The Oscars are long over, spring is almost here, and your weekend social calendar is wide open. You could go to the movies to see Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson’s wild new sci-fi film from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho. Or maybe you’re in the mood for a cool, sexy spy thriller like Black Bag starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, and Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page?
But who wants to battle all those crowds?
If you feel like staying home this weekend, there are plenty of movies available for you to stream. Netflix has hundreds of them, but the following three stand out from the rest for being overlooked, underrated, and just damn good to watch. These are the Netflix movies you should stream over the weekend; otherwise, you risk being bored, and no one wants that.
Daddio (2023)
A film festival hit in 2023, Daddio was released to crickets last summer. That’s a shame, as the drama, a character study largely set in a taxi as it travels from John F. Kennedy airport to Manhattan, is riveting stuff. It also gave Dakota Johnson another chance to shine after her memorable work in Cha Cha Real Smooth, and the first decent role two-time Oscar winner Sean Penn has had in over a decade.
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While waiting outside the airport, veteran taxi driver Clark (Penn) picks up a young woman known only as Girlie (Johnson). She needs to get to Manhattan, and fast, but as traffic stalls, Clark breaks the awkward silence with some chit chat. What follows is an extended exchange between two strangers who share their most intimate thoughts about love, sex, politics, religion, and everything in between. Even though it’s set largely in a car, Daddio never feels claustrophobic or boring, and Johnson and Penn share an odd chemistry that makes them fascinating to watch.
Daddio is streaming on Netflix.
The Children’s Train (2024)
There’ve been scores of movies about the European experience during World War II, but what about what happened immediately afterward? The Children’s Train is set in Italy around 1946 and focuses on young Amerigo (Christian Cervone), who is sent by his poor mother to travel to Northern Italy to live with a foster family. He’s reluctantly taken in by Derma (Barbara Ronchi), who’s still grieving the loss of her lover during the war, and her brother Alcide (Ivan Zerbinati), who has three young boys of his own. Once settled in, Amerigo undergoes all the highs and lows of growing up, and may discover a way out of his impoverished life once and for all.
Released late last year, The Children’s Train was swallowed by Netflix’s punishing algorithm and hasn’t been talked about much since. But it’s never too late to discover a quality gem, and The Children’s Train, with its sympathetic portrait of post-war youth, qualifies. The movie depicts a time and place rarely seen on screen, and it expertly toes the line between sentimentality and realism. The ending is a heartbreaker, so save some tissues on hand to wipe away those tears.
The Children’s Train is streaming on Netflix.
The Menu (2022)
“Eat the rich” takes on a whole new meaning with The Menu, a deliciously entertaining 2022 social satire that’s only grown in stature with the passing years. Reclusive celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) invites a select few wealthy guests to a secluded island to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime dinner. Among the guests are Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult), a foodie with questionable morals, and his girlfriend Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy), who couldn’t care less about fine dining.
It’s Margot who first realizes that something’s not quite right with the whole setup. Why can’t anyone leave the island once they start the dinner? And what’s with the tortillas that include written messages that reveal the shameful secrets of each guest? The Menu soon becomes a series of WTF moments in the best kind of way, with each scene topping the next. Fiennes has never been better as the bitter chef, while Taylor-Joy shines as an everywoman who just wants to eat a nice, juicy burger.
The Menu is streaming on Netflix.
