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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The best movie to start with is CODA, but Apple TV+’s film library covers much more than one Oscar-winning drama. It includes historical epics, documentaries, animation, science fiction, thrillers, romances, and accessible crowd-pleasers.
This ranked guide focuses on the US Apple TV+ catalog. The order considers critical reputation, awards recognition, filmmaking ambition, lasting appeal, originality, and how well each title represents Apple’s film strategy. Availability can change, and a film’s inclusion, subtitles, ratings, and playback features may differ by country.
The 21 best movies on Apple TV+ at a glance
- CODA (2021) — Best overall
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) — Best serious historical drama
- F1 The Movie (2025) — Best action movie
- The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) — Best Shakespeare adaptation
- Tetris (2023) — Best true-story thriller
- Wolfwalkers (2020) — Best animated film
- Highest 2 Lowest (2025) — Best crime thriller
- The Gorge (2025) — Best genre hybrid
- Eternity (2025) — Best high-concept romance
- Flora and Son (2023) — Best music-driven drama
- Greyhound (2020) — Best concise war movie
- Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) — Best intimate indie drama
- Causeway (2022) — Best understated drama
- Finch (2021) — Best accessible science fiction
- Swan Song (2021) — Best ethical science-fiction drama
- On the Rocks (2020) — Best short comedy
- The Banker (2020) — Best business history
- Palmer (2021) — Best redemption story
- Boys State (2020) — Best political documentary
- Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) — Best astronomy documentary
- Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (2021) — Best music documentary
1. CODA (2021)
Sian Heder’s coming-of-age drama is the strongest first recommendation for most viewers. Ruby is the only hearing member of a Deaf fishing family, and her growing commitment to music forces her to balance personal ambition with responsibility at home.
CODA works because its emotional stakes are easy to understand without being simplistic. It is warm, funny, moving, and powered by a persuasive family dynamic. Its Best Picture Oscar win also gives it an important place in Apple’s film history and reflects the film’s unusually broad cultural impact.
#1 Best Overall
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Best for: a moving, crowd-pleasing drama; families with older children and teenagers.
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Martin Scorsese’s expansive historical crime drama examines the murders of Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma and the greed, betrayal, and institutional systems surrounding them. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone lead a film that treats its historical subject with exceptional seriousness.
Its substantial runtime and deliberate pace make it a commitment, but the scale, performances, period detail, and moral weight justify that commitment. This is one of Apple’s most consequential films: a major piece of awards-season filmmaking as well as a grim examination of American history.
Best for: prestige drama, crime history, and serious historical filmmaking.
3. F1 The Movie (2025)
Joseph Kosinski’s racing drama is Apple’s clearest big-screen entertainment spectacle. Brad Pitt plays a former driver who is persuaded to return to Formula 1 and mentor a younger teammate, creating a familiar but highly effective combination of comeback story, team conflict, and high-speed action.
At 2 hours 35 minutes, it is not a quick watch, but its racing sequences and straightforward emotional stakes make it one of the most accessible recent Apple blockbusters. Apple’s US title information lists the 2025 release, Kosinski’s direction, the cast, Dolby Atmos availability, and an Apple TV streaming path.
Best for: action fans, sports-movie viewers, and anyone seeking Apple’s most conventional blockbuster.
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Joel Coen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy is a stark, expressionist nightmare. Shot in black and white, it uses angular sets, deep shadows, theatrical staging, and heightened performances to make the familiar story feel severe and newly enclosed.
Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand lead a compact production that rewards concentration. This is not the easiest choice for casual background viewing, but it is among Apple’s most visually distinctive films and one of the service’s clearest statements about theatrical cinema.
Best for: Shakespeare, stage-to-screen adaptations, and stylized drama.
5. Tetris (2023)
Jon S. Baird turns the international fight to distribute the Tetris video game into a brisk Cold War thriller. Licensing disputes, Soviet bureaucracy, corporate maneuvering, and international negotiations become the machinery of an unexpectedly entertaining true story.
The film takes liberties with the pace and shape of events in the service of thriller momentum, but it remains one of Apple’s most effective examples of the “strange true story” format. You do not need to know the history of the game to follow the stakes.
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Rank #2
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6. Wolfwalkers (2020)
Cartoon Saloon’s hand-drawn fantasy is the most accomplished animated feature in Apple’s catalog. It follows Robyn, a young English apprentice hunter, whose friendship with a girl from a magical wolf-shifting community changes her understanding of the forest and the people living in it.
The film’s hand-drawn design, ecological themes, folklore, and emotional clarity work equally well for children and adults. It is a particularly strong family choice because it offers genuine visual and thematic richness instead of treating younger viewers as an afterthought.
Best for: animation, family viewing, folklore, and fantasy.
