Looking to watch one of the best films of 2019 but don’t want to head out to the movie theater? You’ll have to wait a bit longer then before you can watch Oscar contenders such as “Parasite,” “Uncut Gems,” “1917,” and “Little Women,” but luckily there are dozens of must-see 2019 movies available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Amazon Prime Video, and more. With the new year upon us, now is the perfect time to catch up on any of the great 2019 movies you might have missed via streaming. Many of the available streaming options are current Oscar contenders, from “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story” to “Honeyland,” “One Child Nation,” and “Missing Link,” but there are an abundance of non-awards titles that are equally worth watching, including “Wild Rose,” “Under the Silver Lake,” and “Non-Fiction.”
IndieWire has searched through the major streaming platforms to curate a list of the best movies from 2019 available to stream right now as of January 2019. The list below has been grouped together by streaming platforms.
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“The Irishman” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” was crowned the best picture of 2019 by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle before landing five Golden Globe nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director) and four Screen Actors Guild nominations (including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture). IndieWire’s chief critic Eric Kohn named “The Irishman” the second best film of 2019 behind “Pain and Glory,” hailing the epic as “Scorsese’s best crime movie since ‘Goodfellas’ and a pure, unbridled illustration of what has made his filmmaking voice so distinctive for nearly 50 years.”
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“Marriage Story” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Noah Baumbach’s divorce drama “Marriage Story” emerged as one of 2019’s defining cinematic achievements immediately after it world premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The drama, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, topped all films at the Golden Globes with six nominations. Laura Dern was honored with the Globe for Best Supporting Actress, a prize she has similarly won at the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. Driver, Johansson, and Dern are all expected to land Oscar nominations later this month.
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“Dolemite Is My Name” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Eddie Murphy’s film career came roaring back to life thanks to “Dolemite Is My Name,” an uproarious biographical drama about musician, stand-up comedian, and blaxploitation icon Rudy Ray Moore. Murphy was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. “It’s a movie that forces Murphy to fight and scrape for every frame,” wrote IndieWire’s David Ehrlich about the actor’s exhilarating performance. “It’s a movie that winds him up before it starts and just lets him go off for two full hours.”
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“High Flying Bird” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Netflix has top Oscar contenders this year thanks to Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” but Steven Soderbergh’s nifty corporate sports drama “High Flying Bird” deserves some attention as well. Soderbergh’s “The Laundromat” might have been the more high profile Netflix original thanks to its starry Venice Film Festival premiere, but “High Flying Bird” is a far more rewarding effort. The Gotham Awards were smart enough to give two nominations to the movie: Best Screenplay for “Moonlight” Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney and Best Actor for Andre Holland. McCraney will compete for Best Screenplay at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
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“The Two Popes” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix A critical favorite since launching at the Telluride Film Festival, Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes” imagines a series of meetings between Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Pope Francis (Jonathan Pryce). Both Hopkins and Pryce are favored to earn Oscar nominations for their work after being nominated for Golden Globes. The film is the latest project form screenwriter Anthony McCarten, whose scripts for “The Theory of Everything,” “Darkest Hour,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” won Eddie Redmayne, Gary Oldman, and Rami Malek the Oscar for Best Actor.
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“Atlantics” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Mati Diop’s Senegalese supernatural drama “Atlantics” made history at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival by being the first competition entry directed by a black woman. The film only broke the festival’s glass ceiling more when it took home the Grand Prix. Since then, “Atlantics” has emerged as one of the most critically acclaimed debut films of the 2019-20 awards season. The movie is Senegal’s official submission for the Best International Film Oscar and was recently shortlisted as one of the 10 films that will compete for five nomination slots.
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“I Lost My Body” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Jérémy Clapin’s French drama “I Lost My Body” was hailed by IndieWire’s senior film critic David Ehrlich as the best animated feature of 2019. He wrote, “A grim fairy tale that starts mere seconds after a young man in mid-’90s Paris has been violently separated from one of his hands, Jérémy Clapin’s morbid yet profoundly moving debut feature — head and shoulders above any other animated film this year — might be described as a story about someone trying to make themselves whole again. But that wouldn’t quite prepare you for the beguiling strangeness of what this Cannes prize-winner has in store.”
