Remember direct-to-video movies? Fare like American Psycho II: All American Girl (with Mila Kunis and Williams Shatner), Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, Bratz: Starrin’ & Stylin’, Hellraisers 5-10, Amityville 5-19(!), The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It… They weren’t all bad, but a lot of them were…not good.
The rise of streaming has had an interesting effect on the market, as content-hungry streaming services began premiering big budget movies that would have previously played in theaters, and the pandemic only accelerated the trend. While playing in theaters still gives films a certain legitimacy, many excellent movies have never played on those 100-foot screens.
Though they may have played on the festival circuit, or saw a brief limited release (just enough to make them eligible for the big awards), the following 30 worthwhile movies all skipped theaters entirely in favor dropping directly on one of big streamers.
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
With its first original film, Beasts of No Nation, Netflix attempted to pioneer a model that fell apart almost immediately. The Idris Elba-led film about a child soldier in West Africa certainly seemed like a movie that could have done well in theaters, so the streamer released the movie simultaneously in theaters and what was then its on-demand service. The problem was: Theaters hated that idea, and the large chains boycotted the film. Nevertheless, it’s a searing portrait of the human cost of war, one that deserved a better thought-out release.
Where to stream: Netflix
His House (2020)
Good horror scares us; great horror stays with us, reminding us that the most frightening stuff lives outside the panels of the TV or movie screen. His Houseworks both as an effective chiller about a house haunted by evil, but also as a potent and disturbing story about survivor’s guilt and the refugee experience more generally.
Where to stream: Netflix
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)
Based on the August Wilson play, the action of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is largely confined to a couple of rooms at the Paramount Recording Studios during the summer of 1927. That scale suggests the film wouldn’t have done gangbusters business among the action spectaculars that have come to dominate the movie theater business, so streaming was probably always the way to go, COVID notwithstanding. That hint of staginess doesn’t detract from the film’s sultry brilliance, and only serves to highlight the extraordinary performances from everyone involved, led by Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. It got five Academy Award nominations, and deserved a Best Picture nod, as well.
Where to stream: Netflix
Roma (2018)
Despite the fact that some of our most impressive filmmakers of the past few decades have worked in or come from Mexico (Iñárritu, del Toro, Escalante, etc.), Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma remains the only Mexican film to win an International Feature Oscar, and it was the first streaming-original movie to be nominated for Best Picture. Cuarón’s beautifully shot, semi-autobiographical story of life in the Mexico City of the early 1970s manages to blend the deeply personal with the feel of an epic—an impressive combination.
Where to stream: Netflix
Blood Machines (2019)
Blood Machines wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and much of that has to do with the type of 80s/90s-era sci-fi and horror movies that might have, back in the day, made their way direct to video. Narratively, this hour-long film isn’t going to be to every taste, but the Kickstarter-funded movie is as ambitious and inventive as they come. (Since its initial release, Shudder has split the film into three “episodes,” but don’t be confused. It’s the same thing, just in chunks.)
Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+
Selah and the Spades (2019)
Debut writer/director Tayarisha Poe’s visually distinctive Selah and the Spadesplays out like a Shakespearean (near) tragedy about high school power structures. It’s a conceit that’s been tried before, more than once, but never with quite the style of Selah—the coming-of-age story manages to capture not just the freedom of being a teenager, but also the very real sense of danger and drama that it’s all wrapped up in.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Freevee
The Vast of Night (2019)
There’s not all that much new narratively in the story of a small town DJ and a switchboard operator who uncover what seems to be an alien invasion in the 1950s. The movie’s nonetheless deeply memorable, with a style and confidence in every single frame of the film that belies its tiny budget. The lead performances, from Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz, are similarly revelatory.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Freevee
Dolemite is My Name (2019)
Eddie Murphy earned himself a perpetual spot on the A-list decades ago, but his career has always been a roller coaster that’s gone from impressive heights to ill-conceived lows—chasing his Oscar-nominated performance in Dreamgirlswith Norbit was a choice. Dolemite’s Rudy Ray Moore is a perfect match for Murphy’s talents, allowing him to play the real-life filmmaker’s brash absurdities with tremendous heart. It’s one of our occasional reminders of Murphy’s genius—that he of course followed up with the dorky, disappointing Coming 2 America.
Where to stream: Netflix
Happiest Season (2020)
Hulu’s Happiest Season is, perhaps, not on anyone’s list of cinematic masterpieces. Very few (if any) films of the modern, Hallmark-style coming-home-for-Christmas genre would clear that kind of bar. Still, there’s a reason we love these things, and this one adds a bit of prestige to its charms in both cast (Kristen Stewart, Aubrey Plaza, Victor Garber, etc.) and directing (Clea DuVall). What’s more, the movie served as a high-profile torchbearer for queer representation in 2020, the year having seen a record (i.e., not zero) number of LGBTQIA+ -friendly holiday family films.
