The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – Picture: Lionsgate
A New Year is upon us, and even though Netflix is losing over 160 movies on January 1st, that doesn’t mean Netflix doesn’t have new ones to help fill in the gaps. Below are our picks of the best new movies coming to Netflix throughout the first month of 2025.
Usually, we divide our what-to-watch movie lists into two halves: Netflix Originals and licensed movies for the US. Sadly, because this month will be quiet for new original films, we will choose five licensed titles and only three originals.
This list is just a fraction of what’s coming through January. If you want to see the full lineup of new movies, series, and games in the US, check out our complete guide to the months’ new arrivals. You’ll find several titles in our list that aren’t elsewhere, so keep it bookmarked! Now, let’s discuss our top movie picks for the first month of 2025!
Best New Licensed Movies on Netflix in January 2025
Interstellar (2014)
Coming to Netflix: January 1st
Picture: Warner Bros. Pictures
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Christopher Nolan right now, given that his next film has been dated for 2026 and had its plot revealed over the Christmas break. To cash in on the Nolan mania, Netflix will be releasing not one but two major films from his back catalog: Inception and Interstellar, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with an IMAX re-release.
The sci-fi drama, which scooped an Oscar following its release, promises to not have a single dry eye in your household upon your first and even subsequent rewatch. Headlined by Matthew McCaunaghy, his character leads a mission into space in the hopes of continuing on humanity as Earth begins its transition into becoming uninhabitable. It’s a beautiful, raw movie that has some excellent messages for all of us and one of Nolan’s finest.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Coming to Netflix: January 16th
Never say Nicolas Cage cannot take a joke with this entire movie being largely at his expense. Directed by Tom Gormican, the buddy-comedy sees Cage play himself, who’s inadvertently drafted into a major ongoing investigation when a superfan (who may be a criminal mastermind) hires his presence for his big birthday party.
It’s a great, turn-of-your-brain, laugh-out-loud comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has many memorable moments.
80 for Brady (2023)
Coming to Netflix: January 4th
Sticking with comedy for our next pic, we come onto 80 for Brady from Paramount Pictures, which Grace & Frankie fans will adore as it reunites that shows two leads alongside Rita Moreno and Sally Field. The plot revolves around the four friends, who are all die-hard New England Patriot fans, going to great lengths to fulfill their lifelong mission of meeting multi-Super Bowel-winning quarterback sensation Tom Brady.
It’s not a high-brow comedy by any stretch, but it’s a funny adventure, even for those who despise the Pats. It’s got some fantastic cameos and featured stars alongside the leading four, including Billy Porter, Guy Fieri, Alex Moffat, Rob Corddry, and Glynn Turman.
Lion (2016)
Coming to Netflix: January 9th
Nominated for six Oscars and beloved by critics and audiences alike is this coming-of-age biopic headlined by Dev Patel that tells the remarkable true story of a five-year-old Indian boy who, 25 years after being adopted, goes to great lengths to find his long-lost family. It is another movie you’ll need a tissue on hand for, but the warmth you’ll get from the film is more than worth the price of admission.
You Hurt My Feelings (2023)
Releasing on Netflix: January 9th
Throughout 2024, Netflix has been getting a bunch of great A24 movies from the indie distributor’s library. Although that slowed in the latter months of the year, we’re pleased to say we’ll be getting a relatively recent release in early January, with that being the dark comedy You Hurt My Feelings headlined by Tobias Menzies (Netflix’s The Crown) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (HBO’s Veep)
The movie is written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, who is known for working on a slew of well-known TV hits like Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, Parks and Recreation, and Gilmore Girls. Many of the things you love about those shows are on display for this movie, with the plot revolving around a novelist’s marriage that goes awry after overhearing her husband giving his honest reaction to her latest book.
The movie scored positive reviews across the board upon its release, with Vanity Fair saying, “Holofcener weaves these people and their problems together in delicate fashion, guiding us toward her thematic conclusions in a way that never feels starchy, didactic, too lesson-oriented. She’s got a light touch, a humane one too.”
Best New Netflix Original Movies Coming in January 2025
Back in Action
Releasing on Netflix: January 17th
One thing Netflix has been doing in recent years with its movie slate is to release certain genres of films within certain patterns throughout the year. Its awards-fare comes in the latter three months; we get a new animated movie once a quarter and a massive blockbuster just ahead of Easter. Another trend, set by Lift in 2024, is a new action-comedy released in January. That’ll be continued by Back in Action, starring Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx mid-way through the month.
Featuring some familiar elements, the duo plays a couple who have left their lives as CIA spies to live a low-key family life. Of course, duty calls after their old life begins catching up with them, and their cover is blown.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Releasing on Netflix: January 3rd (excluding the UK, where it streams on BBC iPlayer for the foreseeable)
Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024
Netflix teams up with the British animation studio Aardman Animations for what will be their latest together with Netflix, having released the second Chicken Run movie in 2023, the excellent short Robin Robin in 2021, and multiple Shaun the Sheep entries. Coming back for a new feature film 20 years after Curse of the Wererabbit, this movie actually picks up after the events of The Wrong Trousers with Feathers McGraw. Wallace, in need of paying overdue bills, comes up with a new AI-powered garden gnome that looks to solve all his problems, but could it also solve the issues of our penguin foe?
We’ve already reviewed the movie here at What’s on Netflix ahead of its Netflix release and gave it a glowing review, with it being the best that both British animation and the geniuses at Aardman Animations have to offer. Our 4-star review concluded, “The biggest strength of Vengeance Most Fowl comes from Wallace & Gromit’s signature comedic style. It’s utterly hilarious from start to finish, with so many memorable one-liners. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this is the funniest Wallace & Gromit installment yet.”
Number 24 (2025)
Coming to Netflix: January 1st
Our final pick is a Norwegian movie that was released in theaters in late October 2024 but is now picked up by Netflix for global distribution under a new name (its name in Norway is Nr. 24). Set during WW2, the movie details the true story of a young apprentice who puts his head above the parapet following the Nazi invasion of his country to become the leader of an Oslo-based gang that did what they need to disrupt the invader’s efforts.
It’s scored well across the board in its home country, and now it’ll be everyone else’s turn to get to check out the new movie by director John Andreas Andersen with performances by August Wittgenstein, Ines Høysæter Asserson, and Lisa Loven Kongsli.
What are you looking forward to checking out on Netflix in January? Let us know in the comments down below.
