30 Best Movies on Hulu: Highest-Rated Films to Watch Now
By Daniel Walker
Hulu's movie section doesn't get enough credit. Everyone has heard of it for the TV shows, but when you actually dig into movies, there's a lot in there that's worth watching, there are awards winners, cult horror movies and some comedies that were missed when they first came out. The problem is the library is large so you could spend the entire 20 minutes scrolling and never hit play.
Here is the list of 30 movies on Hulu worth watching, which we created by checking IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores, reactions at the time and whether the film has aged well or not. It's a little of everything and go to any parts you wish to hear depending on your mood tonight.
Quick Answer: What Are the Best Movies on Hulu Right Now?
Short on time? Start with Parasite, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Prey, or Barbarian. Between the five of them you've got international drama, sci-fi, dark comedy, and horror covered, and all five score well with critics and regular viewers alike.
Top Picks: Best Hulu Movies at a Glance
A few picks broken down by mood, in case you already know what you're in the mood for tonight.
Best Overall Hulu Movie
Parasite. It won Best Picture, it is a real thriller, a comedy and a class satire in one film, and it does as well on a second or third viewing as it does the first.
Best Hulu Movie for Action Fans
Prey. It was this one that gave the Predator series a second life, putting the alien hunter into the 1700s's Great Plains and presenting a portrait of a Comanche warrior named Naru who is discovering what challenges lie in store.
Best Hulu Movie for Comedy Lovers
Palm Springs. It's a time-loop film, like the previous one, but with Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, it's like it's the first one ever.
Best Hulu Movie for Families
The Peanut Butter Falcon. A young boy with Down syndrome runs away to pursue his dream of being a pro wrestler. Funny, sweet, easy to put on, with everyone in the house looking on.
Best Hulu Movie for Horror Fans
Barbarian. As if you had half a clue what kind of film this was, then it turns on you. More than once.
30 Best Movies on Hulu You Should Watch
The movies are ranked by IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores, critical reception and staying power since their release.
1. Parasite
Thriller/Drama, 2019 | IMDb 8.5 | RT 99%
The tale of two families, one rich and the other poor, at the opposite ends of the class spectrum in Korea. Meets the expectations of award season, and, even for those who somehow missed it, it's an easy recommendation.
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Comedy/Drama, 2014 | IMDb 8.1 | RT 92%
A story about a hotel's infamous concierge and his young, faithful bellhop, as Europe slides toward war, told by Wes Anderson. It's pretty to watch, but funnier than it's given credit for.
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sci-Fi/Comedy, 2022 | IMDb 7.8 | RT 95%
A laundromat owner is caught in a multiverse crisis over her taxes, her daughter and every life she didn't live. It's intentionally chaotic and it gets the emotional gut punch at the end.
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
Drama/Comedy, 2022 | IMDb 7.7 | RT 96%
Suddenly, two old friends, on an isolated Irish island, cease talking to each other, and everything gets a lot darker than a falling out. Both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are very good.
5. Prey
Action/Sci-Fi, 2022 | IMDb 7.1 | RT 93%
A stripped down Predator entry that instead of relying on showmanship, builds tension the old fashioned way - with open plains and the city skyline removed.
6. The Worst Person in the World
Romance/Drama, 2021 | IMDb 7.8 | RT 96%
A Norwegian film following a woman in her late twenties trying to work out who she is and who she actually wants to be with. Funny and sad in roughly equal measure.
7. Palm Springs
Comedy/Romance, 2020 | IMDb 7.4 | RT 94%
When two bridesmaids find themselves stuck sharing the same day at the wedding, they don't fight it, they make it count! One of the better comedies of this decade.
8. Nomadland
Drama, 2020 | IMDb 7.3 | RT 94%
Frances McDormand stars as a woman who has lost nearly everything and is lost on the road, connecting with other nomads of the modern era along the way. Slow, patient and quietly devastating by the end.
9. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Romance/Drama, 2019 | IMDb 8.1 | RT 95%
A painter is hired to secretly paint a young girl's portrait before she is wed, but the two fall in love instead. Beautifully shot and gets all its ending.
10. The Favourite
Comedy/Drama, 2018 | IMDb 7.5 | RT 93%
This incisive, sometimes venomous period piece pits two women against the attention of a sick Queen Anne. It's a role she's won the Oscar on and it's no surprise.
11. The Shape of Water
Fantasy/Romance, 2017 | IMDb 7.3 | RT 92%
The fairy tale of Guillermo del Toro about a woman who is mute and falls for a captured amphibian. A strange concept, but it works, and del Toro is all in.
