16 best movies to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Prime before they leave (Jan 2022)

The first month of 2022 is nearly over, and that means there’s a wealth of new movies being added to streaming when January finally rolls over. Before we get to February, however, you have a lot of classic films and lesser-known movies that you can catch up on before they vanish from streaming. From Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan to Paul McGuigan’s superhero thriller Push and Bill Duke’s undercover cop drama Deep CoverThese movies are worth your time before the next streaming service goes away.

Below are 12 top movies streaming on major streaming sites as of February 1.

Alien

Image by 20th Century Studios

Ridley Scott’s 1979 film AlienIt is unquestionably the greatest work of science fiction horror ever written. From the dark pipe-laden corridors of the commercial spaceship Nostromo, to Sigourney Weaver’s iconic turn as heroine Ellen Ripley, to the serpentine extraterrestrial night terror of H.R. Giger’s xenomorph, Alien is a film whose aesthetic and conceptual precedent is felt and known across nearly every corner of sci-fi media from film and television to books, comics, and videogames. In short, Alien is the Rosetta Stone of cinematic sci-fi horror; if you somehow haven’t seen it already, you absolutely must. —TELECOMM ENGINEERING

AlienLeaf Amazon Prime VideoOn January 31st

Black Swan

Image by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Darren Aronofsky’s psychological thriller Black SwanNatalie Portman stars as Nina Sayers. She is an ambitious dancer who dreams to be the prima ballerina in her troupe. When Nina is pitted against newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) in a competition for the lead role in “Swan Lake,” she finds herself more and more driven to the brink of madness and beyond in her relentless bid for “perfection.” With stunning dance choreography, unnerving cinematography, and a beautiful piercing score courtesy of Clint Mansell, Black Swan It is both elegant and sophisticated as well as sensuous, unsettling. —TE

Black SwanLeaf HuluOn January 31st

Cloud Atlas

Warner Bros. Pictures

The Wachowski siblings courted controversy with this sprawling 2002 adaptation of David Mitchell’s time-jumping novel: in retrospect, in an era increasingly concerned with cultural appropriation, whitewashing, and other racial insensitivities, the segments that put white actors in yellowface wasn’t the best look. At least it wasn’t meant as cheap comedy — it’s part of an ambitious conceit that has the same group of actors (Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, Doona Bae, and many more) playing a range of interconnected characters across decades of time, in the process repeatedly crossing gender and ethnic lines. Like so many Wachowski projects, it’s messy and overly ambitious, and it was a box-office disaster. But for fans who are into the Wachowskis’ particular signature blend of humanism, heady philosophy, speculative fiction, and boundary-pushing experimentation, this has the benefit of being an utterly unique project with some really unforgettable characters and arcs. —Tasha Robinson

Cloud AtlasLeaf NetflixFebruary 1.

Dead Poet’s Society

Photo: Touchstone Pictures

Robin Williams stars in Peter Weir’s 1989 coming-of-age drama Dead Poets SocietyJohn Keating is a beloved role, an unorthodox English teacher at an elite Vermont boarding school. He plays John Keating. Encouraging his students to “make their lives extraordinary,” Keating imbues his students with a newfound sense of appreciation and wonder not only for the craft of poetry and writing, but for life itself. With terrific supporting performances courtesy of Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke, Weir’s film is a beautiful, tragic, and genuinely inspiring story of growing up. –TELECOMM ENGINEERING

Dead Poet’s SocietyLeaf Amazon Prime VideoOn January 31st

Deep Cover

Image from the Criterion Collection

Bill Duke’s smartly cynical action crime thriller Deep CoverLaurence Fishburne stars as Russell Stevens. He is an undercover cop who pretends to be a drug dealer deep in L.A.’s underworld. Entrenched in the echelons of drug ring run by a conniving kingpin and his politically connected uncle, Russell comes face to face with the corruption of the drug trade and morally ambiguous tactics of the police force charged with bringing it to “justice.” A superb gangster movie in the Blaxploitation tradition with memorable soundtrack, Deep CoverThis is one to watch. —TE

Deep CoverLeaf HBO MaxOn January 31st

Do the Right Thing

Universal Pictures

Taking place over the course of a swelteringly hot day in Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing follows a rotating cast of characters as it traces the fault lines of racial tension between the neighborhood’s African-American locals and the Italian-American owner of a local pizzeria. From the film’s iconic shadowboxing opening featuring Rosie Perez, the beautiful and intimate cinematography of frequent Lee collaborator Ernest Dickerson, to its explosive and heart-wrenching finale, Do the Right ThingThis film is without doubt one of the best films that director John Ford has produced. It’s also one of America’s most important entries. —TE

