Superman
Photograph: Warner Bros.
Photograph: Warner Bros.

Best Movies to Watch: Your Ultimate Guide to New Releases & Streaming

Don’t know what to watch? We’ve got your back with the must-see new releases and streaming picks

Matthew Singer
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Streaming is hard. That seems like a misnomer, given that practically every movie you could ever want to watch is now a few clicks away. But that’s the issue: knowing precisely what’s out there, and where to find it, can become overwhelming. Here, we’re doing the hard work for you, by cutting through the clutter and getting straight to the best movies available to watch right now and in the near future – not just at home, but in theaters as well. We will update this guide regularly, so you can always find something to watch. Here’s the latest and greatest available right now.

What to Watch Now: New Movie Releases

In Cinemas and Theaters This Month

Superman 

Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the ultimate referendum on the continuing financial viability of superhero movies! Seriously, James Gunn’s take on the Man of Steel looks pretty fun, with David Corenswet showing more vulnerability, physically and emotionally, than we’ve seen from the Last Son of Krypton in a while.

In theatres Jul 11

Eddington 

Ari Aster’s COVID drama divided the audience at Cannes, but based on the trailer, at least, it’s hard to see the problem. Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as, respectively, the sheriff and mayor of a small New Mexico town, going at each other’s throats as the world goes into lockdown? Sounds good to us. 

In theatres Jul 18

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Ah, vehicular manslaughter, that classic teenage rite of passage. Twenty-eight years after the events of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, a new generation of kids are stalked by a hook-wielding fisherman – and enlist the first film’s surviving protagonists for help. Given their inability to escape this franchise, though, are Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr really the best people to ask for advice?

In theatres Jul 18

Sorry, Baby

Not many filmmakers would dare start their careers with a comedy about the struggle to heal from sexual assault. But Eva Victor’s directorial debut, which she also wrote and stars in, covers some tough subject matter with sensitivity, gentle humour and deep wells of empathy, earning Victor big-time buzz as a talent to watch.

In theatres Jul 18  

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Speaking of the financial viability of comic book movies, here’s another major litmus test, this time for the possibly resurgent post-Thunderbolts* MCU. No one has yet to make a good Fantastic Four movie, but this attempt’s retro-’60s hook appears viable, even if the title makes it sound like superhero Muppet Babies.

In theatres Jul 25

The Home

Pete Davidson takes a job in a shady retirement home and discovers something strange afoot with both the residents and the higher-ups. We’d say the trailer spoils too much but from the looks of it you’ve seen this kind of jump-scare-centric horror a million times before anyway.

In theatres Jul 25

Oh, Hi!

A romcom that blooms from a horror movie setup, the second feature from director Sophie Brooks (The Boy Downstairs) subverts the expectations of both genres. A woman (The Bear’s Molly Gordon) and her new boyfriend (Logan Lerman) head to a cabin for a weekend of kinky sex. While he’s handcuffed to the bed, the latter makes the incredibly unwise decision to declare he’s ‘not looking for a relationship.’ What transpires from there is something like an indie-screwball version of Misery. Tell us you’re not intrigued!

In theatres Jul 25

Best Movies Streaming Now

Best New Movies to Watch on Netflix

Straw

Another addition to Netflix’s burgeoning roster of guilty-pleasure thrillers, starring Taraji P Henson as a struggling single mother who’s absolutely had it and decides to rob a bank. Directed by Tyler Perry, it’s characteristically melodramatic, but still a pretty fun watch. 

Watch Straw now on Netflix

The Old Guard 2

It’s Charlize Theron versus Uma Thurman in this sequel to the surprisingly successful 2020 comic-book adaptation about a gang of immortal mercenaries. 

Watch The Old Guard 2 now on Netflix

Brick

The residents of an apartment complex wake up one morning to find themselves suddenly cut off from the outside world and trapped inside the building by an impenetrable wall. The neighbors must work together to escape and figure out just what the hell is going on in this German thriller.

