The Best Apple TV+ Original Movies Everyone Should Watch
Although Apple TV+ is relatively new to the Hollywood scene (its first film came out in 2019), Apple TV+’s catalog of original films already includes everything from charming indie films to blockbusters and award-winning prestige films. Apple TV+ even became the first streaming service to win an Oscar for Best Picture, for 2021’s CODA .
Below, you’ll find a selection of the studio’s best projects to date, with something for every viewer. You might think that many of these are regular theatrical releases, and some were even released in theaters first, but strictly speaking, they are all Apple TV+ originals.
High 2 Low (2025)
Spike Lee is an acknowledged cinematic genius, but he seems to make the kind of movies that don’t get shown in theaters anymore: His last film, the war epic Da 5 Bloods, was released straight to Netflix five years ago, and this new film, a remake of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s noir The District and the Fall , is on Apple TV+ after a quick theatrical run. I’m not sure what it says about the state of the film industry that one of our best directors, paired with one of our most bankable stars, Denzel Washington, can’t get a wide release, but here we are. No matter where you see it, the film is a masterpiece. Washington plays David King, a music mogul who receives a call from kidnappers claiming to have his son. King does everything he can to raise the millions he’ll need to pay the ransom — only to discover that there’s been a mix-up and the kidnappers have actually taken his driver’s son (Jeffrey Wright). King must decide: Is the driver’s child worth saving? The film is based on Ed McBain’s 1959 novel, and after two adaptations, it’s still a gripping watch. Watch Highest 2 Lowest .
Unusual Dance (2023)
Lily Gladstone follows her Oscar-nominated work in Killers of the Flower Moon with an equally impressive turn in Seneca-Cayuga director Erica Tremblay’s feature-length directorial debut. Gladstone plays Jax, a queer Cayuga woman living on an Oklahoma reservation with her niece Rocky (Isabel DeRoy-Olson). Jax’s sister (and Rocky’s mother) disappeared weeks ago, but neither tribal police nor the FBI are willing to take it seriously given the family’s troubled history. Child Protective Services attempts to place Rocky in the custody of her estranged white grandfather and his second wife, an arrangement that neither young woman is happy with. The two embark on a dangerous journey to a tribal powwow in Oklahoma City — the FBI, which had previously dismissed their concerns, is suddenly very interested in tracking down the two, who also have to evade local law enforcement and even ICE. It’s not exactly a happy story, but it does contain a powerful message about the power of community and family in the face of even the most oppressive outside forces. Watch Fancy Dance .
F1 (2025)
Fair warning: This is an Apple original, but a co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures. For streaming viewers, that means that while the film is available on Apple TV+, there’s a rental/purchase fee to buy it while it’s still in theaters. Still, it’s worth it, reuniting much of the behind-the-scenes talent from Top Gun: Maverick (including director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer) for a film equally obsessed with speed. Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a once-top racing driver whose career is derailed by a horrific crash. He’s approached by a struggling team owner (Javier Bardem), who’s convinced Sonny might be the guy to get them back on track — literally. The film was made in full collaboration with Formula 1, on real tracks and with real competitors, and Kosinski presents the racing with a real sense of verisimilitude that still impresses even on the small screen. F1 Broadcast .
Blitz (2024)
British director Steve McQueen ( Hunger , 12 Years a Slave , Widows ) takes on the Blitz in this period drama that’s bracingly old-fashioned, yet revisionist in its willingness to upend our understanding of the fighting spirit of British civilians during World War II. Saoirse Ronan plays Rita, a single mother of a mixed-race son – her Grenadian partner was persecuted by racists until he was forced into exile. She’s a factory worker and singer who struggles to survive in London’s East End, where the poor are offered less protection than those living in wealthier parts of the city, and a single mother with a mixed-race child is treated even worse. It’s not exactly a dark film, and it’s full of uplifting moments, but it’s also not afraid to suggest that the Blitz of 1940 wasn’t just a ‘keep calm and carry on’ kind of thing. Watch The Blitz .
Echo Valley (2025)
Julianne Moore joins Sydney Sweeney in this twisty thriller, which also features Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan and Fiona Shaw. Moore plays horse trainer Kate Garrett, living on a farm in southern Pennsylvania, who is dealing with her recently deceased wife and deeply troubled daughter Claire (Sweeney), who usually only shows up when she sees money. This time, she’s brought along a shady boyfriend and a drug dealer she owes money to. Without giving too much away: Someone turns up dead, but not who we expect, and it quickly begins to seem like Claire isn’t quite the timid, wounded soul she seems. Moore is, as usual, great. Watch Echo Valley .
