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If your attempts to find the best movies on Netflix largely involve hours of scrolling, stop your search – the Empire team has done the hard work for you. There are tons of great films among the streaming service’s expansive catalogue, but finding exactly what you’re after isn’t always an easy task. With tons of hidden treasures and familiar favourites, Empire’s list of the best films on Netflix UK is hand-picked to bring you just the right recommendation. We have cheery comedies, big-budget blockbusters, feel-good favourites, cult classics, skin-crawling horrors, Netflix Originals, Hollywood fare and international imports – there’s truly something for everyone. Read through the full Netflix UK list below (presented in no particular order), and take your pick.

Watched all of them already? We also have The Best TV Shows On Netflix.

The 50 Best Movies On Netflix UK

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The first 10 minutes of Uncut Gems is one of the wildest openings to a movie you'll ever see. To spell it out would be to spoil it, but it's a none-more-head-spinning way in to this palpitation-inducingly stressful thriller. Filmmaking duo the Safdie Brothers are on killer form with the story of jeweller Howard Ratner (a never-better Adam Sandler) who is in a constant world of trouble – always one big score away from safety, and one terrible decision away from catastrophe. Uncut Gems is a two-plus-hour shakedown, as Ratner tries to stop his world falling apart. You'll thrill at his near-misses, shout out loud at his dire judgment, and find yourself rooting for him nonetheless. Small-scale but utterly pulse-pounding.

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Some of the best film deliver a killer twist in the final reel. But across The Handmaiden's 150-minute runtime, Korean auteur Park Chan-wook goes one better – delivering major rug-pulls at regular intervals that turn everything you've just seen entirely on its head. Based partially on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith (transposed to Japanese-occupied Korea in the early 1900s), it charts the shifting loyalties and secret romances of a conman, a Japanese heiress, and a pickpocket who's hired to be their handmaiden – a three-way dynamic that's never quite what it seems. Its thrilling plot is matched by Park's impeccably precise stylistic filmmaking, making for a striking tale of power, desire, and a large, writhing octopus. Just be aware of its graphic sex scenes, in case you were thinking of watching this one with your parents.

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The original summer blockbuster still has serious teeth. Back in '75, Steven Spielberg unleashed his mighty shark thriller on an unsuspecting world – teaching generations of swimmers to be afraid of the water. If the shark animatronic is a tad clumsy, the filmmaking of Jaws remains ultra-sharp, as does the impeccable script and trio of stellar performances. Roy Scheider is utterly believable as police chief Brody, suddenly out of his depth when shark attack victims start washing up – while Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are brilliantly bickersome as marine expert Hooper and salty seadog Quint, forced to co-operate in order to bring the great white down. From the ultra-famous dolly zoom, to the head-in-the-boat jump scare, to that final line, it remains a masterpiece.

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Hayao Miyazaki's beloved animation couldn't be gentler – it's an utterly charming ode to childhood and the natural beauty of rural Japan. Packed with cute creatures and gorgeous, lush-green visuals (the big grey Totoro forest spirit looks ludicrously huggable), it's a film almost entirely without conflict, a steady stream of joy, wonder and serenity to ease any troubled mind, with all darkness – the mother of central sisters Satsuki and Mei, recently relocated to an old house in the countryside, is in hospital throughout the film – existing firmly on the fringes. If you're discovering the films of Studio Ghibli for the first time on Netflix, there's no better place to start than with My Neighbour Totoro.

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1917's camerawork engulfs the film. It's supposed to. While not quite pretending to be a continuous long take, there is only one blatantly obvious cut. Otherwise it doesn't let up. Aliens who have no comprehension of our ways, let alone cameras, would leave the cinema talking about this tracking shot. That's what the film is. It's an astonishing piece of filmmaking, portraying war with enormous panache. This is big-screen bravado, and then some.

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If the Western has largely been the domain of grizzled white men both in front of and behind the camera, The Harder They Fall is a flip, fun, flashy corrective. Building on his previous work (his debut album They Die By Dawn & Other Short Stories), director Jeymes 'The Bullitts' Samuel (brother of Seal) puts pistols firmly in the hands of under-represented groups rarely featured in cowboy classics and lets rip. And that cast… it redefines stacked, with Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, LaKeith Stanfield and Regina King all present and outstanding.

