The best movies to watch on Apple TV right now

Director: Martin Scorese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone

Martin Scorsese’s gripping and much-Oscar-nominated true crime epic sees him adapting a David Grann book into a devastating indictment of white people’s greed and violence towards indigenous Americans in the early 20th century. Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio deliver star power but Lily Gladstone is no less charismatic as an Osage woman at the heart of a murderous conspiracy. It’s three and 26 minutes long, so the ‘pause’ button on the Apple remote control will come in handy. 

Watch Killers of the Flower Moon now on Apple TV

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon

A hotshot has-been is coaxed out of retirement to mentor a promising up-and-comer and possibly reclaim some lost glory for himself. It’s a tried-and-true formula — one Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski knows how to make hum. In this case, he trades zoom for vroom and Tom Cruise for Brad Pitt as a bad-boy Formula 1 driver elevating a struggling club by exploiting loopholes in the rulebook. It’s hard to tell if Pitt is playing aloof or if he’s just bored, but the racing scenes absolutely roar.

Watch F1: The Movie now on Apple TV

Director: Steve McQueen

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Elliott Heffernan, Paul Weller

Steve McQueen’s World War II drama observes the bombing of London through the eyes of a young mixed-race child, who battles through explosions, floods and racism to return home and reunite with his mum. A bit traditional by McQueen standards, it’s still thrilling to see the director working with such a large canvas. Saoirse Ronan is also magnificent as the mother of newcomer Elliott Heffernan, tense and tender in equal measure. 

Watch Blitz now on Apple TV

Director: Joel Coen

Cast: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand

The Thane of Coen (ie: Joel) fulfils his destiny with a striking solo directorial movie, a monochrome take on Shakespeare’s bloody tale of ambition, murder and giant cauldrons. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth – yes, Marge Gunderson has turned to the dark side – with sinister plots in their minds. The expressionist sets, Carter Burwell’s intense score and the general Coen-y off-kilter vibes make it a very different animal to your average, musty take on the Bard.

Watch The Tragedy of Macbeth now on Apple TV

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Miles Teller

A long-distance romance movie with mutant monsters? Scott Derrickson strikes upon a fun formula in this lavishly appointed B-movie that's a bit like if Michael Curtiz had made Tremors (albeit maybe not that good). Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller play snipers sent to guard two sides of a mysterious chasm. They fall for each other, then fall in. Teller is snoozy but Taylor-Joy holds it all together with sparky commitment. The big reveal is suitably daft, too.

Watch The Gorge now on Apple TV

Director: Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart

Voice cast: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean

Aside from the always-delightful ‘Peanuts’ movies, including the legendary A Charlie Brown Christmas, Apple TV+ is not exactly overflowing with kid-friendly fare. But it does have this Irish folk fable from Cartoon Saloon (The Secret of Kells), the animation house fast becoming Cork’s answer to Studio Ghibli. And it’s very lovely, to boot. A young girl takes on the dastardly English invaders in 17th century Kilkenny with some help from some mythical wolves. It’s the perfect family movie night treat.

Watch Wolfwalkers now on Apple TV+

Director: Spike Lee 

Cast: Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright

Spike Lee remakes Akira Kurosawa with a hip-hop twist. Denzel Washington is a music mogul whose son is kidnapped by a disgruntled artist (rapper A$AP Rocky). When he discovers it’s actually the child of his driver (Jeffrey Wright) who’s been abducted, he must decide: how much ransom is too much to clear his conscience? It contains all the – apologies in advance – highs and lows of modern Spike Lee joints, but Washington is still incapable of being anything less than captivating, and Rocky is right there with him.

Watch Highest 2 Lowest now on Apple TV

Director: Todd Haynes

Apple’s movie library offers an intriguing mix of OG filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Joel Coen and Sofia Coppola, and exciting new voices (Sian Heder, Lila Neugebauer, Christos Nikou). This music doc is from the OG camp, with Todd Haynes delivering a rambunctious doc about rock legends The Velvet Underground. There’s no boring rock-doc clichés here, no musos blathering on about chord progressions; instead, Haynes’s film takes you through the band’s eventful career, via Andy Warhol’s Factory and the hedonistic New York of the ’60s and early ’70s.

Watch The Velvet Underground now on Apple TV

Director: Sian Heder

Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin

CODA – ‘child of deaf adult’ – is an uplifting movie about hard-lived lives in a Massachusetts fishing town. It was a surprise Best Picture winner and deaf actor Troy Kotsur won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, so it comes with a tonne of deserved acclaim for its performances and empathetic depiction of family life in all its raucous, emotional reality. Londoner Emilia Jones plays high-schooler Ruby Rossi, a conduit for her deaf father and older brother on their New England fishing boat – as well as her mum (Children of the Lesser God’s Marlee Matlin). 