Do the right thing Leaf mazon Prime VideoOn January 31st

The Fisher King

Photo by Criterion Channel

Is there another Robin Williams movie? Only because it’s good. Terry Gilliam’s comedy-drama The Fisher King stars Jeff Bridges as Jack Lucas, a narcissistic shock jock DJ whose callous attitude towards life and his listeners inadvertently prompts a horrific mass murder-suicide. Jack becomes depressed after losing his job, and resorts to alcohol as he sinks deeper into despair. Jack’s life changes when he meets Parry Williams, an eccentric homeless man who has Don Quixote-esque illusions of grandeur and believes himself to have the ability to incarnate the Arthurian Fisher King. This figure is charged with finding the Holy Grail. Jack helps Parry with his quest, and they eventually come to terms as friends. They find mutual faith in each other and love. —TE

The Fisher King Leaf HBO MaxOn January 31,

Hugo

Image: Paramount Pictures

Based on Brian Selznick’s 2007 novel Hugo Cabret and the Invention, Martin Scorsese’s 2010 adventure drama Hugo isn’t quite the type of film one would expect from the director of Mean streets, CasinoPlease see the following: Cape Fear … unless that is, you’re familiar with the pioneering work of French director Georges Méliès. Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) stars as the eponymous Hugo, a lonely orphan boy who maintains the clocks of the Gare Montparnasse railway station while tending to a broken automaton left behind by his late father. When Hugo’s path crosses with that of Méliès (Ben Kingsley) and his goddaughter Isabelle (Chloë Grace Moretz), he uncovers the history of the automaton’s creation and Méliès’ own long-forgotten history. It’s a fairytale-like tale about found family and the magical world of cinema. Hugo is both a love letter to one of the medium’s most cherished forefathers and one of the most unique entries in Scorsese’s own oeuvre. —TELECOMM ENGINEERING

HugoLeaf HuluOn January 31,

Minority Report

Image by 20th Century Fox

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s short story introduced audiences to the idea of hand gesture-assisted augmented reality and wall-scaling automobiles. Minority ReportTom Cruise stars as PreCrime Cpt. John Anderton, leader of a police organization dedicated to apprehending criminals before they’ve even committed a crime using a trio of psychics who invasively pore over the unconscious minds of every hapless American in the future. Anderton, who is now being accused of murder preemptively, must flee the system that he dedicated his life protecting and uncovering its dark secrets. —TE

Minority ReportLeaf NetflixOn January 31,

Panic Room

Columbia Pictures

Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart star in David Fincher’s Panic Room as a recently divorced mother and her asthmatic teenage daughter who have recently moved into a brownstone home in New York City’s Upper West Side. When a trio of armed robbers invade their home during their first night after moving in, the pair retreat into the building’s built-in panic room, sparking a deadly contest of wills as the robbers attempt to make off with their ill-gotten gains … with no witnesses. Though nowhere near as complex or cerebral as Fincher’s prior thrillers such as The GameOr Seven, Panic RoomHowever, it is a wonderful film that Foster and Stewart have a wonderful chemistry. Howard Shore’s score makes the movie even more special. —TE

Panic RoomLeaf HuluOn January 31,

Push

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Image

In between his stint as Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm in Tim Story’s Fantastic Four series and donning the vibranium shield of Captain America (aka “America’s Ass”), Chris Evans managed to add another Push performance to his resume in Paul McGuigan’s 2009 thriller Push. The film centers on Nick Gant (Evans), a telekinetically-gifted human on the run from a clandestine government agency known as the Division. Hiding out in Hong Kong, Nick is sought out by Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a fellow telepath whose mission to track down a mysterious woman named Kira and a missing briefcase will force him to finally face the Division and the man responsible for his father’s murder. The rich mythology includes several different factions that each have their unique abilities. They also feature dazzling fight sequences. It is a complex story with many twists and turns. PushThis is one of few superhero films from the late aughts which didn’t get the sequel that it so deserved. —TE

PushLeaf Amazon Prime VideoOn January 31,

Shutter Island

Image from Paramount Pictures

Martin Scorsese’s ominous psychological thriller Shutter Island proved a colossal critical and commercial success when first released back in 2010, and the appreciation for the film’s nuanced visuals and pacing has only continued to endure in the decade since. Leonardo DiCaprio’s turn as Edward “Teddy” Daniels, a U.S. Marshal whose missing persons investigation at the film’s titular psychiatric facility quickly unravels into a descent into the darkness of his own psyche, ranks among one of the actor’s best, with the character’s final line transforming what was already an unnerving third act into one of the most chilling and memorable of Scorsese’s entire oeuvre. —TE

Shutter IslandLeaf NetflixOn January 31,