3 Near-Perfect Netflix Movies To Watch This Weekend

Following the box office domination of the video game adaptation sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Ryan Gosling‘s astronomic masterpiece Project Hail Mary, there is a new movie debuting in theaters this weekend, sure to take the crown. Ready to tell the box office competition to “Beat It” and steal a slick lead at the top of the charts like a “Smooth Criminal,” Antoine Fuqua’s Michael is destined to earn huge numbers this weekend and beyond as viewers don their singular white, sequined glove and head to the theater. But what about from your own home? To help you decide how best to use the rest of your weekend, here’s a look at three movies you should stream on Netflix.

For more recommendations, check out our list of the best shows and movies on Netflix.

Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.

1

‘Apex’ (2026)

Although Michael will take all the movie headlines this weekend, Netflix is fighting back with an eye-catching new release of its own. Starring Charlize Theron in another action blockbuster, Apex follows a grieving adrenaline junkie who vows to conquer a terrifying river. However, what lurks in these choppy waters is much more threatening than she could have ever imagined.

A fast-paced thriller perfect to inject a dose of high-octane adrenaline into your viewing weekend, Apex is sure to ascend the streaming charts thanks almost entirely to the involvement of the ever-brilliant Theron. She is joined by Kingsman star Taron Egerton and Eric Bana, with all three working under the watchful eye of director Baltasar Kormákur and from a script by Jeremy Robbins.































































Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?

Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.

🪜Parasite

🌀Everything Everywhere

☢️Oppenheimer

🐦Birdman

🪙No Country for Old Men

01

What kind of film experience do you actually want?
The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.





02

Which idea grabs you most in a film?
Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?





03

How do you like your story told?
Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.





04

What makes a truly great antagonist?
The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?





05

What do you want from a film’s ending?
The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?





06

Which setting pulls you in most?
Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.





07

What cinematic craft impresses you most?
Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.





08

What kind of main character do you root for?
The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.





09

How do you feel about a film that takes its time?
Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.





10

What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema?
The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?





The Academy Has Decided
Your Perfect Film Is…

Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.

Parasite

You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.

Oppenheimer

You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.

Birdman

You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.

No Country for Old Men

You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.

2

‘First Reformed’ (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes: 94% | IMDb: 7.1/10

Earlier this year, Ethan Hawke received his fifth acting Oscar nomination for a transformative lead role in Richard Linklater‘s Blue Moon. Despite being regularly recognized by the Academy, perhaps his best-ever performance came in a film that somehow earned only one Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay, although he at least received an Actor of the Year prize from the London Film Critics’ Circle.

The movie in question is First Reformed, director Paul Schrader‘s powerful psychological thriller, which follows the pastor of a small New York church as his life is shaken following a tragic encounter. Not afraid to tackle some serious and nuanced themes, First Reformed offers a detailed, thought-provoking tale sure to capture your heart and eyes. A masterclass in ensemble performances is topped by Hawke at his best in this must-see movie.

3

‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ (1993)

Rotten Tomatoes: 70% | IMDb: 7.1/10

Sometimes all you need on a weekend after a long, difficult week is a cozy, nostalgic favorite. If that’s what you require, look no further than the 1993 comedy classic Mrs. Doubtfire. The movie follows Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams), who fights to save his family after his wife, Miranda Hillard (Sally Field), files for divorce. To stay close to his kids, Daniel disguises himself as Euphegenia Doubtfire, a Scottish housekeeper who starts looking after the family.

Chaotic, kind-hearted, and utterly hilarious, Mrs. Doubtfire has it all. At its heart, this is the perfect family film, teaching timeless lessons through one of the best comedy performances you’re likely to ever see. Not just a hit with fans that holds up perfectly today, Mrs. Doubtfire was also a critical success, even winning the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 66th ceremony in 1994.

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