The 7 Best New Movies On Netflix In May 2025

Forbes

02-05-2025

A new month means there's a flesh slate of films to choose from on Netlfix, and May is no exception. This month offers dozens of new movie options, from coming-of-age tales about kids skateboarding in the 1990s to on-the-road crime dramas about families piecing themselves back together to zombie thrillers about the everyman's ability to become a hero. These are just three of the many, many great movies you can now access on Netflix. So where should you start?
Hopefully, I can help. Below are seven movies I believe stand out from the fresh crop of films now available on Netflix. For each film, I'll detail the plot, link a trailer and offer reasons for why you should watch it. Then at the bottom of the article, you can find a full list of every single new film available on Netflix in May 2025.
I'm so excited about Jonah Hill's upcoming black comedy starring Keanu Reeves, Outcome, which Hill is directing. To date, he's only directed two movies, and both of them are fantastic - the first, Stutz, is an incisive, vulnerable documentary about the benefits of therapy - but the second film, the only narrative feature Hill has directed to date, is the reason I believe Outcome will be one for the books. Mid90s is set in 1996 Los Angeles, where 13-year-old Stevie (played by Sunny Suljic) lives with his abusive older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges) and their single mother Dabney (Katherine Waterston). Desperate to break free from his home life, Stevie assimilates into the rebellious world of skateboard culture and indulges in substance abuse and life-threatening behavior. Hill's directorial eye, which employed Super 16mm film in a 4:3 aspect ratio in order to evoke the look and feel of 1990s home videos, reveals a unique approach - he meticulously recreates the raw energy and camaraderie of the era's skateboarding scene, breathing life into the setting, allowing this coming-of-age tale to pulsate with life as Stevie tumbles down a potentially dark path in his search to belong.
Up until Trainwreck, Judd Apatow had trod familiar territory. Don't get me wrong: his movies were great - The 40-Year-Old Virgin is an incredible directorial debut, Funny People is one of those rare sad comedies that totally works, and I still laugh myself silly while watching Knocked Up. But Trainwreck, which was written by Amy Schumer, filters Apatow's loose structure and emotionally grounded approach through a new voice. This romantic comedy stars Schumer as Amy Townsend, a raging alcoholic who uses partying and vices to shield herself from any sort of deep, meaningful relationship. Taught from a young age that a loving marriage isn't realistic, she lives a commitment-free life - that is until she unexpectedly falls for Aaron (Bill Hader), who challenges her long-held beliefs. The signature sharp wit of Schumer's comedy bring a fresh perspective to rom-coms as it forces Amy to confront her fears and reconsider her lifestyle choices. To boot, the film features great performances from the likes of Brie Larson, Tilda Swinton, John Cena and LeBron James, who all offer hilarious characters that brim with personality and add to the story.
Steven Spielberg's career is filled with absolute gems, from Jaws to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to, most recently, The Fabelmans, which feature all the classic signatures of the director's approach - he uses the camera, via long takes and elegant tracking shots, to convey the story; he is a master of blocking and composition as he maximizes dramatic tension; he has complete control of a film's tone, shifting between between suspense, sentimentality, horror and humor with ease. But the very beginning of his career is punctuated by two films that showcased the baby stages of such later mastery. The first, Duel, was a tense thriller about a man being chased by a semi-truck, while the second took a microscope to society's fascination with media sensationalism. That film, The Sugarland Express, starts with the character Lou Jean (Goldie Hawn), who convinces her husband Clovis (William Atherton) to escape from prison and help her retrieve their son before he is placed into foster care. During the journey, they take a police officer hostage, leading to a slow-moving and growing caravan of police cars, news vans and onlookers as they run from the law. For fans of Spielberg's development as a master director, this film is a fascinating watch.
