As it does every month, Netflix is adding a suite of new titles to its range of movies and shows in January 2024, and they include a bunch of acclaimed films with overwhelmingly positive ratings from critics.
I've picked four new Netflix movies that immediately jumped out to me – two bona fide classics, a fantastic modern thriller, and a brand-new Netflix Original movie that's tipped for Oscar success.
Some of these will surely join the ranks of our best Netflix movies, so here are my picks for movies to start your 2024.
Gravity (2013)
RT score: 96%
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Runtime: 91 minutes
Age rating: PG-13
Available to stream from: Jan 1, 2024
A masterpiece of suspense and a breakthrough in digital film-making. I saw Gravity's 10th-anniversary re-release in theaters last year, and while watching at home won't have quite the same impact as the full big-screen 3D experience, it won't change how this movies grips your diaphragm and doesn't let go for 90 minutes. Sandra Bullock is a an engineer working on the Hubble telescope when space debris from a satellite collision hits her shuttle, leaving her and George Clooney adrift in orbit, trying to figure out how they can get home. It looks absolutely beautiful, the score is an all-time great, and it's totally engrossing.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
RT score: 93%
Director: Milos Forman
Runtime: 133 minutes
Age rating: R
Available to stream from: Jan 1, 2024
A member of the extremely short list of movies to sweep the 'Big Five' Oscar categories, this won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. (The only two others are It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs, trivia fans). It introduced the now-infamous Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletched), who brutally presides over the psychiatric ward that Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) has been transferred to from prison. The two become locked in a battle of wills, but Ratched has the irresistible power of the system at her fingertips; there's a reason she became an instant pop-culture touchpoint, and it isn't a pleasant one.
Society of the Snow (2023)
RT score: 92%
Director: JA Bayona
Runtime: 144 minutes
Age rating: R
Available to stream from: Jan 4, 2024
This is a new Netflix Original movie, getting its first streaming release early in 2024 (though it carries a 2023 date due to its limited run in movies theaters in December). It tells the true story of the survivors of a plane crash in the Andes, who'll have to work out how to survive in the middle of a freezing nowhere. It's the same story as told in the movie Alive, and if you're familiar with that film, you'll know it's going to get harrowing. It's tipped as a strong contender for Oscar success, sitting on the shortlists for five categories at the time of writing.
Jurassic Park (1993)
RT score: 91%
Director: Steven Spielberg
Runtime: 126 minutes
Age rating: PG-13
Available to stream from: Jan 1, 2024
I can't imagine that I need to write very much here; a lot of you have probably already loaded Netflix straight to this. The original hits highs of wonder and thrills that none of the other Jurassic movies have matched – even Spielberg couldn't repeat his own trick. The special effects hold up better than any other 90s CGI (for various fascinating reasons – I recommend that film nerds check out the podcast Eye of the Duck for why this is so different to other early CGI stuff), it's fun, it's scary, it's heart-warming; it's a perfect movie.
