In 2017, Hulu made television history by becoming the first streaming network to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, thanks to the phenomenon that was The Handmaid’s Tale (which returned in April for its sixth and final season).
While Netflix has largely cornered the streaming market on original movies—and even managed to persuade A-listers like Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Martin Scorsese to come aboard—Hulu is starting to find its footing in features too, securing the exclusive rights to a large number of Oscar-nominated movies like A Real Pain and Anora. Below are some of our top picks for the best movies (original and otherwise) streaming on Hulu right now.
Still looking for more great titles to add to your queue? Check out WIRED’s guides to the best TV shows on Hulu, best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Disney+, and the best movies on Amazon Prime. Don’t like our picks, or want to offer suggestions of your own? Head to the comments below.
Presence
Steven Soderbergh remains Hollywood’s premier experimental filmmaker, making a career out of embracing new technologies and narrative styles to keep audiences on their toes. In the case of Presence, he offers a totally unique take on the haunted house genre. In the wake of a tragedy, a family—parents Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and Chris (Chris Sullivan) and teenage kids Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang)—move into a new house, only to realize there is something else living amongst them. It’s a slow burn in the best way possible, and a film that will keep you guessing.
28 Weeks Later
Five years after Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s post-apocalyptic triumph with 28 Days Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo took the reins to continue telling the saga of the Rage Virus that has overtaken London. In this case, the US military has taken control of the island of Great Britain in an attempt to restore order and keep the survivors safe. The story focuses on a family—parents Don (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) and kids Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton)—who might hold the key to a cure. It makes a perfect preshow to a screening of Doyle and Garland’s new 28 Years Later.
Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything
Just over two years after Barbara Walters’ death, documentarian Jackie Jesko delves into the life of the trailblazing journalist who knew exactly which questions to ask someone to elicit an emotional response—and how to get under her interview subjects’ skin, too. Many of the people Walters both inspired and occasionally annoyed (see: Katie Couric and Oprah Winfrey) offer their insights into Walters and the important role she played in breaking down barriers for the female journalists who came after her.
Idiocracy
Like Office Space before it, Mike Judge’s Idiocracy wasn’t an immediate hit upon its release in 2006. But it has gained a much wider and more devoted following since then. A totally average man (Luke Wilson) and woman (Maya Rudolph) agree to take part in a top-secret experiment that will see them sleep for a year then reemerge into a new world. But the duo are forgotten about when the military base where they’re hibernating shuts down. When they’re eventually rediscovered in 2505, the world has degraded in such a way that Wilson’s Joe is now the smartest man in the world—a problem for Joe, and the world at large.
Mission: Impossible—Fallout
Tom Cruise returned to theaters in May as Ethan Hunt for what is presumably his last go-round as the secret agent the government turns to for its most unenviable missions. While Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning was breaking box office records, Hulu went back to the beginning—and then some—by bringing the first six (of eight total) M:I movies into their library. If you want to watch them in order, you’ll kick it off with Brian De Palma’s 1996 original. If you’d rather go straight to the series’ best entry, choose 2018’s Fallout, which marks Christopher McQuarrie’s sophomore outing as director of the franchise. (He has directed all of the films since 2015’s Rogue Nation, including The Final Reckoning.) The sixth film is the first to feature a returning director, who opted to pair the action with more emotion than previous entries had seen. Between that and an extended cast that includes Henry Cavill and Vanessa Kirby—plus the return of Michelle Monaghan—it marks a different kind of Mission for Hunt.
The Order
We previously included The Order in our list of “The 10 Best Movies You Missed in 2024,” and we stand by that claim. Fortunately, the time has come for Hulu subscribers to right that wrong. Justin Kurzel directs this gritty tale of corruption and extremism from the Pacific Northwest to Middle America. Terry Husk (Jude Law) is an FBI agent who believes that a series of daylight robberies he’s investigating are linked to a local white supremacist group that is attempting to fund a war on America. The investigation eventually leads him to Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult), the unlikely leader of The Order, a neo-Nazi group. That the film is based on a true story makes it all the more heartbreaking.