Take Me to the Moon (2024)
The kind of silly romantic comedy that doesn’t get made anymore (or so they say), Take Me to the Moon relies on the strong chemistry between leads Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, and a premise so outrageous it almost works. Tatum plays Cole Davis, a (fictional) NASA launch director during the Apollo 11 era. He finds himself saddled with Johansson’s Kelly Jones, a slightly unscrupulous marketer publicly accused of helping sell the public on the importance of the moon landing. But she also has a secret mission: She’s tasked with preparing a fake landing video to broadcast if the real thing fails. The two lock horns as the actual launch approaches, and Kelly begins to question her methods in the face of Cole’s true-believer. Directed by Greg Berlanti, known for about a million DC Comics series, the film follows 2018’s Love, Simon . Watch Take Me to the Moon .
Fountain of Youth (2025)
Fountain of Youth is a glossy and fun (if mediocre) effort from Guy Ritchie that’s an entertaining Indiana Jones spoof with some more overtly fantastical elements in the style of National Treasure or its closest equivalent, The Librarian series. John Krasinski plays Luke Purdue, a roguish, disgraced archaeologist who’s not above stealing art treasures that he and his crew (including Domhnall Gleeson’s wealthy benefactor Owen Carver) believe are clues to the location of the titular mythical fountain – which may not be a myth. Luke’s sister, Charlotte (Natalie Portman), has given up the action-packed archaeologist lifestyle for a job as a curator at the British Museum, but soon convinces herself to join in on the adventure. The film is full of the kind of globetrotting action that really gets you going, even if you’re unlikely to think much about it once it’s over. Stream “Fountain of Youth” .
Bloody Hundredth (2024)
Shot in the style of Apple’s Masters of the Air miniseries, with Hanks providing narration, this Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks documentary is surprisingly succinct. But the narrative is bolstered by contemporary and archival interviews with historians and eyewitnesses, as well as an impressive array of contemporary footage. It’s a worthwhile read if you haven’t seen Masters of the Air (it’s a historical documentary, not a making-of), but seeing the real places and people depicted in the miniseries is fascinating. Watch The Bloody Hundred .
Deaf President Now! (2025)
The Deaf President Now movement, which began at Gallaudet University in 1988 and became a key moment in the disability rights movement, was a thunderbolt for the deaf community. It’s not always discussed or understood outside of deaf circles. So, like the movement it describes, this documentary’s time was certainly ripe. Gallaudet was founded in 1864 to help deaf students, but for its first 124 years, the university was led by hearing presidents, elected by an almost entirely hearing board of trustees. When that board chose yet another deaf leader, the well-meaning and largely competent Elizabeth Zinser, the students decided enough was enough. While it’s easy to dismiss this moment as a triumph given the outcome, this brilliantly produced documentary follows the events minute by minute, focusing on four very different students and the extremely turbulent week during which the campus was quarantined due to resistance from a board and its chair who never seemed to understand why deaf people needed a deaf president. Watch The Deaf President now !
Lulu the Rhino (2025)
Lulu is a film adaptation of the children’s book by father-daughter duo Jason and Allison Flom, starring Auli’i Cravalho ( Moana ). Whenever Lulu looks in the mirror, she sees a rhinoceros and feels like a rhinoceros, but everyone else sees a bulldog. With a little help from her best friend, Hip Hop the bunny (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and Flom Flom the tic (Dulé Hill), she begins a journey of self-acceptance and learning to not always rely on the approval of others. Leland wrote the sweet, catchy songs for this 47-minute film for preschoolers and families. Watch Lulu .
The Gorge (2025)
Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver star in this sci-fi action romance that became Apple TV’s most-watched movie when it debuted in February. Teller and Taylor-Joy play snipers assigned by a mysterious woman (Weaver) to guard two sides of a ravine in question: he’s a former U.S. Marine with symptoms of PTSD, she’s an undercover Lithuanian agent whose father is dying. The two must spend a year in isolation to ensure nothing escapes the ravine. Things get complicated when the bored snipers start texting each other, talking more and more until they start to wonder what they’re supposed to be guarding. Watch The Rift .
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
While it didn’t win an Oscar (let’s please put Lily Gladstone in another movie), Martin Scorsese’s latest film more than proved that the octogenarian director hasn’t lost his way. A tale of mounting fear and existential dread in the American West, it chronicles the injustices that follow the discovery of oil on Osage lands in the 1920s. Everything that starts well quickly turns to disaster when white political leaders plot a series of murders to keep the wealth where they think it belongs. The film might have been more insightful in telling the true story from an Native perspective, but it’s an important and heartbreaking story that’s masterfully told. Watch Killers of the Flower Moon .
