Social distancing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancelation of nearly every major sport, the delay of numerous blockbusters, the closing of Broadway, and a mass shift to people working from home amid office closures. Thankfully, we’ve still got streaming services—especially Netflix.
Movies
Let’s start with what Netflix claims to be the 10 most popular movies its subscribers are watching right now. Leading the pack is the Netflix original Spenser Confidential, the Mark Wahlberg action-comedy that debuted on the platform last week. Based on the character created by author Robert B. Parker, the film co-stars Winston Duke and Alan Arkin and is the latest collaboration between Wahlberg and director Peter Berg.
The other films in the top 10 are library titles, a mix of romantic comedies, kids’ movies, and a pair of timely thrillers: Outbreak, the 1995 drama starring Dustin Hoffman, and Freaks, a 2018 thriller about a telepathic young girl who has been kept isolated for her entire life. The full list:
Space JamAngry Birds 2
Outbreak
Freaks (2018)
Life As We Know It
Kung Fu Panda 2
Valentine’s Day
Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back — Evolution
He’s Just Not That Into You
If following the herd isn’t super appealing, Netflix is currently streaming a surfeit of critically acclaimed movies and rewatchable classics across all genres. Some of our favorites:
20th Century Women (2016)
Mike Mills‘ drama features one of the last great Greta Gerwig performances as an actor, and should have given Annette Bening an Oscar nomination. One of the true underrated A24 releases from the last five years.
A Serious Man (2009)
It’s hard to watch the news and not feel like the world is falling apart, which is why some viewers might take some solace in this pitch-black Joel and Ethan Coen comedy about how everything that can go wrong, in fact, will.
Haywire (2011)
Steven Soderbergh‘s Contagion (available on Hulu) has been on the receiving end of a huge surge of interest. But beyond providing a bleak blueprint of life during a pandemic, it’s a reminder that Soderbergh is one of the industry’s top-flight genre filmmakers. Haywire is his gritty action thriller, and he made a star of Gina Carano long before she appeared on The Mandalorian.
Inception (2010)
Netflix is home to The Dark Knight and Batman Begins—but at the risk of angering film bros on Reddit, are either of those extremely good movies as fun as Inception? For all its nonsensical plotting, Christopher Nolan‘s blockbuster is a total hoot and every bit as good as any James Bond film released in the last 15 years as well. A good, out-of-the-box substitute for 007 fans who will have to wait to see No Time to Die.
Kicking and Screaming (1995)
Noah Baumbach‘s debut feature—one of a number of his films available on Netflix (including Frances Ha, While We’re Young, and Marriage Story)—is a vintage ’90s classic and the first of many Baumbach movies that grapple with impotent male anger and the way it can corrode from the inside out.
Magnolia (1999)
Here’s an analogy for those ’90s kids from Kicking and Screaming: If Paul Thomas Anderson were Radiohead, Boogie Nights would be The Bends and Magnolia would be OK Computer. A sprawling movie filled with big ideas and some amazing performers (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tom Cruise among them), Magnolia is perhaps the movie of this moment: At its core, it’s about how the mistakes of the old can forever impact the young.
Naked Gun (1988)
Because it’s hard to imagine going through the next month without laughing just a little bit.
Obvious Child (2014)
Jake Lacy has been playing Brooklyn boyfriends for years, most recently popping up as the ultimate nice guy on Hulu’s High Fidelity remake. But his origin story for this particular kind of character is no doubt Obvious Child, where he co-starred opposite Jenny Slate in one of the best romantic comedies of the last 10 years. Stop watching Life as We Know It, folks!
Rounders (1998)
For a certain type of viewer, Rounders is basically the most rewatchable movie ever made. Written by Billions pals Brian Koppelman and David Levien, Rounders is like a greatest hits of ’90s actors and scenes. Matt Damon and Edward Norton star, of course, but it’s the supporting cast—John Malkovich, John Turturro, and Martin Landau in particular—who make it hum.
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