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“American Factory” (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s “American Factory” was pegged as an Oscar contender for Best Documentary soon after its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The nonfiction feature takes a look at a former General Motors factory in the suburbs of Dayton, Ohio, that is now operated by the Chinese corporation Fuyao. As the company’s bureaucratic structure and enterprising goals get lost in translation among the American factory workers, Bognar and Reichert craft a fascinating portrait of middle class life that feels like a grounded version of “The Office.”
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“One Child Nation” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Amazon Nanfu Wang’s documentary “One Child Nation” takes a devastating look at China’s one-child policy that lasted from 1979 to 2015. Through a personal lens, Wang explores years of government persecution and widespread fear engendered by China’s enforcement of the policy. The result is a triumphant synthesis of first-person storytelling and historical reckoning that shows how the policy continues to ripple through Chinese life despite being ended five years ago. “Once Child Nation” is shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar.
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“The Report” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Amazon Scott Z. Burns has made a name for himself in Hollywood as the screenwriter behind Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects,” “Contagion,” and “The Informant,” but he emerged in 2019 as a bonafide filmmaker with his excellent political drama “The Report.” The film stars Adam Driver and Annette Bening as Daniel Jones and Dianne Feinstein, two real-life figures who proved instrumental in making public the U.S. government’s extreme and unethical torture methods. Bening received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
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“Climax” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Amazon Gaspar Noé’s dance horror movie “Climax” was one of the highlights of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but not nearly enough moviegoers saw it in theaters when A24 opened it in April 2019. Fortunately, “Climax” is now streaming on Amazon Prime. Sofia Boutella stars as the head choreographer of a dance troupe that descends into madness after someone spikes the punch bowl with drugs during rehearsals. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn named “Climax” the best directorial effort of Noe’s prestigious career thus far.
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“High Life” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Amazon Claire Denis and Robert Pattinson delivered an unclassifiable space drama with “High Life,” named one of the best films of the year by IndieWire’s Eric Kohn. “The brilliance of Claire Denis’ long-awaited passion project is the way it casts traditions into the ether and rebuilds the space subgenre through her own provocative aesthetic,” he writes. “It’s a haunting meditation on isolation, desire, and the existential quest to escape the boundaries of a drab routine.”
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“Transit” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Amazon Christian Petzold’s time-warping romance mystery “Transit” debuted at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. The wait for its 2019 release via Music Box Films was worth it. In telling the story of a man who tries to flee his fascist country by impersonating a dead author, Petzold shows off some of the year’s most transfixing character details and world-building skills. The film is bolstered by a breakout turn from Franz Rogowski.
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“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: A24 Joe Talbot’s feature directorial debut “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” was for many critics the highlight of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. The movie won Talbot the Best Directing prize, plus a Special Jury Prize for Creative Collaboration. The drama has also picked up three Independent Spirit Award nominations: Best Supporting Actor for Jonathan Majors, Best First Feature, and the Someone to Watch Award for Talbot.
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“Fast Color” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: Lionsgate Gugu Mbatha-Raw gives one of her best performances in Julia Hart’s “Fast Color,” a revisionist superhero drama that looks at a woman coming to grips with her mysterious powers. “Fast Color” is something far stranger and subtler than any superhero movie Hollywood is constantly churning out, providing an allegorical story about generations of black women who are forced to suppress their strengths, and the mounting courage they find in finally taking charge.
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“The Souvenir” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: A24 Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir” debuted to universal acclaim at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, turning leads Honor Swinton Byrne and Tom Burke into breakout stars. The film chronicles their doomed romance, but as Eric Kohn wrote in naming “The Souvenir” one of the year’s best films, “The movie is more than a teary breakup story. It charts a path to finding catharsis through creativity and reveals how some of the most awful experiences can engender great art.”
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“Gloria Bell” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: A24 Sebastian Lelio turned his wonderful 2013 Chilean drama “Gloria” into the equally-sensational English-language “Gloria,” starring Julianne Moore as a single mother coming of age later in life. “Moore’s compassionate performance confirms the strength of the original and its beloved heroine’s universal appeal,” IndieWire’s Eric Kohn writes in his A- review of the movie. “More than that, ‘Gloria Bell’ proves that the best stories can be told endlessly, so long as they’re told well.”