Watch Brick now on Netflix


Best New Movies to Watch on Hulu

The Actor

Ryan Gosling, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Charlie Kaufman all had their names attached to this psychological thriller before post-pandemic delays disrupted production. Finally released earlier this year, it stars Moonlight’s André Holland as an amnesiac actor who wakes up in a small Ohio town in 1950, with no idea of who he is and how he got there. 

Watch The Actor now on Hulu

Riff Raff

A stellar cast, including Ed Harris, Bill Murray, Jennifer Coolidge and, uh, Pete Davidson, get stuck in a ‘seen it before’ crime comedy involving an ex-gangster whose past life comes back to bite him in retirement. Still, a cast that great is going to make some good things happen, especially when inhabiting character types they could play in their sleep.

Watch Riff Raff now on Hulu 

Get Away 

Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost wrote this bloody horror comedy that plays like Midsommar on helium. Frost stars as the patriarch of a British family bearing witness to a strange ritual while vacationing on a remote island in Sweden. Not everything works, but it’s got a killer twist and hilariously over-the-top levels of gore.

Watch Get Away on Hulu starting July 15

The Amateur

Rami Malek is a CIA computer nerd out for revenge after his wife is the victim of a terrorist attack. Unable to kick ass in the traditional action-star way, he makes use of his particular set of skills to take out the men responsible. It’s the sort of pulpy, mid-budget spy thriller ideal for a do-nothing Friday night on the couch.

Watch The Amateur on Hulu starting July 17

The Assessment

In a near-future dystopia, where prospective parents are forced to undergo rigorous observation before being allowed to have children, a couple (Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel) are put through the ringer by a government-appointed assessor (Alicia Vikander). It’s impressively smart, high-concept sci-fi from newcomer Fleur Fortuné, highlighted by Vikander’s bravely weird, unhinged performance.

Watch The Assessment on Hulu starting July 19 


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Best New Movies to Watch on HBO Max

Sinners

If you missed seeing Ryan Coogler’s vampire gangster blues musical period piece in a crowded theater, you really missed out on one of the great communal cinema experiences of the year. But if you haven’t seen Sinners, rectify that immediately, even if it means watching at home – it’s the movie of 2025 so far.

Watch Sinners now on HBO Ma

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

The second film from Zambian director Rungano Nyoni is a surreal, sometimes darkly funny interrogation of the value of family heritage and social mores. One night, a woman (Susan Chardy) comes across a dead body on the side of the road: her uncle’s. As funeral preparations commence, the dark secrets of her middle-class family bubble to the surface. Visually hypnotic and tonally discomfiting, it’s one of the year’s under-the-radar highlights.

Watch On Becoming a Guinea Fowl now on HBO Max


Opus 

Horror movies skewering the cult of celebrity are all the rage right now, and this offering from A24 adds little to the conversation. But the ascendant Ayo Edebiri, playing a journalist sent to a listening party for a reclusive pop star’s new album, continues to prove herself a reliable screen presence, while John Malkovich hams it up as the charismatically creepy artist in question.

Watch Opus now on HBO Max 


I Love You Forever 

Cazzie ‘Son of Larry’ David co-wrote and -directed this anti-romcom tracking the toxic relationship between a law student (Sofia Black-D’Elia) and a newscaster (Ray Nicholson) whose initial charms give way to intense neediness. Don’t worry: the notes are sour but never gets so dark as to qualify as traumatic, and it’s still pretty damn funny. 

Watch I Love You Forever on HBO Max starting July 18

Best New Movies to Watch on Peacock

The Woman in the Yard

Fresh off the streaming hit Carry-On, new-school B-movie maestro Jaume Collet-Serra returns to straightforward horror. In the aftermath of a tragedy, a mysterious woman shrouded in black takes up residence outside a grieving family’s farmhouse. Seems bad.

Watch The Woman in the Yard now on Peacock


Drop 

A widowed mother is tormented by threatening AirDrops while on her first date since the death of her husband. If you liked Trap, there’s no reason you shouldn’t enjoy this similarly silly-yet-fun Blumhouse thriller, a showcase for rising star Meghann Fahy (Netflix’s Sirens).