Small Things Like These
Eight months after winning the Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy delivered just as powerful a performance in this adaptation of Claire Keegan’s 2021 novella. It brings Murphy back to the kind of films he’s best known for—quiet, character-driven indies about working class people. Here, he plays Bill Furlong, a coal merchant, husband, and father of five daughters who witnesses a disturbing scene with a young girl at the local convent and school for girls. When he feels compelled to investigate further, and question the young girl’s treatment, Bill puts a target on his own back—and that of his family—when the convent’s Mother Superior (Emily Watson) believes Bill is asking too many questions. Ultimately, despite veiled threats from the sister, his compassion overwhelms his fear of retribution.
Longlegs
Between It Follows, The Guest, and Watcher, Maika Monroe has become this generation’s scream queen. She adds to that genre resume in this offbeat thriller from Osgood Perkins (son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins) playing Lee Harker, an FBI agent who has a sixth sense when it comes to murder investigations. But something feels eerily familiar when she’s asked to investigate a string of murder-suicides that some of her colleagues believe is the work of a possible serial killer. Monroe delivers yet another great performance as Lee, but it’s Nicolas Cage who delivers the most unhinged (to the point of being unintentionally comical) performance here.
Alien: Romulus
Alien: Romulus—which is set between the events of Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986)—is about a scenario you’ve probably heard before: a group of people journeying around space find an abandoned space station, which they decide to investigate. This, of course, leads them right into the arms/faces of the Alien franchise’s regular cast of extraterrestrial baddies (see: facehuggers, chestbursters, and Xenomorphs). Writer-director Fede Álvarez, who helmed the 2013 Evil Dead reimagining, manages to bring new life to a decades-old franchise with this sequel.
A Complete Unknown
Timothée Chalamet shines in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic, which earned eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Chalamet. The film follows Dylan’s early career, beginning in January 1961—when he hitchhiked from Minnesota to New York City to meet and perform for his musical idol, Woody Guthrie. That’s also where the then-19-year-old met folk musician Pete Seeger (played by Edward Norton, who snagged a Best Supporting Actor nod), who became one of Dylan’s earliest champions. Seeger was also instrumental in Dylan’s game-changing performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, which is where the movie culminates. Whether you know everything or nothing about Dylan, it’s a fascinating story.
Anora
Anora, who prefers to be called Ani (Best Actress winner Mikey Madison), is an exotic dancer whose services are called upon when Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the spoiled son of a Russian oligarch, comes to the club where she works, asking for a dancer who speaks Russian. Their VIP room evening turns into a (paid) sexual encounter outside the club … then another, then another. During a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas, the two get married, with Ani believing she has found her happily-ever-after. Vanya’s parents are less optimistic and make it clear that Vanya has two choices: his marriage or their money. Director Sean Baker, the critically acclaimed filmmaker behind The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021), has yet again made a powerful dramedy that highlights the plight of marginalized characters.
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
“If you’re Sly Stone, there’s no blueprint for what comes next.” That’s the basic idea behind Sly Lives!, Questlove’s brilliant follow-up to the equally compelling Summer of Soul—the rockumentary that won the Roots’ drummer an Academy Award in 2022. He could well be headed for Oscar recognition once again with this deep dive into the rise and fall of the groundbreaking band Sly & The Family Stone, and the higher standards to which Black artists have traditionally been held. Questlove knows what he’s talking about, and so he serves as a perfect guide into this side of the music industry. The film was hauntingly timed, too. Stone passed away on June 9.
Alien
Though it arrived in theaters in 1979, Alien has lost none of its potency in the intervening years—which isn’t something most fortysomethings can say. By now you probably know the story by heart: The crew aboard the spacecraft Nostromo, including warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), put a presumably slight pause on their trip back to Earth in order to respond to a distress call from a nearby planetoid. But what they discover is a bizarre alien life-form that seems to delight in knocking off crew members in new—and frequently terrifying—ways. Can you say Facehugger? Or Chestburster? Alien is also noteworthy for being the film that kicked off a bona fide, and legendary, sci-fi/horror franchise—and introduced the world to Ridley Scott, who changed the genre game yet again with his next feature, Blade Runner.
Prometheus
Though the fifth film in the Alien franchise was met with mixed reviews upon its initial release in 2012, it’s one of those movies that has grown better with age and each successive viewing. Ridley Scott directs a script cowritten by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, which follows a team of scientists (led by Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) who are traveling the galaxy in the hopes of unlocking the mysteries of how humankind came to be. But not every creature they encounter is as interested in finding the answers to life’s big mysteries. The (kinda) prequel marks Michael Fassbender’s first appearance in the franchise, playing a jack-of-all-trades android (a role he reprised in 2017’s Alien: Covenant). Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, and Ben Foster round out the stellar cast.