Watch CODA now on Apple TV

Director: Jon S Baird

Cast: Taron Egerton, Nikita Yefremov, Sofia Lebedeva

In gaming circles, the race to license Tetris is a well-known bit of lore, occurring at the intersection of two world-historic events: the Cold War and the invention of the Game Boy. Director Jon S Baird juices the true-life details into an exciting, Argo-style period thriller, with Taron Egerton as a software rep who recognises the block-stacking game’s addictive potential and travels to Russia to secure the rights, at not-insignificant personal risk. 

Watch Tetris now on Apple TV

Director: Davis Guggenheim

The ’80s wouldn’t have been the same without Michael J Fox, the sprightly, baby-faced superstar who won America’s heart as Marty McFly, Alex Keaton and Teen Wolf. Then came a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and his life was turned on its head. This Sundance breakout doc is a candid, wryly funny and super-emosh portrait of the man now – and then – as he reflects on how life changed with the disease and talks through those crazy, A-list days. ‘I was a massive bath of fear and professional anxiety,’ he remembers. Watch it and then watch Back to the Future for a bittersweet double bill.

Watch Still: A Michael J Fox Movie now on Apple TV

Director: Minhal Baig

Cast: Geraldine Viswanathan, Jack Kilmer, Purbi Joshi, Anna Chlumsky

‘A teenage girl struggles as she enters young womanhood’ is a story everyone has seen countless times, but it’s the specificity of the experience that makes Minhal Baig’s coming-of-age drama so quietly poignant. Hala Masood (Viswanathan) is a 17-year-old Muslim American living in suburban Illinois obsessed with poetry, skateboarding and the blond, blue-eyed boy (Kilmer) who hangs out at the local skate park, all of which put her at odds with her traditional parents. Again, it’s a story you’ve seen before, but Baig approaches it with such richly observed humanity that it deserves to be mentioned alongside Lady Bird and Edge of Seventeen in the recent teen pantheon.

Watch Hala now on Apple TV

Director: Paul Greengrass

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, America Ferrera

In 2018, the worst wildfire in California history tore through the working-class mountain community of Butte County, killing 85 people and threatening a school bus carrying 20-odd kids and their teacher. Director Paul Greengrass embellishes the true act of heroism that saved them into a bracing, emotional survival thriller. Matthew McConaughey is a down-bad bus driver forced to haul ass through near-literal hell to achieve salvation. The VFX are intense, and the director’s signature docudrama approach drops you right into the, ahem, heat of the action.

Watch The Lost Bus now on Apple TV

Director: John Carney

Cast: Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Once director John Carney specialises in small joys — little movies with a simple premise and familiar themes that somehow make your heart swell five sizes. In many other hands, the story of a single mother (Eve Hewson) trying to divert her teenage son (Orén Kinlan) from a life of crime by buying him a used guitar would seem twee and cloying. With Carney at the helm, it’s touching, authentic and impossible to resist. 

Watch Flora and Son now on Apple TV

Director: Christos Nikou

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson

Greek director Christos Nikou caught the eye with his brilliant debut Apples, an offbeat sci-fi  set in a world infected with amnesia. This second film from the Yorgos Lanthimos protégé builds on that early promise with another intriguing, high-concept idea. This time, it’s a mostly analogue world where technology can tell us if we’re in love. Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed play colleagues who may be falling for each other, despite the presence of The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as her boyfriend. But what will the machine say? Fans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will love it.

Watch Fingernails now on Apple TV

Director: Erica Tremblay

Cast: Lily Gladstone, Isabel DeRoy-Olson, Shea Whigham

In the same year as her Killers of the Flower Moon breakout, Lily Gladstone also starred in this quietly heartbreaking reservation drama. She bristles with pain and rage as Jax, a native woman in Oklahoma looking after her niece following the recent disappearance of sister, which neither tribal police nor the FBI have much interest in investigating. But Native American director Erica Tremblay’s debut feature is as much a coming-of-age story as a social drama, centred on Gladstone’s relationship with young Isabel DeRoy-Olson, and a powerful affirmation of indigenous traditions.

Watch Fancy Dance now on Apple TV

Directors: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

Looking for a real-life version of The Hunger Games? Try this fly-on-the-wall doc about The American Legion’s Boys State, a week-long political bootcamp for young D.C. hopefuls that once had Dick Cheney and Bill Clinton passing through on their way to power. No one stabs anyone – not literally, at any rate – but the ruthless scheming is a sight to behold. Meet Ben, the Reagan devotee who believes that ‘you have to use personal attacks and divisive issues to differentiate yourself’. It’s gripping, train-crash viewing. A companion film, 2024’s Girls State, is also available to stream.