Watch Drop now on Peacock

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Best New Movies to Watch on Paramount+

Love Me

Sort of a live-action Wall-E, this sci-fi two-hander involves a romance between a satellite and a weather buoy, with Steve Yeun and Kristen Stewart as their human avatars. It’s a bit hard to accurately explain, but suffice to say, there are worse choices to carry a high-minded film than those two.

Watch Love Me now on Paramount+

Transformers One

Who needs Megan Fox, Shia LeBeouf and whoever was in the more recent sequels? This animated origin story, going all the way back to the youth of Optimus Prime and Megatron, is arguably better than any of the live-action movies, and boasts an impressive voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm.

Watch Transformers One now on Paramount+ 


Best New Movies to Watch on Disney+

SALLY 

A look at the life and times of pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, featuring insights from her partner, former tennis pro Tam O’Shaughnessy.

Watch SALLY now on Disney+

Jaws at 50

Aside from Apocalypse Now, no other movie production has become part of infamous Hollywood lore like Steven Spielberg’s industry-changing blockbuster. Unfortunately, no one had the foresight to make a documentary about the making of Jaws as it was happening, so this retrospective, marking the film’s 50th anniversary, will have to do.

Watch Jaws at 50 now on Disney+

Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful

The pop star accompanied her new album with this visual accompaniment, a loosely connected series of videos full of uncanny images and spoken-word interludes, centred around the theme of healing. It looks great, if nothing else.

Watch Something Beautiful on Disney+ starting July 16


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Best New Movies to Watch on Prime

Nosferatu

Of the many iterations of FW Murnau’s 1922 Dracula riff made over the last century, Robert Eggers’ rigorously detailed retelling may be the most visually arresting – that is, if you can get past Count Orlok looking like Soda Popinski from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.

Watch Nosferatu now on Prime

Heads of State

After finding themselves the target of a global conspiracy, the bickering US President (John Cena) and British Prime Minister (Idris Elba) team up with agents from both MI6 (Priyanka Chopra) and CIA (Jack Quaid) to take out their common enemy. Good, dumb fun, with two guys in Cena and Elba who excel at this kind of winking action-comedy.

Watch Heads of State now on Prime

Better Man

Americans shrugged at this biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams, in which the singer is portrayed by a CGI monkey. It’s their loss – it’s one of the most effective observations of the toxicity of fame to come along in a while.

Watch Better Man now on Prime 


Best New Movies to Watch on Apple TV+

Bono: Stories of Surrender

In this adaptation of his one-man live show, the U2 frontman tamps down his messianic stage persona, sharing glimpses into his personal life for an intimate audience in between stripped-down renditions of hits like ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and ‘Beautiful Day’, backed by classical musicians.

Watch Bono: Stories of Surrender now on Apple TV+ 

Echo Valley 

When her drug-addict daughter (Sydney Sweeney) shows up on her doorstep covered in blood, a Pennsylvania horse trainer (Julianne Moore) goes to great lengths to clean up her mess. Hey, that’s an intriguing twosome – and Domhnall Gleeson looks suitably skeevy as the guy who knows their secret, and has no qualms taking advantage of it.

Watch Echo Valley now on Apple TV+ 

What to Watch By Genre & Mood

Best Action Movies to Stream Now

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Tom Cruise jumps back into his flight suit and into the cockpit of an F16 in the blockbuster sequel to the jet-flying, beach-volleyball-playing 1986 classic. It’s the rare reboot to surpass the original.

Streaming on Paramount+

The Matrix (1999)

The Wachowskis’ cyberpunk mind-bender ended the first century of moviemaking by beaming audiences directly into the future – and it still feels ahead of its time today.

Streaming on MGM+

Predator (1987)

Arnold Schwarzenegger battles one ugly mothertrucking alien in the jungles of Central America in the original entry of the long-running action-horror franchise.

