2026 has only just begun, but the same old problem remains — which movies should you watch over the weekend?
Watch With Us is here to help with a curated list of three high-quality movies streaming on Hulu that are worth checking out.
From an underrated 2025 sci-fi thriller Ash featuring a Breaking Bad star to a bittersweet animated movie that was nominated for an Oscar, these films are sure to help you ring in the new year on a high note.
‘Ash’ (2025)
Riya (Eiza González) is an astronaut with a big problem — she’s stranded in outer space! Even worse, she has no memory of how she got there or why most of her fellow crew members are dead. Literally lost in space, her only salvation lies with Brion (Aaron Paul), who answered a distress call she had initiated some time ago. But is Brion telling the whole truth? And why is she experiencing brief flashbacks that depict her killing her friends?
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Ash is a genuinely intriguing sci-fi mystery that has lots of tricks up its narrative sleeve. None of it ever feels cheap or unearned, though; instead, Ash resembles an intriguing blend of Alien and Fight Club. Director Flying Lotus, who also costars and wrote the score, isn’t afraid to reference past hallmarks in multiple genres while creating a wholly original sci-fi horror flick that uses every one of its economical 95-minute runtime wisely and imaginatively.
‘The Illusionist’ (2010)
In the late 1950s, no one really craves magic anymore. That’s a problem for the illusionist, the unnamed main protagonist of director Sylvain Chomet’s wonderful 2010 animated film, The Illusionist. Unable to find work in Paris, the illusionist moves to London and scrapes by on low-paying gigs at pubs, cafés and private parties. His life brightens when he meets Alice (Eilidh Rankin), a young girl who believes he possesses magical powers. They soon move in together, but their father-daughter relationship is soon threatened by a harsh reality — the illusionist is running out of money and finds it harder to sustain Alice’s idealized image of him.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2011 Academy Awards, The Illusionist is a mostly dialogue-free ode to magic and the magicians who dedicate their entire lives to illusion. For the film’s protagonist, he devotes his energies to impressing a crowd of one — Alice — because she’s the only one left who really believes in him.
But even that doesn’t last forever, and in the film’s bittersweet third act, the illusionist can’t deny the inevitable. The Illusionist is an animated movie for adults; while kids might like it, adults will appreciate it more and will recognize the film’s central message — there are no happy or sad endings in life, just endings that no one, not even a magician, can deny forever.
The Illusionist is streaming on Hulu.
‘The Abyss’ (1989)
James Cameron has been a box office “king of the world” for decades now, and you’d have to go back to the 1980s to find his last disappointment. But to call The Abyss disappointing is a stretch; it made some money and won critical acclaim, even though it didn’t take over cinemas like the director’s latest hits, like True Lies, Titanic or his latest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
In The Abyss, a UFO is discovered at the bottom of the ocean. To investigate this strange phenomenon, a team of Navy SEALs is sent to a nearby deep-sea oil drilling rig. Accompanying this team is Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who believes the UFO contains solid proof of extraterrestrial life. Rig captain Budd (Ed Harris), who just so happens to be Lindsey’s estranged husband, isn’t so sure and isn’t willing to risk the lives of his crew to find out. As a hurricane rages on the surface, tensions mount and tempers flare as Lindsey and Bug clash on whether to investigate the UFO or not.
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The Abyss is a sci-fi spectacle at its best — visually impressive, thematically daring and superbly well-acted. The movie’s depictions of what aliens would actually look like underwater make sense, but what’s even more memorable is how Cameron handles the dramatic scenes, particularly between Lindsey and Bud. These two feel like a real-life married couple — stubborn, opinionated and frustrating, they also really care about each other. The Abyss shows Cameron’s enduring strengths as a filmmaker, one who always wants to push what cinema can do without sacrificing the humanity behind it.
The Abyss is streaming on Hulu.
