The 50 best movies on Netflix Canada right now

There’s something for every taste in the streaming platform’s epic catalogue. From canonical classics to cult oddities, here are our picks for the best movies currently available on Netflix Canada.

The Godfather

If you haven’t rewatched this masterpiece recently, there’s still a lot to appreciate. For one, how director Francis Ford Coppola masterfully lays out the characters and the stakes in the opening wedding scene. For another, how Marlon Brando delivers an iconic performance with cotton in his cheeks. We’re living in a pandemic and The Godfather is just sitting there on Netflix—it’s an offer we can’t refuse.

Dolemite Is My Name

This drama looks at the chaotic making of the rude-and-crude ‘70s blaxploitation film Dolemite. Eddie Murphy plays real-life star Rudy Ray Moore, who’s shut out by white-owned record companies and movie studios, only to release his work to unexpected, roaring success.

Clueless

Every teen romcom of the ’90s—10 Things I Hate About You, She’s All That, Never Been Kissed—owes its DNA to this clever adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, about a Beverly Hills busybody and the rigid hierarchy of high school. Alicia Silverstone’s turn as Cher is one of the all-time great film performances: her zingy one-liners are almost as enviable as her yet-to-be-realized robo-closet.

Modern Times

This silent Charlie Chaplin comedy takes on the soulless, rapidly industrializing world of the 1930s—it even features a machine meant to eliminate factory workers’ lunch hours by feeding them on the assembly line. It’s a kaleidoscopic vision of Depression-era America that isn’t too far off from today’s optimization-hungry reality.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

Considered one of the greatest kung-fu films of all time, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is a lesson in the martial arts and the martial way. It opens with a young man who watches colonial invaders massacre his family. Over the next 115 minutes or so, he tirelessly works to perfect his body and mind and master his skills as a fighter—before finally getting his delicious revenge.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This pungently atmospheric story of greed and betrayal in the Old West is one the most iconic examples of the ‘60s spaghetti western, when Italian filmmakers dove head-first into the American frontier. Clint Eastwood created an action-movie archetype in his strong, monosyllabic portrayal of the less-than-virtuous hero.

Road House

In this cult classic, a richly mulleted Patrick Swayze stars as a bouncer with an NYU philosophy degree and a taste for eastern mysticism who’s lured from New York to patrol the rowdiest bar in middle-of-nowhere Missouri.

The Other Side of the Wind

In 1970, Orson Welles cobbled together money to begin shooting a movie about Hollywood in the ‘60s but ran out of cash before it was ever completed. Over 40 years later, Netflix dug into the raw footage to finish the film, emerging with a spiky commentary about a washed-up movie veteran trying to stay relevant. Told in a fragmented, found-footage style, it’s an old master’s bittersweet rumination on the changing of the guard.

Love on Delivery

This raucous comedy is one of Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow’s lesser-known works from the ‘90s. It’s a wall-to-wall frenzy of absurd slapstick, parodies and general ridiculousness, about a boy who trains in martial arts to impress a girl.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

To revisit the British comedy troupe’s work is to remember that they took whatever medium they worked in—be it film, television, record albums or books—and turned it upside down. Case in point: the opening credits of this medieval film are derailed by phony subtitles and irrelevant facts about Sweden and llamas.

Eraserhead

David Lynch’s first film was shot in less-than-scenic areas of Philadelphia, made to look cold and evil and nightmarish. Just as terrifying is the film’s plot, about an odd man who finds himself in a shotgun marriage after his girlfriend gives birth to a monster baby.

Titanic

Titanic is often written off as a cheesy love story. But it’s really a remarkable disaster movie: the scale recreation of the ship before and during the sinking is plenty to marvel at on its own. Then there’s the electric chemistry between a young Leo and Kate, Billy Zane’s epic scenery-chewing and the truly poignant fates of the passengers. James Cameron was right: he really is the king of the world.

Other great movies on Netflix:

The Godfather Part II
Spirited Away
The Great Dictator
The Irishman
Kung Fu Hustle
City Lights
No Country for Old Men
Uncut Gems
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion
The Naked Gun
Inglourious Basterds
Being John Malkovich The Wizard of Oz Boogie Nights American Psycho
Zodiac
The Pianist Queen
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Atlantics
Silence of the Lambs
Mean Girls
Raiders of the Lost Ark
3 Idiots
My Neighbor Totoro
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Ip Man
The Matrix
Boyz n the Hood
Rocky
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese
King of New York
Good Time
Friday
Legendary Weapons of China
I’m Thinking of Ending Things
BlackKklansman Bad Trip