Each night, you look into your lover’s eyes and ask, “Will no legacy media outlet tell me about 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 Complete Unknown (2024)
Director: James Mangold
Genre: Drama/Musical
Notable Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 70
The mercurial Minnesota-born Robert Zimmerman, best known to humanity and the Swedish Academy as Bob Dylan, gets as good a straightforward musical biopic as the genre allows in A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet nails the nasal twang and aloof demeanor of the musician as he transitions from politically relevant folk music to electric rock and roll. While there’s plenty in the movie that is pure Hollywood, it captures the essence of the Dylan phenomenon, and how the transformation affected colleagues like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, as well as his romantic life.
Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
Genre: Sci Fi/Horror
Notable Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerrit, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
MPA Rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 89
The original and still the best. A haunted house story, a workplace drama, and a twist-filled mystery—all set in outer space. Sigourney Weaver’s rocket to superstardom started here when she played the greatest interplanetary final girl, and John Hurt’s legendary tummy ache was a milestone for practical special effects. Several (not all!) of the sequels and prequels to this movie are good, but no matter how many times you’ve seen Alien, you will always find something new in it.
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 police officer/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.
Babylon (2022)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 57%
Metacritic: 61
Okay this recent big swing from La La Land‘s Damien Chazelle is mostly remembered for being an awards and box office dud, but if ever there were a project meant for a streaming reevaluation it’s something like Babylon. This jaundiced look at the early years of Hollywood opens with a Garden of Earthly Delights-like party and concludes with a frenzied montage summarizing the history of cinema. At well over three hours, it doesn’t all work, but a lot of it—like Margot Robbie‘s spunky Nellie LeRoy zooted up on cocaine—is charming. (The defecating elephant, less so.)
Big (1988)
Director: Penny Marshall
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
MPA rating: PG
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 73
Tom Hanks romping around New York City as a wide-eyed 12-year-old in an adult’s body in Big is one of the great entries in the 1980s “wonderment” canon. (Tidbit: Steven Spielberg‘s younger sister Anne co-wrote the script, so if you’ve ever caught an Amblin vibe from this, you aren’t nuts.) Even back in 1988 the “wait, so did they sleep together” moment was a little weird, and now simply checking reddit for fan theories gets you on an FBI list. Also maybe the whole mystical Zoltar machine has the taint of antiziganism. Hopefully neither consideration will prevent you from rewatching. It’s something of a miracle there hasn’t yet been a dreadful Hollywood remake or legacy-sequel.
BlackBerry (2023)
Director: Matt Johnson
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Michael Ironside
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 78
