The 20 best movies to watch on TVNZ+

UPDATED: 29 SEPTEMBER 2025

Anatomy of a Fall

It’s nigh impossible to bring something fresh to a genre as rigid as the criminal procedural, but writer-director Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or and Academy Award-winner managed just that. Sandra Hüller’s in top form as a woman accused of her husband’s murder—and the only witness to the incident is their blind son. Flashbacks are limited to the evidence presented, placing the audience right in the jury booth as witnesses to both the case and France’s confronting prosecution system.

As Flicks’ Rory Doherty wrote, the film “is as interested in the process of investigations as the crime being investigated,” with Luke Buckmaster adding how Triet “subverts the murder mystery and procedural genres by playing games with what we can and can’t see, what we know and don’t know, what we can reasonably deduce and what may lie forever beyond our ken.”

Arctic

Even the icy cool Mads Mikkelsen struggles to adapt to the arctic in this man-against-nature story of a lone survivor with a painstaking decision to make: stay put by the crash plane that landed him in this position and await rescue (not guaranteed) or attempt the deadly trek into the unknown to find salvation (also not guaranteed). With almost no dialogue and a heavy reliance on both Tómas Örn Tómasson’s glorious cinematography and Mikkelsen’s ever-watchable face slowly contort to the whims of the elements, this is one of the purest survival thrillers you’re likely to see.

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

This one’s a real hidden gem. Or, more accurately, three hidden gems in one. The team behind 2012’s Oscar-nominated charmer Ernest & Celestine deliver a trio of cheeky stories revolving around the same group of barnyard animals. The first tale sees a pig trying to reunite a baby with its parents—a task constantly foiled by his two doofus pals; the second tale follows a fox who’s no good at being a fox, somehow becoming the father to three chicks; the final tale tells of a duck’s attempt to become Santa. Watch it with kids. Watch it by yourself. It’s a good time, either way, like watching Winnie the Pooh with a wryer sense of humour.

Challengers

It’s love-all in this spicy, sultry relationship rouser that uses the sweaty, contesting, oscillating sport of tennis as both a setting and a thematic mirror held to the faces of three athletes stuck in a near-unbreakable romance/professional triangle. Luca Guadagnino, director of seductive faves Call Me By Your Name and I Am Love, could very well consider this his sauciest film yet, getting potent performances from his lead trio—Zendaya, Mike Faist & Josh O’Connor—whose characters’ pride, naivety, and desires combine and tumble like a Molotov cocktail in mid-air. Effortlessly jumping back and forth between different years of their relationships and careers, Challengers doesn’t make the ménage à trois’ knotty and ever-shifting entanglements feel at all challenging to keep up with. The nightclub-ready score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross doesn’t hurt, either.

Eye in the Sky

This daggering military thriller suspensefully illustrates the morally dirty nature of drone warfare with little more than a few rooms and some high-calibre actors. The big one’s Helen Mirren as a ruthless commander who spots a rare opportunity to take out key terrorist targets in Kenya. Seems simple, but the process of getting approval to strike—correctly identifying the suspects, seeking political approval, calculating collateral damage—becomes agonisingly tangled, and with the targets capable of leaving at any given moment, every minute counts. Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul gives a wonderfully understated performance as a drone pilot who feels uneasy with the plan of attack, as does Barkhad Abdi of Captain Phillips fame as their man on the ground who risks being compromised. But it’s the late great Alan Rickman, in one of his last screen performances, who you’ll remember most fondly—his final-word speech is especially hard-hitting.

The Farewell

Awkwafina delivered an award-winning dramatic turn in this serious-but-also-light-hearted Sundance hit from writer-director Lulu Wang. Derived from the filmmaker’s own experiences, the story centres on a Chinese family who gather around their terminally ill matriarch as a way to say goodbye. The only person who doesn’t know about the diagnosis is the matriarch herself, and most of the family want to keep it that way. “Awkwafina effortlessly carries a more dramatic turn that we’ve seen from her,” Aaron Yap praised when the film first released, “but it’s the extraordinary Shuzhen Zhao, with her gentle, understated performance as Nai Nai, who will shatter your heart into a tiny million pieces.”