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7. Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
Spike Lee’s reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low casts Denzel Washington as a powerful music executive caught in a ransom plot. Jeffrey Wright and A$AP Rocky also appear in a crime story that uses a high-pressure crisis to explore status, loyalty, money, and moral responsibility.
Apple’s US title information identifies it as a 2025 thriller and crime film directed by Lee. Its appeal lies in the collision between a classical crime premise and Lee’s urban energy, social commentary, and interest in the structures surrounding individual choices.
Best for: urban crime, moral dilemmas, Denzel Washington, and Spike Lee’s social energy.
8. The Gorge (2025)
The Gorge pairs two elite operatives stationed on opposite sides of a mysterious chasm. The setup initially suggests a tactical action movie, but the film becomes more interesting when it shifts toward science fiction, romance, and creature-feature territory.
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Best for: action, science fiction, romance, and monster-movie energy.
9. Eternity (2025)
David Freyne’s romantic comedy imagines an afterlife junction where the dead must choose how to spend eternity. Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, and Callum Turner lead a high-concept story built around an impossible romantic decision.
Apple’s US title information identifies the film as a 2025 romance/comedy and lists its runtime as 1 hour 54 minutes. Its central idea gives the movie a bittersweet dimension: the fantasy premise is really a way to ask what makes a life, and a relationship, feel like home.
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10. Flora and Son (2023)
From Once filmmaker John Carney, Flora and Son follows a single mother who tries to connect with her son through guitar lessons. Eve Hewson leads a music-driven drama about creativity, family, frustration, and second chances.
Rank #3
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The film is lighter and more immediately charming than many of Apple’s prestige releases. Its music gives the relationship a practical way to develop, while the story remains grounded in the messy limitations of parenting and adult reinvention.
Best for: music, romance, parent-child stories, and feel-good viewing.
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11. Greyhound (2020)
Tom Hanks plays a US Navy commander protecting a convoy across the Atlantic during World War II. The film is lean and tense, concentrating on command decisions, sonar information, radio communication, and the constant threat of enemy submarines.
Rather than spending much time on extended personal backstory, Greyhound puts the viewer inside the pressure of command. Its focused structure makes it a good choice when you want a substantial war movie without a long domestic subplot.
Best for: naval warfare, military suspense, and concise action drama.
12. Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022)
Cooper Raiff’s low-key coming-of-age film follows a young man who becomes a party starter and forms a complicated bond with a mother and her autistic daughter. Its humor is awkward and humane, and its relationships remain deliberately uncertain.
The film’s strength is its refusal to force every connection into a neat romantic or emotional resolution. It is more interested in temporary intimacy, immaturity, and the difficulty of knowing what another person needs.
Best for: intimate indie drama, romantic uncertainty, and character-focused storytelling.
13. Causeway (2022)
Jennifer Lawrence gives a restrained performance as a soldier recovering from a traumatic brain injury who returns to New Orleans. There she forms an unexpected friendship with a mechanic played by Brian Tyree Henry.
Causeway is quiet and elliptical. Its emotional effect comes from pauses, behavior, and the gradual trust between two damaged people rather than from major plot turns. Viewers seeking a conventional recovery drama may find it understated; viewers attuned to small performances may find it deeply affecting.
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Best for: quiet drama, recovery stories, and understated performances.
14. Finch (2021)
Tom Hanks leads this post-apocalyptic science-fiction road movie as Finch, a robotics engineer who builds an android to care for his dog after the collapse of human civilization.
The premise draws on familiar post-apocalyptic and artificial-intelligence ideas, but the film’s central human-machine relationship gives it an approachable emotional center. It is more sentimental than frightening, making it a good choice for viewers who like science fiction with a strong companionship story.
Rank #4
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Best for: accessible science fiction, robots, dogs, and emotional end-of-the-world stories.
15. Swan Song (2021)
Mahershala Ali plays a husband and father offered a disturbing solution to terminal illness: a genetically identical replacement could continue his family life after his death.
The movie treats that premise as an identity and ethics drama rather than a plot-heavy thriller. Its questions are intimate and uncomfortable: if a replacement has the same memories and appearance, what makes one person irreplaceable? Ali carries much of the film’s philosophical and emotional weight through a deliberately measured performance.
Best for: speculative drama, ethical dilemmas, and intimate science fiction.
16. On the Rocks (2020)
Sofia Coppola’s Manhattan comedy pairs Rashida Jones with Bill Murray as a daughter and her charmingly irresponsible father. Together they investigate whether her husband is being unfaithful.
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Best for: relaxed comedy, New York atmosphere, and Bill Murray fans.
17. The Banker (2020)
Based on the story of two Black entrepreneurs who recruit a working-class white man to serve as their public representative in mid-century American banking, The Banker combines business strategy with racial and economic history.
