something truly heinous lurking in the suburbs.

Streaming on Peacock

It Follows (2014)

Horror has a long history of demonising sex, none more literally than in this unnerving chiller, starring Longlegs’ Maika Monroe as a teenager haunted by a sexually transmitted curse. 

Streaming on Max and Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Horror Movies of All-Time

Past Lives (2023)

Celine Song made a powerful debut as a writer-director with this calmly pulverising drama following two childhood friends across decades and continents as they try, vainly, to manifest their feelings for each other.

Streaming on Netflix and Hulu

Something Wild (1986)

Melanie Griffith is the wild thing of the title, a dream girl less manic than maniacal, who ‘kidnaps’ a buttoned-down yuppie (Jeff Daniels) and brings him home to mom. Jonathan Demme’s screwball romcom has mad energy, great music and a star-making turn from Ray Liotta in cackling psycho mode.  

Streaming on Prime

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Movies of All-Time

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Comedies of All-Time

Flow (2025)

An anonymous cat must work together with several other animals to survive a flood in this wordless wonder from Latvia, which upset several major studios at the Oscars to take home the Best Animated Feature prize.

Streaming on Max and Hulu

Jumanji (1995)

Did your kids love A Minecraft Movie? Show them this classic, also about a man (Robin Williams, the Jack Black of an earlier generation) trapped inside a game.

Streaming on Disney+

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Family Movies of All-Time