The 50 Best Movies of 2017 Streaming on Netflix
By Zack Sharf
“11/8/16”“1922”“A Gray State”“A Woman, A Part”“All These Sleepless Nights”“The Bad Batch”“Berlin Syndrome”“Burning Sands”“Buster’s Mal Heart”“Catfight”“Chasing Coral”“Creep 2”“The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson”“The Dinner”“Donald Cried”“First They Killed My Father”“Graduation”“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”“Icarus”“I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore”“The Incredible Jessica James”“Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond”“Karl Marx City”“Last Men in Aleppo”“The Meyerowitz Stories”“Mr. Roosevelt”“Mudbound”“Nocturama”“My Happy Family”“My Life as a Zucchini”“Lovesong”“Okja”“Oklahoma City”“One of Us”“The Ornithologist”“Raw”“Slack Bay”“The Son of Joseph”“Staying Vertical”“Strange Weather”“Strong Island”“Super Dark Times”“The Survivalist”“Tramps”“The Transfiguration”“To The Bone”“The Trip to Spain”“The Unknown Girl”“Vincent N Roxxy”“The Void”
Looking to kick off the new year by watching some of the best films 2017 had to offer? Netflix can easily help you with that. The streaming giant currently has numerous indie films, documentaries, foreign titles, and blockbusters available to stream that all debuted in 2017. Some premiered at festivals earlier, and others are Netflix-acquired titles that debuted in theaters and online, but they all represent what made 2017 such a thrilling cinematic year.
Click through the gallery for 50 films released in 2017 now streaming on Netflix.
Jeff Deutchman’s “11/8/16” brings together Election Day footage from nearly 30 directors to create a portrait of the nation as Donald Trump officially rose to power. The movie unfolds like a slow-burn thriller, shifting between 16 different subjects in 13 states for a fascinating, scattershot countdown to Election Day’s inevitable shocking finale.
Stephen King adaptations were everywhere in 2017, from the blockbuster “It” to “Gerald’s Game,” “The Dark Tower,” and more, but no adaptation was as impressive as “1922.” Thomas Jane gives his best performance in ages in this poetic take on King’s novella about a farmer who conspires to kill his wife (Molly Parker) and recruits his son to help him commit the crime.
Werner Herzog presents this morbidly fascinating documentary about David Crowley, a soldier who became a filmmaker after his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the brink of selling Hollywood his vision, Crawley murdered his family and sparked a conspiracy theory.
Elisabeth Subrin’s feature directorial debut “A Woman, A Part” is a film so timely and relevant in the way it captures the current disenfranchisement of women in the film and television industry. Maggie Siff plays a popular television actress who is forced out of the industry and tries to reinvent herself back home. The movie sets the bar high for how to make a great feminist film about Hollywood.
Michal Marczak’s “All These Sleepless Nights” is an unclassifiable wonder that uses the raw material of real life to create a rich story of sex, memory, and becoming. The film tracks the hazy year in the lives of two Polish twenty-somethings, turning their reality into a lucid dream of a movie.
Ana Lily Amirpour follows up “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” with another totally original genre experiment. Suki Waterhouse electrifies the screen as an amputee victim on a revenge mission across an apocalyptic wasteland.
Based on Melanie Joosten’s novel of the same name, “Berlin Syndrome” makes a solid argument to never talk to strangers again. Cate Shortland crafts a creepy captivity thriller featuring a career-best Theresa Palmer.
Gerard McMurray’s directorial debut is an ode to brotherhood as seen through the unforgiving lens of fraternity hazing. The film shows abuse so cruel and punishing that it becomes a kind of visceral coming-of-age story you don’t seem coming.
Try to explain the plot of Sarah Adina Smith’s inventive “Buster’s Mal Heart,” and you’ll likely come up short. The Rami Malek-starring drama features the “Mr. Robot” star in dual — and perhaps dueling? — roles that overlap and intersect in some powerful, and often confounding ways. You’ll be forced into trying to figure out its puzzle box mystery.
Onur Tukel’s satire is like “Trading Places” meets “Idiocracy” with a dash of martial arts, featuring literal knockout performances from Sandra Oh and Anne Heche.
Jeff Orlowski’s latest chronicle of climate-based danger gives a human angle to the fight to protect underwater reefs. It’s also one of the most gorgeous documentaries you’ll ever see.
You have to give it up to Mark Duplass. Not every pioneering indie director is willing to go in front of the camera in order to deliver a freak-you-the-hell-out performance. Duplass mastered the art of the weirdo in Patrick Brice’s “Creep,” and he does it again in the effective sequel.