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“Under the Silver Lake” (Amazon Prime Video)
Image Credit: A24 “It Follows” director David Robert Mitchell returned at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival with his perplexing mystery drama “Under the Silver Lake,” but bad reviews pushed the film back to 2019 and it got unceremoniously dumped into theaters without fanfare. What a shame considering the film is an inventive Los Angeles noir, a skillful deconstruction of white male privilege, and the home to a gonzo Andrew Garfield performance that proves he is somehow one of our most underrated talents.
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“Us” (HBO Go)
Image Credit: Universal Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort, “Us,” proves the Oscar-winning success of his directorial debut “Get Out” wasn’t a fluke. Peele’s second outing as writer-director confronts the ridiculously high expectations of its predecessor by pivoting to a broader canvas of ideas about the nation’s fractured identity. In the process, it gives audiences exactly what they want by delivering what they least expect.
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“Her Smell” (HBO Go)
Image Credit: Gunowder and Sky Elisabeth Moss gives one of 2019’s most titanic movie performances in Alex Ross Perry’s “Her Smell.” The Emmy winner stars as destructive punk rocker Becky Something, whose freefall threatens her personal and professional life. In a perfect world, Moss would follow her Gotham Award and Indie Spirit Award nominations for Best Actress with a strong bid in the Oscar race for Best Actress.
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“Booksmart” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Annapurna Olivia Wilde’s coming-of-age sensation “Booksmart” was not the biggest box office success story but it has since become a new cult classic that is finding a greater audience on streaming thanks to Hulu. Wilde was nominated for Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards and Best First Film at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, while actress Beanie Feldstein broke into the Golden Globes race for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
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“Amazing Grace” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Neon Aretha Franklin hardly says a word in “Amazing Grace,” a concert documentary that captures her performance of the eponymous album at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, but she sings with an energy and conviction that has powerful resonance nearly 50 years later. The music icon’s sweaty, impassioned delivery, which galvanizes her audiences with an electric charge, extends her awe-inspiring musical convictions beyond religious euphoria. “Amazing Grace” is a rousing portrait of creativity as a unifying force.
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“Honeyland” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Neon IndieWire’s Chris O’Falt has hailed Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s extraordinary documentary “Honeyland” as the nonfiction masterpiece of the 2019-20 Oscar season. The film follows the last nomadic beekeeper in Macedonia as she fights to support both herself and her ailing mother against more modern forms of harvesting honey. “Honeyland” is the rare movie to be shortlisted for the Oscars for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film.
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“Missing Link” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Annapurna Laika’s stop motion marvel “Missing Link” shocked the Golden Globes by winning the Best Animated Feature prize over presumed frontrunners like “Frozen II” and “Toy Story 4.” As IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in his B+ review, “‘Missing Link’ is a sweet, touching, and seriously fun adventure comedy about two lost souls who are struggling to reconcile yesterday with tomorrow in their bid to belong in a world that refuses to make room for them.”
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“The Art of Self Defense” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Bleecker Street Riley Stearns’ pitch black comedy “The Art of Self Defense” is the sort of dark, jagged story that won’t settle with viewers who require every emotional beat to be telegraphed, but those who take a chance on it will find dark delights. Jesse Eisenberg turns in his most unhinged and wild performance to date as a loner who turns to martial arts to protect himself but gets caught up in the sinister plan of his dojo (an excellent Alessandro Nivola).
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“Wild Rose” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Neon Jessie Buckley is unbelievably great in “Wild Rose,” a crowd-pleasing fable about a Scottish woman who dreams of becoming a country singer. Directed by Tom Harper (who was also behind “The Aeronauts” this year), the movie serves as a breakthrough platform for the rising Buckley, whose unbridled lead performance builds on her work in “Beast” and “Chernobyl” to confirm the young Irish star as one of the most exciting people you could ever hope to see on a movie screen.
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“Cold Case Hammarskjöld” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Sundance Mads Brügger’s documentary “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” left critics speechless at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. In telling the story of Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations secretary-general who died in a 1961 plane crash, Brügger creates an investigation so jam packed with shocking twists that it eventually leads to a global conspiracy to commit genocide. Buckle up, because “Cold Case Hammarskjöld” is one of 2019’s wildest nonfiction thrill rides.
