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Though relatively new on the Hollywood scene (its first movie was released in 2019), Apple TV+’s slate of original films already includes everything from charming indies, to blockbuster fare, to award-winning prestige pictures. It was even the first streamer to win the Best Picture Oscar, for 2021’s CODA.
Below, you’ll find a sampling of the studio’s best offerings so far, with something for every viewer. You might be excused for thinking many of them were typical theatrical releases—and some did hit theaters first—but strictly speaking, they are all Apple TV+ originals.
All of You (2025)
In the not-too-distant future, Soul Connex claims that it can match you with your one true love. This Black Mirror-esque premise finds Laura (Imogen Poots) signing up and taking the test with the reluctant encouragement of her college bestie, Simon (Ted Lasso‘s Brett Goldstein, also the co-writer). Matched with a guy named Lukas, she eventually marries and starts a family with her soulmate, but Simon never quite gets over his feelings for Laura. And, as years go by, Laura begins to wonder about the road not taken. It’s not required homework, but the movie is something of a spin-off of the short-lived 2020 series Soulmates, an anthology of stories set in the same fictional world; All of You takes the same core premise in a new direction. Stream All of You.
Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
Spike Lee is a certified cinematic genius, but it seems he makes the kinds of movies that don’t play in theaters anymore. His previous release, the war epic Da 5 Bloods, went straight to Netflix five years ago, and this new one, a remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s noir-influenced High and Low, dropped on Apple TV+ after a cursory theatrical run. I’m not sure what it says about the state of the film industry that one of our best directors, paired with one of our most bankable stars in Denzel Washington, can’t command a wide release, but here we are. Wherever you watch it, the film is a corker. Washington plays David King, a music mogul who receives a call from kidnappers who claim to have his son. King moves heaven and Earth to collect the millions he’ll ned to pay the ransom—only to discover that there’s been a mix-up, and the kidnappers actually have taken the son of his driver (Jeffrey Wright). King has to decide: Is saving the chauffeur’s kid worth it? It’s based on a 1959 Ed McBain novel, and after two adaptations, it’s still a compelling premise. Stream Highest 2 Lowest.
Fancy Dance (2023)
Lily Gladstone follows up her Oscar-nominated performance in Killers of the Flower Moon with an equally impressive turn from Seneca-Cayuga filmmaker Erica Tremblay, making her feature directorial debut. Gladstone plays Jax, a queer Cayuga woman living on an Oklahoma reservation with her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson). Jax’s sister (and Roki’s mother) disappeared weeks ago, but neither tribal police nor the FBI are willing to take it seriously, given the family’s troubled history. Child protective services tries to place Roki into the custody of her estranged white grandfather and his second wife, an arrangement that neither of the young women is comfortable with. The two set out on a dangerous journey to the tribal powwow in Oklahoma City—the FBI that wouldn’t take their concerns seriously before are suddenly very interested in finding the two, who are also forced to evade local law enforcement and even ICE. It’s not an entirely joyful narrative, but there is a powerful message about the power of community and family in the face of even the most oppressive external forces. Stream Fancy Dance.
The Lost Bus (2025)
The title might not suggest high-tension survival drama, but this film from director Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips) is full of harrowing moments. The 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County was, and remains, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, and here we revisit the true story of Kevin McKay (Matthew McConaughey), a down-on-his luck bus driver who reroutes his bus to pick up a bunch of school kids and their teacher (America Ferrera) trapped behind the fire line. McConaughey and Ferrera are great, but the movie excels in its sense of a roadtrip through an initially familiar environment that increasingly comes to feel like a descent into hell. Stream The Lost Bus.
F1 (2025)
Fair warning on this one: it’s an Apple original, but co-distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. What that means for streaming viewers is that, while it is available on Apple TV+, there is a rental/purchase fee while it’s still lingering in theaters. It’s worth it, though, reuniting much of the behind-the-scenes talent from Top Gun: Maverick (including director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer) for a movie equally obsessed with going very fast. Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, once at the top of his game as a race car driver, but whose career hit an oil slick following a nasty crash. He’a approached by a struggling team owner (Javier Bardem) who is convinced that Sonny might be just the guy to put them back on track—literally. The movie was made in full cooperation with Formula One, on real circuits and with actual participants, and Kosinski stages the races with a real sense of verisimilitude that still impresses, even on a small screen. Stream F1.