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The Fear Street trilogy is one of the coolest horror experiments in years. Across the summer of 2021, director Leigh Janiak dropped three brand new scary movies on Netflix, each arriving a week apart with their own distinct look and feel, but telling an interconnected story spanning hundreds of years. Part One: 1994 pays significant homage to Scream and establishes the rival towns of Shadyside (where townsfolk regularly go murder-happy for no apparent reason) and Sunnyvale (where people, er, don't) as a playground for serial killers. Part Two: 1978 goes full Camp Crystal Lake as the bodies pile up at a summer camp. And Part Three: 1666 delivers a witch-hunt horror full of secrets. All in, it's a slick, smart, funny treat – and if it's primarily playing with teen characters, it goes hard on the gore for a well-earned 18 rating. Set three nights aside, and begin your binge now.

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Returning to the Evil Dead II splat-stick horror that made his name, Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell is a total blast – a properly scary, hilarious ghost-train of a movie, with all the kinetic camerawork and spooky imagery you'd expect from the master director. Alison Lohman is Christine, the bank worker who unwisely declines a loan to Lorna Raver's elderly Romani woman, facing house repossession, and finds herself cursed as a result. Can she find a way to clear her spirit before it gets dragged to the fiery depths? With its tongue lodged out of a hole in its cheek, Raimi's film toes the line between comedy and crap-yourself scares with glee and precision, and with a sub-100 minute runtime it doesn't outstay its welcome. Just because it got a PG-13 rating in the States, don't go in expecting a soft horror – this one's a full-blooded, raucous scream.

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Rian Johnson's original sci-fi thriller boasts a killer premise, and excellent execution – literally. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a 'looper' assassin whose victims have been sent back in time from a future where disposing of bodies is near-impossible. But when he fails to 'close the loop' and kill his older self (an excellent Bruce Willis), it threatens ramifications that could unspool with all kinds of unintended consequences. Johnson's smart, philosophical screenplay largely avoids timey-wimey trappings in favour of characterful ruminations on cyclical violence, and the push and pull of fate vs. destiny. But Looper doesn't skimp on the action either, futuristic ideas colliding with old-school noir homages. A cult classic for a reason.

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It's impossible not to smile while watching Richard Linklater's good-hearted rock-com. Jack Black is at his peak Jack Blackness as the goofy guitar-playing Dewey Finn, a man who never let go of his dreams of playing in a kick-ass band. But when a case of mistaken identity finds him posing as substitute teacher Ned Schneebly at a prestigious school, he realises the preppy kids can become his band – if only he can sneakily turn them into tiny rock gods without their head teacher (Joan Cusack) or their parents noticing. With a killer soundtrack (this is a Linklater joint after all), a genuinely great young cast, hilarious gags, and a rousing finale that plays with all the crowdpleasing beats of a sports movie, School Of Rock, well, rocks.

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There's an inherent goodness at the core of Amazonian warrior Diana Prince that director Patty Jenkins taps directly into. Easily in the top tier of DC Extended Universe movies, Wonder Woman tells a refreshingly old-school origin story that harks back to the clear-eyed optimism and romance of Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. Gal Gadot is perfectly cast as Diana, whose idyllic life on a hidden tropical island is interrupted by the arrival of Chris Pine's pilot Steve Trevor, crashing in from the war (World War I) raging beyond the Themysciran forcefield. Wanting to do her part, Diana teams up with Steve and enters the realm of mortals – heading to the frontlines to help the Allies. With fish-out-of-water comedy (Diana in 1920s London is a hoot), stirring action, and a swooning romance, Wonder Woman plays it straight – and straight to the heart.

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Alex Garland followed up the excellent Ex Machina with this similarly smart sci-fi brimming with beautiful visuals and compelling questions. Natalie Portman's Lena joins an expedition into 'The Shimmer', a mysterious 'infected' zone on the American coast where her husband and his troops went missing on a mission. A very loose adaptation of Jeff Vandermeer's extraordinary novel, Garland's film nods to genre classics but feels striking and original, boasting an elliptical final half hour that's bound to be talked about for decades to come.

