Stuck for something to watch? Here are 40 of the best movies to stream these Easter holidays
The Easter holidays present us with many opportunities. Unfortunately, the time to watch a cracking film or two also comes with streaming indecision: you settle on the couch to watch a good movie, then you get unsettled because you can’t find the right one. These 40 films are my solution – each is a pre-approved (by me) great movie available to stream that’s gone under-recognised, been forgotten with time, or was misrepresented.
ACTION
Bullitt: As a San Francisco police detective Steve McQueen set the benchmark for unruffled cool in this 1968 crime thriller, which boasts an all-time car chase. SBS On Demand/Max
The Grandmaster: Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai’s period martial arts movie was unexpected but deeply satisfying, with Tony Leung leading the stunningly graceful fight choreography. 7plus
Cate Blanchett in the 2011 thriller Hanna.
Hanna: Saoirse Ronan plays a 15-year-old trained as an assassin in the wilderness by her ex-spy dad (Eric Bana). Her target? Cate Blanchett’s CIA agent. Binge/Netflix
Haywire: Steven Soderbergh made MMA champ Gina Carano the centrepiece of this lean, labyrinthine 2011 mystery, with Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and Ewan McGregor as her adversaries. SBS On Demand
Ready or Not: Australian star Samara Weaving proved her genre movie bona fides in this gory nightmare where a bride fights for her life after marrying into a wealthy family. Disney+/Netflix
COMEDY
Blackberry: A bunch of misfit Canadian geeks invent the groundbreaking 1990s communications device; it does not go well. Bittersweet, chaotic and featuring a legendary meltdown. Binge/Paramount+
Burn After Reading: It’s not a Fargo-level Coen Brothers movie, but this 2008 black comedy about dissatisfied spies entangled with idiotic amateurs (hello, Brad Pitt!) is drily enjoyable. Paramount+
Jason Bateman (left), Rachel McAdams and Kyle Chandler are ready to play in Game Night.
Game Night: Twisty and increasingly outrageous, this 2018 action-comedy stars Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as a couple whose game night begins with a player (possibly) being kidnapped. Stan
In Bruges: Long before The Banshees of Inisherin, filmmaker Martin McDonagh and stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson created madcap melancholy with a tale of Irish hitmen on an enforced holiday. Netflix/SBS On Demand/Stan
Mistress America: Greta Gerwig hits the high notes in this 2015 comedy she co-wrote with director Noah Baumbach, playing a flighty Manhattanite who gives her protégé quite the education. Disney+
DRAMA
Babette’s Feast: Mix some flavours of Nigella Lawson and Ingmar Bergman and you have Gabriel Axel’s 1987 Danish classic about an exiled French cook who thanks her staid employers with the meal of a lifetime. Amazon Prime Video
The French Connection: Gene Hackman won his first Academy Award for this gritty 1971 police procedural, playing an uncompromising NYPD detective pursuing a heroin shipment. Disney+
Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore In May December.Credit: Netflix
May December: Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore uncover all kinds of uncomfortable truths in this acidic Todd Hayne tale of a Holly wood actor studying the woman she plans to play. Binge/Amazon Prime Video
Perfect Days: Revered German director Wim Wenders caps his career with this beautifully unadorned study of a Tokyo public toilet cleaner’s life. It builds to a telling, sublime peak. Stan
Private Life: Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn are aces together as a middle-aged couple whose quest to have a child has begun to threaten their happiness. A small, wonderful movie. Netflix
Martin Freeman and Susie Porter fight to stay alive in Cargo.Credit: Umbrella Entertainment
HORROR
Cargo: Sherlock’s Martin Freeman stars as a father trying to protect his baby, but otherwise this outback post-apocalyptic thriller is a distinctly Australian take on the zombie epidemic. Netflix
Dawn of the Dead: Before piloting comic book franchises, director Zack Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn made a bloody, succinct remake of the 1978 zombie outbreak classic. Binge
Titane: Body horror meets automotive erotica in this audacious French fever dream about a young woman whose childhood trauma has left her sexually connected to cars. SBS On Demand
Infinity Pool: Brandon Cronenberg does father David proud with this escalating nightmare about a successful author whose holiday abroad descends into nightmarish depravity. Paramount+
Mom and Dad: It’s an ordinary day in the American suburbs until parents acquire an unstoppable urge to kill their children. Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair lead the hunt. Stan
ROMANCE
Cha Cha Real Smooth: An untethered college graduate (director Cooper Raiff) falls for an older single mother (Dakota Johnson). Familiar pitch, but delivered here with wit and insight. Apple TV+
Cold War: Heartbreak has an undeniable melody in this wrenching romantic tragedy about love-crossed Polish musicians who can’t escape the realities of geopolitics and their mutual desire. Stan
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo play childhood friends Na Young and Hae Sung who reconnect as adults in Past Lives.