A Real Pain
Kieran Culkin continues his run as Hollywood’s most lovable scene-stealer in this buddy-ish road trip comedy written, directed, produced by, and costarring Jesse Eisenberg (who earned an Oscar nod for the screenplay). David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) travel to Poland in honor of their late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. Despite going down two very different paths in life and their opposing personalities, the two find a way to reconnect and prove that blood is thicker than water. Culkin nabbed his first-ever Oscar for the role, while Eisenberg was gifted Polish citizenship.
Arcadian
Nicolas Cage does what Nicolas Cage does best (read: chew quite a bit of scenery) in this postapocalyptic thriller in which a father, Paul (Cage), and his twin sons Thomas (Jaeden Martell) and Joseph (Maxwell Jenkins) are three of the only people remaining on earth. Making this scenario even more challenging is the fact that they are terrorized at night by homicidal creatures dead-set on ridding the planet of all humans. When Thomas goes missing, Paul must venture out into the night to find him—an ill-advised adventure that ultimately leaves Paul wounded, fighting for his life, and relying on his sons to keep them all alive.
Nightbitch
Marielle Heller writes and directs this adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s 2018 novel—a bitingly dark horror-comedy about the challenges of motherhood. Amy Adams reveals a ferocity rarely seen in the six-time Oscar nominee’s previous performances. Here, she’s a stay-at-home mom simply known as Mother who begins to resent her husband (Scoot McNairy) and even her young son for stripping her of her previous identity as an artist. And at the same time, she begins to think that maybe she’s turning into a dog. Which all makes a lot more sense in the context of the movie.
Thelma
June Squibb is the action hero you didn’t know you needed. In the decade since her Oscar-nominated turn in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, the 95-year-old actress has become one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors. Here, she plays the eponymous grandma who is swindled out of $10,000 by a phone scammer targeting elderly citizens. When the authorities seem reluctant to take any real action, Thelma grabs a gun and her motorized scooter and takes the law into her own hands. Best of all? This vigilante comedy is based on writer-director Josh Margolin’s own grandmother.
Ad Astra
At an unspecified date in the near future, US Space Command Major Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) learns that mysterious power surges originating from an old space station are posing a threat to Earth. When he finds out that the activity can be traced back to the Lima Project—a search for extraterrestrial life led by his father, H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), who has been lost in space for 30 years—Roy journeys into the unknown. When cowriter/director James Gray announced the project, he very boldly stated that he was hoping to create “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie.” Did he succeed? Watch and make your own determination.
Late Night With the Devil
In the 1970s, Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) is a late-night talk show host who is constantly chasing Johnny Carson’s ratings but simply cannot compete. He scores the highest ratings of his career when he sits down for an interview with his beloved wife, Madeleine (Georgina Haig), who is dying of cancer. When she passes away shortly afterward, Jack halts production on his show entirely. When he’s eventually ready to come back to work he’s even more determined to compete with Carson, so he decides to throw an occult-themed Halloween show for the ages, complete with a psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon), and a possessed teen (Ingrid Torelli) who seems to know more about Jack and Madeleine’s relationship than he bargained for. Many critics have deemed Late Night With the Devil the best horror movie of 2024—and with good reason.
Babes
Pamela Adlon’s directorial debut does for motherhood what Bridesmaids did for marriage. New Yorkers Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) are lifelong best friends with decades of history and traditions but now find themselves facing very different chapters in their lives. Dawn, who is struggling with postpartum depression, is trying hard to balance the demands of being a working mom and partner to her husband, while Eden has never been burdened by such demands. But when she discovers she’s pregnant after a one-night stand and determines that she is ready to be a single mom, their friendship begins to fracture in ways they never would have imagined. Glazer and Buteau’s chemistry as BFFs is undeniable in this brash comedy that isn’t always pretty, in part because of its brutal honesty.
Kinds of Kindness
Just three months after Poor Things scored four Oscar wins in 2024, Yorgos Lanthimos got much of the gang back together—including Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley—for Kinds of Kindness, which debuted at Cannes. Unlike his previous works, this one is an anthology film, or what came to be marketed as a “triptych fable.” Just like the writer-director’s other movies, it is born from a place of absurdist comedy and over-the-top performances from its stars. Sex cults, reanimation, sandwiches, murder-happy bosses, and John McEnroe’s smashed tennis racket all play a part in the wildly fun festivities.
Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney produced this religious horror flick and also stars as Cecilia, a young nun (yep, you read that right) whose traumatic brush with death has convinced her that God saved her for a higher purpose. When she is invited to join a convent in the remote Italian countryside that assists older nuns at the end of their life, she happily accepts—then quickly comes to realize that all may not be what it seems.
Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is a man who should have it all: the one-time race car driver and founder of the Ferrari car company oozes charm, wealth, and excitement. But behind the scenes, the walls are closing in on him. Set during the summer of 1957, Michael Mann’s biopic finds Ferrari (the man) on the verge of bankruptcy, mourning the death of his son, and desperately trying to hide his past indiscretions from his estranged wife—who helped build the car company and who holds the key to his financial future. Though the film earned mixed reviews, it does a solid job of telling the complex story of a complicated man. But its biggest selling point is Penélope Cruz’s bravura performance.
Perfect Days
Nearly 60 years into his career as a filmmaker, Wim Wenders managed to make one of his best films yet with Perfect Days—which is saying a lot when you consider that this is the same director who made Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987). Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) is a toilet cleaner in Tokyo who is blissfully content with the simplicity of his life, as it allows him the time to indulge his more personal passions: music (he’s an avid collector of cassette tapes and allows his favorite music to set the soundtrack to his life), books, and nature. The movie is not punctuated by any overly dramatic storylines; just the quiet interactions that Hirayama has with those around him—family, coworkers, total strangers—and the way those interludes impact him. It’s that poetic simplicity, and Yakusho’s wonderful performance, that gives the film its heart.
Origin
Writer-director Ava DuVernay finds a way to yet again change the language of cinema with what is both a biopic and a historical document. The movie is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for her work at The New York Times. It follows Wilkerson’s journey to write her 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents—a project that took her from the US to Germany to India to research the troubling history of each country’s caste system and the parallels that exist between them.
The Contestant
On January 11, 1998, 22-year-old comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu entered an apartment in Japan where he lived, nude and with no human contact, for 15 months as part of an understandably controversial game show titled Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. Hamatsu had no idea his life was being broadcast. This riveting documentary delves into not just how anyone ever allowed this experiment to happen, but the real-world effects—cultural, psychological, and beyond—it had on both Hamatsu and the tens of millions of viewers who were somehow drawn into witnessing his on-camera abuse.
Anatomy of a Fall
Between her starring roles in The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall, German actress Sandra Hüller made it clear that when it comes to scripts, she knows how to pick ’em. In this compelling courtroom drama, Hüller plays a successful writer turned murder suspect when her husband (Samuel Theis) is found dead outside their home on a snowy day. Ultimately, it might be her son (Milo Machado-Graner) and/or his guide dog (Messi, the movie’s real star) who ultimately seal Sandra’s fate. It’s a smart, twisty, and well-acted mystery that will keep you guessing.
BlackBerry
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton is practically unrecognizable in this immensely entertaining recounting of the rise and fall of BlackBerry—the must-have cell phone that had the world entranced before the iPhone came along. Howerton costars as Jim Balsillie, the very real negotiator who, alongside Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), gave the world its first smartphone. Which is a lot more dramatic (and darkly humorous) than it sounds.
The Royal Hotel
Ozark star Julia Garner reunites with director Kitty Green (The Assistant) for this taut psychological thriller in which BFFs Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) decide to backpack their way through the Australian outback. When they’re offered the chance to live and work at a remote hotel in order to replenish their dwindling bank accounts, they jump at the chance—despite Hanna feeling that something isn’t quite right with their place of employment or its clientele. She’s on to something. Garner has played one badass character after the next, and The Royal Hotel is no exception.
Self Reliance
New Girl’s Jake Johnson makes his feature directorial debut with this wonderfully weird and occasionally dark meta comedy, which he also wrote and stars in. Tommy Walcott (Johnson) is living a pretty ordinary existence until he’s approached by Andy Samberg (as Andy Samberg), who offers him the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to win $1 million as part of a massive reality competition. The only thing Tommy needs to do is not get murdered for 30 days, despite being hunted by dozens of contract killers whose job is to ensure that no contestant walks away with the big prize. The catch? Contestants can only be killed when they’re entirely alone. So Tommy takes it upon himself to partner up with another contestant, which is where Maddy (Anna Kendrick) comes in. Since they both have a cool mil to gain and a lot to lose (aka their lives) if they don’t triumph, they make a pact to spend every waking moment of the next 30 days together. Just when you think you know where Self Reliance is headed, it goes ahead and surprises—and in the best ways possible.