David France follows up his Oscar-nominated “How to Survive a Plague” with another powerful tale of LGBTQ struggles, crafting a compelling tribute and murder mystery about the eponymous Stonewall riots hero who died under mysterious circumstances in 1992 when she was found floating in the Hudson River.
Oren Moverman’s “The Dinner” is a firecracker from the start, featuring four ferocious performances from Laura Linney, Rebecca Hall, Steve Coogan, and Richard Gere. The story centers around a dinner between two couples to figure out how to handle a violent crime their children committed. Sparks start flying and they never stop.
The obnoxious man-child is a common trope in American comedies, but few recent examples can match the hilariously unsettling presence of Donald Treebeck, the obnoxious central figure played by writer-director Kris Avedisian in his effective black comedy “Donald Cried.”
Angelina Jolie’s immersive drama about a child surviving the Khmer Rouge is her finest directing effort to date. The film is relentless and involving and features standout work from cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle.
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” director Cristian Mungiu crafts another powerful tale in “Graduation,” which follows a morally-conflicted father who must decide how to avenge an assault made on his daughter. It’s Mungiu’s most insightful look at family sacrifice so far.
James Gunn delivers more eye-popping thrills in this Marvel sequel that proves “Guardians” has one of the best casts in any Hollywood franchise.
Bryan Fogel’s suspenseful portrait of whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov borrows a page from “Citizenfour” in its alarming look at Russia’s secret doping operation. The film is on the shortlist for this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize winner marks the directorial debut of indie star Macon Blair and features an incredible lead performance from Melanie Lynskey, which earned her a Gotham Award nomination for Best Actress.
Former “The Daily Show” correspondent Jessica Williams makes a bold bid for movie stardom as the centerpiece of James Strouse’s “The Incredible Jessica James.” The actress manages to push Strouse’s knack for quirky character drama to a higher register, if only by the sheer force of her talent and charm. If you’re going to build an entire film around one actor, Williams is a pretty safe bet.
Jim Carrey literally became Andy Kaufman during he production of Miloš Forman’s “Man on the Moon,” and the Netflix documentary “Jim & Andy” chronicles his Method process with tons of never-before-seen set footage. The film is a testament not only to Carrey’s dramatic acting chops but also to just how far someone will go to fully understand and inhabit his or her hero.
Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s fascinating and necessary “Karl Marx City” is like a vaguely Guy Maddin-esque swan-dive into the mysteries of life behind the Berlin Wall and the traumas of surviving it. The documentary finds Epperlein journeying through the former East Germany and looking into her father’s 1999 suicide. It leverages one woman’s fear to exhume the paranoia that once defined an entire country.
“Last Men In Aleppo” is currently on the shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar this year. The movie is a horrifying and essential look at the banality of the Syrian Civil War. It simply demands to be seen.
“The Meyerowitz Stories” may not be the wittiest or most exciting movie that Noah Baumbach has ever made, but it might just be the most humane. It’s too textured and too funny not be considered one of his very best films to date.
The 21st century is going to be full of coming-of-age films about 30-year-olds, but nobody will complain if they’re all as good as Noël Wells’ spirited debut film.
Dee Rees’ powerhouse Sundance drama is rightfully in the thick of the awards conversation this year for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Supporting Actress for Mary J. Blige. The cast has received a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble.
Written and directed by Bertrand Bonello, “Nocturama” follows a group of teens from different backgrounds who plan a series of bombings throughout Paris. The movie asks difficult questions about terrorism and offers ambiguous answers that are hard to shake.
Georgian drama “My Happy Family” has a remarkable blend of comedy and sadness. Ia Shuvliashvili gives a wonderful lead performance as Manana, a 52-year-old matriarch who decides to move out of her multigenerational household. The ease with which she embarks on this new stage baffles her entire community and creates a very special foreign gem.
Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Feature last year, this Swiss gem opened stateside in February 2017 and singlehandedly proved that kids’ movies don’t need to coddle viewers in order to be great. “My Life as a Zucchini” is an animated “Short Term 12” that keeps it powerfully real from start to finish.
So Yong Kim sensitively tracks an unexpected relationship in “Lovesong,” starring Riley Keough and Jena Malone. The smartest choice Kim makes is letting the sizzling chemistry between the two indie favorites guide the way. In Keough and Malone’s hands, this delicate relationship study becomes an intimate exploration of the fluid nature of friendship, identity, and sexual attraction.