12. Jojo Rabbit
Comedy/Drama, 2019 | IMDb 7.9 | RT 79%
A Hitler youth boy is troubled by his imaginary friend, a clumsy Hitler, who begars to doubt his Hitler. A difficult act to follow and this film does a pretty good job at it.
13. Fresh
Horror/Thriller, 2022 | IMDb 6.5 | RT 82%
Starts off like a modern dating rom-com, then turns into something a lot darker. Best watched without reading much about it beforehand.
14. Rye Lane
Romance/Comedy, 2023 | IMDb 6.9 | RT 96%
A fast-talking rom-com set over a single day in South London, following two people fresh out of bad breakups who end up spending the day together almost by accident.
15. The Menu
Thriller/Comedy, 2022 | IMDb 7.2 | RT 88%
A couple heads to an exclusive restaurant on a remote island, and the tasting menu comes with a few extra courses nobody asked for.
16. Barbarian
Horror, 2022 | IMDb 7.0 | RT 91%
A woman shows up late at night to an Airbnb only to find a stranger already staying there, and that's just the setup. The less you know going in, the better.
17. Fire Island
Romance/Comedy, 2022 | IMDb 6.6 | RT 92%
A modern Pride and Prejudice riff, set among a group of friends spending a week at the title location. Funny and surprisingly tender.
18. Boss Level
Action/Sci-Fi, 2020 | IMDb 7.0 | RT 87%
A former special forces officer wakes up stuck in a loop where he's killed every single day, and has to figure out why before his luck runs out. Fast, fun, and underrated.
19. Run
Thriller, 2020 | IMDb 6.9 | RT 93%
A homeschooled teenager starts to suspect her overprotective mother has been lying to her about her health. Tense the whole way through.
20. Vacation Friends
Comedy, 2021 | IMDb 6.2 | RT 63%
When a couple of couples keep bumping into each other back in the real world, a wild resort fling abruptly evolves into an undesirable friendship. Wide and silly, but it's on point.
21. The Princess
Action, 2022 | IMDb 5.6 | RT 62%
A princess trapped in a tower, battles her way down through one wave of guards after another to reclaim her rightful place. It's not deep but it's deep enough to be noticed by the stunt work.
22. The Peanut Butter Falcon
Adventure/Drama, 2019 | IMDb 7.7 | RT 92%
A young man with Downs Syndrome gets out of his care home to pursue a career as a pro wrestler and ends up enlisting the help of a drifter on the journey. Sweeter than salty, not syrupy.
23. The Hurt Locker
War/Drama, 2008 | IMDb 7.5 | RT 97%
A tense examination of a bomb disposal unit in the military in Iraq by Kathryn Bigelow. Won best picture and remains one of the more compelling war films of the past 20 years.
24. Little Miss Sunshine
Comedy/Drama, 2006 | IMDb 7.8 | RT 91%
A dysfunctional family stuffs their daughter into a broken down v-wagon van to get her to her beauty contest in time. At this point, a comfort-watch classic.
25. Slumdog Millionaire
Drama, 2008 | IMDb 8.0 | RT 91%
It's the story of a young man from Mumbai's slums who is just one question short of winning a huge fortune on a game show and how he knows each and every answer in flashback. One of the more pure uplifting Best Picture winners out there yet.
26. Black Swan
Psychological Thriller, 2010 | IMDb 8.0 | RT 85%
A ballerina's need for perfection begins to warp her sense of reality. Natalie Portman is indelible as the character.
27. The Nice Guy
Action/Comedy, 2016 | IMDb 7.4 | RT 91%
The pair of mismatched Detectives (Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe) from the '70s, who take the course of a conspiracy mystery while cracking jokes along the way. Deserved much more attention than it received.
28. Ford v Ferrari
Sport/Drama, 2019 | IMDb 8.1 | RT 92%
The real-life epic behind Ford's bid to win at Le Mans for the first time against Ferrari. Excellent running, and a story about determination, more interesting than any that's written down.
29. The Revenant
Adventure/Drama, 2015 | IMDb 8.0 | RT 78%
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his Oscar for this dark survival tale of a fur trapper brutally left behind who clawed his way back to civilization in order to seek revenge.
30. I, Tonya
Biography/Comedy, 2017 | IMDb 7.5 | RT 90%
Starring Margot Robbie, I, Tonya tells the darkly humorous true story of figure skater Tonya Harding and her controversial rise in the competitive world of ice skating.