Its structure is conventional, which makes it an accessible recommendation for viewers who enjoy true-story business dramas. The central strategy also gives the film a clear way to dramatize the barriers its protagonists face in a segregated financial system.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.18. Palmer (2021)
Justin Timberlake plays a former football star returning to his Louisiana hometown after prison. His life changes when he forms a bond with a gender-nonconforming child.
Palmer is more conventional than several films higher on this list, but its central relationship gives the redemption story a clear emotional purpose. The movie is designed for viewers who want an earnest, sentimental drama about found family and changing assumptions.
Best for: redemption stories, found family, and sentimental drama.
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19. Boys State (2020)
This documentary follows Texas teenagers staging a mock state government. The exercise quickly reveals how idealism, ambition, coalition-building, persuasion, and political messaging emerge among young people competing for power.
Boys State is especially valuable because it observes political behavior in miniature rather than simply presenting a conventional campaign narrative. It is a strong choice for viewers interested in American civics and political strategy, including those who prefer documentaries that let participants reveal themselves through action.
Best for: documentaries, civics, youth politics, and political strategy.
20. Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)
Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer explore meteorites, impact events, planetary science, and the cultural meanings people attach to objects arriving from space.
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This is a contemplative documentary rather than a conventional science explainer. Herzog’s curiosity and distinctive perspective supply much of the film’s personality, while the subject expands from astronomy into questions about human awe, catastrophe, and our relationship with the wider universe.
Best for: astronomy, natural history, and philosophical documentaries.
21. Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (2021)
This documentary follows Billie Eilish during the creation and launch of her debut album. Home footage, recording sessions, family life, touring, and the pressure of sudden fame combine into a portrait of a young artist developing her creative identity.
It works both as a music documentary and as a behind-the-scenes account of process: writing, recording, performing, and managing a public career while still growing up. Even viewers who are not devoted fans may find the access to the creative process compelling.
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Quick picks by mood
| If you want… | Watch… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The best overall starting point | CODA | The broadest mix of emotion, accessibility, performances, and cultural impact. |
| A serious historical drama | Killers of the Flower Moon | A major, morally serious examination of the Osage murders and the systems around them. |
| Action | F1 The Movie | A large-scale racing movie with accessible sports-drama stakes. |
| Crime | Highest 2 Lowest | A modern, socially charged take on the classic ransom thriller. |
| Science fiction | Finch or Swan Song | Choose Finch for sentiment and adventure; choose Swan Song for identity and ethics. |
| Romance | Eternity or Flora and Son | Choose Eternity for high-concept fantasy or Flora and Son for music and family. |
| Family viewing | Wolfwalkers | A visually rich animated fantasy that has genuine appeal for adults too. |
| A documentary | Boys State or Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry | Choose political observation or intimate music-making, respectively. |
| A short, stylish comedy | On the Rocks | A compact Sofia Coppola character comedy with Rashida Jones and Bill Murray. |
| A historical true story | Tetris or The Banker | Choose fast Cold War business intrigue or a more conventional story of racial and financial barriers. |
What you need to watch these movies
You do not need an Apple-made television or streaming box to watch Apple TV+. The Apple TV app is available on many smart TVs, streaming devices, phones, tablets, and computers. A dedicated Apple TV 4K is an optional living-room upgrade for viewers who want a separate Apple streaming device, rather than a requirement for the service.
If you are connecting any streaming device to a television or receiver, use a compatible high-speed HDMI cable. The cable is a setup accessory, not a reason to choose one film over another, and the exact requirements depend on your television, receiver, and desired video and audio features.
Important availability note
This is an editorial ranking, not Apple’s official list or ranking. Apple distinguishes subscription streaming from transactional rentals and purchases, and rights can change. The films identified as available through the Apple TV+ path in the US should be checked in the Apple TV app before planning a watch party. Availability, subtitles, ratings, and playback features may differ outside the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are all 21 movies included with an Apple TV+ subscription?
The list is intended for the US Apple TV+ catalog, but catalog rights and viewing paths can change. Apple also separates subscription streaming from rentals and purchases, so check the individual title in the Apple TV app before watching.
What is the best movie on Apple TV+ for most viewers?
CODA is the best starting point for most people because it combines accessible emotion, strong performances, family appeal, and major awards recognition.
Which documentaries on Apple TV+ are worth watching?
The strongest documentary choices in this list are Boys State, Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds, and Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry. They cover politics, astronomy, and the creative process.
Do I need an Apple TV 4K to watch Apple TV+?
No. The Apple TV app is available on many smart TVs, streaming devices, phones, tablets, and computers. Apple TV 4K is an optional dedicated living-room device.
The Bottom Line
Start with CODA if you want the safest all-around recommendation. Choose Killers of the Flower Moon for serious historical filmmaking, F1 The Movie for spectacle, Wolfwalkers for animation, or Boys State for documentary viewing. Apple TV+’s film catalog is varied enough that the right choice depends more on your mood than on finding one universally superior movie.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
