Film Lists

The 10 Best Movies to Stream on Netflix While You're Quarantined

Quarantine is many things, but it's definitely a good time to catch up on movies.

Frances Ha

So you're technically "working from home" right now, but we know that really means lying in front of your TV with Slack open on your laptop.

If you're going to give yourself over to the gods of streaming while you avoid COVID-19, you may as well watch something worthwhile. Here are 10 movies that you need to see before you die, and since they're available on Netflix right now and you don't have anything better to do, you really have no excuse not to watch them.

A Quiet Place

While the apocalyptic themes of this movie may hit a little close to home right now, it's a gripping enough film to distract you from how tired you are of the person you're stuck in quarantine with. Written, directed, and starring John Krasinski, A Quiet Place explores a world that's been overrun by monsters with super-sensitive hearing. The few people left on earth are forced to exist and communicate in almost total silence in order to stay alive.

Watch on Netflix

Jaws

Now's the perfect time to revisit this thrilling classic. No matter how tired you get of staying indoors, at least you aren't being stalked by a massive shark like the characters in this Spielberg masterpiece.

Watch on Netflix

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

If you like the Coen Brothers, you'll love this quirky, episodic Western. If you don't like the Coen Brothers, you ought to watch this anyway, because it's so completely different than any other movie, you're sure to feel strongly one way or another. This anthology style film has no problem breaking the fourth wall and forcing you to reconsider everything you thought you knew about the Western genre.

Watch on Netflix

Roma

Winner of three Oscars, this movie from director Alfonso Cuarón will stick with you long after the closing credits. The story follows a maid working for an upper-middle class family in Mexico City in the 1970s, and it's sure to put your personal struggles into perspective.

Watch on Netflix

Ex Machina

This mind-bending thriller will have you on the edge of your seat (even if that seat is the sofa you've been sitting on for days now). Ex Machina follows a computer programmer named Domhnall Gleeson who wins the opportunity to spend a week with the enigmatic creator of the world's leading AI technology. Soon, Gleeson finds out that all is not as it seems in the high-tech mansion.

Watch on Netflix

Ghost

Is there any scene in the history of cinema that's more iconic than the pottery scene in this classic movie? Patrick Swayze plays the ghost of a banker seeking to warn girlfriend Demi Moore she's in danger via psychic Whoopi Goldberg. This film is as cheesy as it is excellent, and you really have to see it given its lasting cultural impact.

Watch on Netflix

Coraline

This stunning animated adaptation of a Neil Gaiman book is an absolute treat. This film from Laika, the company behind Kubo and the Two Strings and ParaNorman, is as visually appealing as it is creepy. If this isn't the kind of film you'd normally watch, maybe now is the perfect time to branch out.

Watch on Netflix

Frances Ha

There's nothing like Greta Gerwig's and Noah Baumbach's cutting wit and moving observations about life and friendship to help you forget about a building global pandemic. This semi-autobiographical film has become a cult classic and has arguably one of the best scripts of all time.

Watch on Netflix

The Irishman

Honestly, we wouldn't normally recommend you spend 3 hours of your one short life on this movie, but what else do you have to do right now? Settle in, pop some popcorn, and prepare to squint at the special effects that only do an okay job at making Robert De Niro look younger. If you can stick it out, it really is an excellent film.

Watch on Netflix

12 Years a Slave

This Oscar-winning historical drama, based on Solomon Northup's autobiographical book, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt. It follows the life of a free black man living in pre-Civil War America who is abducted and sold into slavery. It's a searing portrait of the brutality of slave life, and it should be mandatory viewing for everyone.

Watch on Netflix

CULTURE

Steven Spielberg's Daughter Finds Empowerment in Sex Work

Mikaela Spielberg has experienced trauma in her life, but she is pursuing a new career celebrating her body and her sexuality.

It's easy to think of the children of wealthy celebrities as being spoiled sheltered creatures who have never known pain.

Keep ReadingShow less
FILM

Horror Movie Monsters Are Less Terrible Than Sarah Sanders

These classic horror movie monsters are pretty awful, but not nearly as awful as the resigning White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sarah Sanders

Photo by JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

At long last, Sarah Sanders―the most prolific, unabashed liar, and gaslighter to ever hold the position of White House Press Secretary―has resigned.

Perhaps two straight years of partisan treachery took a toll, even on a heart as black as Sarah's. But somehow that seems unlikely. Most probably, the creature known as "Huckabee" simply grew full on its diet of pure untruths and decided now was the time to slumber. So, in celebration of Sarah Sanders' resignation, we've compiled a list of some of cinema's most vile monsters.

It from It Follows

The titular "It" from It Follows is a creature that can take the form of any person, changing at will as it walks towards its victim at a steady pace. When it catches up to its victim, it sexes them to death (usually in the form of a horrendously scarring person like the victim's mother). It would probably have a similar M.O. if It were Sarah Sanders, except instead of sex, Sanders would hold victims down and shout, "YOU'LL NEED TO ASK THE PRESIDENT ABOUT THAT" until their brains melted.

Freddy Kreuger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Kreuger is a sweater-donning, fedora-wearing, burnt-skin-slasher who appears in people's worst nightmares to crack one-liners and then murder them. If Freddy Kreuger were Sarah Sanders, she would still appear in people's nightmares to kill them, but she wouldn't crack any jokes because she's a miserable, humorless person.

Pennywise from It

Pennywise might usually look like a dancing clown but, in reality, after luring children in with lies and deception, it takes the form of a giant spider to eat them. Sarah Sanders already has the lies and deception down. But if Pennywise were Sarah Sanders, instead of offering kids cool red balloons and then eating them, she'd be doling out MAGA hats and inciting them to hate immigrants. She'd still be a giant spider though.

The Shark from Jaws

The Shark from Jaws is just a really big shark. It's not evil or malicious; it's just fulfilling the biological imperative. How can anyone fault it for that? If the Shark were Sarah Sanders, though, it would still go around eating people all the time (which is expected), but then, for some reason, it would get really mad whenever anyone called it a Shark. And everyone would be like, "But you are a Shark, you're literally going around eating people." Shark Sarah would continue to feign offense as she continued her rampage.

Pinhead from Hellraiser

Pinhead is an evil, extra-dimensional being called a Cenobite. He travels through a puzzle box along with the rest of his Cenobite pals and captures the soul of any human who happens to inadvertently solve the cursed puzzle. If Pinhead were Sarah Sanders, rather than being summoned through a puzzle box, she would be summoned simply by reading a Washington Post article. Her and her demonic followers would proceed to call it fake news until the article was closed. She would be very frequent and very annoying.