Streaming on Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Action Movies of All-Time


Best Comedy Movies to Stream Now

Airplane! (1980)

Gags shoot at the screen like geese through a jet engine in this incomparably anarchic send-up of ‘70s disaster flicks.

Streaming on Paramount+ 

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Jeff Bridges gives one of the most iconic comedic performances of all-time in the Coen bros’ seminal existential stoner comedy as Jeffrey ‘the Dude’ Lebowski, a ‘60s holdover who won’t even let a dangerous case of mistaken identity wreck his chill.

Streaming on Peacock

The Jerk (1979)

Steve Martin launched his movie career with this masterpiece of stupidity, starring as an adopted simpleton who leaves home to discover his ‘special purpose’.

Streaming on Netflix

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Comedy Movies of All-Time


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Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies to Stream Now

Sunshine (2007)

A crew of A-listers, including Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne and Michelle Yeoh, are dispatched to reignite a dying sun in this contemplative sci-fi drama from 28 Years Later writer-director tandem Alex Garland and Danny Boyle.

Streaming on Hulu

Jurassic Park (1993)

Almost all the Jurassic Park movies are hitting Peacock in anticipation of Rebirth, but let’s be real: all you really need is Steven Spielberg’s original, whose effects somehow still look better than everything that came after.

Streaming on Peacock

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

A rare example of a remake exceeding the original, which injects this classic sci-fi terrifier about a clandestine alien invasion with plenty of post-Watergate paranoia.

Streaming on Max

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Science Fiction Movies of All-Time

See Time Out's full list of the Best Space Movies of All-Time

See Time Out's full list of the Best Fantasy Movies of All-Time


Best Horror Movies to Stream Now

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

It’s an odd thing to say about a movie centred around a chainsaw-wielding monster who wears a mask made out of a woman’s skin, but the most striking thing about Tobe Hooper’s foundational horror classic is its restraint. It might not be as gory as the title implies, but it’s damn sure as scary.

Streaming on Peacock

Saint Maud (2020)

Love Lies Bleeding’s Rose Glass made a smashing debut with this disturbing tale of religious mania, starring Morfydd Clark as a live-in nurse desperate to save the soul of the spiky ex-dancer she’s taken under her care.

Streaming on Prime

The Birds (1963)

A host of Alfred Hitchcock classics are hitting Netflix this month, including one of the master of suspense’s strangest films, about an avian invasion in a California coastal town – which, believe it or not, is based on an actual incident. 

Streaming on Netflix

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Horror Movies of All-Time


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Best Date Night Movies to Stream Now

In the Mood for Love (2000)

A pair of cuckolds (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, both luminescent) find themselves drawn together in the aftermath of their spouses’ infidelity in Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece of quiet longing.

Streaming on HBO Max

Working Girl (1988)

Melanie Griffith is an all-time charmer in Mike Nichols’ fizzy corporate comedy about a secretary at a brokerage firm working her way up the corporate ladder - and into the arms of her handsome coworker, Harrison Ford.

Streaming on Hulu

Past Lives (2023)

Celine Song made a powerful debut as a writer-director with this calmly pulverising drama following two childhood friends across decades and continents as they try, vainly, to manifest their feelings for each other.

Streaming on Netflix and Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Movies of All-Time

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Comedies of All-Time


Best Family Movies to Stream Now

The Wild Robot (2024)

After a storm capsizes a shipping vessel, an artificially intelligent robot washes ashore on an island in the Pacific Northwest and puts its service capabilities to use helping the local wildlife. A visual and emotional stunner, it recalls the glory days of Pixar. 

Streaming on Netflix

Encanto (2022)

With a record-breaking soundtrack by Lin-Manuel Miranda, this story of a super-powered, multi-generational Colombian family borrows from the magical realist literary traditions of Gabriel García Márquez to explore the importance of familial bonds and staying true to yourself.

Streaming on Disney+

Flow (2025)

An anonymous cat must work together with several other animals to survive a flood in this wordless wonder from Latvia, which upset several major studios at the Oscars to take home the Best Animated Feature prize.

Streaming on Max and Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Family Movies of All-Time

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