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The central idea of David Fincher's crime thriller is encapsulated by its brilliant tagline: 'There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer.' While Zodiac revolves around the murders of the Zodiac Killer in '60s/'70s San Francisco, it's really about the people who become obsessed with solving a case that was famously never resolved – Jake Gyllenhaal's newspaper cartoonist, Robert Downey Jr's crime reporter and Mark Ruffalo's police inspector. As they spiral deeper and deeper into the possible identities of the killer, the answers continue to elude them – making for a serial killer movie that's as philosophically compelling as it is hair-raising (the reconstructed death sequences are truly nightmarish). Told across a leisurely 157 minutes, it all amounts to one of Fincher's greatest achievements.

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Partially inspired by screenwriter Isa Mazzei's own experiences working in the bizarro corners of the online sex industry, Cam is a Blumhouse horror thriller focusing on "cam girl" Alice Ackerman (The Handmaid's Tale's Madeline Brewer). Going by the model moniker of Lola, Alice makes a modest living catering to the fetishes of her viewers (and, more disturbingly, staging the occasional spectacular fake suicide – a deftly sketched subtext is that of the internet's desire to see violence against women). But then, weirdly, Lola starts broadcasting when Alice isn't online. It's a creepy mystery, but what impresses most is its matter-of-fact and non-judgmental depiction of its unusual world, and the fully fleshed-out character of Alice herself. One of the best horror films of 2018.

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Sure, Tarantino's opening gambit of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction is pretty much insurmountable – but Inglourious Basterds deserves to go down as one of his greatest achievements. His history-altering World War II epic is jam-packed with iconic characters, nerve-shredding setpieces, and all-out filmic nerdery, as a troop of Jewish soldiers and French cineastes lay waste to the Nazis. The titular Basterds – led by Brad Pitt's southern-drawling Aldo Raine – are absent for much of the runtime, meaning Mélanie Laurent's Shosanna is the the real lead, escaping an opening massacre by Christoph Waltz's terrifying SS officer Hans Landa (an all-time-great Tarantino character) before plotting her revenge against Hitler's regime. The results are brash, poignant, squirmingly tense, funny, and irreverent, all set to a killer soundtrack – a Tarantino movie, in other words.

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London is often depicted in films with a Hollywood-friendly skew, a postcard view of familiar landmarks and cosy middle-class life. In Rocks, the capital's skyline is seen from a distance, from an east London rooftop; this is a perspective of London as it's lived in and experienced by real Londoners, today. The whole project is given a hefty layer of realism and authenticity from its staggeringly talented cast of teenage first-time actors, who all contributed through the film's unconventional workshop approach; the result is something that's as heartbreaking as it is joyful. At the centre of it all is a star-making performance from Bukky Bakray as Shola 'Rocks' Omotoso, forced to do a ton of growing up when her depressive mother abandons her and her brother (played by scene-stealer D'angelou Osei Kissiedu). It's enough to make you giddily excited for the future of British filmmaking.

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Remi Weekes' astonishing horror debut His House takes the well-worn haunted house subgenre, and asks: what if you couldn't just up and leave? That's the plight of Bol (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku), refugees fleeing from South Sudan who land in the UK to a frosty reception and a crumbling council house full of bumps in the night, connected to the shared trauma the pair is experiencing from the situation they left, the journey they were forced to make, and their new reality on British soil. Since the system won't let them find a new home, they're forced to face their demons head-on. His House is a film bursting with striking imagery and full-blooded scares that will shake even hardened horror fans. Perhaps most remarkable is how it doesn't compromise either its major scares or its specific narrative of the immigrant experience to accommodate the other – both are perfectly intertwined in a scare-fest with a real social consciousness.

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Spike Lee followed up BlacKkKlansman with another film that blends a pulpy adventure story with a righteous anger about the African-American experience. Here, it's looking at the role that Black American soldiers played in the Vietnam war, how that intersects with forces of Capitalism, and how its legacy plays out in future generations today. Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis and Isaiah Whitlock Jr. play four Vietnam veterans returning to Ho Chi Minh City in order to recover a cache of hidden gold, and find the body of their fallen leader Stormin' Norman, played by Chadwick Boseman in one of his final performances, who died in the field. The result is part buddy film, part Shakespearean tragedy, part war movie, part history lesson – sprawling and captivating, with stellar performances all round, especially from Lindo's MAGA hat-wearing Paul.

