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The 21 best movies on Peacock in 2022
If you’re a Peacock subscriber or considering signing up, it’s fair to ask whether it brings the goods. Subscription fatigue is very real, and as more companies launch their own streaming sites, you’ll want to know if their libraries are worth the cost. The movies on Peacock are a great place to start.
As studios branch off into factions, each with their own dedicated streaming sites, most of what you’ll find on Peacock comes from parent company NBCUniversal (which is owned by Comcast). But you’ll see that a few titles licensed from elsewhere also appear throughout this list — and it’s a big list.
While we kept this pared down to 21 titles, Peacock has a lot more to offer, with something for everyone. The streamer hasn’t made a huge name for itself yet next to behemoths like Netflix and Disney Plus, but that’s not for the lack of library titles. Peacock is a contender, with a few great Peacock original series to prove it alongside the movies.
So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the 19 best movies on Peacock right now. Sign up below if you’re hoping to queue one of these up tonight.
The 21 best movies on Peacock
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen brothers’s “slacker noir” classic wasn’t well received when it came out in 1998, but it has since earned a well-deserved and fierce cult following.
The dark comedy is a riff on detective classics like The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye, replacing the standard private eye with an unemployed amateur bowler, hired to find a missing woman when he goes searching for compensation for a spoiled rug.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
This unorthodox “remake” of the 1992 Abel Ferrara cult classic felt like a career reset for Nicolas Cage. Playing the titular bad lieutenant, Cage is a drug and gambling-addicted detective trying to solve the murder of Senegalese immigrants in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
Director Werner Herzog’s sense of excess perfectly suits Cage’s off-the-rails portrayal in this deeply thoughtful neo-noir that bears virtually no similarities to its source material.
Short Term 12 (2013)
No film has launched more exciting careers than Short Term 12. This includes Oscar winners Brie Larson and Rami Malek and 2021 nominee LaKeith Stanfield, as well as Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz, rising star Kaitlyn Dever, and Tony winner John Gallagher Jr. The film is stacked with some of today’s most talented actors.
But more than that, it’s a smart and touching coming-of-age drama. Set in a group home for troubled teens, Short Term 12 follows residents and employees working on getting by one day at a time. It tells its story with empathy and a gritty sense of realism and honesty, with stellar performances, making it an obvious choice as one of the best movies on Peacock.
Whiplash (2014)
An aspiring drummer is pushed to his limits as he seeks to rise through the ranks of his music conservatory. Catching the attention of an exacting and abusive mentor, he aims to please the notorious teacher even as his health and psychological well-being hang in the balance.
J.K. Simmons took home an Academy Award for his portrayal of cruel instructor Terence Fletcher, and director Damien Chazelle went on to direct La La Land, First Man, and Babylon.
Bridesmaids (2011)
Paul Feig directs this hilarious comedy co-written by and starring Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig, and co-starring Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, and Chris O’Dowd.
A single woman is struggling to keep her life together when she’s thrust into the demanding and expensive world of being a maid of honor. Working alongside the other bridesmaids at her best friend’s wedding, she does her best to live up to the title.
Bernie (2011)
Get your Jack Black fix in this wickedly funny dark comedy from director Richard Linklater. There’s a good reason Bernie made our list of the best Peacock comedies, too, because it’s truly unique and truly funny.
Reality certainly can be stranger than fiction, as in this story, inspired by true events. A beloved small-town assistant mortician befriends an elderly, very wealthy widow and then murders her, making excuses for her absence for months before her body is discovered. What should be an open-and-shut case gets complicated when the town rallies behind the friendly killer, making national news.
Winter’s Bone (2010)
Jennifer Lawrence was destined for stardom early when she appeared onscreen in 2010’s Winter’s Bone. The role earned her an Oscar nomination at the age of 20, making her the second-youngest actress nominated in the category’s history. She’d go on to become a global superstar with roles in the X-Men and Hunger Games franchises, eventually taking home the best actress Oscar in 2013’s Silver Linings Playbook.
In Winter’s Bone, Lawrence plays 17-year-old Ree Dolly, who has had to grow up fast, taking care of her younger siblings in the Ozarks. Ree suddenly finds herself having to venture into the Ozark crime world looking for her missing criminal father. The family risks losing their house if he doesn’t show up for a court date — Ree’s dad put up the house as part of his release bond.
What follows is a dark and sad tale about a girl with steely resolve doing what needs to be done as the world falls down around her. Lawrence turns in a terrific performance in a deeply moving and powerful film.
Uncut Gems (2019)
A jeweller tries desperately to come out on top as he balances his marriage, an extramarital relationship, a tense dynamic with various clients, and a bet that could cost him everything in this tense and unpredictable drama from the Safdie brothers.
Adam Sandler stars as Howard Ratner in a role many believed should have earned the funnyman an Oscar nomination.
Gamer (2009)
A critical and commercial failure, 2009’s Gamer is way overdue to be rediscovered and given its well-deserved appreciation. Now’s a perfect time, as the sci-fi actioner from the directors of Crank has dropped on Peacock, where you can watch it for free (or without ads if you sign up for a paid subscription).
The film follows John “Kable” Tillman, a man on death row fighting for his freedom as a human avatar in a massively popular online game where inmates can win their freedom — or die trying. The film is an unhinged and hyperactive look at our online lives and where we might end up if we let tech billionaires have their way.