Watch Boys State now on Apple TV

Director: Lila Neugebauer

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Tyree Henry

Jennifer Lawrence is on top form as a PTSD-sticken Afghanistan war veteran who tries to settle back home in New Orleans but can’t shake her trauma. Enter Atlanta’s Brian Tyree Henry as a mechanic who clocks the ex-soldier’s troubles and forms a moving bond with her. One of the weightest films on Apple TV+, Causeway is the best kind of heavyweight American indie: a pearl-pure and soulful snapshot of humans in flux, with complex characters and two stellar performances.

Watch Causeway now on Apple TV

Director: Reginald Hudlin

This Sidney Poitier doc is produced by Oprah Winfrey and features interviews with old pals and fans like Denzel Washington, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand and Spike Lee, so don’t expect a hit piece full of devastating revelations. Then again, how would that be possible with a man as unimpeachably inspirational as the Oscar-winning actor and Civil Rights pioneer? But Sidney is much more than just a gushing hagiography, with enough insights and complexities to keep movie lovers and Poitier newcomers alike glued to the telly.

Watch Sidney now on Apple TV

Director: Cooper Raiff

Cast: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann, Brad Garrett

Trying to erase Madame Web from your mind? Give this far superior Dakota Johnson effort a spin. Written, directed by and starring indie whizzkid Cooper Raiff (Shithouse), it’s the story of a charming slacker stalling in his purposeless twenties who reinvents himself as a boisterous party MC. Enter Domino (Johnson, magnetic), single mum to an autistic teenage girl, and the beginnings of a tender connection. The result is a little like the lovechild of About a Boy and Garden State.

Watch Cha Cha Real Smooth now on Apple TV

Director: Sofia Coppola

Cast: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones

It’s no Lost in Translation (or even Priscilla) but Sofia Coppola’s dad-and-daughter comedy-drama is an affable, enjoyable passport to an enjoyable tour of chi-chi Manhattan spots. Bill Murray plays the feckless father, a playboy showing no signs of abandoning his bad habits, and Rashida Jones is his stewing, frustrated daughter. Together the pair set out to spy on her potentially unfaithful husband in his vintage Alfa Romeo and exchange martinis and barbed put downs along the way.

Watch On the Rocks now on Apple TV

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby

Abel Gance can still lay claim to the best Napoleon biopic, 98 years and running, but Ridley Scott’s still gives you most of what you’d want from a chronicle of the French general’s rise to power: grandiose battle scenes, opulent period details and Joaquin Phoenix going ham. Scott appears less interested in the man himself than the historic, and in some cases ahistorical, markers of his life, but c’mon: are you really going to quibble over whether or not the guy actually shot cannonballs at the pyramids? 

Watch Napoleon now on Apple TV

Director: Errol Morris

The man behind the ‘Interrotron’ – the most terrifying-sounding interviewing technique in filmmaking – takes on a veteran Cold War interrogator. A battle of wits in documentary form, albeit fairly friendly and entirely electrode-free, Errol Morris (The Fog of War) grills spy-turned-spy-novelist par excellence John le Carré in a confessional look back at an extraordinary life. A must-see for anyone who knows their ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ from their ‘Constant Gardener’, The Pigeon Tunnel shines a powerful light on the shadowiest corners of recent history.

Watch The Pigeon Tunnel now on Apple TV

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan

It’s George Clooney and Brad Pitt as bickering criminal fixers forced to work a clean-up job together. How could that be bad? Well, it’s not, but it is a tad… uninspired. Still, with those two guys in an action-comedy, there’s a baseline of watchability, which director Jon Watts ably clears, even if a compilation of footage from the Clooney-Pitt press tour would be even more entertaining.

Watch Wolfs now on Apple TV

Directors: Kristin Gore, Damian Kulash

Cast: Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook, Geraldine Viswanathan

Bubbles are big in movies at the moment  – see also: BlackBerry, Dumb Money – at least partly because they come with their own built-in tension: when will they burst? A fun, throwaway Friday night watch, this true-life story follows eccentric toy maker Ty Warner (a barely recognisable Zach Galifianakis) as he launches the Beanie Babies craze with some help from three women in his life (Elizabeth Banks, Geraldine Viswanathan and Sarah Snook) and creates a resale bubble that finally goes ‘pop’.

Watch The Beanie Bubble now on Apple TV