The Best Movies On Hulu To Watch Right Now

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain
(Image credit: Topic Studios)

Some of the best movies on Hulu are also among the most romantic to watch around Valentine’s Day. Of course, what makes the platform one of the best streaming services to subscribe to today is the variety of films that come with a Hulu subscription. Allow me to recommend the top cinematic choices available, as of February 2025, below.

Kieran Culkin touching his face.

(Image credit: Searchlight Pictures)

A Real Pain (2024)

Director: Jesse Eisenberg

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin

What it’s about: Old conflicts between a pair of mismatched cousins come to light after they reunite for a tour of Poland in honor of their late grandmother.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The heartfelt dramedy, A Real Pain – Eisenberg’s winning sophomore feature-length effort as a writer and director – earned two 2025 Academy Award nominations for Culkin’s performance and Eisenberg’s screenplay.

Keanu Reeves in John Wick

(Image credit: Lionsgate)

John Wick (2014)

Director: Chad Stahelski

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist

What it’s about: A recently widowed former assassin is brought out of retirement when a mob boss’ son steals his car and kills his dog.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The first installment of the John Wick movies essentially revolutionized the action genre with its clever, fascinating world-building and beautiful, balletic fight choreography.

Hugh Jackman as PT Barnum in The Greatest Showman

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Director: Michael Gracey

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron

What it’s about: Phineas Taylor Barnum brings animals and talented performers together to create a show that would revolutionize entertainment forever.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: While not historically accurate, The Greatest Showman is still a fun dramatization of the creation of the circus with its wonderful musical numbers.

Hunter Schafer in Cuckoo 2023 movie

(Image credit: Neon)

Cuckoo (2024)

Director: Tilman Singer

Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens

What it’s about: An American teen’s family moves to a German resort concealing strange and deadly secrets.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Hunter Schafer makes a great horror debut and Dan Stevens is a scary scene-stealer in the bewilderingly surreal Cuckoo.

Jon Heder as Napoleon presenting to his class in Napoleon Dynamite

(Image credit: Searchlight)

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez

What it’s about: A geeky teen contends with his visiting selfish uncle and helps his best friend run for class president.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Despite its bizarre and awkward tone, Napoleon Dynamite proved to be a strong sleeper hit and is now remembered as one of the best high school movies of its time.

Robert De Niro in Heaet

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Heat (1995)

Director: Michael Mann

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro

What it’s about: When a routine heist goes wrong, an elusive crew of thieves becomes targeted by a committed LAPD lieutenant.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The first time Pacino and De Niro were officially brought together on screen was for the breathtaking, action-packed, and surprisingly moving crime thriller, Heat, which has a sequel in the works.

Alan Tudyk in Will Smith in I, Robot

(Image credit: Fox)

I, Robot (2004)

Director: Alex Proyas

Starring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynihan

What it’s about: A technophobic detective suspects a mechanical being is guilty of murder in 2035 Chicago.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Loosely inspired by Isaac Asimov’s short story, I, Robot is one of Will Smith’s best movies for its near-prophetic tech commentary and absorbing suspense.

Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line

(Image credit: Fox 2000 Pictures)

Walk The Line (2004)

Director: James Mangold

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon

What it’s about: The story of country singer Johnny Cash’s rise to fame in the music industry.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Reese Witherspoon earned an Academy Award for her performance as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line – a moving music biopic following one of the most fascinating singing careers.

Arnold Vosloo wears an evil smile in the desert in The Mummy.

(Image credit: Universal)

The Mummy (1999)

Director: Stephen Sommers

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz

What it’s about: Explorers on an archeological dig accidentally awaken the mummified remains of a vengeful Egyptian in the 1920s.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Taking a more action/adventure-style approach to adapting a Universal Monster Movie classic, The Mummy is one of the most satisfying thrillers of the 1990s.

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

(Image credit: ThinkFilm)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei

What it’s about: Two brothers, desperate for money, hatch a plot to rob their parents’ jewelry store, which goes terribly wrong.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an intense and exquisitely crafted crime thriller on fire with powerful performances from its star-studded ensemble.

The Sound of Music

(Image credit: 20th Century)

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Director: Robert Wise

Starring: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer

What it’s about: An aspiring nun is sent by her convent to be a governess to a widowed naval captain’s seven children in 1930s Austria.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Based on the stage show inspired by Maria von Trapp’s memoir, The Sound of Music is one of the most wondrous and simply best music movies ever made.

Abigail Breslin wearing glasses and making a face at the dinner table in Little Miss Sunshine.

