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Peacock has come in from behind with a strong bench of original shows (the greatest of these is Poker Face)—but also a solid assortment of original or exclusive movies, some brand new, and several that deserved to do better in theaters. There’s some prestige stuff here, but also slightly more disreputable fare. In other words, there’s a little bit here for everyone.
The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Though it feels like it came and went from theaters, Wes Anderson’s latest has all of the director’s signature style—it’s a bit goofier, in many respects, than The French Dispatch and Asteroid City, but the lighter tone leaves it perfectly well-suited for casual streaming in the comfort of any fastidiously decorated living room. Benicio del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a ruthless business man circa 1950 who undertakes to mend his ways (a little, anyway) when a near-death experience convinces him that he won’t outrun the many people who want him dead forever. He appoints his estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as his heir, immediately involving her in her father’s various business schemes and setting them both on the run from international terrorists and assassins.
Jaws (1975)
This year marks Jaws‘ 50th anniversary—I’m not sure that even an ambitious young Stephen Spielberg could have predicted that we’d still be hesitant to go back in the damn water. The summer blockbuster era that the movie gave birth to has produced many a forgettable diversion, but this one has survived a half of a century with its bite (sorry) intact. Its three sequels, which range from diverting to pure camp, are all also streaming on Peacock. They’re fun, but the original survives for a reason.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
This classic slasher has just about everything you need in an ’80s horror movie: goofy, over-the-top comedy, nasty gnarly kills, and a twist ending that’s either empowering or deeply problematic (it’s mostly the latter, but nevertheless unforgettable). Angela (Felissa Rose), traumatized years before by the gruesome motorboat death of her father and sibling, is off to camp—anything to get a break from her whackadoo aunt. Shortly after her arrival, the hazing starts—and then the killing. It’s among the cultiest of cult classic horror movies, and a genre essential.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
Ethan Coen goes solo as director (co-writing with Tricia Cooke) on this gloriously unhinged tribute to ’70s exploitation romance movies. Marian and Jamie are a couple of friends who, setting off on a road trip to Tallahassee, Florida, discover that they’ve taken the wrong car. They learn this when they discover a briefcase full of sex toys and a human head. Of such things are great lesbian adventures born.
Lisa Frankenstein (2024)
Written by Diablo Cody and directed by Zelda Williams, Lisa Frankenstein didn’t do much business at the box office, which is a shame. It’s the unique and funny story of a misunderstood ’80s goth girl (Kathryn Newton) who accidentally reanimates the corpse of a young man who died in 1837 (Cole Sprouse). Blending tones and genres with a 1980s neon-lit visual style, it’s a fun—and surprisingly charming—horror/comedy.
Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie (2023)
Tony Shalhoub is back as America’s favorite obsessive-compulsive detective, Adrian Monk, picking up the role 14 years after the end of the series. Impressively, he doesn’t have appeared to miss a beat in a movie that, sensibly, addresses the impact of Covid on the life of the fastidious and phobic Monk as he becomes embroiled in a case involving his stepdaughter’s dead fiancé.
The Woman in the Yard (2025)
I might be an easy mark for this one, as the idea of someone hanging out on my lawn without leaving fills me with anxiety. Here, a motionless woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) just appears in a chair on the isolated property of a young widow (Danielle Deadwyler) and her two children, Annie (Estella Kahiha) and Tay (Peyton Jackson). The slow-burn creepiness of that simple central premise gives way to a somewhat chaotic third act, but, still, the film is clever, beautifully shot and, while not terrifying, certainly chilling.
Sisu (2022)
Move over, John Wick. This Finnish import stars Jorma Tommila as Aatami Korpi, a grizzled, unassuming prospector during the Lapland war in 1944. He’s uncovered a significant deposit, and is on his way to cash in his newfound fortune when he’s waylaid and harassed by the members of a large Waffen-SS platoon retreating toward Norway and doing as much damage as possible on the way. They messed with the wrong Laplander this time, though, as the Nazis learn that Korpi is a veteran Finnish commando who’d earned the nickname “the immortal.” What follows is a wildly over-the-top bloodbath of an historical thriller with its tongue planted firmly, and satisfyingly, in cheek.
Black Bag (2025)
Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is, in many regards, the kind of film they don’t make anymore: a grown-up movie from a prestigious director with a decent mid-range budget and big-name stars, with nary a superhero or other bit of borrowed IP in sight. It’s the kind of movie that used to be box office gold so, of course, it tanked, more or less, which is unfortunate: The spy vs. spy thriller sees Michael Fassbender as a UK counterintelligence officer tasked with investigating a software leak. One of the prime suspects is his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), herself an intelligence agent. The movie is brisk and slyly funny as well as smart, being largely fought as a game of wits between Fassbender and Blanchett, alongside a stellar supporting cast that includes Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan.
If You Were the Last (2023)
An unlikely rom-com in space stars Anthony Mackie and Zoë Chao as a couple of astronauts who’ve been adrift for three years on a ship without navigation. Everybody back home thinks they’re dead, so, for them, they’re literally the last two people around. Kristian Mercado’s movie finds them poles apart, on opposite ends of almost every conversation, but with a need to communicate that draws them closer together. It’s charmingly old-fashioned in its willingness to rely on dialogue to carry us forward.