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On initial release in Japan, Makoto Shinkai's romantic fantasy Your Name became a box office smash – and it's easy to see why. At first, the tale of city boy Taki and rural teen girl Mitsuha swapping bodies at random thanks to the passing of a comet in the night sky plays out as an utterly charming rom-com. And then, in Your Name's second half, it becomes something more profound and apocalyptic that squeezes your heart for all its worth as the narrative twists and turns in unexpected directions. Add in a stunning soundtrack from Radwimps and gleaming, gorgeous visuals – the way that light dances and shimmers across surfaces is a breathtaking Shinkai hallmark – and you have a major crossover anime hit that's near impossible not to fall for. If you've never ventured beyond Studio Ghibli fare, try this masterpiece next.

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Netflix's most high-profile original movie is a stellar coup – reuniting legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel for another gangster epic. If that's not enough, The Irishman also marked the first time Scorsese worked with Al Pacino. In short, it's mobster heaven – or, mobster purgatory, as De Niro's aged hitman Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran reflects on his life of violence as he approaches the grave. Think Goodfellas meets Silence – a 210-minute late-career masterpiece that more than deserves your time.

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Kelly O'Sullivan confirms herself as a witty and honest new filmmaking voice as the writer and star of Saint Frances – a film that pushes the 30-something-woman-wonders-what-to-do-with-her-life American indie drama into refreshing territory rarely explored on screen. She plays Bridget, a New Yorker who becomes nanny to mischievous six-year-old Frances (Ramona Edith Williams) – even though she doesn't really like kids. Meanwhile, she finds out that she's pregnant by her sort-of-boyfriend Jace (Max Lipchitz) and decides to have an abortion, facing the physical and emotional aftermath of the procedure. That Saint Frances plays out both of these storylines concurrently without conflating the two (spoiler: Frances doesn't suddenly regret having an abortion after she bonds with Bridget) feels quietly revelatory – and the film has a similarly straight-up approach to its depictions of post-natal depression, motherhood in same-sex relationships, breastfeeding, and periods. That it's warm and funny too, with believably messy but empathetic characters, make it a must-see.

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Even the bonkers trailer for The Mitchells Vs. The Machines didn't completely sell how crazy and wonderful this animated adventure turned out to be. Featuring a similarly frenetic, switching-styles technique to Into The Spider-Verse (both films are produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), the visual pizazz is matched by a massive heart and the ability to turn a story of family bonding in the midst of a robot apocalypse into something fresh. Just try not to crack up at the marauding Furby sequence.

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The world of jazz drumming might not be a typical setting for a thriller – but Damien Chazelle's astonishing debut is the cinematic equivalent of someone crashing a cymbal on your head. Tight as a snare and played with all the flair and rhythmic precision of a drum solo, Whiplash finds Miles Teller's aspiring percussionist Andrew attempting to win the approval of JK Simmons' terrifying teacher Terence Fletcher – a man who won't accept rushing or dragging when it comes to keeping tempo. Their dynamic becomes increasingly dangerous as Andrew pushes himself to greater lengths in order to become one of the greats, and it all crescendos in one of the greatest final reels of the last decade – an exhilarating performance setpiece that harnesses cinema in its purest form.

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If you were worried that Eddie Murphy's career had been stuck in a loop of kids' movies, disappointing comedies or no work at all, fear not – Dolemite Is My Name roared along, full of reassurance that he can still bring it. A funny, sweary, and occasionally moving look at real-life comedian Rudy Ray Moore's own attempt to change his direction with a blaxploitation film, this is Murphy's his best role in years.

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The fruitful collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio continued apace with moody, haunting and twisty thriller Shutter Island. DiCaprio is U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels, assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he thinks he's been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. And there's much more going on to it. Leo is naturally great, with Scorsese also marshalling the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow and Michelle Williams.

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Director Ari Aster graduated from short films to full-length fear with this taught, moody movie. Eschewing (for the most part, at least) jump scares, the writer/director opts for a slowly closing noose of chilling atmosphere and unnerving visuals. Toni Collette is Annie, who has just lost her imperious, disapproving mother. Shaken to her core, and uncertain of her own maternal instinct, she begins to worry that her fracturing family's issues have a more sinister undertone. Guess what? She's not wrong. So frighteningly good, you might just lose your head.

