8 Best Original Movies to Watch On Netflix

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New Top Vouch On Netflix Best Films Most Recent

Made in 2017

Weird

Good Movie

78% Vouch

80% Users

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

This is the first film directed by actor Macon Blair (so good in both Blue Ruin and Green Room), and while it is shaggy and tonally all over the place, there is a lot to recommend here. First off, I’m a huge fan of the (underrated) Melanie Lynskey, so I was primed to like this movie from the get-go. After Ruth’s (Lynskey) home is broken into, she seeks revenge against the perpetrators with help from her martial arts obsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood, sporting an impressive rat-tail). What starts out as an empowering journey for Ruth & Tony quickly teeters into dangerous and increasingly violent territory. This movie is probably not for everyone, but if you’re a fan of 90s indie films and don’t mind some violence mixed in with your dark humor, then you will enjoy this small, well-acted film.

Netflix

Drama / Mystery

2017

Good Movie

77% Vouch

75% Users

Clouds of Sils Maria

The film for which Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to win the César Award. The Twilight star turned indie prodigy plays next to another award favorite, Juliette Binoche, as her assistant. When rehearsing for the play that launched her career many years earlier, Binoche’s character, Maria, blurs the line between fiction and reality, her old age and her assistant’s young demeanor, and the romance story portrayed in the play and her own life. The movie itself is stylized as a play, adding another interesting layer of artistic creativity to the complex plot line. A film for film lovers.

Netflix

Drama

2014

Foreign

Best Film

90% Vouch

90% Users

Departures (Okuribito)

Death is a weird and scary concept. Ironically, the only way movies have been successful in covering it is through humor (Sunshine Cleaning and Beginners are other great examples). Departures gives this trend a new home, Japan. This film almost never saw the light of day, since at first many distributors refused to release it given the taboos against people who deal with death. Eventually, it received the credit it was due, including an Academy Award. It’s one of those rare movies that will take you on a journey through all of your emotions: it will move from making you laugh, to making you cry, then happy, and finally highly engaged in its subject matter. It’s a beautiful, funny, and compelling movie.

Netflix

Drama

2008

Good Movie

79% Vouch

89% Users

Song of the Sea

This movie is absolutely wonderful. It’s an Irish animated movie, and the drawings/graphics are so beautiful and different from what you usually see in this genre, that this alone would be a good reason to watch this. On top of that the music is beautiful as well. But what really touched me about this movie is the story – it’s about a boy who, dealing with the loss of his mother, embarks on an adventure into the underworld of feelings in order to save his sister. I found it to be refreshingly original, sometimes quite intense (I cried a lot during this movie), and heartwarming. The details are great. And I love the way the story was interwoven with Irish mythology, making it magical.

Netflix

Animation

2014

ICYMI

Good Movie

87% Vouch

89% Users

In Bruges

In Bruges is a dark comedy about two Irish assassins in a ‘boring’ continental European city. The dark crimes that haunt them and their ineffably vulgar manner of speech contrast gloriously with the quiet beauty of the Flemish architecture and order, like a knife fight in a dollhouse. More endearingly, the relationship between the two killers constantly swings between endearment and distaste. If you liked Four lions or dark comedies in general, then you will love In Bruges.

Netflix

Comedy

2008

Award Sweeper

Foreign

Best Film

90% Vouch

82% Users

Blue Is the Warmest Color

Emma, a free-spirited girl with blue hair, influences Adele’s life dramatically, teaching her how to be honest with herself and discover her true desires about love. The film beautifully and realistically portrays the Adele’s evolution, from a highschool girl to a grown-up woman. The spirit Emma lights up in her never dies. Blue Is the Warmest Color or La Vie d’Adèle is an honest, intense, and charming picture, prepare not to blink and have your face glued to screen from start to finish.

Netflix

Drama

2013

Weird

Good Movie

70% Vouch

86% Users

Copenhagen

Though it starts off somewhat slow, I was delightfully surprised at how much I loved this movie. A 28-year-old man ventures through Europe with a buddy, ending in Copenhagen, where he hopes to contact the last of his family. There he enlists a local girl to help him. An interesting relationship unfolds as they take a captivating journey through Copenhagen in search of William’s grandfather. The tag line of the movie is “When the girl of your dreams is half your age, it’s time to grow up” and William really does have to grow up when he’s faced with his own personal tumult.
The girl is played by Frederikke Dahl Hansen, who gives an exceptional natural performance, which adds even more to the abundance of charm in this film.

Netflix

Drama / Romance

2014

Good Movie

85% Vouch

85% Users

Brick

Elizabeth:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a high schooler trying understand his girlfriend’s disappearance. Film noir style with excellent dialogue.

Ian:

Murder mystery from the perspective of an oddball kid in high school. All of the evidence seems to point him back to one person in town.

Karch:

A new-age noir film follows a high-school detective trying to unravel what happened to his ex-girlfriend through the mysterious underground drug ring at his school.

Netflix

Drama / Mystery

2005