If you’re looking for something seriously great to watch from all the new Netflix movies that landed on the service in June 2024, we’ve picked out five that all have super-high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. They cover a range of genres, so there should be something for everyone – we’ve got animated comedy for the whole family, a great modern rom-com, a big Oscar hit, an action-y neo-noir, and a ground-breaking drama.
These are all new additions to Netflix, and if you want to see what else arrived (or has yet to arrive) this month, check out our list of everything coming to Netflix in June 2024. But with their near-universal critical acclaim, these five are the perfect place to start, and all could easily join our list of the best Netflix movies.
Hit Man (2024)
RT Score: 97%
Age rating: R
Length: 117 minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Actor-of-the-moment Glen Powell stars in this wry noir-ish action comedy as Gary, a psychology professor and undercover cop who finds himself having to act like a hit man to catch trying to hire one. Turns out he’s pretty good at this, but naturally things start to go off the rails quickly. First, he falls for someone who’s trying to hire him, then someone tries to hire him to kill her, and… well, let’s not give too much away. It’s Netflix number one movie for a reason – be sure to watch it if you haven’t yet!
The LEGO Movie (2014)
RT Score: 96%
Age rating: PG
Length: 95 minutes
Directors: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
It’s been 10-years and the legacy of The LEGO Movie‘s smart take on its source material is still felt from the massive success of the equally meta Barbie last year, which is now spawning its own spate of ‘heavily inspired’ movies. It’s an extremely silly and fun movie that crams in tons of fast gags and fun references to other properties (in Lego form, obviously) – but it’s all held together by the emotional theme of making time for creativity and enjoyment simply because they’re fun and fulfilling and bring people together. Hey, just like The LEGO Movie!
Tangerine (2015)
RT Score: 96%
Age rating: R
Length: 87 minutes
Directors: Sean Baker
Since Tangerine became an indie smash – notably filmed on iPhones to save money on its tiny budget, and provide a freedom and intimacy to filming – director Sean Baker has gone on to make equally difficult, acclaimed and raw movies about the fringes of society in the form of The Florida Project and Red Rocket. But Tangerine still stands on its own, following moments of betrayal, kindness, devastation, tenderness, anger and everything in between. It follows a trans sex worked as she’s released from a short jail sentence, and discovers that her boyfriend has been cheating on her. She sets out to find him and the woman he cheated with to get revenge, but the story isn’t really about that. It’s about the world she and her friend inhabit – the cruelty, the comradery, the drugs, the sex, the uncertainty. The moments of respite are where the movie ascends; the rest is hard but utterly compelling.
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
RT Score: 91%
Age rating: PG-13
Length: 120 minutes
Directors: Jon M Chu
This makes a great adjustment to the rom-com formula by making it less about the relationship between two lovers (they’re already doing great when the movie starts), and more about having to win over someone family. Specifically, what if your potential mother-in-law was Michelle Yeoh, and she was trying to subtly destroy you? Oh, and she’s mega-rich and from the upper strata of Singaporean society. It’s a little bit fish-out-of-water comedy, it’s a little bit class comedy, but it’s mainly a classic ‘two people butt heads but then realise they’re made for each other’, but about in-laws. Constance Wu and Yeoh are both excellent and supremely charming – Yeoh especially is often playing three different emotions at once – and Henry Golding is fun as the actual romantic interest, torn between the two clashing women.
La La Land (2016)
RT Score: 91%
Age rating: PG-13
Length: 128 minutes
Directors: Damien Chazelle
This love letter to the old-school Hollywood musical and romance is a swelling, broad story of two people who are destined to find and help each other pursue their dreams, with the kind of inevitability that only the movies can bring. The movie openly acknowledges this, giving them both aspirations of performance, and setting scenes around the movie studios themselves – and dancing its way into beautiful meta choreography. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are both irresistible, and Stone won her first Oscar for her performance here – while director Damien Chazelle became the youngest Best Director Oscar winner to date.
