Each night, you look into your lover’s eyes and ask, “Will no legacy media outlet tell me about the best movies on Hulu?” Luckily, Vanity Fair is here for you. One glance at the platform’s A-to-Z listing reveals that there are almost too many good movies on Hulu to choose from, and it can become a chore to figure out which to select.
After a deep dive into the Hulu archive (the Hu-chive?), we’ve selected a top mix of classics, comedies, dramas, horror pictures, documentaries, and, importantly, a few titles that got overlooked upon their initial release. Our list is in alphabetical order, so you gotta scroll close to the bottom to get to Y Tu Mamá También.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
Director: James Mangold
Genre: Drama/musical
Notable cast: Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 70
The mercurial, Minnesota-born Robert Zimmerman, best known to humanity and the Swedish Academy as Bob Dylan, gets as good a straightforward musical biopic as the genre allows in A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet nails the nasal twang and aloof demeanor of the musician as he transitions from politically relevant folk music to electric rock and roll. While there’s plenty in the movie that is pure Hollywood, it captures the essence of the Dylan phenomenon and how the transformation affected colleagues like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, as well as his romantic life.
Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
Genre: Sci-fi/horror
Notable cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
Metacritic: 89
The original and still the best. A haunted-house story, a workplace drama, and a twist-filled mystery—all set in outer space. Sigourney Weaver’s rocket to superstardom took off here when she played the greatest interplanetary final girl, and John Hurt’s legendary tummy ache was a milestone for practical special effects. Several (not all!) of the sequels and prequels to this movie are good, but no matter how many times you’ve seen Alien, you will always find something new in it.
BlackBerry (2023)
Director: Matt Johnson
Genre: Comedy
Notable cast: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Michael Ironside
MPA rating: R
Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
Metacritic: 78
