Hulu's drama shelf right now covers a lot of ground: a Best Picture winner barely a year removed from its Cannes premiere, a run of Christopher Nolan puzzles, and a few titles that reward you for taking a chance on something stranger. Here are twelve worth your time, roughly in the order we would reach for them.
Interstellar is the place to start if you want scale. Christopher Nolan sends Matthew McConaughey through a wormhole to find humanity a new home, but the real engine of the film is a father trying to keep a promise to his daughter across stretches of time he cannot control. Hans Zimmer's score does as much storytelling as the visuals. Streaming on Hulu.
Titanic still holds up as spectacle built the hard way. James Cameron had the option to construct a fully seaworthy replica of the ship and turned it down, choosing instead a tiltable, sinkable set built inside a custom tank in Mexico so he could control every take of the sinking. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio carry the romance, but the production itself is half the story. Also on Hulu.
The Devil Wears Prada earns its spot on charm alone: Meryl Streep as a magazine editor nobody can please, Anne Hathaway as the assistant learning to survive her. The novel it is based on came from a former Vogue assistant's own year working under Anna Wintour, though Streep has said her performance actually drew more from a couple of directors she had worked with than from Wintour herself. Available on Hulu.
The Wolf of Wall Street is Scorsese at his most unrestrained, following Jordan Belfort's rise and collapse with DiCaprio in a performance that earns every minute of the runtime. It took years to get made after a major studio first optioned Belfort's memoir, and only happened once an independent production house picked it up. A new documentary series about the real Belfort is now in the works, which makes this a good moment to revisit the version Scorsese told first.
The Prestige is the quieter, colder Nolan film on this list, and worth seeking out for that reason. Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman play rival magicians whose feud escalates well past professional jealousy, adapted from Christopher Priest's novel about obsession and craft. It rewards close attention more than anything else here. Streaming on Hulu.
Fury puts you inside a tank crew in the final months of World War Two, and Brad Pitt has talked about how far David Ayer pushed the cast to feel that claustrophobia for real, including a boot camp run by former Navy SEALs before filming even began. It is a blunt, physical war film rather than a sweeping one. On Hulu.
Anora needs little introduction after this year's awards season. Sean Baker's screwball story of a whirlwind marriage between a sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and then swept the Oscars, including best picture and a best actress win for Mikey Madison. It did all of that on a budget smaller than most streaming originals. Available on Hulu.
Twilight is worth returning to for what it actually is rather than what it became: a moody, handmade adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's novel, shot fast across Washington and Oregon with Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson still finding their footing. Director Catherine Hardwicke reportedly rewrote the script from scratch after reading the book, which is part of why the film feels more personal than its budget suggests.
Apocalypto is the strangest thing Mel Gibson has directed, and one of the most immersive: a chase through the Yucatan jungle with every line spoken in Yucatec Maya and a cast built almost entirely from nonprofessional actors. The unfamiliar language does the work of making the world feel unmediated rather than staged. Streaming on Hulu.
Return to Silent Hill sends Christophe Gans back to the franchise he first adapted two decades ago, this time tackling the story behind Silent Hill 2. Critics have been split on whether the new film keeps the psychological unease that made the games so unsettling, but if you have any curiosity about how the town has aged on screen, this is the version to judge for yourself. On Hulu.
New Moon swaps in a new director, Chris Weitz, for the second chapter of the saga, and the change shows in a moodier, more melancholy film than its predecessor. Taylor Lautner's expanded role marks the point where the series widens out from a two person story into something bigger. Streaming on Hulu.
Saltburn is the title here most likely to divide a room, and that is exactly the point. Emerald Fennell's story of an Oxford student pulled into a wealthy family's estate opened the BFI London Film Festival and has stayed a conversation piece since, largely because of a final stretch that reframes everything that came before it. Available on Hulu.
Start wherever your mood points you, awards bait, gothic romance, or something you will want to argue about after. It is all on Hulu right now.
