Some streaming services deluge subscribers with movies, but Apple TV+ is the opposite: each feature is commissioned or purchased exclusively for the service. It’s a quality over quantity play, and Craig Mathieson lists the best films to be found.
See also
* All new movies & series on Apple TV+
* All new streaming movies & series
The Banker (2020)
Watch on Apple TV+Anthony Mackie and Samuel L Jackson are terrific together as a pair of very different Black businessmen who outflank the systemic racism of 1950s America by using a white frontman (Nicholas Hoult) to front the real estate and bank purchases they use to undermine segregation. Director George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) exposes historic wrongs and an effective form of economic protest.
Boys State (2020)
Watch on Apple TV+A documentary in turns fascinating, illuminating, and close to terrifying, Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s feature follows the 1,000 teenage boys gathered in Texas for the titular convention: a leaders-of-tomorrow-style model government that in 2018 served as a cross-section of America’s future as the campaigning and caucuses grow competitive.
Causeway (2022)
Watch on Apple TV+Returning to her independent movie roots after years making blockbusters, Jennifer Lawrence gives a quiet, deeply felt lead performance as a former U.S. soldier struggling to return to civilian life after a traumatic brain injury. Lila Neugebauer’s nuanced drama is very much a two-hander: Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) is equally good as a grieving mechanic who befriends Lawrence’s character.
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)
Watch on Apple TV+Purchased within days of a triumphant debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, this subversively thoughtful romantic comedy from YouTuber turned filmmaker Cooper Raiff is also a tender study of 20something mores and the struggle to understand yourself. Raiff plays a young man with an unexpected side gig at bar mitzvahs, Dakota Johnson the older mother he finds a connection with.
CODA (2021)
Watch on Apple TV+Unheralded upon release and then the winner of Best Picture at the Academy Awards little more than six months later, Sian Heder’s remake of the 2014 French film The Family Belier is a wrenching, heartfelt tale of a teenager (Emilia Jones) turn between a singing career and helping fisherman parents and older brother, who are deaf. The structure and challenges are familiar, but the performances and emotional bonds tested are magnetic.
Come From Away (2021)
Watch on Apple TV+Capturing the 2017 Broadway stage hit about the outpouring of fear and understanding when thousands of air passengers were stranded in a Canadian town after 9/11 shut flights down, this filmed musical brings the talented original cast back into the theatre to recreate the production’s songs of compassion. Don’t expect a formal perspective—the camera’s constant repositioning offers a welcome new take on the show.
Finch (2021)
Watch on Apple TV+Apple TV+ likes Tom Hanks movies: it has his World War II naval thriller Greyhound, but my pick is this post-apocalyptic drama where the actor plays a dying lone scientist living beneath the ruins hoping to teach a robot he has built (a motion-captured Caleb Landry Jones) to care for his beloved dog. It’s a sentimental film, but effective—a showcase for Hanks in mostly intimate circumstances.
On the Rocks (2020)
Watch on Apple TV+Filmmaker Sofia Coppola and her Lost in Translation leading man Bill Murray reunite for this Manhattan mystery about a privileged book editor (Rashida Jones) who suspects her husband (Marlon Wayans) is having an affair. Her fellow sleuth? Murray’s raconteur father. The movie is breezy, and adores Murray’s character—it’s all about the pleasure of the ride.
Sharper (2023)
Watch on Apple TV+Wielding a sharpened edge both in terms of narrative structure and the manipulation of affection, Benjamin Caron’s art world con job thriller is a worthy addition to the scam movie canon of The Sting and House of Games. An ensemble cast that includes Julianne Moore, John Lithgow, and Sebastian Stan keep the misdirection on the move with a stylish assist from director Benjamin Caron.
Sidney (2022)
Watch on Apple TV+The American singer and actor Sidney Poitier lived an immense and influential life: he was the first African American movie star in the 1950s and 1960s and was at forefront of the civil rights movement. His eloquence shines through in this engaging documentary from filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, that sifts together material to capture the breadth of Poitier’s achievement and spotlight some underseen parts.
Still: A Michael J Fox Movie (2023)
Watch on Apple TV+Defiant, enlightening, and often funny, this portrait of Hollywood star Michael J Fox, the Back to the Future superstar who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in his thirties, from documentarian Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) is a frank dissection of his life and personal growth. The movies were hits, but Fox’s greatest success is his bedrock marriage to wife and fellow actor Tracy Pollan.
Tetris (2023)
Watch on Apple TV+A video game biopic? A Cold War coding thriller? An unlikely buddy movie? This embellished real-life drama proves to be all three, with Rocketman’s Taron Egerton playing Henk Rogers, the Dutch video game designer who set out to bring Tetris, the addictive 1980s block game created in the Soviet Union, to the world. With the game’s familiar mechanics seeping into the movie, it’s an oddly enjoyable ride.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2022)
Watch on Apple TV+Joel Coen stepped away from brother Ethan to make this heavyweight Shakespearian adaptation, which stars Denzel Washington as the murderously ambitious Scottish general and Frances McDormand as his usurping wife. Strikingly shot in black and white, it’s an expressionist homage with a pared-down text and compelling performances.
The Velvet Underground (2021)
Watch on Apple TV+It’s a perfect match: the band that invented art-rock and the filmmaker who helped created arthouse cinema. Todd Haynes’ documentary about the Andy Warhol-endorsed band, fronted by Lou Reed, that changed the course of popular music in the late 1960s, is full of insight and has the shuddering execution of their early music. There’s no space here for the tropes that litter most music documentaries.
Wolfwalkers (2020)
Watch on Apple TV+The Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon were rightly showcased with this exquisite feature that is immersed in the lore and imagery of its homeland. A supernatural-laced tale of friendship in the face of adversity, Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s feature is shot through with visual invention worthy of Studio Ghibli.