Blitz (2024)
British director Steve McQueen (Hunger, 12 Years a Slave, Widows) takes on the Blitz in this historical drama that’s rousingly old-fashioned while also being revisionist in its willingness to upend our notions of the fighting spirit of British civilians during World War II. Saoirse Ronan plays Rita, single mom to a biracial son—her Grenadian partner was hounded by racists until he was forced to leave the country. She’s a factory worker and a singer, struggling to survive in London’s East End, where the poor are offered less protection than those in better-off parts of the city, and a single mother with a biracial child is treated a bit less well than that. It’s not an entirely downbeat movie, and it’s full of uplifting moments, but it’s also not afraid to suggest that the Blitz of 1940 wasn’t all “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Stream Blitz.
Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost (2025)
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara burst onto the comedy scene way back in 1963, first with appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and then as a nightclub act who showed up frequently on TV variety shows. Their blended background was novel at the time (both were from New York City, but he was Jewish and she was raised Irish Catholic, a contrast that became part of the act. Their comedy was a blend of era-appropriate corn with some genuinely groundbreaking bits, including their “I Hate You!” sketch, which freshened up old bickering-couple vaudeville material for a more easily scandalized TV audience. Ben Stiller (joined by sister Amy Stiller) directs this documentary about the lives and legacies of the legendary duo and, if it’s not exactly warts-and-all, it does make clear that nothing was ever guaranteed in the careers and personal lives of these two talented, but incredibly strong-willed, artists. Stream Stiller & Meara.
Echo Valley (2025)
Julianne Moore is joined by Sydney Sweeney in this twisty thriller that also includes Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, and Fiona Shaw. Moore plays horse trainer Kate Garrett, living on a farm in southern Pennsylvania dealing with a recently deceased wife and also a deeply troubled daughter, Claire (Sweeney) who mostly only shows up when she sees money. This time around, she’s brought a sketchy boyfriend and a drug dealer to whom she owes money. Without giving too much away: Someone winds up dead, but not the person we’re expecting, and it quickly starts to look like Claire isn’t quite the timid, damaged soul she appears to be. Moore is fab, as usual. Stream Echo Valley.
Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
The sort of goofy rom-com that they don’t make anymore (or so it’s said), Fly Me to the Moon rides on the strong chemistry between leads Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, as well as a premise so outrageous that it just about works. Tatum is Cole Davis, a (fictional) NASA launch director during the Apollo 11 era. He finds himself saddled with Johansson’s Kelly Jones, a slightly unscrupulous marketer publicly charged with helping to sell the public on the importance of a Moon landing. But she has a secret mission as well: She’s charged with preparing a fake landing video to air if the real one fails. These two lock horns as the actual launch approaches, with Kelly coming to question her methods in the face of true-believer Cole. Director Greg Berlanti, best known for about a million DC Comics TV shows, follows up 2018’s Love, Simon. Stream Fly Me to the Moon.
Fountain of Youth (2025)
A glossy and fun (if middling) entry in the Guy Ritchie oeuvre, Fountain of Youth plays as a diverting Indiana Jones pastiche, with some more overt fantastic elements in the style of National Treasure or its closest analogue, The Librarian series. John Krasinski stars as Luke Purdue, a roguish disgraced archaeologist not above stealing art treasures that he and his team (including Domhnall Gleeson’s wealthy backer Owen Carver) believe contain clues as to the location of the title’s mythical fountain—which is, perhaps, not a myth. Luke’s sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) gave up the action-archaeology lifestyle in favor of a job as a curator at the British museum, but is soon convinced to jump into the adventure. It’s full of the kind of spry globe-trotting action that’s thoroughly diverting, even if you’re unlikely to give it much thought when it’s over. Stream Fountain of Youth.
Deaf President Now! (2025)
A key moment in the disability rights movement, and an absolute thunderstroke for the Deaf community, the Deaf President Now! movement at Gallaudet University in 1988 isn’t always discussed or well-understood outside of Deaf circles. And so, like the movement it chronicles, this documentary’s time has definitely come. Gallaudet was founded in 1864 to serve Deaf students, but for the first 124 years of its existence the school had been overseen by hearing presidents, chosen by a board of trustees made up almost exclusively of hearing people. When that board chose yet another hearing leader—the well-meaning and largely qualified Elisabeth Zinser—students decided they’d had enough. While it’s easy to look at the moment as a triumph given the outcome, the rather brilliantly done doc follows the events moment by moment, focusing on four very different students and an extremely turbulent week during which the campus was locked down in the face of opposition from the board and its chair, who never seemed to understand why Deaf people would want a Deaf president. Stream Deaf President Now!.