Bong Joon Ho’s “Okja” represents his own delightful spin on “E.T.” as it tells the story of a young girl on a mission to save her mutant pig from an evil corporation. “Okja” is both savvy political satire and breezy action-adventure, often at the same time.
Barak Goodman’s documentary “Oklahoma City” is a blistering and terrifying warning sign for Trump’s America. The film focuses on the Oklahoma City bombing and bluntly outlines how a burgeoning white supremacist movement resulted in a national tragedy.
The directors of “Jesus Camp” take a brave and beautifully shot look at life after religious extremism in “One of Us,” which focuses on Hasidic Jews who have abandoned religious life in favor of something new. The movie is currently on the documentary shortlist for the Oscar this year.
Mind-blowing in the best possible way, “The Ornithologist” may not work for everyone, but those willing to embrace its puzzling ingredients will find a rewarding solution: further confirmation of a genuine film artist. The fifth narrative feature of Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues follows the Homer-inspired voyage of a modern-day ornithologist named Fernando who inexplicably transforms into a revered Catholic saint.
French director Julia Ducournau’s provocative feature debut is a glorious slice of David Cronenberg body horror for feminists. Ducournau tears down the walls of a genre so often identified with male filmmakers to craft a wholly original horror coming-of-age story.
Bruno Dumont’s “Slack Bay” feels very much like a surreal middle finger to French society. The film centers around a high society family being investigated for numerous disappearances around their seaside home. Shot with a high contrast palette and featuring gleefully over-the-top performances from the likes of Juliette Binoche, the film is Dumont’s most fun and polished work to date.
American-born French director Eugène Green’s smart and funny “Son of Joseph” opened in U.S. theaters at the start of 2017 and gave cinema its first satisfying title of the new year. The film follows an angsty teen searching for the identity of his missing father. As usual for Green, it’s both dense with ideas and disarmingly sweet.
The latest from “Stranger By the Lake” director Alain Guiraudie opened in January after debuting at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a dreamlike path as it tells the story of a filmmaker who must raise a child by himself while trying to find inspiration for his new film. Guiraudie once again crafts a puzzling and transfixing look at isolation and repressed sexuality.
Holly Hunter is currently earning Oscar buzz for her supporting turn in “The Big Sick,” but it’s really her lead performance in “Strange Weather” that proves she’s still one of the best actresses working today. Hunter stars as a grieving who sets out across the deep south for revenge. Also of note: “Strange Weather” is the sort of film that passes the Bechdel Test twenty times over.
Yance Ford’s exploration of the grief following his brother’s death is a fascinating meditation on race in America that’s both personal in its intimacy and powerful in its universal themes of grief and systemic suffering.
“Super Dark Times” was one of the major gems at Tribeca last year and feels like what would happen if you unnervingly crossed “Stand By Me” with “Donnie Darko.”
“The Survivalist” had been waiting for distribution ever since it premiered at Tribeca 2015. Thank goodness it was finally released in theaters last May. Writer-director Stephen Fingleton’s first feature is a ruthless post-apocalyptic thriller that’ll have you remembering “Mad Max” and its sequels in all the best ways.
Anchored by a ridiculously charismatic performance from Grace Van Patten, Adam Leonn’s “Tramps” is a warm and winsome love story about two young people and the shady deal that brings them together.
Set in New York, Milo is a troubled teen who hides behind his fascination with vampire lore. When he forms a bond with the equally alienated Sophie, fantasy and reality begin to overlap in a dark way. The result is a chilling portrait of violence, and a whole lot of blood.
Marti Noxon and Lily Collins turn their own personal struggles with body image and eating disorders into an essential drama bout discovering self-worth. Netflix paid $8 million for “To The Bone” out of Sundance, and it was worth every penny.
The well-done third installment of Michael Winterbottom’s hilarious series cemented these movies as the “Before” trilogy of food porn. Simply put, “The Trip to Spain” was one of the comedic highlights of 2017.
The latest from the Dardenne brothers played at Cannes back in 2016 but finally made it to stateside theaters in late August 2017. The film synthesizes a traditional detective story with the brothers’ knack for in-the-moment realism. The result is a quietly hypnotic mystery.
“Vincent N Roxxy” opened quietly over the summer despite premiering at Tribeca nearly two years ago. The film, starring Emilie Hirsch and Zoe Kravitz, is the closest indie cinema has ever come to melding the styles of Nicolas Winding Refn and Jeff Nichols. The film is a rare meditation on violence that doubles as a masterclass in the same subject.
Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie’s indie horror film “The Void” is not for the faint of heart. “There is a hell. This is worse,” reads the tagline for the film. It’s not kidding around.
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