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“Teen Spirit” (Hulu)
Image Credit: TIFF Max Minghella’s “Teen Spirit” is one of the more unjustly overlooked indies of 2019. The movie had all the makings of a crossover hit thanks to Elle Fanning in the lead role and a storyline that plays like a scrappy, pop-centric riff on “A Star Is Born.” Fanning plays a young woman thrust into the spotlight after she becomes a popular contestant on an “American Idol”-inspired television singing competition. “Teen Spirit” tells a story you’ve seen a thousand times before, but it has an infectious energy that rejuvenates a worn out narrative.
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“Non-Fiction” (Hulu)
Image Credit: IFC After dazzling audiences with “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper,” Olivier Assayas’ 2019 theatrical release “Non-Fiction” went oddly overlooked when it was released at the start of the summer movie season. “Non-Fiction” is a sly and delightful look at middle-aged anxieties as told through the complicated love story that develops after a writer publishes a memoir in which he reveals an affair he had with an actress (Juliette Binoche, winning as always) who is married to his longtime editor.
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“Apollo 11” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Neon Todd Douglas Miller’s documentary “Apollo 11” tells the true story of the moon landing like you’ve never seen it before by relying solely on archival footage that brings you behind the scenes at NASA and into the lives of the astronauts with piercing intimacy. The clarity of the restored footage is so clean that at many points during “Apollo 11” you feel like you’ve been sent through a time machine. Sit back and marvel.
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“The Beach Bum” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Neon Harmony Korine’s “The Beach Bum” is a treasure chest of indie film triumphs, from the gonzo performances by Matthew McConaughey and Martin Lawrence to the neon-soaked cinematography by Korine’s “Spring Breakers” cinematographer Benoît Debie. While some have criticized Korine’s aimless screenplay, the movie’s scrappy narrative only serves to make every moment feel fully-realized and spontaneous. “The Beach Bum” is a movie you live and get lost in from moment to moment. Enjoy the ride.
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“The Nightingale” (Hulu)
Image Credit: IFC Jennifer Kent finally returned to the big screen after “The Babadook” with the brutally violent revenge drama “The Nightingale.” Leading actress Aisling Franciosi rightfully earned a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Actor thanks to her galvanizing performance as a woman whose family is ripped away from her. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn named “The Nightingale” one of the best films of 2019. “It doesn’t skimp on the violence, but it manages to interrogate it at the same time…It’s a brilliant provocation loaded with feeling, and worth the investment for even the queasiest of viewers.”
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“Diane” (Hulu)
Image Credit: IFC Kent Jones’ “Diane” was the big winner of the Tribeca Film Festival and has since gone on to earn two Film Independent Spirit Award nominations (Best First Film and Best Actress for Mary Kay Place) and two Gotham Awards (Breakthrough Director, Best Actress). IndieWire senior film critic David Ehrlich gave the drama a rave review, writing, “Revered critic and programmer Kent Jones nods to everyone from Paul Schrader to Matías Piñeiro in a cosmic drama that embraces the disconnect between the modesty of its size and the infinitude of its scale.”
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“Woman at War” (Hulu)
Image Credit: Venice Benedikt Erlingsson’s artful fable “Woman at War” is a crowd-pleaser about climate change. Combining Paul Schrader’s dire urgency with Roy Andersson’s droll brand of despair — to cite two other filmmakers whose work has wrestled with the maddening, quixotic idea of a single person trying to redeem an entire planet — Erlingsson has created a winsome knickknack of a movie that manages to reframe the 21st Century’s signature crisis in a way that makes room for real heroism.
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Bonus: “Honey Boy” (Amazon Prime Video Beginning February 7)
Image Credit: Amazon “Honey Boy,” Shia LaBeouf’s autobiographical drama directed by Alma Har’el, is full of such tender compassion for its subject that it’s almost impossible not to be moved. “A Quiet Place” breakout Noah Jupe and indie favorite Lucas Hedges star as variations of LaBeouf at different points in his career as a rising child star and eventually troubled young adult. Watching LaBeouf confront his own demons and put the pieces back together in his relationship with his father makes for one of the year’s bravest experiences.
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