The 15 best films hitting Netflix in April 2022

Another contentious awards season is finally behind us, and boy did it ever leave with a bang and not a whimper. But outside of Hollywood’s biggest night, Netflix has programmed some great Oscar winners from years past, as well as a great selection of classics, rom-coms and horror. They’re also dropping a handful of original feature films that will only be available on their streaming service.

With the 2022 Academy Awards freshly behind us, what better time to revisit the Chris Terrio-penned, Ben Affleck-directed Oscar powerhouse Argo? The film took home Best Picture at the 2013 Oscars as well as statues for Adapted Screenplay (Terrio), Film Editing (William Goldenberg), and Original Score (Alexandre Desplat). In his review of the movie in 2012, and said, “The film glides skillfully from the perilous front lines of international espionage to the lower reaches of show business and back again, quietly drawing parallels between worlds in which appearances are everything.”

Speaking of Oscar-winning movies, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan hits Netflix this spring, because we could all use an in-depth look at the atrocities of war right now. Regardless of scary real-world events, Saving Private Ryan is one hell of a cinematic achievement that makes the fact that it lost Best Picture (after winning Best Director) to Shakespeare In Love in 1999 almost as shocking as Roberto Benigni beating out Tom Hanks for Best Actor that same year. In a , Keith Phipps said, “Packed with about as many moral ambiguities as a Spielberg movie can handle, Saving Private Ryan provides a startling grunt’s-eye view of war, refusing to subscribe to simplistic, blindly patriotic notions of honor and duty while working toward an understanding of what those words really mean.”

In 1967, Arthur Penn’s excellent film starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty got on the bad side of movie critics and hand-wringing moralists due to its moral ambiguity, especially mixed with over-the-top sex and violence. Little did these naysayers know that the film would become a cultural touchstone as well as inspire much more hyper-realistic violence onscreen. It also helped usher in a “new era” of Hollywood filmmakers that ultimately helped saved a foundering industry. In a 2008 review of a newly released 2-disc DVD set, , “Forty years ago, charming, likeable, fun criminals were a licentious shocker; today, they’re old hat, but Bonnie And Clyde still maintains its amiable charisma.”

Let’s face it, Dreamworks Animation has always been considered a distant third to Disney and Pixar (and, Disney-Pixar) animated films. Yet it’s fairly undeniable that the How To Train Your Dragon franchise is legitimately great, particularly the first one, which hit screens in 2010. The fact it did so well at the box office with any particularly big-name actors voicing the characters is a testament to the brilliant animation, clever storytelling, and heartfelt characters that make you want to root for them. While mileage may vary on the trilogy overall, it’s tough to find anyone who wasn’t charmed by the original Dragon movie. In his , which he gave a B+, Keith Phipps said the film “drops viewers in the middle of an impossible situation grounded in a fundamental misunderstanding, then saddles an unprepared, easily wounded kid and his scaly, big-eyed sidekick with the task of fixing it. There’s a lot at stake here, and the film never loses sight of that amid all the dragonfire and whooshing flight sequences.”

Any time Richard Linklater has a new film out, it’s time for celebration. After Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006), his latest foray into rotoscoped animation, the evidently very personal Apollo 10 ½ is in limited theatrical release alongside a debut on Netflix, April 1. Narrated by Jack Black, the film centers on Linklater’s deeply nostalgic recollections of growing up in Texas in 1969 where the world was just coming down from the space race. Yet the plot is actually fictional and involved a young boy being sent into space prior to the Apollo 11 launch. In his review of the film for The A.V. Club, , “he knows to slip in enough action-adventure footage to ensure a good trailer, but in reality Linklater will deliver his version of Fellini’s Amarcord or Woody Allen’s Radio Days: an essentially plotless but engaging and enriching recollection of childhood steeped in warmth, grace, honesty, and crystalline specificity.”

In Judd Apatow’s latest, Karen Gillan plays an actor who returns to the franchise that made her famous after exiting to star in a disastrous solo project. Leslie Mann, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key and Apatow and Mann’s real-life daughter Iris Apatow play the actors into whose good graces she’s trying to get back, while Maria Bakalova plays the clerk at the hotel where the cast is stationed after a pandemic forces them to quarantine together during the production. Apatow’s skill at skewering celebrity self-indulgence is well-established, but this film both captures the energy of doing something—anything—while everyone has been trapped inside and comments on Hollywood’s need for content at all costs. The question is, will viewers end up wanting to see the movie inside Apatow’s movie, or will they choose not to watch either because they’re a multilevel reminder of a pandemic that no one wants to relive?

2009’s feel good hit not only resonated with audiences, but also wiggled its way into the awards circuit with a Best Picture nomination, and Best Actress win for Sandra Bullock. It’s easy to see why, as the film offers a by-the-book hero’s journey based on the real life experiences of a formerly homeless teen (Quinton Aaron) who finds love and support from a local white woman (Bullock) and her family. He starts playing football and, much like the film itself, unexpectedly reaches the highest platform. Sure, there’s a major waft of “White Saviorism,” but the film remains a charming one. That said, The A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias was not a fan. In his 2009 review (), he said “Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity.” Indeed.

When writer/director Spike Jonze isn’t busy raking in the cash (and bruises) with his Jackass brethren, he’s out there making weird, heartfelt and (usually) fantastic fictional films like Being John Malkovich, Adaptation (both written by Charlie Kaufman), and 2013’s brilliant Her, which Jonze also wrote. The film was well-received upon release, if not a bit dense and ahead of its time, but it has slowly proved to be a sad and prescient look at how a dependence on computers and AI slowly add to isolation and loneliness. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as a lonely guy who falls in love with his Siri/Alexa-like computer operating system, played in voice-over by Scarlett Johansson. In his A.V. Club review, writing it’s “a melancholy comic fable about the here and now, thinly disguised as an outlandish vision of the there and later.”