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On the darker end of Studio Ghibli's output lies its all-out epic – a medieval fantasy saga bursting with imagination, rooted in Japanese folklore, and boasting astonishing visuals imbued with that Ghibli magic. There's little cutesiness here – instead it's all ancient curses, eerie forest gods, and the encroach of war as a human mining colony battles with supernatural spirits as it engulfs natural resources. Like all of Hayao Miyazaki's work, Princess Mononoke's morality isn't black-and-white – seeing value in humanity and the natural world living side-by-side rather than a more binary good-evil dynamic. It's a stunning piece of work – and the very good English-language dub was adapted by none other than Neil Gaiman.

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Based on August Wilson's play of the same name, George C. Wolfe's simmering drama of blues, cultural exploitation and Black artistry dials up the tension and incisive power across its 94-minute runtime. Viola Davis is exceptional as the titular Ma Rainey, playing the real-life 'Mother Of The Blues' as she assembles her band for a recording session in 1927 Chicago – unrelenting in her demands from the studio, and aware exactly of her real value within a system intent on reducing it. But it's Chadwick Boseman who steals the show as trumpeter Levee, whose burgeoning talent and ambition for his own musical career pushes him towards tragedy. It's a powerhouse performance of an iconic character, sure to garner awards attention – but it cuts deep as Boseman's final film role, released a few short months after his death in August 2020. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom make it all too clear how much his presence on our screens will be missed.

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How many porce movies can claim to be as love-fuelled as Marriage Story? There's an understandable level of pain to be found in Noah Baumbach's Netflix movie, but also a surprising amount of comedy and lightness to balance it out, as Scarlett Johansson's Nicole and Adam Driver's Charlie navigate the breakdown of their relationship. It's a screwball-tinged fallout that only makes the sadness hit harder, the heartbreaking central performances bolstered by supporting performances by Laura Dern and Ray Liotta – the two lawyers orchestrating the porce. An empathetic portrait of a split that avoids taking sides.

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French director Mati Diop's genre-defying first feature Atlantics is about the migrant crisis and the shaping influence of first love. What begins as a slice of social realism morphs into a crime mystery and ends up as a story of supernatural justice. She pulls off shifts from social realism to genre mysticism with a poise as supernatural as the force that overtakes her young lovers.

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Alfonso Cuarón's beautifully human drama may be shot in black and white, but it's a vibrant and evocative work brimming with heart and emotion. A partial paean to the director's own childhood, Roma follows the housekeeper of a middle-class Mexican family through a tumultuous year in the early 70s, depicting the moments both big and small that change and define lives. With stunning cinematography from Cuarón himself, and a compelling, soulful performance from Yalitza Aparicio, it ranks highly among the director's own impeccable output – and could be a frontrunner at the 2019 Oscars. Stick it right to the top of your watchlist.

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A gifted violinist and family man living in Saratoga, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is lured to Washington, D. C. by two entertainers promising work. Yet after a night of carousing, Northup wakes up in chains and is sold into a life of slavery. Falling between the twin pillars of the art house and prestige period flick, 12 Years A Slave is history lesson as horror film, powerful, visceral and affecting. And after years of being great in everything, Chiwetel Ejiofor shines in a lead worthy of his immense talent.

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Anyone who has read Empire or listened to the podcast knows how much we love Paddington, the adaptation of the beloved children's stories. An exceedingly family-friendly film about an exceedingly friendly family, Paul King's movie is a Pixar-level delight that's whimsically, quirkily British – a pure, pleasant surprise. Ben Whishaw (who replaced original planned Colin Firth) brings guileless charm to the main character, with the human characters offering warm support.

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After seeing phenomenal success with her directorial debut Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig turned her attention to Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, delivering a refreshing update on the story of the March sisters via one of the best young ensemble casts in recent memory – including repeat collaborator Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Florence Pugh as Amy, Timothée Chalamet as Laurie and Emma Watson as Meg, alongside matriarchs Meryl Streep and Laura Dern. Gerwig manages to match the quaint, sincere romanticism of the period setting with her signature smart writing, hopping between timelines for maximum emotional impact. Chemistry crackles between Chalamet and Ronan, then Chalamet and Pugh, and the sisterly bond between the four titular females makes Little Women a warm, wintery delight.

