Each night, you look into your lover’s eyes and ask, “Will no legacy media outlet tell me what are the best movies on Hulu?” Luckily, Vanity Fair is here for you. One glance at the platform’s A-to-Z listing reveals that there are almost too many good movies on Hulu to choose from, and it can become a chore to figure out which to choose.

After a deep dive into the Hulu archive (the Hu-chive?), we’ve selected a top mix of classics, comedies, dramas, horror pictures, documentaries, and, importantly, a few titles that got overlooked upon their initial release. Our list is in alphabetical order, so you gotta scroll close to the bottom to get to Y Tu Mamá También. Hu loves ya?

A Glitch in the Matrix (2021)

Director: Rodney Ascher
Genre: Documentary
Notable Cast: Keanu Reeves (archival), Elon Musk (archival), Philip K. Dick (archival)
MPA Rating: Not rated
Rotten Tomatoes: 66%
Metacritic: 62

A gem awaiting rediscovery, this good-faith analysis of individuals who are convinced we live in a simulation is either an eerie exploration of insanity or the most important documentary you’ll ever watch…because it’s all true. Rodney Ascher, whose previous work includes the Shining-obsessed Room 237, uses The Matrix as a touchpoint for this (expanding?) syndrome, and interviews his subjects virtually, using gaming avatars. Read our mind-scrambling interview with the director here, then prepare to soak your brain in a vat for a while.

Beyond the Lights (2014)

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Genre: Romantic drama
Notable Cast: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Metacritic: 73

A classic showbiz romance updated for today (or 2014, but that’s close enough), with Gugu Mbatha-Raw as an R&B/pop sensation trapped by fame and Nate Parker as the hunky security guard/would-be politician who first saves her life, then takes her heart. This is glossy soap opera filmmaking at its finest, with an extended sequence at a beachside hideaway that may have you hitting pause and heading to Travelocity. One of the better romantic movies to watch on Hulu.

Blackberry (2023)

Director: Matt Johnson
Genre: Comedy
Notable Cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Michael Ironside
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 78

Canadian indie stalwart Matt Johnson, creator of marvelous mock-documentaries like The Dirties, Operation Avalanche and Nirvanna the Band the Show, tackles the rise and fall of the once-ubiquitous titular tech gadget in this hilarious boardroom comedy. Jay Baruchel is particularly spectacular as a brilliant and creative inventor pulled between his desire for perfection and Glenn Howerton’s increasingly antic pursuit of money. Research shows there’s a great deal that’s been fictionalized here, but the essence of IPO bubbles remains sincere.

La Chimera (2024)

Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Genre: Crime/Comedy
Notable Cast: Josh O’Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher
MPA Rating: Not rated
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 91

This charming Italian film (which had a rare, unplanned “extended run” throughout 2024 in New York arthouses, a once-common phenomenon that hardly exists in the streaming era) stars Josh O’Connor as a sensitive thief returning to his band of artifact bandits. He possesses an ability to know where to dig while sniffing out Etruscan treasure in tiny towns. A kaleidoscope of colorful characters emerge, as does a criminal plot in this sunsoaked and very amusing tale—one of the best new movies on Hulu.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Director: Peter Weir
Genre: Drama
Notable Cast: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke
MPA Rating: PG
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 79

Never has standing on top of a desk seemed so heroic! This was among the first dramatic (though still funny) turns from Robin Williams, where he proved he had more in him than zany Mork from Ork stunts. (Indeed, Williams received an Academy Award nomination for best actor.) He’s marvelous as that one mentor teacher we all wish we had, showing a group of conformity-primed rich kids that they don’t necessarily have to follow their family’s scripts. His methods are filled with vitality and intellect—until one kid shoots himself. But you can’t have everything!

Flux Gourmet (2022)

Director: Peter Strickland
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Notable Cast: Gwendoline Christie, Asa Butterfield, Fatma Mohamed
MPA Rating: Not Rated
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 79

Stranger, even, than Peter Strickland’s Duke of Burgundy, this dreamlike, highly stylized fantasy imagines an arts retreat for “culinary and alimentary performance.” Played absolutely straight, we follow an in-house diarist at the Sonic Catering Institute who’s attempting to summarize the work of visiting chef-musicians. (Naturally, he suffers horrifying intestinal gas.) Several sequences of psychedelic jams, freakout sessions, and food-related orgies ensue. I realize none of that makes any sense, but trust me: this movie is real, and it is spectacular.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Director: James Mangold
Genre: Drama
Notable Cast: Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Tracey Letts
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 81

A best picture Oscar-nominee (and winner for best editing and best sound), James Mangold’s look at the 1966 Le Mans race turns the battle of corporate egos into a terrific underdog story. Most of that is due to the chemistry between Christian Bale as the crazy-like-a-fox driver Ken Miles and Matt Damon as Ford’s visionary designer Carroll Shelby. Auto racing is the most pointless of all sports (imagine driving in circles and not even picking up milk!) but it can lead to some breathtaking movie sequences—and many of them are found right here.