Past Lives: Greta Lee gave a breakthrough performance for the ages in this 2023 romantic drama about a married Korean immigrant in New York unexpectedly visited by her childhood crush. Amazon Prime Video/Binge
Sleeping with Other People: A pre-Ted Lasso Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star in this indie rom-com about the friendship between recovering sex addicts. Filthy, flinty fun. Netflix/Stan
Working Girl: Hollywood romance, 1980s-style. Melanie Griffth (Dakota Johnson’s mother) plays a secretary who pretends to be an executive, chasing Harrison Ford and dodging Sigourney Weaver. Disney+
THRILLER
American Gigolo: Menacing and rife with spiritual hunger, Paul Schrader’s sleek neo-noir from 1980 stars an impossibly handsome Richard Gere as a privileged male escort caught up in a conspiracy. Stan
Bound: As an audition for The Matrix, filmmaking siblings the Wachowskis put together this torrid lesbian thriller starring Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon and millions in stolen cash. Amazon Prime Video/Stan
The Deep End: Tilda Swinton goes full chameleon in this cooly compelling 2001 tale of a respectable Californian wife and mother venturing into the underworld to protect her teenage son. Disney+
The Handmaiden: South Korean master Park Chan-wook delivers scabrous, subversive need – both erotic and criminal – in this wild 1930s-set story of arcane revenge. Prepare yourself! SBS On Demand
Klute: Deeply prescient, this 1971 psychological thriller tracks a sex worker (Jane Fonda) whose threatening client is being pursued by a private detective (Donald Sutherland). Max
SCIENCE-FICTION
Children of Men: Director Alfonso Cuaron at his best, with Clive Owen in a dystopian thriller that’s vividly immersive, filled with humanist hope and possessed of top-tier action sequences. Paramount+
The Endless: Uneasy no-budget horror about a pair of brothers – directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead – who visit their childhood cult and begin to question its true purpose. Amazon Prime Video
Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in The Lobster.
The Lobster: Before The Favourite and Poor Things, Greek agitator Yorgos Lanthimos made this bleak, absurdist take on dating culture with Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz. Difficult to explain, impossible to forget. Netflix
Predestination: Looping time to examine destiny and choice, this precise mechanism from Australian duo Michael and Peter Spierig puts Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook in wondrous motion. Stan
Sound of My Voice: Two aspiring documentary filmmakers try to infiltrate and expose a cult whose mysterious leader (co-writer Brit Marling) claims to be from the future. Disney+
VINTAGE
The Adventures of Robin Hood: The oldest film on this list – 1938! – and quite possibly the most fun. Errol Flynn leads a swashbuckling medieval romp as the outlaw fighting injustice. Max
The Bridge on the River Kwai: A classic David Lean epic, with a memorable Alec Guinness performance, about World War II British prisoners building a bridge for their Japanese captors. BritBox
To Catch a Thief: One of Alfred Hitchcock’s great cinematic delights, with Cary Grant as a thief whose French Riviera retirement is derailed by an imposter and Grace Kelly’s heiress. SBS On Demand
His Girl Friday: Love shows where the leads exchange rat-a-tat barbs and outwit the system? They’re inspired by this terrific 1940 Howard Hawks joint starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Amazon Prime Video
Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder’s cynical 1950 homage to Hollywood starts with the narrator (William Holden) dead and a forgotten movie star circling (Gloria Swanson). They truly don’t make them like this any more. Binge
Is there a movie you would add to our list? Tell us what it is and where to watch it in the comments below.
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