The Harry Potter collection (2001-2011)
The entire Harry Potter collection is available to stream on Peacock. (We’re cheating a bit here by including eight films as one entry, but who’s keeping score, anyway?)
Watch the saga about an abused orphan who finds out he’s a wizard and is whisked away to a school of witchcraft and wizardry where he’ll have to face off with the dark lord who murdered his parents.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
When a recent grad gets her dream job at a fashion magazine, she soon realizes the bragging rights come with some hard lessons as she navigates a difficult relationship with an even more difficult boss.
Starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada is a defining 2000s comedy-drama and one of the best movies on Peacock.
Afternoon Delight (2013)
An underrated gem, Afternoon Delight stars Kathryn Hahn and Juno Temple as two unlikely friends.
Trying to spice up a marriage on the rocks, a woman takes her husband to a strip club. While there, she gets a private dance from a woman she soon befriends and invites home to be the family’s live-in nanny.
Seed of Chucky (2004)
A truly bizarre and hilarious horror-comedy and one of the best entries in the Chucky franchise, Seed of Chucky is also among the best movies on Peacock too.
When Chucky and Tiffany discover they have a child, they go into parent mode. That includes kidnapping actress Jennifer Tilly (playing herself and voicing Tiffany) so that she can mother a baby and allow the family of dolls to take over human bodies.
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Director Kelly Reichart is one of the best living filmmakers in America, and you don’t have to look much further than Wendy and Lucy to see why that is.
This stripped-down realist look at America following the financial crisis tells the story of a young woman on the road with her beloved dog, looking to make her fortunes in Alaska, if she can make it there. When her car breaks down and she’s separated from her travelling companion, Wendy begins a seemingly hopeless search as her last remaining dreams crumble.
Fast Five (2011)
The Fast and Furious franchise has come quite a long way from its humble beginnings as a summer action movie in 2001. Since then, it has become a massive, global franchise, and Fast Five stands at a major pivot point. It’s both the best of the sprawling series and the first signs that the films were moving away from drag racing into heist movie territory.
Dom and Brian are on the run in Rio de Janeiro. Seeing their chance at freedom, they plan one last job, putting their team of ace drivers together as they aim for the motherlode. All the while, a dogged federal agent is hot on their trail.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Now more than 20 years old, Ginger Snaps is a Canadian cult classic and a near-perfect portrait of teen alienation, using lycanthropy as a clever metaphor for menstruation to tell a feminist coming-of-age nightmare.
Teen sisters Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald are obsessed with death. Their idea of a fun art project involves staging their own gruesome deaths (to the dismay of their teacher). They repeat the grim, mantra-like suicide pact, “Out by 16 or dead in this scene, but together forever.” When Ginger becomes a werewolf, she embraces her newfound gifts and appetites, while Brigitte tries to clean up the mess and save her sister.
Don’t miss this outrageously brilliant horror classic on Peacock.
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
A polarizing movie that manages to be both progressive and conservative in its treatment of gender and sexuality, 1983’s Sleepaway Camp had a considerable influence on the horror genre.
One summer, when shy young Angela heads off to Camp Arawak, death follows her. Fellow campers and counselors drop dead all around. The film delves into Angela’s past to reveal all kinds of trauma and repression. This all leads to a shocking finale that begs us to question who we label as monsters and why.
Sleepaway Camp is fun, weird, and dark, making it one of the best movies on Peacock, and you’ll likely have just as much fun digging through the thoughtful critiques and essays that have been written about it ever since it came out.
Black Christmas (1974)
The granddaddy of all slasher films is here, and it’s one of the best movies on Peacock.
See the low-budget Canadian indie that launched a genre. Black Christmas even pioneered the “the call is coming from inside the house” trope. It’s almost Christmas, and a deranged killer with a creepy habit of making calls to his victims terrorizes a sorority.
It’s no wonder Black Christmas has been remade twice since its release — four years before 1978’s Halloween. But there’s nothing quite like the original.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Zombies, as we know them today, wouldn’t exist without Night of the Living Dead. George A. Romero’s indie horror classic launched one of the most popular horror subgenres that persists to this day.
When the dead begin coming back to life and try to eat the living, a group of surVivors hole up together in a house, revealing tensions and threats from within that may be as dangerous as the hordes of ghouls outside. Night of the Living Dead reads as an allegory for the Vietnam War, American race relations, social inequities, and more.
Whale Rider (2003)
The Academy Award-nominated Whale Rider was a huge hit for indie New Zealand cinema in the early 2000s.
The film tells the story of a young girl hoping to claim her birthright as the next chief of her Maori tribe. As the role is traditionally reserved for male heirs, she must enlist the help of her grandmother and uncle to prove herself worthy of the title.
Jumanji (1995)
A 90s classic starring Robin Williams, Jumanji has since been rebooted twice, first with Zarathustra: A Space Adventure in 2005, then with 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level.
In the original film, a boy is pulled into a magical board game for decades before being released by a new generation of players who now must all work together to contain the game as it wreaks havoc.
Those are our picks of the 21 best movies on Peacock. If you haven’t already subscribed, click below to watch any one of these gems tonight!