First Blood

For those who have seen all of the Rambo films, revisiting the original is much like rewatching 2001’s The Fast and the Furious—it’s almost hard to fathom how a grounded and straight-faced thriller could later catapult itself towards cartoonishly superhero-like sequels. If you can survive the tonal whiplash, First Blood is a real bareknuckle, breakneck blast.

A drifting Vietnam veteran collides with small-town law enforcement who abuse their power to maintain an arbitrary vision of a status quo. But when they push their mistreatment too far, it sets off a PTSD trauma bomb, unleashing a one-man army that the police cannot contain. Sylvester Stallone is clearly built for the role, but his vulnerable turn near the end injects this deceptively emotional action flick with stirring pathos.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Taika Waititi’s smash hit needs no introduction, given how pivotal it was to his career ascension and the fact that it’s still the highest-grossing New Zealand movie ever (second only to his previous film Boy, also on TVNZ+). But to recap: the film adapts Barry Crump’s Wild Pork and Watercress with Julian Dennison as rebellious foster kid Ricky and Sam Neill as grumpy foster uncle Hec who find themselves on the run in the native bush after mistakenly being branded as outlaws. Also stars Rima Te Wiata as Ricky’s loving foster aunty Bella and Rachel House as a doggedly determined officer of the law with a hilarious sense of duty.

Labyrinth

A young Jennifer Connelly and the timeless David Bowie star in this Jim Henson fantasy classic about a young girl (Connelly) who must enter a bewildering labyrinth to save her baby brother from the Goblin King (Bowie). A fabled pairing of puppetry and production prowess, this ’80s gem is unlike any family film you’re likely to see in this day and age.

Lion

This top-shelf tear-jerker stars Dev Patel as Saroo, a young man raised by loving adoptive parents who takes a one-in-a-billion shot at finding his birth mother. Guided only by choppy childhood memories and random scrolling through Google Maps, this hard-to-believe true story is based on the memoir of the very real Saroo Brierly.

Director Garth Davis neatly splits the narrative into two halves: the first showing how child Saroo became separated from his mother in India, the second following adult Saroo in Australia as he attempts to reconnect. Featuring superb supporting turns from Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara, this word-of-mouth hit and Best Picture Oscar nominee is almost guaranteed to find its way into your heart.

Nude Tuesday

Aotearoa screen icon Jackie van Beek stars in this unique comedy she also wrote (except for the dialogue). The story follows a couple in crisis (van Beek & Damon Herriman) who try to patch things up by going to a couples’ retreat led by a suspiciously charismatic guru (a perfectly cast Jemaine Clement). The twist is that they’re all speaking a kind of Nordic-flavoured gibberish, allowing writers from different regions to essentially mad lib their own subtitles onto the film however they see fit. This hugely ambitious idea didn’t get the global pick-up it was aiming for—or deserved—but at least this version gifts us the hilarious translation from vicious British comedy genius Julia Davis (who talked to us about the process).

Polite Society

Looking to save her sister from marrying “a smarmy wanker,” a British-Pakistani wannabe stuntwoman finds the perfect excuse to put her martial arts training to work in this action-comedy. “Like a hyperactive battle between Bend It Like Beckham and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” Eliza Janssen raved when the film played in cinemas. “Polite Society karate-chops through genre tropes to deliver something exhaustingly fun, with a heartfelt story of sisterhood as its foundation.”

Red Rocket

Before achieving Academy Awards glory with Best Picture winner Anora, writer-director Sean Baker punched out this Oscar-deterrent cringe-heavy comedy starring Simon Rex in a career-topping performance as a gutter-level man looking to reinstate his position in the porn industry. Those who knew him back in the day don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat upon his return home and despite all his talk of greatness lying dormant within him, it doesn’t take long for his true grungy colours to show. “It’s exhilarating to watch a character with no trace of self-loathing or reflection,” Eliza Janssen wrote when the film released in cinemas. “After watching Red Rocket, all you’ll visualise when you hear NSYNC’s ‘Bye Bye Bye’ is Simon Rex scurrying through rural suburbia, bare-ass naked.”

The Silence of the Lambs

Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic creation of author Thomas Harris, became a pop cultural icon in director Jonathan Demme’s classic adaptation of the titular book. Brian Cox played the good doctor previously in Michael Mann’s superb Manhunter and you’ll hear nothing but love for Mads Mikkelsen’s disturbingly charming take on the professional people eater in Bryan Fuller’s excellent series Hannibal.

