Last month I watched 30 films on streaming as a deliberate experiment. The goal was to figure out, for myself, how much of the streaming catalog is actually worth your evening. I wanted real data, not vibes.
The result: six were worth recommending. Six.
That's 20%. Lower than I expected, much lower than the platforms' algorithmic recommendations would suggest. Here are the six that earned the slot, plus what I learned about how to find them.
The six
1. The Holdovers (2023) — Peacock
I came to this late, after the Oscar season. Worth all the praise. Alexander Payne directing Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly boarding-school teacher stuck on campus over Christmas with a troubled student and the school's grief-stricken cook. Sounds maudlin. Isn't. The film is funny, generous, and respects its characters in ways that most awards-bait doesn't.
The 1970s setting is recreated with such care that the film looks like it was actually made in 1972. That's the highest compliment I can give a period piece.
Verdict: a Saturday-evening recommendation for almost anyone.
2. Anatomy of a Fall (2023) — Hulu
Justine Triet's courtroom drama. A novelist's husband dies; the novelist may have killed him. The film never tells you whether she did. The performance by Sandra Hüller is one of the best I've seen this year.
It's long — two and a half hours — and the courtroom scenes test attention. Worth the patience. The film trusts its audience in ways most thrillers don't.
Verdict: a focused-evening recommendation.
3. Past Lives (2023) — Paramount+
Celine Song's debut. I wrote about this elsewhere; I'll be brief. Quiet, beautiful, devastating in a way you don't see coming. The kind of film that turns into a longer-lasting feeling than it has any right to.
Verdict: recommend almost universally.
4. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) — HBO Max
A friendship ends. That's the whole movie. Martin McDonagh has made one of the best black comedies of the last decade. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are extraordinary; Kerry Condon nearly steals the film as Farrell's sister.
The violence in the third act is divisive. Some viewers find it punishing; I found it earned by everything that came before. Trust the film's commitment to its tonal world.
Verdict: recommend if you're ready for something darkly funny rather than purely comedic.
5. BlackBerry (2023) — AMC+ / Prime
The unexpected entry on this list. The story of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry phone company, played as a half-comedy half-tragedy. Glenn Howerton (yes, from It's Always Sunny) gives a performance that I'd argue for an Oscar nomination on. Jay Baruchel as the engineer-founder is the heart of it.
The third act is genuinely sad in a way I wasn't expecting from what I'd assumed was a tech comedy.
Verdict: sleeper recommendation. Almost no one I know watched this; everyone I've recommended it to has loved it.
6. Aftersun (2022) — MUBI
I'll keep saying this until everyone has watched it. Charlotte Wells's debut. A father and daughter on holiday. That's the plot. The film does things with structure, performance, and emotional patience that I haven't seen elsewhere recently.
Paul Mescal is doing the best work of his career so far. Frankie Corio, the young actor playing the daughter, is a revelation.
Verdict: a quiet-evening recommendation. Bring tissues.
The 24 that didn't earn the spot
Most weren't bad — they were forgettable. Within a week of watching, I couldn't remember the third-act twist or the supporting character's name. The films were professionally executed, technically competent, and not actually about anything I was going to think about the next day.
A few were actively bad. The kind where you're looking at your phone halfway through. I won't name them — what's the point.
The pattern across the forgettable films was consistent: they were pitched as "elevated" versions of standard genres but weren't actually elevated. They had the production values and the cast but not the script. Streaming has gotten very good at making movies that look like good movies without actually being them.
What the six had in common
Looking at the list, the six worth recommending share features:
- They have an authorial voice. Each one is recognizably the work of a specific filmmaker with specific concerns. The forgettable films feel anonymous.
- They trust the audience. The pacing isn't rushed; the explanations aren't over-given; the emotional beats aren't telegraphed.
- They're actually about something. A relationship; a moral question; a specific human experience. The forgettable films are about plots; these are about subjects.
- They earned their runtime. Each is the right length for what it's doing. The forgettable films often feel both too long and too thin.
How I found them
Not through algorithmic recommendations. Streaming platforms' algorithms surfaced almost none of the six. I found them through:
- Critics' year-end lists from publications I trust
- Recommendations from specific friends whose taste matches mine
- Awards conversation (selectively — awards lists are noisy but they cluster around interesting work)
- Specific filmmakers' previous work (if I liked Celine Song's short film, I was going to watch her debut)
The algorithmic recommendations consistently pushed me toward the forgettable middle. The recommendations that worked came from human curation.
The lesson
If you're trying to find good things to watch, the bigger lift is in your selection process, not in your watching time. 30 films a month is unsustainable; 6 great films a month is achievable. Better selection at the front end is the leverage point.
I'm doing the experiment again next month with deliberately better filtering. I'll report back on whether the hit rate improves.