Lulu Is a Rhinoceros (2025)
An adaptation of the children’s book by the father-daughter writing duo Jason and Allison Flom, Lulu stars Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana) in the title role. Whenever Lulu looks in the mirror, she sees a rhinoceros, and feels like a rhinoceros—but everyone else sees a bulldog. With a bit of help from her bestie Hip Hop the bunny (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and Flom Flom the tickbird (Dulé Hill), she begins a journey of self-acceptance, and of learning not to always rely on validation from others. Leland provides the cute and catchy songs for this 47-minute movie for preschoolers and their families. Stream Lulu is a Rhinoceros.
The Gorge (2025)
Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver star in this sci-fi/action/romance that became Apple TV’s most-streamed movie launch ever upon its February release. Teller and Taylor-Joy play snipers tasked by a mysterious woman (Weaver) with guarding two sides of the title’s gorge: He’s a former U.S. Marine with symptoms of PTSD, she’s a Lithuanian covert operative with a dying father. The two are to stand watch for a year in complete isolation to ensure that nothing comes out of the gorge. Things get complicated when the bored snipers start sending each other messages, increasing their communication until they start to question just what it is that they’re meant to be guarding. Stream The Gorge.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Though it didn’t take home Oscar gold (let’s put Lily Gladstone in more movies, please), Martin Scorsese’s latest has more than proven that the octogenarian filmmaker hasn’t lost a step. A story of creeping dread and existential terror in the American west, it chronicles the injustices that follow the discovery of oil on Osage tribal land in the 1920s. A good thing quickly goes bad when white political leaders plot a string of murders to keep the wealth staying where they think it belongs. The film might have gone deeper in presenting the true story from its natural Indigenous perspective, but the finished product still represents an important and harrowing story well told. Stream Killers of the Flower Moon.
Come From Away (2021)
A full cinematic adaptation of this musical about the events that unfolded at a rural airport on 9/11 was in the works before the pandemic put a stop to them. Thus, a special stage production was mounted using members of the original cast, filmed before an audience of 9/11 survivors and frontline workers. While it’s impossible to know what that other version might have been like, this one is probably better. The musical, which opened on Broadway in 2017, takes place in the Newfoundland town of Gander following the 2001 attacks. Gander had once been a major refueling hub, but that changed over time, leaving the town with an enormous airport and relatively little traffic—until airplanes were diverted there in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The stranded plane passengers briefly more than doubled the town’s population, and Gander leaders and residents pulled out all the stops to care for the unexpected guests. Based on a true story, the show has a smart sense of humor and, while it’s not cynical, it never succumbs to schmaltz either. Stream Come From Away.
Wolfs (2024)
Jon Watts steps away from Marvel’s Spider-Man movies to direct this action comedy led by George Clooney and Brad Pitt; it’s still a little hard to process that we’re in a world where two A-list stars would get paired with a director whose grosses are in the multiple billions, and yet we’re direct-to-streaming (technically, this did get a one-week pro forma theatrical release). Regardless, the finished product is quite fun: Amy Ryan plays Margaret, a Manhattan District Attorney who meets a young man in a bar who ends up dead(-ish) in her hotel room. She contacts a fixer (Clooney) to help clean up the mess and keep her out of trouble. Meanwhile, the hotel’s owner (voiced by Frances McDormand) witnesses much of what went on, and has brought in a person of her own (Pitt) to protect her hotel from blowback. The two very solitary fixers are forced to work together, and, naturally, things get increasingly complicated: The dead young man isn’t entirely dead, as it happens, but was involved in shenanigans that include drugs and the Albanian mafia. Stream Wolfs.
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (2022)
Sacha Jenkins does an awful lot right in this biographical documentary about the American jazz legend, starting by offering new and archival interviews with musicians who’ve been influenced by Satchmo and his art: Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis, etc. But what he really gets right is in allowing Armstrong to tell his own story—the legend kept shelves worth of diaries on reel-to-reel tape, and it’s quickly clear that there’s no one better suited to tell his story, his instantly recognizable voice offering frank insights that no one else could. It’s a love letter to the jazz giant—one that, smartly, doesn’t try to smooth out the rough edges. Stream Black & Blues.
