The topic 3 blockbuster Netflix movies to watch this week (April 27 – May 3) is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
This is it, the last week of April, and I know what you’re asking—is there anything left to watch on Netflix this week? With a U.S. library pushing past 5,600 movies and TV shows, you bet your Scarlett Johansson there is.
If you’ve already chewed through the streamer’s top 10, with movies like Apex and Thrash still dominating, then why not wind the week down with a mind-expanding sci-fi thriller with the aforementioned Scarjo, or a sexy crime drama with Austin Butler, or one of last year’s best movies, period, starring Emma Stone. Let’s go.
“It is estimated that most human beings only use 10% of their brain’s capacity,” Professor Samuel Norman (Morgan Freeman) tells a lecture hall full of students. “Imagine if we could access 100%. Interesting things begin to happen.” In Luc Besson’s (The Fifth Element) 2014 fun-as-hell sci-fi action thriller, that’s exactly what happens to the titular Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), with some wild consequences.
While in Taipei, Lucy wakes up to find that she’d been drugged and, worse, some gangsters have cut her open and sewn a bag full of some experimental synthetic drug called CPH4 into her abdomen, and she’s to transport it for them, or else. When the bag ruptures inside her, something miraculous happens—it unlocks her brain’s full potential, giving her superhuman abilities, including telekinesis, telepathy, and other Neo-in-The-Matrix-like control over reality. With the gangsters on her tail, Luck seeks out the help of Professor Norman before she evolves beyond our physical limitations and into the unknown.
Lucy was one of Johansson’s highest-grossing non-Marvel movies, and while it doesn’t have the shiniest of Rotten Tomatoes ratings (67%), its fast pace, fascinating premise, and cool VFX (for the time) make it a movie I always enjoy watching.
Since wowing audiences with his career-making portrayal of Elvis, Austin Butler has done a good job adding a diverse list of characters to his resume, including Dune: Part II’s sinister, powder-whiter Harkonnen, Feyd-Rautha, and a World War II bomber pilot in Apple TV’s Masters of the Air. In Darren Aronofsky’s pulpy dark gangster comedy Caught Stealing, Butler adds ‘washed-up high-school baseball phenom-turned-badass’ to the tally, to great effect.
Besson, Aronofsky, or Lanthimos — can you match these films to the visionary director behind them?
Which director made Poor Things (2023), the surreal Victorian fantasy starring Emma Stone?
Black Swan (2010), the psychological thriller about an obsessive ballerina, was directed by whom?
The Fifth Element (1997), the colorful sci-fi blockbuster starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich, was directed by whom?
The Whale (2022), the intimate drama starring Brendan Fraser as a reclusive man with severe obesity, was directed by whom?
The Favourite (2018), the darkly comic period drama set in the court of Queen Anne, was directed by whom?
Léon: The Professional (1994), the stylish thriller about a hitman who protects a young girl, was directed by whom?
The Lobster (2015), the dystopian dark comedy in which single people must find a partner or be turned into an animal, was directed by whom?
Requiem for a Dream (2000), the harrowing portrait of addiction starring Ellen Burstyn and Jared Leto, was directed by whom?
Hank Thompson (Butler) is licking his wounds in New York and working as a bartender in a dive bar after a drunk-driving accident in California ended his baseball career. But his life blows up after his drug-dealing, mohawk-sporting neighbor, Russ (House of the Dragon’s excellent Matt Smith), inadvertently drags him into a world of hurt involving dangerous Russian gangsters, a Puerto Rican kingpin played by Bad Bunny, and two totally badass Hasidic Jewish brothers played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio. Zoë Kravitz costars as Hank’s girlfriend, Yvonne, and Regina King also appears as a hard-nosed detective who may not be what she seems.
Caught Stealing is a gritty and darkly funny underdog redemption story, with the entire cast turning out memorable performances. The film was well received by critics and has an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ wildly creative, psychological conspiracy thriller, Bugonia, was my favorite movie last year, hands down. An English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan, and adapted by Succession’s Will Tracy, Bugonia reunites Lanthimos with his muse, Emma Stone, for their fourth movie together, and it’s their best yet (in my opinion).
Stone stars as Michelle Fuller, the steely, pretentious CEO of a pharmaceutical company, who is abducted by an unhinged conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper named Teddy (Jesse Plemons in one of his best roles), who believes that Michelle is actually an alien who has infiltrated Earth and is living among us for nefarious purposes. With the help of his naive, but innocent, autistic cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), they shave Michelle’s head (so she can’t communicate) and lock her up in the basement until she agrees to take them to her emperors in on her mothership on the night of a lunar eclipse. What unfolds in Teddy’s basement is a twisted cat-and-mouse battle of the minds, as Michelle tries to escape.
Bugonia is a brilliant psychological trip that doesn’t stop, with an ending unlike any you’ll ever see. It’s no wonder it was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Stone, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Tracy. It’s not to be missed.
Looking for something else to watch? Don’t you worry, at How-To Geek, we eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff. Are you into documentaries? Check out my weekly roundups of docs on Netflix and HBO Max, for starters. If you’re yearning for movie suggestions on Paramount+, I round up a few great ones each week, too.
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