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A searing, scorched-Earth cinematic vision, Paul Thomas Anderson's oil-prospector epic There Will Be Blood has an inky heart and a pitch-black sense of humour to match. Daniel Day-Lewis is on flaming form as Daniel Plainview, a relentless capitalist who'll do deplorable things in order to secure his fortune. In fact, he'll drink your milkshake – he'll drink it right up. Beginning with an extended sequence of Plainview scrabbling around in the dirt, this is an earthy, elemental epic, soundtracked by Jonny Greenwood's score of droning strings and clattering percussion. Anderson's sweeping, meticulous filmmaking is a grand canvas for Day-Lewis' astonishing central performance, and the degradation of Plainview's soul makes for captivating viewing. Be warned: you'll be barking lines like, "I've abandoned my child!" for weeks.

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Idealistic Navy lawyer Daniel Kaffee is assigned to defend two Marines, accused of murder. It seems like a clear-cut case, but as Kaffee probes deeper, he uncovers murky goings-on at the soldiers' army base. A timeless thriller, A Few Good Men acts as a reminder of how stars who have been so average elsewhere can produce excellent – some career-best – work when in the hands of a confident director (Rob Reiner, who was then at the height of his powers following When Harry Met Sally and Misery). Nicholson and Cruise, as the grizzled old army general holding onto secrets and the idealistic young lawyer turk who 'can't handle the truth' raise the bar on performances, and where they lead, everyone else, including a surprisingly solid Demi Moore, follows. Their fellow true star, though? Aaron Sorkin's intellectually-charged machine-gun dialogue.

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Maggie Gyllenhaal's powerful, dark directorial debut The Lost Daughter features National Treasure Olivia Colman in one of her best recent performances (which is saying something, given who we're talking about). Gyllenhaal adapts Elena Ferrante's visceral 2006 book with quiet style, offering a story of female experience that relishes the ugly, uncomfortable parts of being a mother, daughter, lover, stranger. Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckley (the latter playing the younger version of Colman's character) also shine.

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Before The Northman and The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers announced himself as a powerful new directorial voice with his deeply terrifying A24 horror. Anya Taylor-Joy (in her first major role) is captivating as Thomasin, a young woman whose ultra-Puritanical family has moved away from their local village to live on the edge of a vast forest in 1630s New England. But when tragic events start unfolding, fervour grows among the family that witchy activity could be the cause. Cue all kinds of nightmarish visions, apple-based traumas, and carnage courtesy of a very bad goat by the name of Black Phillip. With all the tangible, textural authenticity Eggers has since become known for, The Witch feels simultaneously grounded and mythical, like a window back in time. And it's seriously scary too, with a chilling final reel that'll rattle around your head for weeks. Magic.

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No, not a solo outing for everyone's favourite teleporting X-Man, but a thriller seeped in pitch-black comedy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom, a freelance photographer who thrives on filming the aftermath of violent accidents and crimes in LA and selling the footage to news networks. Bloom is a nightmarish creation that Gyllenhaal imbues with a wild-eyed intensity, with top supporting performances from Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo and Bill Paxton in one of his final roles. A searing character piece and gripping psychological noir all in one.

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Yes, it's found-footage, but this psychological ordeal from co-writers, directors and stars Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice is more than worth its unassuming 77 minutes of your time. Brice is the videographer who answers Duplass' advertisement for a documentarian to chronicle a day in his life. But as we get past the initial 24 hours it becomes clear that the real agenda is something altogether different. A masterclass in WTF-is-going-on tension, Creep also manages to be funny. Be sure to also catch Creep 2 on Netflix too, which continues in equally captivating style.

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Six years after Gone Girl, David Fincher returned to movies with a film delving into the history of Hollywood itself. Mank is part origin story of, part companion-piece to Orson Welles' classic Citizen Kane – starring Gary Oldman as Kane's alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. Fincher luxuriates in depicting the old studio system of Golden Age Hollywood, but he doesn't don rose-tinted glasses for the era itself – zoning in on the cracks, inequalities and concerns of the '30s and '40s movie industry (and beyond), while tapping into resonances that still feel surprisingly relevant today (Nazis, the future of cinema). It's gorgeously shot and impeccably performed – not just by Oldman, but by an ensemble including Amanda Seyfried as actor Marion Davies, Charles Dance as Kane-alike publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, and Tom Burke as a sparingly-deployed Welles. Mank is a film that's sympathetic to the plight of the writer, given added pathos in the fact that its screenplay was written by Jack Fincher – David's own late father. Not necessarily for everyone, but a treat for film buffs.

