While you’re currently storming through your Christmas movie watchlists on the best streaming services, that doesn’t mean you can’t think ahead into the new year and start curating your January 2025 streaming schedule. The best place to start? Well Netflix, of course, and you should settle for no less than these five movies with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
January 2025 is looking to be a month packed with some of the most compelling movies, from drama to comedy to horror, among everything new on Netflix in January, so it was difficult to narrow down to just five. Two of my recommendations for this month are A24 features, a reliable production company which make up some of the best Netflix movies, and the remaining three are dramas inspired by inspiring and powerful true stories through different periods of the 20th century.
When it comes to narrowing down my monthly Netflix recommendations, sometimes it can be tricky if the streaming schedule is lacklustre. However, that’s not the case this month as I couldn’t help but put together two lists – keep an eye out my other roundup of movie franchises coming to Netflix in January 2025 you won’t want to miss. But before you do that, my recommendations below are waiting for you.
Apollo 13 (1995)
RT Score: 96%
Age rating: PG
Length: 140 minutes
Director: Ron Howard
Arriving on: January 1
Inspired by the events of the failed Apollo 13 mission in 1970, Howard’s docudrama was up for a total of nine Academy Awards and has since been recognised as one of the best films. With a star-studded cast including Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton, Apollo 13 follows astronauts Jim Lovell (Hanks), Fred Haise (Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Bacon) on their mission to the moon. When things seemingly go to plan, an oxygen tank malfunctions mid-orbit and their mission is cancelled, but as tensions between the men grow stronger and further technical issues occur their chance of survival and returning to Earth is threatened.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
RT Score: 92%
Age rating: R
Length: 117 minutes
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Arriving on: January 1
Matthew McConaughey’s performance in Vallée’s drama not only showcases immense dedication to the role on McConaughey’s part, but it’s a gut-wrenching character study based on an inspiring true story set during a period of stigmatization of people living with HIV and AIDS.
When Dallas-based cowboy Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is diagnosed with HIV, the shock of this news hits harder when he discovers that he has only 30 days left to live. Refusing to live the rest of his days in a depression, he starts working to get access to unapproved medication to improve the quality of life for people in the same position. Later, he meets AIDS patient Rayon (Jared Leto) with whom he teams to sell smuggled drugs to an increasing number of people with the illness.
Schindler’s List (1993)
RT Score: 98%
Age rating: R
Length: 195 minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Arriving on: January 1
The third and final true story-inspired drama in my list is Spielberg’s epic war drama from the ’90s, retelling one of the most pinnacle stories to come from the tragedy of the Second World War. When the war breaks out on 1939, industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) comes to German-occupied Krakow to make his fortune, and though he joins the Nazi party purely out of political advantage, he staffs his factory with Jewish workers. When the tensions of Nazi Germany grow increasingly militant and the exterminations begin, Schindler devises a plan to keep his factory safe while protecting the lives of his Jewish employees.
Hereditary
RT Score: 90%
Age rating: R
Length: 127 minutes
Director: Ari Aster
Arriving on: January 15
Now considered a modern classic among horror fans, the combination of acting, writing, and cinematography in Hereditary is the perfect amalgamation for suspense – and Toni Collette’s Oscar-snubbed performance is proof that horror is a completely over-looked genre. When Annie’s (Collette) mother and family matriarch passes away, her entire family is left grief-stricken. In the aftermath of their tragic loss, Annie and her family come face-to-face with haunting occurrences while uncovering their grandmother’s secrets about the family’s ancestry. Realizing that a sinister and dark history is rooted in their family tree, Annie attempts to outrun the evil.
You Hurt My Feelings (2023)
RT Score: 94%
Age rating: R
Length: 93 minutes
Director: Nicole Holofcener
Arriving on: January 26
The most recent entry in my list is another A24 feature, but one that’s significantly less intense and shocking than Hereditary. In Holofcener’s comedy-drama, novelist and creative writing teacher Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has completed her first book, but the excitement of this achievement is tarnished when she hears her husband’s (Tobias Menzies) honest opinion of her writing. Ultimately flipping their what was once a happy marriage on its head this drama explores familial struggles, particularly ones regarding how we tell out loved ones things they may not want to hear.
