Best Movies on Hulu | Lifehacker

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If you’re looking for a good movie to watch this weekend, Hulu has a ton of winners. Sensitive drama Suncoast premiered to critical and audience raves at Sundance this January, and it’s now exclusively on Hulu. (Host a living room film festival and it’ll be better than Sundance, because you don’t have to wear pants.) To keep the program diverse, check out quirky real-life comedy The Lost King, and make a double feature of Nightmare Alley and A Haunting in Venice, two period pieces with delightfully gothic vibes.

Suncoast

Get a box of tissues ready for this Hulu original coming-of-age comedy/drama. In Suncoast, Nico Parker plays Doris, a teenager living in the shadow of her brother Max’s terminal illness. When Max is moved to hospice, Doris finds an unlikely friend in Paul Warren (Woody Harrelson) whose wife, Teri Schiavo, is at the center of a national culture war over the right to die.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Set in a stylized version of the 1940s, Nightmare Alley is a fever dream of carnival geeks, crooked mediums, drifters, and conmen; it’s like the Trump Administration with better hats. Director Guillermo del Toro’s unique cinematic style reaches full expression in Nightmare Alley, where an opulent but unsettling world holds oversized characters enacting epic schemes. If you missed this one in theaters or have stayed away due to the (unfairly) mixed reviews, do yourself a favor and click “play.”

The Lost King (2023)

The Lost King tells the true story of amateur Scottish historian Philippa “King-Finder” Langley. After seeing a production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, Langley becomes obsessed with the disgraced monarch and vows to track down his long-lost grave and redeem his good name.

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Sherlock Holmes is a straight bitch compared to Hercule Poirot. A Haunting in Venice sees Poirot scoffing at a séance held in a supposedly haunted Venetian palazzo, raising his eyebrow archly at the party guests of opera singer Rowena Drake, and thoughtfully stroking his epic mustache as he ponders a murder mystery that would baffle anyone but Belgium’s greatest detective. Elegant, scary, suspenseful, and smart, A Haunting in Venice mixes gothic horror elements with a classic detective tale to create a deeply rich meal for mystery fans.

Last week’s picks

Summer of Soul (2021)

This collection of performances from the Harlem Cultural Festival proves beyond any possible doubt that the music at Woodstock was ass. Both events were held during the turbulent summer of 1969 at venues about 100 miles apart in New York, but Woodstock had Sha Na Na and Country Joe and the Fish, where Harlem had Nina Simone and Sly Stone. Woodstock had Ravi Shankar noodling on a sitar. Harlem had Stevie Wonder in his prime playing this drum solo. I wonder why Woodstock became a cultural touchstone that people still won’t shut up about, but everyone forgot about the Harlem Festival until Questlove pulled this footage from a dusty basement a few years ago and made a documentary.

Freelance (2023)

According to Rotten Tomatoes, only 6% of critics think Freelance is a good movie; but 77% of viewers rate it positively. I like John Cena, and I watched it on an airplane, so I’m in the 77%. Cena plays an ex-special forces guy who takes a freelance gig protecting a journalist played by Alison Brie. She’s interviewing the dictator of a fictional South American nation, but a coup breaks out, forcing the trio to flee into the jungle where they must survive and escape. It’s a solid action movie set-up, followed by a ton of car chases and explosions, some stupid jokes, and a romance between charismatic movie stars. What’s not to like? 

Skinamarink (2022)

Skinamarink is the opposite of Freelance. Rotten Tomatoes‘ critics love this horror movie— it’s 72% fresh—but the audience score is 44%. I’m confident it would be much lower if they showed this kind of movie on airplanes. There are no car chases, witty banter, or charismatic stars in Skinamarink. Almost nothing happens, and the little that occurs is intentionally hard to see or understand. Skinamarink’s goal is building the distressing vibe of a childhood nightmare, so it contains nothing in which a viewers might find comfort. I suggest a double feature with Freelance to see what kind of person you are. 

Some Kind of Heaven (2020)

If you’ve ever wondered why Florida is so Florida-y, this documentary about The Villages, the largest retirement community in the world, offers some answers. Portrayed through Some Kind of Heaven’s arresting imagery, many of the residents of The Villages live in a dreamlike perpetual present, where every day is a vacation day. They play golf, take belly dance lessons, drink tropical drinks by the pool, and wait; others are looking for personal meaning among the orange groves and mobility scooters; and some are on darker journeys, preying on others for money or drugs as if they’ve learned nothing from all their years on earth.