(Image credit: Fox Searchlight)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell

What it’s about: A mismatched family travels across the country so young Olive can participate in a beauty pageant.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Earning Abigail Breslin an Oscar nomination and Alan Arkin an Oscar win, Little Miss Sunshine is a dark – yet, still charming – dysfunctional family drama.

Tom Hanks in Cast Away

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

Cast Away (2000)

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt

What it’s about: After becoming the sole survivor of a plane crash, a FedEx employee is left stranded on a desert island for years.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Tom Hanks gives one of his most riveting performances as a man battling hunger and loneliness in Cast Away.

Olivia Cooke, Thomas Mann, and RJ Cyler eating ice cream in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

(Image credit: Searchlight Pictures)

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (2015)

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Starring: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, RJ Cyler

What it’s about: A young parody filmmaker and his “coworker” befriend a classmate who has recently been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Based on the novel by Jesse Andrews (who also writes the screenplay), the hilarious and heartbreaking Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is one of the most sadly overlooked teen dramas of its time.

Bruce Willis as John McClane in an air duct in Die Hard

(Image credit: Twentieth Century Fox)

Die Hard (1988)

Director: John McTiernan

Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginal VelJohnson

What it’s about: On Christmas Eve, New York cop John McClane must single-handedly rescue his estranged wife and her co-workers who are taken hostage by ruthless German thieves.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: In addition to being considered one of the best action movies of all time for its explosive scenes and Bruce Willis’ career-defining performance, Die Hard is easily the all-time best Christmas action movie.

Xenomorph attacks in Alien: Romulus

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Alien: Romulus (2024)

Director: Fede Álvarez

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson

What it’s about: A group of twentysomethings encounter a blood-thirsty creature while trying to steal from an abandoned space station.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The thoroughly intense Alien: Romulus is, arguably, the best Alien movie since Aliens for its appropriately simple plot, gorgeously bleak production design, and brilliant use of unrelenting tension.

Viola Davis in The Woman King

(Image credit: Sony/TriStar)

The Woman King (2022)

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu

What it’s about: The story of the all-female unit of African warriors who sought to protect the Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th Century.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Based on true events, The Woman King is a thrilling historical epic with a winning lead performance by Academy Award winner Viola Davis.

Mandy Moore and Shane West in A Walk to Remember

(Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)

A Walk To Remember (2002)

Director: Adam Shankman

Starring: Shane West, Mandy Moore

What it’s about: A shy reverend’s daughter forms an unlikely bond with a troubled popular teen after agreeing to help him with his mandatory community service.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember is a moving teen romance, enriched by Mandy Moore’s performance.

Ron Livingston sits in his cubicle looking worried in Office Space.

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Office Space (1999)

Director: Mike Judge

Starring: Ron Livingston, David Herman, Ajay Naidu

What it’s about: Three dissatisfied office workers conspire against their soul-sucking software company.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: One of cinema’s funniest and most inventive indictments on workplace culture is the iconic and highly quotable Office Space.

James Baldwin in I Am Not Your Negro

(Image credit: Amazon Studios)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Director: Raoul Peck

Starring: James Baldwin, Samuel L. Jackson

What it’s about: The life and career of prolific author and activist James Baldwin, featuring Samuel L. Jackson as his voice.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The Oscar-nominated documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, crafts James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript for Remember This House into a moving portrait of his life and a shockingly relevant indictment of modern racial injustice.

Emma Stone in Poor Things.

(Image credit: Searchlight Pictures)

Poor Things (2023)

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo

What it’s about: A woman brought back from the dead and with the mind of a child experiences the joys and pains of life from a one-of-a-kind perspective.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Emma Stone won her second Oscar at the 2024 Academy Awards for playing Bella Baxter in this adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel, Poor Things – a one-of-a-kind film, with gorgeous, experimental cinematography, wondrous production design, and out-of-this-world costumes.

Anatomy of a Fall

(Image credit: Le Pacte)

Anatomy Of A Fall (2023)

Director: Justine Triet

Starring: Sandra Hüller

What it’s about: A mother struggles to prove her innocence after the tragic and mysterious death of her husband.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: Had the captivating French-language courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall been submitted for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards, it very likely could have won, based on its four other Oscar nominations – including Best Picture and Best Actress for Sandra Hüller – and win for Best Original Screenplay.

BB King in Summer of Soul

(Image credit: Searchlight Pictures)

Summer Of Soul: (... Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Director: Questlove

Starring: Gladys Knight, Jesse Jackson

What it’s about: A documentary that blends footage of 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival with a modern investigation of why this massive event has become forgotten by pop culture.

Why it is one of the best movies on Hulu: The debut film from famed musician Questlove, Summer of Soul (... Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) earned him an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

This list will absolutely give you a great place to start when it comes to the best movies streaming on Hulu right now.

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Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism. 

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