Come From Away (2021)
A full-length cinematic adaptation of this musical about the events that unfolded at a rural airport on 9/11 was in the works before the pandemic put an end to them. So a special stage production was assembled featuring members of the original cast, filmed in front of an audience of 9/11 survivors and front-line workers. While it’s impossible to know what that other version might have looked like, this one is probably better. The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2017, is set in the town of Gander, Newfoundland, after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Gander was once a major refueling hub, but that changed over time, leaving the town with a huge airport and relatively little traffic — until planes were diverted there after the attacks. The stranded plane passengers briefly more than doubled the town’s population, and Gander officials and residents did their best to take care of the unexpected guests. Based on true events, the show has a subtle sense of humor and, while not cynical, never lapses into sentimentality. Watch Come From Away .
Wolves (2024)
Jon Watts steps away from Marvel’s Spider-Man films to direct this action-comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt; it’s still a little hard to wrap your head around the fact that we’re in a world where two A-listers are paired with a director whose box office gross is in the billions, and we’re streaming it straight to the web (technically, it had a one-week formal theatrical release). Still, the end product is pretty funny: Amy Ryan plays Margaret, a Manhattan district attorney who meets a young man at a bar who ends up dead (almost) in her hotel room. She contacts a fixer (Clooney) to help clean up the mess and keep her out of trouble. Meanwhile, the hotel owner (voiced by Frances McDormand) witnesses much of what happened and hires her man (Pitt) to protect her hotel from retaliation. Two very lonely middlemen are forced to work together, and naturally the situation becomes more and more complicated: the dead young man is not quite dead, as it happens, but was involved in drug dealing and the Albanian mafia. Stream Wolfs .
“Black & Blues” by Louis Armstrong (2022)
Sasha Jenkins gets a lot right in this biographical documentary about an American jazz legend, starting with new and archival interviews with musicians influenced by Satchmo and his work: Wynton Marsalis, Miles Davis, Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis and more. But what it does get right is that it lets Armstrong tell his own story – the legend kept shelves of reel-to-reel tape diaries, and it quickly becomes clear that there’s no one better suited to tell his story, his instantly recognizable voice offering candid insights that no one else could. It’s a love letter to a jazz giant – one that, wisely, doesn’t try to smooth over any rough edges. Listen to Black & Blues .
Cha Cha Cha Really Smooth (2022)
You may have missed Cooper Reiff’s 2020 indie film Little House , a film that earned great reviews on a $15,000 budget but failed to rise above its unfortunate title. Its sequel, Cha Cha, the Real Smooth , garnered a little more attention. Andrew is a bar mitzvah party planner who falls for Domino, a mom 10 years his senior (Dakota Johnson). The film is saccharine at times, but Reiff’s complex script and wide-ranging cast of characters make it a charming film from a director worth keeping an eye on. Watch Cha Cha, the Real Smooth .
Still: Michael J. Fox’s film (2023)
The easy part would be to create a heartbreaking portrait of an inspiring figure—a onetime Hollywood golden boy facing life with a debilitating disease. There’s little of that in this documentary, but whenever it does take hold, it feels well-earned. Director Davis Guggenheim documents Fox’s life through a thematic narrative (an actor who could never stay calm in body or mind now struggles to do so), without glossing over the bumps and bruises of living with Parkinson’s or the complex personality of Fox himself. The film works best when it shows the intersections and gaps between Fox the person and Fox the public face of Parkinson’s. Freeze Frame .
CODA (2021)
While I’m not sure the film was the most deserving Best Picture Oscar nominee, that doesn’t detract from CODA as a charming and generally enjoyable film about Ruby (Emilia Jones), a young musician who is the only hearing member of her family. She struggles to cope with the demands of the family fishing business while discovering a passion for singing and a new boyfriend. The plot is based on the tired and silly cliché of deaf people who can’t understand music, but it also shows the characters as capable, complex community leaders with real sex lives. Emilia Jones is great in the title role, as are Marlee Matlin and Oscar winner Troy Katzur as her parents. Watch CODA .
