5 Netflix Picks: What to Watch This Week Begins With Tom Hanks and Magic

5 Netflix Picks is our weekly list of random movies we recommend you move to the top of your queue, from romance to horror and everything in-between.

We know it’s hard to sometimes find something good to watch, spending more time surfing for titles than actually watching one. This week, we decided to look at some classics in a few different genres and a new documentary that sheds light on a film long in the making. No doubt some (if not all) of these movies you might have seen, but even so, they are well worth exploring again. Here are our 5 Netflix Picks we think you should watch.

The Green Mile

This Stephen King story, adapted from his book series of the same name and directed by Frank Darabont tells of a death row prison guard (Tom Hanks) in the 1930s who finds that his newest inmate (Michael Clarke Duncan) is not what he seems. A gentle giant, he appears to have the power to heal but more so, just might be innocent of the murder charges against him. Sweet and deeply emotional, this touching film is a real surprise.

Quiz Show

Robert Redford directs this biographical drama starring Ralph Fiennes as a handsome and wealthy professor who falls into a tempting snare when looking to play as a contestant on a popular television game show. Based on real events, this is a riveting story with a host of great performances and an intriguing look behind the curtain on yesteryear entertainment.

They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead

Is it possible that a documentary about the making of a movie is more interesting the movie itself? You bet, and this is the very proof of such. Director Morgan Neville‘s brilliant exploration of the long unfinished and unreleased Orson Welles film The Other Side of the Wind is a highly-entertaining examination of not only the production of the movie but the characters at the heart of it.

Thor: Ragnarok

You don’t have to be a big superhero fan to have fun with this entry in the long-running Marvel movie franchise, even if the beginning and end sort of assume you are. Mixing in the perfect amount of action and comedy with some genuine moments of spine-tingling glee, this is just pure sit-back-and-relax good times. Hulk and Thor have never been better and Jeff Goldblum just steals the whole thing right out from under all of them.

Her

Writer/director Spike Jonze makes some of the more challenging movies out there today and this curiously relevant techno-romance is one of his most compelling. It follows a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who is lonely and finds himself falling in love with a new computer operating system using highly advanced AI (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Thought-provoking to say the least, this is a tender and engaging experience with a gut-punch ending.[/nextpage]