How We Picked the Best Hulu Movies
This wasn't just a list of personal favorites thrown together. A few things went into the ranking.
Ratings and Reviews
The IMDb audience score and the Rotten Tomatoes one were the starting points for the audience's and critics' responses. If a movie has a good rating on one but not the other, this was a good reason to check it out before adding it to the list.
Audience Popularity
Scores don't tell the whole story. There are some great films that get great reviews from critics and then are never mentioned again in a year. Others continue to be recommended long after their release, and that was the case here also.
Genre Diversity
No one would like to take a list of 30 dramas in a row. Horror, comedy, action and romance are all represented, so no matter what you're looking for you'll find something here.
How to Improve Your Hulu Movie Watching Experience
Finding a good movie is only half the job if the picture quality is fighting you the whole time.
Watch Hulu Movies in the Best Available Quality
A couple of minor adjustments can go a long way: increase the quality in Hulu's playback menu, ensure that your connection is capable of that, and double-check if your TV or streaming device supports HD or 4K to begin with. Wired internet with other Wi-Fi also helps to reduce buffering for a better viewing experience during peak times.
Enhance Low-Quality Movie Clips with AI
Even though you have a good connection, lower resolution clips may appear soft or grainy in older movies. If you are attempting to fix up a saved clip, rather than just stream something in then that's where AI video enhancement tools come in. They can enhance detail, reduce noise, and boost the resolution beyond that of standard playback settings.
Pro Tips: Enhance Hulu Movies with HitPaw VikPea
HitPaw VikPea is worth a try if you've ever paused a movie and wished that the picture would look a little cleaner. A video enhancement tool powered by artificial intelligence that can improve low resolution, rough or compressed videos to look more like the modern times.
Why Use HitPaw VikPea for Movie Enhancement?
VikPea instead uses AI models specifically trained to restore lost detail, reduce noise, enhance edges and restore texture lost through compression, rather than playing with the brightness and contrast sliders and hoping for the best. It can do more than simple editing software with less manual tweaking.
Key Features of HitPaw VikPea
- AI Video Upscaling: Pushes lower-resolution footage up to sharper, more modern resolutions
- Video Denoise: Strips out grain and digital noise without flattening the image
- Face Detail Restoration: Rebuilds facial detail that often gets lost in old or compressed clips
- Low-Light Enhancement: Brightens and clarifies dark or poorly lit scenes
- 4K/8K Video Enhancement: Scales footage up for bigger screens without the usual blur
How to Enhance a Movie Clip with HitPaw VikPea
Step 1: Install and Download
Go to the official website and download HitPaw VikPea. After it is installed, start the application and log in when it is necessary.
Step 2: Get Your Footage into Video Enhancer
Click on the left panel to open the Video Enhancer module. Press the icon to import your video file into the interface.
Step 3: Use the Appropriate AI Model
Along with a general model that applies enhancement overall, there are multiple specialized models that can be applied to the video as per particular enhancement needs.
You can apply other models like UHD Restoration Model that will further improve video quality of a high resolution 720p video, enhancing visibility and restoring sharpening.
Choose your preview length (3 or 5 sec). In case you need to improve only a few elements of the video, use the Cut tool. Fix the output resolution and format.
Tips: In case you are not sure what model to use, use AI Pilot. It will automatically examine your video and advise the most suitable enhancement.
Step 4: Preview and Save
After making all necessary adjustments, click on Preview to compare the before-and-after results of your video. This lets you clearly see the difference between the original and the enhanced version before finalizing.
Step 5: Export or Cloud Export
Once satisfied with the preview, select Export or Cloud Export to save your video. Enjoy enhanced videos with stunning clarity.
FAQs about Best Movies on Hulu
A few standouts right now: Parasite, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Prey, and Barbarian, covering drama, sci-fi, and horror between them.
Parasite sits near the top of the library by most measures, with a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.5 on IMDb.
Pretty much everything: drama, comedy, horror, action, romance, sci-fi, and true-story dramas. It's one of the more well-rounded libraries among the major streamers.
Yes. Hulu's own streaming quality depends on your device and connection, but tools like HitPaw VikPea work separately on saved video clips, improving resolution, cutting noise, and restoring detail in footage that looks soft or dated.
Final Verdict
Hulu's movie library has more range than it usually gets credit for, from Oscar winners to horror movies that know exactly what they're doing with a twist. If you're watching something off an older file or a compressed clip that looks a little rough, giving HitPaw VikPea a try is a quick way to get more out of the picture before you hit play.
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