The most popular platform in the world is celebrating its tenth anniversary. If she is above all known and watched for her series from all over the world, and if she diversifies with sport, games and reality TV, she has been regularly mocked for an apparently weak cinephile.
However, on Netflix, you can find everything, from the author’s catalog of MK2 to blockbusters with predictable and tasteless scenarios, from classics of post-eighties Hollywood cinema to event documentaries, from rom-coms to historical films.
However, from all this profusion of images, there are a few nuggets produced by Netflix. Certainly, in recent months, artistic ambition has been less, preferring its role as broadcaster to that of producer, but over the course of these ten years, in very varied genres, the streamer has been able to make us “chill” with some very beautiful movies.
Here are twelve.
Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach
« This slow and long film manages to fascinate us with its ability to integrate us into this family melodrama, punctuated by an offensive for the custody of the son, a war of egos or a narcissistic confrontation, to the rhythm of professional, legal, sentimental twists and turns. We suffer for her, who seeks to be reborn. We suffer for him, abandoned like someone unclean.«
The circle of snow by Juan Antonio Bayona
« The film then takes on its psychological and existentialist tone. This aspect is almost more striking than the accident. Behind closed doors in the open, the tragedy pushes the limits of the unthinkable. These victims are devastated by having lost their loved ones and abandoned to their fate. Especially since an (impressive) avalanche will subsequently kill eight of them. A real physical, psychological, traumatic ordeal. Between their faith and their instinct, cases of conscience will complicate their daily lives.«
The Power of the Dog by Jane Campion
« Jane Campion constantly reframes her story to put us in the place of the protagonists, who often withdraw into themselves for fear of being in contact with “the enemy”. By changing our feelings about each of them, it subtly attenuates all the prejudices we have about them. Until surprising us with a game of pretense and a fatal and calculated mechanism which will turn the situation around in the last act. (…) The mastery of the script and the direction produce the desired effect: the brilliant portrait of complex men and women, steeped in contradictions, none of whom truly emerges unscathed…«
Roma d’Alfonso Cuaron
« Virtuoso and splendid, this story nevertheless proves to be intimate, where, once again in Cuaron, the figure of the mother predominates and exposes a little more masculine vulnerability. Roma seduces in form and manages to captivate us in substance. This family chronicle is as alienating (the routine of the servant and her transparency reveals all the class contempt and inhumanity of her employers) as it is thrilling (history mixes with history and it creates a nice chaos).«
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget de Sam Fell
« This mixture of odds and ends adds all the charm to a careful creation, perhaps a little too smooth, but astonishing from start to finish. The fluidity of Sam Fell’s direction, the invisibility of the stop motion and the squaring of the scenario make Chicken Run: The Nuggets Menace a high-flying animated film for the general public, with the right dose of suspense for let ourselves be caught up in this absurd hallucination.«
Lack by David Fincher
« A vibrant homage to 1930s Hollywood. Erik Messerschmidt’s beautifully textured black and white evokes the golden age of cinema with nostalgic elegance, while each shot seems a carefully composed painting, imbued with melancholy palpable, where visual beauty meets deep reflection on power, ambition and illusion.«
The wisdom of the octopus de Craig Foster
« A poignant documentary that transcends scientific observation to become a meditation on the connection between humans and nature, this intimate and emotion-filled story goes beyond itself by combining the hypersensitivity of a man in a phase of resilience and a vulnerable and fascinating animal. This alchemy, combined with sublime images of the seabed, clearly demonstrates the harmony of life and underlines the possible interconnection between species. »
The Lost Daughter the Maggie Gyllenhaal
« Olivia Colman achieves a daring blend between the complexities of motherhood and the conflicting emotions that accompany it. Her exceptional, nuanced performance should not mask Maggie Gyllenhaal’s direction, both subtle and poetic, filled with silences and gestures full of meaning. Transgressive without being outrageous, intimate without being depressive, disturbing without being mannered, this film takes us into the darkest corners of the human soul, always leaving just enough light to console us.«
Don’t Look Up by Adam McKay
« The film is a magnifying glass on the absurdity of our time. With big stabilo-bosses, the filmmaker highlights everything he denounces: obscurantism, ignorance, empty entertainment, greed… This is the list of the seven deadly sins, with its ambassadors: a Trumpian American president and Clintonian (at the same time), his coked-up and anti-woke son advisor, an Orwellian boss between Musk and Zuckerberg, two jaded and vain talk show hosts who dictate the laws of information, show-biz artists self-centered, ignorant and bearers of a hypocritical or vain conscience.«
Uncut Gems by Josh and Benny Safdie
« The film draws its strength from the writing of these multiple characters, whose camera captures each of the nuances and all of their doubts in close-up. But above all it gains its intensity through its ability to draw us into this unbridled and furious rampage of this man who is missing out on his life because of his ego and his greed. If the film is eminently moral, the Safdie brothers do nothing didactic about it. »
The sept of Chicago d’Aaron Sorkin
« The virtuosity of Sorkin’s script, with its incisive dialogues, its moments of emotion and its captivating rhythm, and the remarkable performances of the actors bring to this true story a beautiful humanity and a precise look at the time. A beautiful and profound plea for justice, we can be sorry that it still resonates so much today.«
The hand of God by Paolo Sorrentino
« The Hand of God thus takes us from laughter to tears, from pangs of heart to tight stomachs, from entertainment (in the noble sense of the term) to contemplative beauty, without it ever being shaky. It is carried by a vitality where everything mixes, joys and sorrows, happiness and misfortunes. The film runs at full speed, holding its breath, inspired and inspiring, expiating traumas and breathing la dolce vita. »
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