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Netflix has a lot of good movies in its impressive library, but only a handful qualify as a masterpiece.
The streamer just added a few modern classics in August that should definitely be at the top of your watchlist for the rest of 2026.
Nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Zero Dark Thirty is a riveting real-life action drama starring Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt and others about the hunt for Osama bin Laden after 9/11.
Watch With Us also recommends the emotional drama Spoiler Alert with Jim Parsons and Sally Field and the crazy dramedy Swiss Army Man with Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse. (Yes, really.)
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (2012)
Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty Jonathan Olley/©Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
You think your job is tough? Just talk to Maya (Jessica Chastain), whose primary task is to find Osama bin Laden in the period right after the 9/11 attacks. She travels to the Middle East with the expectation of staying only a short while before she completes her mission. But as the months slowly turn into years, Maya begins to think the U.S. will never find him. Yet when a promising lead appears in 2009, Maya thinks she may be on the path to finding the al-Qaeda leader and bringing him to justice. She only needs to convince her colleagues and superiors, who need more evidence she’s right.
Zero Dark Thirty is a real-world procedural that doesn’t have much of a story; instead, it has a sequence of events that lead up to bin Laden’s capture and death. Director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal never let the audience know Maya’s personal life or the background of any of the supporting characters. Instead, the film simply depicts them hard at work with one end goal in mind, and that’s enough for Zero Dark Thirty to be one of the best political thrillers of the last 20 years. The deep-bench supporting cast includes Chris Pratt, Kyle Chandler, Jeremy Strong, James Gandolfini and more, but this is Chastain’s show, and she received a much-deserved Oscar nomination for her efforts.
‘Spoiler Alert’ (2022)
Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge in Spoiler Alert Linda Kallerus /© Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection
Spoiler alert – the hero dies! Well, not quite. Based on the touching memoir by TV writer Michael Ausiello, Spoiler Alert chronicles the unexpected romance between the socially awkward Michael (The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons) and the handsome photographer Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge). On the surface, they seem like a mismatched couple, but when they’re together, everything just clicks. After Michael introduces Kit to his supportive parents (Sally Field and Bill Irwin), he thinks he could be The One, but a health crisis forces both of them to re-examine their relationship and their future together.
With a healthy 87 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Spoiler Alert was critically praised when it was released in 2022, but not a lot of people saw it due to the still-lingering effects of COVID restrictions. Four years later, it’s even better – a heartfelt and honest look at a long-term relationship plagued by doubts and jealousies but also bolstered by love and affection. Given the book and movie’s title, the ending shouldn’t come as a surprise, but that doesn’t mean you won’t bawl your eyes out. Spoiler Alert is a tearjerker, but it’s one of the rare ones that isn’t shameless or manipulative.
‘Swiss Army Man’ (2016)
Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man A24 /Courtesy Everett Collection
Hank Thompson (Paul Dano) has bottomed out in life. Stuck alone on a deserted island, he doesn’t have much time left before his food runs out and he starves to death. But just when he’s about to hang himself, a stranger appears – Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), who inspires Hank to find a way off the island. Gradually, the two men grow close, as Hank shares his infatuation with a woman named Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and his hope to find her again and begin a life with her. He’ll need to return to civilization first, and even with Manny’s help, that might not be possible.
It’s no surprise to reveal that Manny isn’t really alive – he’s an inanimate corpse that Hank imagines is still alive and who helps him process his loneliness and frustration about his life. He also farts a lot, and while you’d think this gets old after a while, the directors, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, find new ways to make the running gag remain funny while also somehow advancing the plot. (It turns out Manny’s farts are literal lifesavers.) The movie is comically wacky, but at its center is a touching story of a withdrawn man who slowly, slowly comes out of his shell.
Swiss Army Man starts streaming on August 28.