Napoleon (2023)
Sandwiched between 2021’s excellent The Last Duel and Gladiator 2 , Ridley Scott’s fairly accurate 2023 biopic of the former Emperor of France proves that his is the only name in town when it comes to historical epics. The shorter, theatrical version of this film is a slightly muddled affair, featuring a sly, subtly comedic performance from Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, as well as a number of big, more traditional action scenes (Scott cleverly doesn’t ask us to over-admire the man himself). When it works, it offers the old-fashioned thrills of a gorgeously crafted period drama, with the types of grandiose fight scenes we don’t get in a world where every movie brawl involves superheroes and spaceships. The director’s cut (my favorite), also available on Apple TV+, is surprisingly wittier and funnier, but it adds almost an hour to an already long film, so plan accordingly. You can watch the theatrical version here , and the longer director’s cut here .
Pigeon Tunnel (2023)
The great Errol Morris ( Heaven’s Gate , The Thin Blue Line , The Fog of War ) turns his camera on the writer David Cornwell, better known as John le Carré, former spy and spy novelist extraordinaire. The title comes from a memory from the author’s youth: visiting his father, who was part of a pigeon-shooting concession; the pigeons were bred in captivity and then forced through a tunnel to end up in line for rich men to shoot them, in what seemed like a moment of freedom. The metaphor of an escape that turns out to be a trap has become a powerful one in the author’s life and work, and Morris develops this age-old theme with his usual depth and style. Watch The Pigeon Tunnel .
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Joel Coen’s (so far) only solo directorial effort is a bold choice: a beautiful, startlingly minimalist adaptation of the Scottish play, sparse and spare in both its staging and its impact. Only a director with Coen’s confidence could have pulled off a production like this without having to reinvent the wheel, entrusting Shakespearean dialogue and performances to Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. The film has received far more nominations than awards in the 2021-22 season, but it remains one of the best cinematic interpretations of Macbeth since Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood . Watch The Tragedy of Macbeth .
Wolfwalkers (2020)
Robin Goodfellow is apprenticed to her father as a hunter, and together they set off for Ireland to hunt down the last of the wolves. Setting out alone, she meets a free-spirited girl who needs Robin’s help to find her mother; rumor has it that the girl’s tribe can turn into wolves, and Robin’s alliance with her new friends threatens her relationship with her father. This stunning hand-drawn animated film is a deserved Oscar nominee, and continues the thematic trilogy that began with The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014) by the same directors. They are all stand-alone films, but if you like this one, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy all three. Watch Wolfwalkers .
Hala (2019)
It seems like most viewers missed Apple’s first original film of 2019, and that’s a shame. Written and directed by Minhal Baig, a native of Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, the film has a special atmosphere, especially for those who grew up in the area. But its greatest asset is its witty and touching coming-of-age story. Geraldine Viswanathan plays Hala Masood, a teenage girl from a strict Muslim family who falls in love with a non-Muslim at school, leading to a conflict that also exposes a few family secrets. Watch Hala .
Swan Song (2021)
Writer/director Benjamin Cleary presents a poignant existential dilemma in this low-key sci-fi drama starring Mahershala Ali as Cameron Turner, a husband and father suffering from a terminal illness. To spare his wife (Naomie Harris) and children the trauma and pain of impending death, he considers a new procedure proposed by Dr. Scott (Glenn Close): he will continue to hide his illness from his family and will be replaced by a clone with all of his memories. He will spend his final months alone, but knowing that his family will not have to deal with his loss. In the best sci-fi tradition, the film explores the questions of identity, meaning, and loss that such a hypothetical technology raises—without feeling like an overlong episode of Black Mirror. Stream Swan Song .
Bono: Tales of Surrender (2025)
Filmmaker Andrew Dominik ( Killing Them Softly , Blonde ) documents Bono’s 2023 solo show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The show includes excerpts from his memoir, as well as performances of newly arranged U2 songs that complement the lyrics. The film tells the artist’s life story in a more dramatic and cinematic way than the average documentary: Bono is as gifted at reading as he is at singing, and Dominik’s stunning cinematography is a feast for the eyes. A fully immersive version is also available for Apple Vision Pro users. Watch Stories of Surrender .
The Velveteen Rabbit (2023)
At only about 40 minutes long, this mix of live-action and animation feels more like a short film than a feature, but its length and refusal to be overly self-deprecating are its strengths rather than its weaknesses. Seven-year-old William (Phoenix Laroche) moves into a new home with his family, where he struggles to fit in and make friends. A Christmas present in the form of the titular rabbit sets William’s imagination free, and the boy’s love gives the bunny a life of its own along with the other toys in the playroom. When William falls ill, the Velveteen Rabbit is faced with a difficult choice, and if you know the story, this is about the point where you’ll start to feel a little teary-eyed. The animated segments use a variety of gorgeous animation styles, which really conveys the complexity and variety of William’s imagination. Watch The Velveteen Rabbit .