There aren't many movies I feel I can watch with my mother. But when Crazy, Stupid, Love. hit theaters back in 2011, I knew it was a safe pick - and little did I know it would be such a rollicking good time, not only for its ability to balance awkward, true-to-life comedy with heartfelt drama, but, more than anything, for bringing together Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone for their first on-screen appearance together. This unpretentious rom-com employs an ensemble cast of characters, starting first and foremost with Cal (Steve Carell), who is heartbroken when his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) asks for a divorce. Heartbroken and adrift, Cal's life turns around when a suave bachelor named Jacob (Gosling) takes him under his wing to teach him the art of seduction. As Cal reinvents himself, Jacob unexpectedly falls for Hannah (Stone) and must question his lifestyle choices as he deepens his relationship with her. What separates this film directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa from other rom-coms is its willingness to take heartbreak and uncertainty seriously - the film doesn't pretend that love is simple or that people always know what they're doing, and instead leans into the confusion and messiness of connection.
Few directors have afforded themselves the ability to comment upon aging quite like Clint Eastwood, a 94-year-old individual who has directed over 40 films date, who delivered yet another film, Juror #2, in 2024. While Unforgiven had served as his most significant film on the subject of growing old for many years, a new film took the helm in 2018: The Mule. Eastwood also stars in the film as the Korean War veteran Earl, a horticulturist who, after years of selfishness and career obsession, has alienated all the important people in his life. When his flower business collapses, Earl stumbles into work as a mule, transporting cocaine across the country for a Mexican cartel. While the film features cartel meetings and DEA investigations, its pacing unfolds in a slow, deliberate manner characteristic of Eastwood's late-age approach, more interested in Earl's long drives and quiet reckonings than shootouts or suspense. At its core, The Mule is a film about someone trying peace with their life before it's too late, a theme you can't help but feel is important to an artist almost in his 90s. Eastwood directs with the sparse, unflashy style he's known for, favoring long takes, simple blocking and natural lighting for his slowly unfolding story. The film also stars Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña and Laurence Fishburne as DEA agents who slowly chase Earl down.
My curmudgeonly gripe with many modern films is they spend too much time telling instead of showing - they often resort to exposition-laden plots that are more concerned with what is happening as opposed to who it is happening to and why it is happening and how it helps us understand this existence. That's why I love Past Lives, a film that finds meaning in what isn't said - a film that is built around the awkward pauses, the fleeting glances, the almost-confessions that pervade life - it's a film that resists dramatic confrontations in favor of gentle realizations, that our biggest emotional breakthroughs don't always come through heightened catharsis, but quiet acceptance. This wonderfully meditative romance movie produced by A24 follows Nora (Greta Lee), a Korean immigrant and playwright living in New York who reconnects with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), a childhood friend from Seoul she hasn't seen in 24 years. While conversing as they drift through the city, Nora becomes torn between her past, which she explores through Hae Sung, and her present, represented by her boyfriend Arthur (John Magaro), as she unknowingly looks into her future. Celine Song's directorial debut is one for the ages as she navigates the story with an extraordinary sense of patience and control, allowing the audience to observe rather than intrude, creating a sense of intimacy and emotional restraint rarely seen in modern film.
This list has been filled with quieter, down-to-earth movies about love and loss and reflection. But this last film, while filled with interesting ideas and lively characters, takes us down a decidedly different path - one filled with high-speed chases and big-budget spectacle and, well, zombies. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, Train to Busan centers on Seok-woo (Gong Yoo), a cold, emotionally distant father who boards the train with his young daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an), to visit her mother in Busan. But as the train quickly descends after being overtaken by a rapidly spreading infection, his priorities are challenged and his arc becomes the emotional spine of the film, transforming him from an aloof, calculating individual into one that is compassionate and heroic. The zombies, fast, vicious, and terrifying in groups, come to reflect Seok-woo's journey, serving as a metaphor for societal decay and the spread of dehumanizing behavior - in effect, the film critiques corporate greed, class divisions, and the erosion of empathy, asking not just how we survive, but who we become in order to do so - Seok-woo serves as the anchor for this harrowing examination of the human condition. (If you're interested, the film's sequel, Peninsula, is also on Netflix.)