There are some months when you may have a hard time finding a movie with a high Rotten Tomatoes score on Netflix.
December, however, has more than a few critically acclaimed films to choose from, including one that was in theaters as recently as last month.
To help you find these elite flicks, Watch With Us has put together our roundup of the five best Netflix movies to watch right now as ranked by Rotten Tomatoes.
And our No. 1 pick is the movie that should have won Best Picture three decades ago.
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5. ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79 percent
We could recommend The Wolf of Wall Street solely on the strength of Margot Robbie‘s breakout role as Naomi Lapaglia. Her star power is undeniable in this Martin Scorsese flick, but it’s also best known as one of the director’s most unconventional crime movies. Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is just as much of a crook as any gangster that Scorsese has depicted onscreen; he just gets away with his crimes because they’re financial in nature.
Belfort teaches his friend, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), the art of the steal and marries a trophy wife, Naomi, all while indulging in drugs and alcohol. Nothing can stop Belfort from swindling would-be stock market investors, and even getting caught only leads to greater success. He’s living the American dream one scam at a time.
The Wolf of Wall Street is streaming on Netflix.
4. ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ (1999)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85 percent
Speaking of cons, Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) pulls off a few for the ages in The Talented Mr. Ripley. He barely even has to try to convince Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) to send him to Italy on a paid trip to retrieve the former’s wayward son, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law). He even manages to impress Dickie and his lover, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), and become a part of their inner circle.
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Once Tom has a taste of the high life that Dickie enjoys, he can’t let it go. After making some extreme choices, Tom assumes Dickie’s identity and takes his place in high society. However, the police and Marge are suspicious about Dickie’s apparent disappearance, and even Tom’s luck is bound to run out sooner or later.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is streaming on Netflix.
3. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (2012)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91 percent
Zero Dark Thirty benefited from the fortuitous timing of hitting theaters a year after the death of Osama bin Laden, when it was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Kathryn Bigelow directed this film, which dramatized the decade-long manhunt to find bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Jessica Chastain leads the cast as Maya, a CIA analyst who devotes years of her life to finishing this mission.
To find bin Laden, Maya makes some morally compromised choices, and the mission becomes even more personal to her when bin Laden’s terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, strikes at someone she knows. There’s only one way Maya’s quest can end, and it places her under intense physical and emotional pressure.
Zero Dark Thirty is streaming on Netflix.
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2. ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92 percent
Wake Up Dead Man shakes up the Knives Out formula by briefly showing Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) at the beginning of the film and waiting nearly 40 minutes before he reappears in the story. In that time, Josh O’Connor shines as Jud Duplenticy, an ex-boxer turned priest who has been sent to serve a small church run by Msgr. Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). It doesn’t take long for Jud to come to despise Wicks’ hateful take on religion, but his public stance against him also makes Jud the likely killer when Wicks is murdered in front of his congregation.
Blanc flouts the rules of murder investigations by inviting Jud to take part in the search for a killer. Almost everyone in Wicks’ confidence had a reason to see him dead. But unfortunately for Jud, all the evidence seems to point back at him, and even the townspeople believe he’s a killer priest.
Wake Up Dead Man is streaming on Netflix.
1. ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92 percent
Forrest Gump — the movie that beat Pulp Fiction for 1994’s Best Picture Oscar — is also on Netflix this month, and it’s no contest which one we want to revisit. Pulp Fiction was only Quentin Tarantino‘s second film, and it gave him an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay. Tarantino borrows elements from other films, but he made this one feel special with his own unique take on the film.
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Few movies have employed non-linear storytelling as this film has, which makes a big impact when characters die on-screen only to reappear in a different part of the movie. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson get most of the screen time as hit men Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, and we could listen to them banter all day. This movie has withstood the test of time, and it belongs at No. 1 on your watch list.
Pulp Fiction is streaming on Netflix.