Free Solo (2018)

Directors: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Genre: Documentary
Notable Cast: Alex Honnold, El Capitan
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 83

Free Solo is a great movie to stream on Hulu because if you watch it in a theater, they may throw you out for gasping, moaning and shouting “are you nuts?!?!” Alex Honnold (who did not die, to paraphrase Gonzo the Great) is a professional meshuggeneh who climbs the sides of mountains with no safety gear, because I guess the world isn’t terrifying enough. It is a fascinating and riveting portrait.

The Host (2006)

Director: Bong Joon-ho
Genre: Horror
Notable Cast: Song Kang-ho, Bae Doona
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 85

The film that broke South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho into the American market (though his earlier ones are certainly worth watching, too), The Host breathed new life into the creature feature, and opens with one of the most terrifying sequences in the genre. Just what would it be like, seriously, if an enormous monster rampaged through a park on a pleasant day? Watch this one on Hulu, and you’ll know—and maybe be a little freaked out forever.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Director: Karyn Kusama
Genre: Horror
Notable Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, J.K. Simmons
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 46%
Metacritic: 47

Pay no attention to those low critic scores. (Or if you do, search my name, and see that I was always on the right side of history.) This teen supernatural horror-comedy, scripted by Diablo Cody right after winning the Oscar for Juno and creating The United States of Tara, was shrugged aside at its release, but has now been fully embraced as a sharp critique on exploitation tropes and a modern spin on feminism (as well as a win for bisexual representation). That doesn’t mean it’s a college lecture: Jennifer still has plenty of guts and gore, zing-y dialogue and music by Florence and the Machine, Panic! at the Disco, and other groups of the era.

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Director: Raoul Peck
Genre: Documentary
Notable Cast: James Baldwin (archival), Samuel L. Jackson (narrator)
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Metacritic: 95

I Am Not Your Negro is not just one of the most insightful looks at the civil rights era: Raoul Peck’s remarkable work is ostensibly a cinematic memoir from the author and public intellectual James Baldwin, even though he died 30 years prior to its release. Weaving archival clips with text from essays narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, this wide-ranging film is grandly philosophical but also deeply personal.

Late Night With The Devil (2024)

Directors: Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
Genre: Horror
Notable Cast: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 72

This very funny and deeply scary breakout festival hit is a clever spin on the “found footage” genre. Presented as a mock investigation into “what really happened” during the broadcast of a live ‘70s talk show that went haywire, the bulk of the film plays out like a night of amusing Halloween-themed TV that, naturally, conjures up dark forces to deadly ends. If you ever wondered how Johnny Carson would handle a demon on his couch, look no further.

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Director: Jonathan Lynn
Genre: Comedy
Notable Cast: Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Maccio
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%
Metacritic: 68

The most righteous of all best supporting actress Oscar winners, Marisa Tomei revolutionized outer borough representation with her sharp, sassy and sexy performance as auto enthusiast Mona Lisa Vito. Her fiancée, a dopey personal injury attorney played by Joe Pesci, must decamp Brooklyn for Alabama to rescue two unjustly accused nice guys, and tell a whole lotta jokes along the way. An added (and unexpected) benefit to the film is how trial litigators list it as one of the top movies that actually show courtroom proceedings in a factual light.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Genre: Drama/Horror
Notable Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, David Strathairn
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%
Metacritic: 70

This carnival-set motion picture has pulled a disappearing act. It was nominated for the best picture Academy Award (as well as best cinematography, costumes and production design), but it came out during pre-vax Covid times, when few were going to see 150-minute remakes of Tyrone Power movies. But guess what: it’s a terrific, moody look inside the tarot-reading tent, treating classic B picture tropes with a respect and care rarely seen, as well as an absolutely stacked cast.

Oscar Peterson: Black + White (2021)

Director: Barry Avrich
Genre: Documentary
Notable Cast: Oscar Peterson (archival), Ella Fitzgerlad (archival), Quincy Jones
MPA Rating: Not rated
Rotten Tomatoes: 73%
Metacritic: 62

Barry Avrich’s documentary about the late, great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson does not do anything clever with form, or even have much of an aesthetic agenda. But that’s okay. Its subject, one of the finest musicians that ever lived, takes care of that all on his own with the ample archive footage on display. Peterson, who conquered mid-century jazz from unlikely origins in Montreal, was innovating at a level so far beyond his peers that his records and concerts from 60 years ago still amaze. As such, this is one of the best Hulu movies to watch in the background a second time after you’ve already seen it.