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)
You might have missed Cooper Raiff’s 2020 indie Shithouse, a movie that earned great reviews on a $15,000 budget but couldn’t overcome its unfortunate title. His follow-up, Cha Cha Real Smooth, got a bit more attention. Andrew is a bar/bat mitzvah party planner who falls for Domino, a mom 10 years his senior (Dakota Johnson). It’s occasionally cloying, but Raiff’s complex script and range of characters make for a charming movie from a filmmaker to keep an eye on. Stream Cha Cha Real Smooth.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)
The easy route would have been a tearjerking portrait of an inspirational figure—a one-time Hollywood golden boy bravely facing life with a debilitating illness. There’s a bit of that in this documentary, but whenever that mood does overtake the film, it feels earned. Director Davis Guggenheim documents Fox’s life with a thematic narrative through-line (an actor who could never be still in body or mind now struggles to do just that), even as it refuses to shy away from the knocks and bruises that attend any life with Parkinson’s, nor from Fox’s own complicated personality. The film works best when dealing with the overlaps, and disconnects, between Fox as a person and Fox as a public face of Parkinson’s. Stream Still.
CODA (2021)
While I’m not sure it was the most worthy Best Picture Oscar winner, that doesn’t detract from CODA as a charming and altogether likable film about Ruby (Emilia Jones), a young musician who is the only hearing member of her family. She struggles with the demands of the family’s fishing business even as she discovers a passion for singing and a new boyfriend. The premise involves a worn and silly trope about Deaf people not understanding music, but it also depicts its characters as capable, complicated community leaders with actual sex lives. Emilia Jones is great in the lead, as are Marlee Matlin and Oscar-winner Troy Katsur as her parents. Stream CODA.
Napoleon (2023)
Sandwiched between 2021’s superior The Last Duel and Gladiator 2, Ridley Scott’s 2023 somewhat-accurate biopic about the one-time emperor of France proves his is the only name in town when it comes to historical epics. The shorter, theatrical version of this one is a slightly muddled affair, turning on a sly, subtly comedic lead performance from Joaquin Phoenix while also building to a number of massive, more traditional set pieces (Scott smartly doesn’t ask us to be overly enamored of the man himself). When it works, it offers up the old-fashioned thrills of a gorgeously designed period drama, with the types of grand battle sequences that we don’t get in a world where every movie fight involves superheroes and spaceships. The director’s cut (my preferred version), also on Apple TV+, is, surprisingly, sharper and funnier—but it adds nearly an hour to an already-long movie, so manage your time accordingly. Stream the theatrical cut here, or the longer director’s cut here.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Joel Coen’s sole (thus far) solo directing project represents a bold choice: a beautiful, strikingly minimalist adaptation of the Scottish play—lean and mean in its production and its impact. Only a director of Coen’s confidence would mount a production like this without feeling the need to reinvent the wheel, letting Shakespeare dialogue and the performances of Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand do the heavy lifting. During the 2021/22 awards season, it received far more nominations than wins, but still stands as one of the best cinematic takes on Macbeth since Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood. Stream The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Wolfwalkers (2020)
Robyn Goodfellowe is apprenticed to her father as a hunter, the two of them traveling to Ireland to wipe out the last of the land’s wolves. Going off on her own, she encounters a free-spirited girl who needs Robyn’s help to find her mother; the girl’s tribe is rumored to have the ability to change into wolves, and Robyn’s alliance with her new friends threatens her relationship with her father. This stunningly hand-drawn animated film received a well-deserved Oscar nomination, and follows a thematic trilogy that began with the same filmmakers’ The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014). They’re all independent of one another story-wise, but if you love this one, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy all three. Stream Wolfwalkers.
Hala (2019)
Most audiences seemed to overlook Apple’s first original narrative movie when it was released back in 2019, and that’s too bad. Written and directed by Minhal Baig, a native of Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, the movie has a distinctive sense of place, particularly for anyone who grew up in the Chicago area. But its primary strength is as a smart, sensitive coming-of-age story. Geraldine Viswanathan plays the title’s Hala Masood, a teenager from a strict Muslim family who falls for a non-Muslim boy at school, setting up a conflict that also brings a few family secrets out into the open. Stream Hala.
Bono: Stories of Surrender (2025)
Filmmaker Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly, Blonde) documents Bono’s 2023 one-man show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. That show included selections from his memoir, alongside performance of newly arranged U2 songs to complement the text. As a means of telling the performer’s life story, this is far more dramatic, and cinematic, than a typical documentary—Bono has the same flair when reading as when singing, and director Dominik’s rather gorgeous cinematography is easy on the eyes. There’s also a fully immersive version if you’re an Apple Vision Pro user. Stream Stories of Surrender.
Original Source: https://lifehacker.com/best-movies-on-apple-tv-plus?utm_medium=RSS
Original Source: https://lifehacker.com/best-movies-on-apple-tv-plus?utm_medium=RSS
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