Where to stream: Hulu
Blood Quantum (2019)
Inspired, in part, by the 1981 Listuguj raids in Quebec during which hundreds of provincial police officers stormed the First Nations community in order to stop fishing (to preserve stocks for nearby commercial outfits), Blood Quantumdepicts a zombie outbreak on the Red Crow Indian Reservation—succeeding, like with all the best horror movies, as, first, a proficiently scary and violent thriller, but also as a story of larger, real-world horrors. The film’s director, cast, and behind-the-scenes creatives are almost entirely made up of First Nations and Native American talents.
Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+, Digital rental
CODA (2021)
It’s become fashionable to list CODA among the least-deserving Best Picture Oscar winners, but that’s not entirely fair. While lacking the epic scope or dramatic stakes of typical awards fare, it’s still a solidly crafted coming-of-age story with a very strong cast. It’s a smaller movie in many ways, yes, but a finely observed one, and deaf actor Troy Kotsur’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar win was as groundbreaking as it was well-deserved.
Where to stream: Apple TV+
Enola Holmes (2020)
Millie Bobby Brown has become something like the face of Netflix for her roles in Stranger Things and a string of original movies. Here she plays the title character, the less-famous but no-less clever younger sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill ). Based on a series of novels from Nancy Springer, it’s a spry and clever mystery, and perfectly suitable for the whole family.
Where to stream: Netflix
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
Rian Johnson’s sequel makes a franchise out of 2019’s Knives Out, the first movie starring Daniel Craig’s eccentric detective Benoit Blanc. This second case sees Blanc skip out on his husband in favor of an invitation to a private island lorded over by a tech billionaire played by Edward Norton (who seems to be doing a slightly uncomfortable Elon Musk impression). Unsurprisingly, his vacation soon crosses over into a whodunnit, with plenty of suspects to go around, including Janelle Monáe, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, and many more.
Where to stream: Netflix
Get Duked! (2019)
This dark British horror comedy finds a group of slacker students dropped off in the Scottish highlands in pursuit of the Duke of Edinburgh Award (a real thing), which requires them to navigate the landscape using no more than a paper map. The teens are soon pursued by hunters (one played by comedian Suy Eddie Izzard) who’ve come to appreciate the opportunity to cull the “urban” types they feel are trespassing int he countryside. The teens are ill-prepared for anything even remotely natural, much less for fleeing from serial killers, and the complications pile up in increasingly gasp-worthy ways.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Red, White, and Royal Blue (2023)
Slightly dorky rom-coms aren’t just for straight people anymore, a case Red, White, and Royal Blue (from the Casey McQuiston bestseller) makes eloquently. Taylor Zakhar Perez plays Alex Claremont-Diaz, son of the U.S. president (Uma Thurman), opposite Nicholas Galitzine’s Prince Henry, heir to the British throne. A public spat between the two sets off an international incident which, naturally, leads to a slow-burn romance between the two—including a couple of mild, but still effectively spicy, sex scenes.
Where to stream: Prime Video
Fire Island (2022)
An queer, contemporary take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Fire Island also takes aim at the prevalance of fat/femme/Asian stereotypes in the gay community. Social commentary aside, it’s also a funny, smart romantic comedy with a great cast that includes Joel Kim Booster (in the Lizzy Bennett role—he also wrote the screenplay), Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, and Margaret Cho as a group of friends who travel each summer to the titular island—but this summer proves more dramatic (and romantic) than most.
Where to stream: Hulu
Being the Ricardos (2021)
Aaron Sorkin’s Lucy-Desi biopic nabbed acting Oscar nominations for leads Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, as well as for J. K. Simmons in a supporting role as William Frawley (that’s Fred Mertz, to you slightly less-obsessive I Love Lucy fans). The writer/director naturally chose a loaded and relevant moment to focus on: the largely forgotten Red Scare period when Lucy herself was on the verge of losing her entire career due to her past communist associations. If she isn’t nearly a match for Lucy’s onstage presence, Kidman is pitch-perfect as the behind-the-scenes power player.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Freevee
Nimona (2023)
Based on the graphic novel from ND Stevenson, this Oscar-nominee for Best Animated Feature is a heartfelt, joyful, and funny fantasy set in a futuristic world peppered with anachronistic medieval trappings. Ballister Boldheart, with support from his boyfriend Ambrosius Goldenloin, is about to be knighted by the queen—the first commoner ever to receive the honor. All good, until he’s framed for the queen’s murder and forced to flee, becoming the criminal that the snobs already took him for. Luckily (or not) he’s joined by Nimona, a teenage shapeshifter and an outcast from society because of her abilities. The two work to clear Ballister’s name, the puckish Nimona teaching Ballister how to live authentically along the way.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Block Island Sound (2020)
Vast numbers of dead fish are washing up on the shore of Block Island, just one of many alarming going ons; one of the local fishermen, Tom, is also acting super weird, waking up in strange places and generally losing time. His daughter Audry (Michaela McManus) works for the Environmental Protection Agency, and brings her own daughter along to investigate the fish death, reuniting with brother Tom (Chris Sheffield) along the way. Together, the family discovers an extraordinary environmental disaster is to blame for the weirdness, as the film builds to a genuinely chilling climax.
Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
A long-gestating passion project for Del Toro, the director chose to set his take on the classic tale in fascist Italy between the World Wars. Drawing on the dark subtext of the 1883 original novel that was largely ignored by Disney and other adaptations, and brought to life with beautiful stop-motion animation, it’s a complex work that adults might appreciate more than kids (the Academy definitely liked it—it won the Best Animated Feature Oscar)
Where to stream: Netflix
Prey (2022)
The latest in the Predator franchise, and possibly the best in the series since the first, Prey inexplicably skipped theaters in favor of a streaming-only release. Indigenous actress Amber Midthunder stars as a young Comanche woman forced to confront both an alien hunter and even less-pleasant French voyageurs on the Great Plains in 1719. Tense and spare, it suggests a path forward for the franchise (Predator battles through time!) that I sincerely hope gets followed, hopefully incorporating a theatrical run next time.
Where to stream: Hulu
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Revisiting the Vietnam War genre with a focus on the (often ignored) experience of Black American soldiers, Spike Lee’s most recent film draw a straight lines between then and now with the story of four veterans who return to Vietnam in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader…and the gold he helped them hide. Every actor in the cast is incredible, including the late Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles. While it’s no longer unusual for films by major directors to debut on streaming, this one skipped a planned theatrical run due to COVID, and it’s a real shame.
Where to stream: Netflix
Mank (2020)
David Fincher’s look at the making of one of the greatest, and most fraught, films ever made is both a love-letter to classic Hollywood, as well as a warts-and-all look at how the sausage gets made. Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried both earned Oscar nominations for their performances.
Where to stream: Netflix
Host (2020)
It would be easy to overlook this one (I did for quite a while), at least in part because the premise seems so similar to Unfriended, a not-at-all-bad Skype-themed thriller from a few years ago. I’m also generally reluctant to watch anything that deals with COVID too directly, as I got (and get) enough of that in real life, thank-you-very-much. Nevertheless, through sheer style and intelligence, Hostmanages to be one of the most effective horror films of the past couple of years, going in clever directions with its “Zoom seance” concept.
Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+, Digital rental
Class Action Park (2020)
Lordy. This one’s absolutely wild. The true story of New Jersey’s Action Park, a fixture for a couple of decades, despite virtually nonexistent safety standards and ride design with a big emphasis on whimsy and no regard for physics. Though it does make for a jarring transition from the “holy shit can you believe this?” feeling in the earlier part of the documentary, it’s to the film’s credit that it ultimately doesn’t shy away from the actual tragedies at the park.
Where to stream: Max
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado (2020)
Has there ever been a bigger, more flamboyant TV personality than Walter Mercado? For decades, the (self-identified) androgynous Puerto Rican astrologer commanded millions of viewers (and radio listeners) throughout Latin America and the United States via local channels, and then as a fixture on Univision. With his giant capes, colorful outfits, and constant emphasis on the importance of “mucho, mucho amor,” there was just none like him, and the documentary gives him his due—particularly for non-Spanish speakers who might be less familiar with his entertainment empire.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Beach House (2020)
Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it? Director Jeffrey A. Brown’s debut film kicks off with a pace that could be viewed as either deliberate or a bit lackadaisical, but builds toward something far more cosmically ambitious. By blending 50s-style creature thrills with threads of infection-related body horror, The Beach House felt uncomfortably timely when it was released near the beginning of the Covid pandemic, and remains so in our still traumatized world.
Where to stream: Shudder, Digital rental
The Old Guard (2020)
As A-list as A-list gets, there was absolutely a time when Charlize Theron’s appearance in a theater-skipping release would have been a major cause for concern. Like, a devastating turn for a career. Instead, the large-ish budget action movie about immortal mercenaries was a big enough hit for Netflix to inspire a coming sequel, and certainly didn’t hurt the careers of anyone involved. As superhero films go, it’s also pretty smart and impressively queer-friendly. Win for everyone.
Where to stream: Netflix
The Square (2013)
Netflix’s first original documentary, The Square, did the festival circuit before landing on the (then) on-demand service. It’s still a powerful piece of filmmaking, chronicling the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 through the lens of the demonstrations in Tahrir Square. Though time has moved on in Egypt, and the promise of the Arab Spring remains largely unfulfilled, the movie makes clear that heady ideals often give way to political realities, giving it a timeless quality.
Where to stream: Netflix
Purple Violets (2007)
Though largely forgotten, Purple Violets represents an important moment in direct-to-streaming history: In the direct-to-DVD era, the movie skipped both theaters and DVD (initially) in favor of a release on the iTunes Store—something unheard of back in the day. It’s a good romantic comedy, if not a great one, directed by Ed Burns and with an all-star cast including Selma Blair, Patrick Wilson, Debra Messing, and a wee Bill Hader in his film debut.
Where to stream: Tubi, Digital rental
