Source : the age
A great movie never gets old. The problem? Choice paralysis. Every streaming platform has thousands of films available. To cut through that, here are 30 great hand-picked movies on Binge right now.
Don’t have Binge? Check out our guides on Stan*, HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
The stupidity is glorious and unchecked in this Will Ferrell comedy, where he plays a pompous 1970s newsreader who has an identity crisis when he falls in love with Christina Applegate’s capable new co-anchor.
Anora (2024)
Filmmaker Sean Baker brought his sharp, sardonic feel for the marginalised into the mainstream with this Academy Award best picture winner about a Brooklyn stripper (Mikey Madison) who marries the wayward son of an unimpressed Russian oligarch.
Babe (1995)
Fantastical, storybook sweet and a plea for kindness, this now beloved Australian family film celebrates an upstart piglet who yearns to do the farm work of a sheepdog. It’s a winning tale, tinged by a smidge of unavoidable reality.
Back to the Future (1985)
One of the great enduring Hollywood pleasures, this witty, inclusive science-fiction comedy stars Michael J. Fox as the teen who finds himself in the past, upending his parents’ courtship. Inventive, funny and family-friendly.
Bridesmaids (2011)
Starting with co-writer Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy and Rose Byrne, this showcase of comic actresses delivers an unhinged but also insightful exploration of female friendship as preparations for a wedding run amok.
Casino (1995)
Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci reunited for this real-life mob saga about the Mafia associates – plus a scintillating Sharon Stone – who spin out of control when given the run of Las Vegas. Sumptuous, bloody filmmaking.
Elizabeth (1998)
In her international breakthrough, Cate Blanchett is a translucent centrepiece who must sacrifice her own desires to survive a murderous 16th-century campaign to reach and retain England’s contested throne. Power is depicted with elegant brutality.
Gallipoli (1981)
Starring an impossibly young Mel Gibson and Mark Lee as athletic rivals turned World War I comrades, Peter Weir’s compelling war film reveals how the horrors of trench warfare helped form Australia’s national identity.
Gladiator (2000)
Ridley Scott updated the swords-and-sandals genre from the 1950s to the age of computer-generated imagery, with a defiant Russell Crowe as the fallen Roman general seeking vengeance on his imperial foes by fighting his way to Colosseum glory.
Hanna (2011)
As much a maximal action invocation as a twisted European fairytale, Joe Wright’s coming-of-age thriller stars a teenage Saoirse Ronan as an avenging innocent sent by her fugitive father (Eric Bana) to kill his CIA adversary (Cate Blanchett).
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Still fiercely contentious on both sides, this biographical drama is nonetheless one of Daniel Day Lewis’ defining roles, playing a young Northern Irish man falsely convicted by the British government for a terrorist attack.
It’s Complicated (2009)
Nancy Meyers gracefully aged the romantic comedy into fifty-something abandon, with a masterful Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as the divorced parents who have an unexpected affair. Steve Martin, and perfect decor, complete the equation.
Little Women (2019)
Greta Gerwig’s resonant, restructured take on an American literary standard, brought to life by an outrageously stacked ensemble cast, is a deeply felt portrait of 19th-century dilemmas and decisions for a quartet of sisters.
Lurker (2025)
An unsettling, intimate psychological thriller for the online age – The Talented Mr Ripley with Instagram – that follows a fan who connects with a rising pop star and becomes an obsessive, and eventually intrusive, member of his entourage.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
My pick of Tom Cruise’s blockbuster spy films is the sixth edition, which has a muscular directness from director Christopher McQuarrie and two exceptional foils for the Running Man in Rebecca Ferguson and Henry Cavill.
Nanny McPhee (2005)
Emma Thompson wrote and starred in this anarchic, Victoria-era family fantasy, playing the not exactly normal nanny who helps Colin Firth’s hapless widower and his seven unruly children. Great, distinctly British, fun.
Nope (2022)
On a faltering Californian ranch, a pair of siblings – Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya, terrific together – realise something is not right in the sky, setting off Jordan Peele’s cataclysmic critique of entertainment culture. This one goes places.
The Nutty Professor (1963)
A comic genius whose career went to unorthodox places, Jerry Lewis peaked as a technically inventive filmmaker and star with this madcap, big-hearted comedy about a nerdy academic who Dr Jekylls himself into a narcissistic Lothario.
Out of Sight (1998)
This dexterous crime thriller, directed by Steven Soderbergh, is grown-up entertainment from start to finish as George Clooney and a never better Jennifer Lopez play respectively a bank robber and US Marshal with combustible mutual attraction.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Director John Hughes left high school stories behind for this festive season road trip comedy, where Steve Martin’s uptight executive and John Candy’s garrulous travelling salesman bond through a series of comic misadventures.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
A landmark Generation X movie and a delightfully cool celebration of underworld intrigue, Quentin Tarantino’s film does backflips with the narrative structure and showcases an ensemble cast who revel in the juicy dialogue exchanges.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Backed by real-life wife Emily Blunt, The Office cut-up John Krasinski changed lanes and successfully launched a horror franchise with this slow boil post-apocalyptic thriller about a family trying to survive fraught new circumstances.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Opening with a hellacious 25-minute recreation of a historic battle, Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic captures the horror of war and humanity’s debasement. The director’s trademark sentimentality is present but constrained.
Some Like it Hot (1959)
One of the all-time great Hollywood comedies, run with whipcrack comic cynicism by Billy Wilder, stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as 1930s fugitives donning drag to hide out with Marilyn Monroe’s all-female band.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
An exhilarating animation that smells like teen spirit, this comic-book adaptation explodes the possibilities of cinema’s favourite web-slinger. The design is immersive, the movement exhilarating.
Stand By Me (1986)
Rob Reiner mastered every genre he attempted in his crackerjack first decade as a director, including this bittersweet coming-of-age drama, adapted from a Stephen King novella, that boasts deeply felt performances from the teenage leads.
Tar (2022)
In one of her landmark performances, Cate Blanchett irrevocably reveals every malignant flaw in her privileged classical conductor. Writer/director Todd Field turns a character study into an inexplicable dissection that refuses to simply sum up its subject.
The Untouchables (1987)
Brian De Palma, a director previously known for Scarface’s excesses, was the surprising right choice to elevate this 1930s crime saga, where Kevin Costner’s FBI agent and Sean Connery’s ornery cop take on Robert De Niro’s Al Capone.
Vertigo (1958)
Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest film is a gripping psychological thriller about a tormented private eye (James Stewart) who becomes obsessed with the mysterious woman (Kim Novak) he’s investigating. The visual technique and emotional unease are profoundly intertwined.
Zoolander (2001)
A quarter-century on and Ben Stiller’s deliriously absurd comedy, where his nincompoop male supermodel is ensnared in a political conspiracy, remains a rightfully quotable satire rife with ridiculous supporting turns. Take a bow, Owen Wilson.
*Stan is owned by Nine, the publisher of this masthead.