Quiz Lady (2023)

Director: Jessica Yu
Genre: Comedy
Notable Cast: Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Will Ferrell
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 62

“Can’t stop the quiz!” This lovable and idiotic comedy—which debuted directly on Hulu—is a tribute to the bonds of sisterhood despite all odds. Awkwafina is a frumpy mess whose sole passion in life is watching a Jeopardy!-like show, and Sandra Oh is an unemployed trainwreck living in her car. Shenanigans ensue as they get mixed up with the mob, and their only path to safety is to win big on the quiz show. Will Ferrell’s appearance as a friendly, Trebek-esque presence is actually his finest, warmest performance in years. This movie is so incredibly dumb, but I guarantee it will make you laugh.

Ricki and the Flash (2015)

Director: Jonathan Demme
Genre: Drama
Notable Cast: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 65%
Metacritic: 54

On paper, there’s nothing special about Ricki and the Flash. It’s another movie about a family in crisis, trying to patch up old wounds. But it stars Meryl Streep, her actual daughter Mamie Gummer, and others (like young Sebastian Stan!)—and, most importantly, was directed by Jonathan Demme in peak humanist form. (Sadly, this was his last narrative feature.) Streep’s Ricki Rendazzo (real name Linda) walked away from her life to become the next Bonnie Raitt, but actually earns her living bagging groceries. A wedding-slash-reunion won’t fix the past, but it might start to pave a new future—and the film’s big concert finish proved yet again that no one captured the cinematic possibilities of live music performances quite like Jonathan Demme.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Director: Jim Sharman
Genre: Musical
Notable Cast: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Meat Loaf
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Metacritic: 65

Yes, yes: if ever there were a motion picture that was meant for the theater it’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with its shadow casts and talk backs. But maybe you want to have a smaller version of the experience in the intimacy of your own home? (Whatever could that lead to?) In addition to the B-movie tropes and LGBT themes, however, you must be forewarned: a re-watch of this film means Richard O’Brien’s enduring songs (“Over at the Frankenstein Place” being my favorite) will get stuck in your head and simply will never leave.

Speed (1994)

Director: Jan de Bont
Genre: Action-Adventure
Notable Cast: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Dennis Hopper
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
Metacritic: 78

This Keanu Reeves–led hit might be such a classic work that a young person watching Die Hard might describe it as “Speed in a skyscraper.” Dennis Hopper is the world’s most high concept terrorist, strapping a bomb to a bus that will explode should it go below 50 miles-per-hour. Why would he do this? How would he do this? More importantly, how can we thank him for doing this? Keanu, a determined cop, teams up with Sandra Bullock, no shrinking Fay Wray, who moves from passenger to heroine is just 116 minutes. Step on it.

Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Director: Questlove
Genre: Documentary
Notable Cast: The Fifth Dimension, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson
MPA Rating: PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Metacritic: 96

The ubiquity of cellphone cameras and the internet means that what happened with the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival could never happen again. I don’t mean there couldn’t be a great and meaningful celebration of music—I mean that it couldn’t almost be forgotten thanks to poor archiving. Luckily, Questlove made the effort to unearth this important milestone in Black culture, and this reflection/celebration, which does not skimp on the footage, became an Academy Award–winning documentary.

Tangerine (2015)

Director: Sean Baker
Genre: Drama
Notable Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, James Ransone
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Metacritic: 86

For many, this was the film that brought Anora-director Sean Baker to their attention; a delirious, warts-and-all portrait of transgender sex workers in Los Angeles. It was shot on a minuscule budget, using three iPhone 5S cameras with then-cutting edge enhancement apps and steadicam rigs. This lent itself nicely to Baker’s documentary-like sensibilities, while his artistic eye shone through the common “cell phone” format. Finding beauty among the downtrodden, which is inherent to the script, is reflected in the look of the movie itself. It’s a groundbreaking work.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Genre: Drama
Notable Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, Maribel Verdú
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Metacritic: 89

This Spanish-language romantic drama introduced international audiences to Alfonso Cuarón, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, all in one heady, lusty swoop. Y Tu Mamá También follows two, sexually ripe young men who have their first adult affairs—with the same, older woman. The three take a road trip, that most liberating of cinematic forms, and ride it until, eventually, the wheels come off. The journey, however, will provide memories for a lifetime.

Are there any good movies on Hulu right now?

Did you not just read the list? I spent hours on this damn thing. Yes, there are many good movies on Hulu right now. Watch Dead Poets Society if you want to cry or Quiz Lady if you want to laugh.

What is the number one movie on Hulu?

I don’t know what you mean. The one with the most streams? Probably something for morons. My number one is either an epic like Ford V Ferrari or a documentary like Free Solo.

What’s the funniest movie on Hulu right now?

It’s gotta be The Rocky Horror Picture Show, especially if you dress up. When was the last time you saw it? What, you never saw it?!!? Correct that now.

What’s the #1 scariest movie on Hulu right now?

Boy, you’ve really got a hangup about “number one,” don’t you? Do you have to go to the bathroom or something? Anyway, the scariest movie on Hulu right now is The Host.