Actor Dave Franco steps behind the camera in his writing/directing debut, the indie slasher/home invasion flick The Rental. Co-written by Joe Swanberg, the film features Alison Brie (Franco’s wife) and Jeremy Allen White as a couple who take a group vacation to an isolated spot with another couple played by Sheila Vand and hunky Dan Stevens. Interpersonal strife and angsty, bloody shenanigans ensue. On the plus side, the film takes up the age-old indie filmmaking notion of a small cast and crew set up in one location but, as with any horror film, reviews are all over the place. , saying “[This] setup is so credible, in fact, that it’s doubly disappointing when the thriller elements do finally materialize and then promptly fail to thrill; it’s as if someone snatched the remote and changed the channel to a half-assed slasher starring the same characters.”

In 1986, writer/director Oliver Stone directed Platoon, and then followed it up with (aside from a few smaller film detours), Wall Street (1987), Talk Radio (1988), Born On The Fourth of July (1989), The Doors and JFK (1991), and Natural Born Killers (1994). It’s curious how when cinephiles trace great “runs” by filmmakers, that grouping by Stone is often overlooked. Nonetheless, after that, things got a little less thrilling career-wise for Stone, which brings us to 1999’s football epic Any Given Sunday. While certainly not an all-timer like most of those listed above, the film actually holds up quite well and features a solid 1990s era cast with Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Cameron Diaz, and Jamie Foxx. The film is definitely one ripe for a revisit, which saying “Stone’s bruising, blistering game footage is some of the best ever committed to film, and his frenzied montages further lend the action concussive energy.”

Screenwriter Susannah Grant started her career with Disney’s animated Pocahontas and the Disney-esque Drew Barrymore starrer Ever After. From there, Grant got a little more serious penning the Sandra Bullock rehab vehicle 28 Days and the hugely successful Erin Brockovich, for which she earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. This successful run gave Grant the ability to step into the director’s chair for the charming, underseen 2006 rom-com Catch And Release. Starring Jennifer Garner (before the powers that be tried to force her into blockbusters), Timothy Olyphant, and Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) actually acting instead of playing a variation of himself, the film is funny and charming, eschewing the formulaic rom-com blueprint for more complex issues of life, love, and death. In his review for The A.V. Club (), Scott Tobias said “at least Grant attempts to write about real people and situations. For the average rom-com, that’s a step in the right direction.”

It’s sometimes forgotten that in between each of his films in the outstanding Dark Knight trilogy, writer/director Christopher Nolan did a bit of a palate cleanser. He followed up Batman Begins (2005) with The Prestige (2006), and after The Dark Knight (2008), he dropped the brain-melting Inception (2010) on unsuspecting film-goers. The film is almost Kubrickian in terms of its myriad meanings and depth, and remains an easy film to revisit and chew on as new moments and nuances are unearthed upon each new rewatch. In his review of the film (), Scott Tobias said, “the vast cryptogram of Inception has a core of real emotion, but it isn’t always matched by an abundance of visual imagination. Nonetheless, the film is an imposing, prismatic achievement, and strongly resistant to an insta-reaction; when it’s over, Nolan still seems a few steps ahead of us.”

The year was 2002, and before directing one of the biggest blockbuster franchises in movie history with the first three Pirates Of The Caribbean films, relative unknown Gore Verbinski scared the ever-loving bejeezus out of people with his American remake of the Japanese horror film Ringu, The Ring. Probably the biggest visual takeaway from the film is the VHS images of creepy Samara (Daveigh Chase) being rendered sentient and crawling out of a television set, but the film has many more intense scenes to terrify viewers. Plus, it’s a bit of a slow burn detective story that also draws audiences in—emotionally, if not physically. In his review of the film, , Keith Phipps said, “Director Gore Verbinski creates an air of dread that begins with the first scene and never lets up, subtly incorporating elements from the current wave of Japanese horror films along the way.”

Freshly anointed Oscar Winner for Best Actress for her titular role in 2021’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Jessica Chastain was truly masterful in her role as underground celebrity high stakes poker organizer Molly Bloom in writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s solid directorial debut, the 2017 drama Molly’s Game. Based on true events, Chastain’s Bloom has to reinvent herself following a career as an Olympic-class skier who finds new adrenaline rushes by putting on poker games for actors with money burning holes in their pockets. Things quickly go sideways and we’re easily sucked in by Chastain’s performance in which she seeks to play several opponents against one another, including bratty actors and an FBI team that’s rapidly closing in on her. Idris Elba and Kevin Costner also star and add strength to a solid cast. In his review of the film, , Mike D’Angelo said, “The film’s energy derives from its portrait of obscenely wealthy people throwing money around, scarcely aware of how many bills Molly pockets in return for engineering a fantasy world catering to their every need.”

I have a personal ethos that maintains The Bangles’ Manic Monday and The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love should not be played on days that are not those mentioned in the title of the song. Similarly, I believe 2003’s episodic, interconnected, star-studded Christmas film Love Actually should only be watched at Christmastime. However, that’s just me, you can do what you want with your life. No matter when you choose to watch Love Actually, the film is a sweet and charming affair which is so amicable that probably the biggest argument over the film is which love story one likes the best. The A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias disagreed, feeling the film is too manipulative. , [director Richard] “Curtis gets greedy in his directorial debut: Love Actually shamelessly compresses eight or nine sure-fire hits into one booming ode to amour, and double-shamelessly sets the whole thing at Christmas.”