No One Will Save You
Home invasion thrillers are never in short supply, but the really effective ones are hard to come by. Kaitlyn Dever shines—and proves yet again that she can shoulder the weight of an entire film—as Brynn Adams, a seamstress living a solitary existence in her childhood home and mourning the loss of her mother and closest friend. When she wakes up one night to discover that someone is in her house, that someone turns out to be something. A home invasion thriller with extraterrestrials might not have been on your must-watch Bingo card, but No One Will Save You is 93 minutes well spent.
Miguel Wants to Fight
Miguel (Tyler Dean Flores) is 17 years old and has never been in a fight. So when he learns that he’ll be moving away from the place and people he has known all his life, he enlists his pals to help him get into his first fistfight. It’s probably not the first coming-of-age ritual to spring to mind, but it’s certainly among them. A talented cast of young actors make this comedy—cowritten by Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion—immensely watchable.
Sanctuary
Hal Porterfield (Christopher Abbott) has just been handed the keys to the castle following the death of his hotel magnate father. Rebecca Marin (Margaret Qualley) is a dominatrix who believes she deserves some of the credit—and half the cash—that comes with Hal’s new CEO position. Sexual politics have rarely played out as twisted, or darkly funny, as they do in this mesmerizing, and often claustrophobic, thriller from Zachary Wigon.
Corsage
Vicky Krieps delivers yet another top-notch performance as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who—following her 40th birthday—longs to recapture the freedom of her youth. Marie Kreutzer writes and directs this fictional biopic (Empress Elisabeth is real, though the story told within takes plenty of creative liberties), which sees the royal rebelling against her lack of power to affect any real change, despite her title. Even more so, it’s about a woman who is desperate to hold on to the power that youth and beauty entitle her to—regardless of the consequences.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Environmentalism meets heist movie in director Daniel Goldhaber’s thriller about a group of young people who try to—as the title implies—expose the fragility of the oil industry. It’s not often that a movie examining the fight against the climate crisis is also an edge-of-your-seat adventure, but here those elements come together beautifully. (You can give cinematographer Tehillah de Castro a bit of credit for that.) Smart, prescient, and nearly unprecedented, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is more than worth the stream.
Rye Lane
Raine Allen-Miller’s directorial debut offers a playful twist on the typical rom-com. Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) are both twentysomethings reeling from recent break-ups. After a chance—and rather awkward—first meeting, the pair spend a day wandering around South London, bonding over their shared experience, finding cheeky ways to get over the mourning of their previous relationships, and maybe discovering that romance is not dead after all.
Triangle of Sadness
Think of it like Gilligan’s Island, but with more class commentary and vomit. When a bunch of rich people head out to sea on a luxury yacht, their plans are thwarted when a terrible storm leaves many of them stranded on a beach where none of their money or power can help them survive. That already gives away too much, but suffice to say, if you like The Menu-esque critiques of the excesses of wealth with just as many dark-comedy twists, this Oscar-nominated film is right for you.
Fresh
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a single woman who is on the lookout for a partner but tired of the online dating scene. When she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), a quirky, handsome stranger, she decides to give him her number. The two hit it off on the first date and eventually find themselves making plans to spend a weekend away—which is when Noa realizes that Steve has been hiding a few disturbing details about himself. Ultimately, Fresh stands as a lesson in the horrors of dating in the digital age (both real and imagined).
Palm Springs
Given the existence of Harold Ramis’ near-perfect Groundhog Day, it takes a whole lot of chutzpah for a filmmaker to add another picture to the infinite-time-loop rom-com canon. But writer-director Max Barbakow did it anyway with Palm Springs, and audiences are thankful he did. Building upon the rules originally established in Groundhog Day, Palm Springs offers its own unique twist on the story. Instead of showing one person (Bill Murray’s Phil Conners) slowly being pushed to the brink of insanity because he’s the only one who seems to be experiencing the phenomenon, Palm Springs has three wedding guests—Nyles (Andy Samberg), Sarah (Cristin Milioti), and Roy (J. K. Simmons)—living the same day again and again and working together to find a way out of it.
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