Netflix has entered 2026 on a bit of a hot streak, thanks to the successful releases of new originals like “People We Meet on Vacation” and “The Rip.” As eye-catching as its latest releases may be, though, the best films you will find on the platform remain some of its older feature acquisitions from other studios and distributors. Right now, those films include an early 2010s classic from “The Departed” and “Goodfellas” director Martin Scorsese, a 2000s blockbuster that revived an entire franchise and a recent, underrated book adaptation that did not get the mainstream attention it deserved when it was originally released.
Here are the three best movies you can watch on Netflix right now.
“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)
It has been nearly 13 years since “The Wolf of Wall Street” was released, and it is still awe-inspiring that the film, as punk rock, acid-tongued and bitterly funny as any other movie about the corrosive nature of American greed, was made by a 70-year-old. Such is the contradictory brilliance of Martin Scorsese’s 2013 epic. Based on a 2007 memoir by its real-life subject, “The Wolf of Wall Street” charts the rise and fall of Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), all while highlighting in great detail the fraud and debauchery he and his cohorts engaged in along the way.
Unrepentant in both its style and in its no-holds-barred depiction of Wall Street’s corruption, Scorsese’s film alternately thrills and disgusts you. Anchored by DiCaprio’s transformative star turn and Margot Robbie’s scene-stealing breakout supporting performance, “The Wolf of Wall Street” will make you laugh and squirm, simultaneously entertained by the madness of its protagonist’s life and unnerved by what it — and he — say about the state of our modern world.
“Casino Royale” (2006)
In 2006, the James Bond franchise was in desperate need of a shot in the arm. The franchise’s winking ridiculousness had grown out of control by the end of its Pierce Brosnan era. Fortunately, 2006’s “Casino Royale” brought the franchise and its cold-blooded protagonist (played, this time, by a role-defining Daniel Craig) back down to Earth. Directed by Martin Campbell and based on author Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, the film abandoned the over-the-top scale of previous eras in favor of grounded, bare-knuckled action, and it did so without losing its franchise’s signature, crackling wit.
On top of that, “Casino Royale” gave us both the best Bond and the best Bond Girl. Indeed, no one else truly compares to Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, which is partly why all of the Craig-led 007 films that followed it struggled to get out from under her shadow. Whether or not you believe “Casino Royale” is still the best Bond film is up to you, but it has as strong of a case for that title as any of the franchise’s other installments.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (2023)
Seven years after the release of her charming feature film debut, “The Edge of Seventeen,” writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig delivered another tender, funny and clear-eyed coming-of-age dramedy in 2023 with “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” An adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal 1970 novel, the film follows its eleven-year-old heroine (a perfectly cast Abby Ryder Fortson) as she wades through questions of puberty, religion and family in order to find herself after she and her parents move from the city to the suburbs in the 1970s.
Craig’s adaptation operates at a frequency in tune with its source material, and yet it also feels of a piece with “The Edge of Seventeen.” It boasts, in particular, the same understanding of adolescent angst and awkwardness as that film, which is why it is such a shame that “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” did not receive more attention at the box office or at the awards circuit after it was released. It is a warm-hearted, comforting gem of a film, and it features an awards-worthy supporting performance from Rachel McAdams that is all but guaranteed to move you to tears.