But neither men won an Oscar for the role, nor did they place the humble fava beans and a nice Chianti in the public consciousness. Those honours went to the mighty Anthony Hopkins, who did his part in making The Silence of the Lambs the third film to score The Big Five at the Academy Awards: Best Screenwriting, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress (for Jodie Foster), and Best Picture.

The Substance

You don’t often see a horror film nominated for anything at the Academy Awards, let alone getting nods for Best Picture and Best Director. But that’s exactly what Coralie Fargeat achieved with this wild, in-your-face creature feature about a fading star (Demi Moore) who takes a mysterious substance that births a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). The new her can keep her career going as long as the original her obeys this strange formula’s strict rules…

Connecting the dots of toxic fame and societal beauty standards with self-hatred and self-destruction, Fargeat maxes out these chunky themes thanks to committed performances from Moore and Qualley and a sharp eye for cinematography and production design that intentionally rub against the film’s gnarly escalation into body horror. By the time you reach the climax, you’ll immediately know why The Substance scored an Oscar for Makeup and Hairstylings.

The Terminator

Laying down the path for one incredible action sequel (and a bunch of dud ones), James Cameron’s classic 1984 sci-fi stands on its own as a tight-fisted thriller. In a role that was meant to go to OJ Simpson (before they feared he was “too nice” ironically), Arnold Schwarzenegger became iconic as the killer robot from the future programmed to murder Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton).

If you can cringe your way through the film’s zero-chemistry sex scene, there’s plenty to love here. One highlight in particular: the use of stop-motion at the film’s climax. It still looks so damn cool and unnervingly freaky.

True History of the Kelly Gang

Muscular director Justin Kurzel (The Order, Nitram) retells the story of infamous Aussie outlaw Ned Kelly, adapting the Booker Prize-winning novel from Peter Carey and putting 1917’s George McKay in the lead role. Russell Crowe co-stars as Harry Power, a bushranger who held huge influence over Kelly.

But it’s not strictly the men who power Kurzel’s retelling, as Alexandra Heller-Nicholas wrote for Flicks back in 2019: “Aside from its striking visual style and undeniable punk rock spirit, what makes Kurzel’s telling of the Kelly legend so compelling is his attention to the women in Ned’s life. While his sister Kate is yet again little more than a footnote, Ellen is second only to Ned as a central character. As one of Australia’s strongest actors, [Essie] Davis is of course undeniably a monumental force on screen, but even an actor of her calibre is given a run for her money by comparative newcomer Thomasin McKenzie.”

Warrior

Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton are estranged beefcake brothers embarking on different journeys through the world of mixed martial arts. One’s an ex-marine who reluctantly reaches out to his abusive and alcoholic father (Nick Nolte) to coach him while the other, a teacher suspended from his job, takes up fighting again to provide for his family. The physical matchups alone are thrilling enough to recommend, but nothing in this early 2010s gem hits harder than the simmering family drama that boils to the surface when these brothers—and their faulty father—inevitably collide. Hardy breaks bones. Edgerton breaks spirits. But it’s Nolte who will break your heart with one heavy scene that secured him an Academy Award nomination.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Like many Hollywood music biopics, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story tells a bunch of bold face lies. Only difference is, Silicon Valley director Eric Appel isn’t trying to hide it, giving us a spoof movie worthy of the great parody musician’s name.

Spreading his comedic wings wider than ever, a hilariously buff Daniel Radcliffe has the distinct honour of playing Weird Al. All the overblown tropes of a rags-to-riches story are here and made instantly ridiculous when put upon a man known for blasting out songs like ‘Another One Rides the Bus’ and ‘Like a Surgeon’ on an accordion (or the “Devil’s Squeeze Box” as his father calls it). It spins complete bullshit for laughs, but as far as biopics that capture the spirit of the artists, this might also be one of the most faithful.

Whale Rider

Pretty much a staple in any cinema Aotearoa diet, Niki Caro’s adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s book is a certified classic. There’s not a bung performance to be found but the biggest powers come from a young Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar-nominated for her role as Paikea, and the great Rawiri Paratene, Paikea’s grumpy koro who refuses to recognise her as the new chief. Hitting the heart hard before healing it whole, it’s a triumphant story of aroha overthrowing the patriarchy.