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Robert Pattinson is nearly unrecognisable in the Safdie Brothers' crime-drama Good Time – a must-see if you were captivated by the claustrophobia of Uncut Gems. Here he plays Connie, a peroxide-blonde criminal who attempts to bust his learning-disabled younger brother out of Rikers Island jail when their attempted bank robbery goes awry. Vibrant and visionary, the film was a hit at Cannes and features an award-winning soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never.

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Director Mike Flanagan manages the near-impossible task of making Stephen King's (almost) single-setting survival thriller Gerald's Game impressively cinematic. Carla Gugino's Jessie is left fighting for her life when her husband has a heart attack in the middle of a sex game, leaving her handcuffed to a bed in a secluded house. Outside, a wild dog starts to sniff out fresh meat, while Jessie's grip on sanity starts to slip. It's a thriller set-up with true horror execution — including an astonishingly gory finale just waiting to burn itself into impressionable minds.

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Enjoyed the wild swings of Parasite? Check out Bong Joon Ho's darkly satirical girl-meets-genetically-modified-super-pig story. Okja is an environmental fable, and a fantastical story of friendship between a young girl (Ahn Seo-hyun) and a strange, shy and introverted animal on a long journey together. Okja itself is a sort of hippo-pig, created for its meat by Tilda Swinton's shady multinational company. It's not often you get dystopian sci-fi and wide-eyed Spielbergian movie magic in the same stew, but director Bong and writer Jon Ronson somehow mix the disparate ingredients perfectly.

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Rebecca Hall has proved for years she's a great actor. With Passing, she proves she can also direct a quality film that feels both timeless and utterly of its time. In 1920s New York, African-American housewife Irene (Tessa Thompson) is shocked to bump into her old school friend Clare (Ruth Negga), who, thanks to her light skin, is now living as a white woman. As Irene and Clare rekindle their friendship, longings and resentments begin to surface. Under Hall's careful eye, the main pair offer superb, nuanced performances.

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Al Pacino and director Brian De Palma's top collaboration is still probably Scarface, but crime thriller Carlito's Way is nipping at its heels on the quality stakes. Pacino's Carlito is a wonderfully haggard, desperately reformed man. Quietly ashamed of his former excess and flawed by his lack of cold-hearted viciousness, he narrates in flashback from a first scene shooting (which recalls Serpico), aware that his attempt to stay clean is doomed. De Palma, meanwhile, demonstrates here that when he's in the mood he can be a virtuoso show-off but still tell a story.

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Benedict Cumberbatch has played complicated characters before, but few have the sharp edges and bitter attitude of The Power Of The Dog's Phil Burbank, the rancher with a complicated past and a terrible relationship with the rest of his fractured family. Jane Campion, here adapting Thomas Savage's novel, deploys her erudite approaches to eroticism and naturalism and they're bold enough to eclipse any shortcomings.

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The relentless misery of Joker won't be for everyone – but it's undeniable that Joaquin Phoenix's riff on DC Comics' greatest villain became an instant cultural touchpoint. Unconnected from any other DC universe, Todd Phillips' film is less supervillain movie, more Scorsese-indebted character drama (it even features a small role for Robert DeNiro) as the mental health of loner and wannabe standup comedian Arthur Fleck takes a steep decline in a festering Gotham that brings to mind scuzzy '70s New York. Phoenix is impressively physical in the title role, contorting himself into Fleck's twisted form – and it's all captured beautifully by Lawrence Sher's grainy cinematography, with a spine-tingling, Oscar-winning score by Hildur Guðnadóttir. The Taxi Driver and King Of Comedy homages don't always sit comfortably with the wider Batman milieu, but Joker succeeds as a bleak, brutal character study.

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Ava DuVernay's follow-up to Selma is a sobering, articulate and timely documentary about the American justice system and prison-industrial complex, drawing clear connections between slavery and the overwhelming incarceration of black men in the present day. Compellingly argued, propulsively told, and hugely relevant.

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With his partner Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) on the verge of retirement after becoming a grandfather, Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) has a different problem: he's been targeted for death by a vicious Mexican druglord (Kate del Castillo) and her seemingly unstoppable son. Will the bad boys of the Miami PD be able to team up one last time? Not so much bad Bad Boys, more good Bad Boys. And not so-bad-it's-good Bad Boys either. Instead, Bad Boys For Life is comfortably the best entry in the series to date. Which isn't bad.