Last Breath (2025)
A tense, frequently terrifying dramatization of the 2019 documentary of the same name, Last Breath stars Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, and Cliff Curtis as a team of saturation divers—for the duration of their rotation maintaining undersea gas lines in the North Sea, the divers are kept in pressurized chambers that keep their bodies acclimated for deep-sea diving. During an operation, Cole’s Chris Lemons umbilical becomes tangled and snaps, leaving him alone and with limited air while the team on his support vessel struggles to locate and rescue him under extremely precarious circumstances.
Oppenheimer (2023)
You might have heard of this Christopher Nolan joint, the explosive story of Manhattan Project director and ambivalent father of the atom bomb: J. Robert Oppenheimer. The movie took home seven Academy Awards, including for Best Picture. Its box office success offers hope for a post-superhero future.
Bros (2022)
Billy Eichner (who also co-wrote the movie) stars alongside Luke McFarlane in this cute, funny, and charmingly old-school rom-com that blends genre tropes with a refreshingly pro-queer context. Bros turned off a lot of straight moviegoers at the box office, but it makes for fun home viewing.
They/Them (2022)
Another unique Blumhouse slasher, this one set at an LGBTQ conversion camp. Scary enough, even before the bodies start to drop. The talented cast includes Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, and Kevin Bacon. Not everything lands perfectly, but everyone’s having fun with the spin on a classic premise.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (2022)
This effective Peacock original documentary serves as a still-needed reminder that the Rosa Parks of our collective imagination is largely a work of fiction. Far from the little old lady too tired to give up her seat, Parks, at the time of the Montgomery bus boycott, was a young-ish activist who’d been planning and strategizing around civil rights for years. Her resolve and radical politics shine through here.
Nope (2022)
Jordan Peele’s latest managed a thoroughly unnerving atmosphere even as it blends comedy and scares in an alien invasion horror film that’s also a little bit of a western. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star in another unclassifiable and original triumph.
She Said (2022)
Solid reviews met abysmal box office returns when this docudrama was released way back in 2020, but it’s worth a look. With some of the style of great journalism-themed dramas of days past, She Said looks at the investigation that ultimately exposed Harvey Weinstein’s history of abuse and assault, as led by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan).
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)
A London cleaning lady (circa 1957) becomes enamored with a client’s Dior dress, and heads off to Paris to get one of her own when she comes into a bit of extra money. In the process, she falls into the world of haute couture and high culture. Lesley Manville is an absolute delight as the lead in this adaptation of Paul Gallico’s 1958 novel.
Bosco (2024)
Based on a memoir from Quawntay “Bosco” Adams (here played by Aubrey Joseph), who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years in a maximum security prison for the heinous and unforgivable crime of—well, the movie keeps that under wraps for quite a while. Suffice it to say that it’s not hard to root for him as he plans an ingenious and fairly spectacular escape with the help of a prison pen pal played by Nikki Blonsky.
Night Swim (2024)
Writer/director Bryce McGuire expands his 2014 short to feature length with somewhat mixed results, but the horror-fantasy kicks off with a fun premise: This one’s about a haunted swimming pool—keeping, I suppose, in line with the “spooky property” theme of other Peacock horrors. It doesn’t all float, but Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon are effective leads, and there’s some legitimately scary stuff going on.
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (2022)
A broad approach to the history (and present) of the American Civil Rights movement can be useful, but it’s often more illuminating to zoom in. This smart doc uses interviews and archival footage to tell the story of the title county in the 1960s, a time when the area was rough 80% Black in population, but with zero non-white voters.
Drop (2025)
Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) directs this tense and clever thriller starring Meghann Fahy as Violet Gates, a woman re-entering the dating world for the first time following the death of her abusive husband. As with most dating experiences, it quickly turns out to be more trouble than it’s worth: Arriving at the restaurant, she starts receiving anonymous texts that quickly grow more disturbing, with the suggestion that they’re coming from someone within sight. Her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar) offers to help her figure it out but, unknown to him, she’s been instructed to kill him by assailants holding her son and sister hostage. Seriously: Dating is not a good use of anyone’s time.
Trolls Band Together (2023)
Feels a little late in the day, perhaps, for a movie parodying boy bands, but this third Trolls movie is otherwise well on par with the series: It’s joke-heavy, family-friendly, and just generally silly fun. Justin Timberlake heads up one of those all-star voice casts that includes Anna Kendrick, Keenan Thompson, Ron Funches, and RuPaul. There’s also a sing-along version for brave parents.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)
Folk singer Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) shows up on the title’s dour, windswept island thinking that he’s doing an intimate gig, but he has no idea: It’s actually just for one guy, Charles (Tim Key), a lottery winner and huge fan. Herb is justifiably uncomfortable, a little freaked out, even, but the money’s good so he’ll stay (there’s no hotel on the island, and hardly any people; the closest thing to a hotel is Charles’ house). The two develop an awkward friendship before the other shoe drops: Charles has secretly invited Herb’s former bandmate and one-time girlfriend Nell (Carey Mulligan) to perform with him, and she’s brought her new husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen). The movie is a low-key comedy about moving on, set in a gorgeous, atmospheric locale.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (2023)
This adaptation of the Judy Blume classic was an unexpected triumph, capturing the heart and soul of the original book while still managing to seem revolutionary. Abby Ryder Fortson stars as Margaret, joined in the cast by Rachel McAdams, Elle Graham, Benny Safdie, and Kathy Bates. It’s an entirely appropriate blend of sweet, funny, and frank— the film’s honesty about the trials and triumphs of young women and puberty feels refreshing in the way the book did when it came out in 1970. Which says a lot about how far we have and haven’t come.
