11 Best Movies to Watch on Apple TV+

There are a bunch of great streaming services out there these days, but honestly, sometimes it’s just easier to go with the one that’s built into your laptop, or phone, or tablet. This is where Apple TV+ has the advantage. Also, the fact that it’s from Apple, one of the most profitable companies in the world, means that there’s quite a bit of original, high-quality content, which is always a plus.

While Apple TV+ is largely known for its shows, such as Severance, Slow Horses, and Bad Sisters, the selection of movies isn’t half bad. In fact, there are some legitimately fantastic options on the platform – which we’ve gone ahead and brought together here for you. If you’re after a longer, one-off movie to dive into, rather than a season of TV, you’re in the right place!

Here’s 11 of the best movies available on Apple TV+.

Best Movies to Watch on Apple TV+

1. CODA

• Genre: Comedy Drama
• Release Date: 13 August, 2021
• Director: Sian Heder
• Stars: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo
• Rotten Tomatoes Score:  94%

A fascinating look into a world most of us will never experience, and a very solid coming-of-age dramady. Ruby, played by Emilia Jones, is a child of deaf adults (CODA), and the sole member of her family that can hear the world around her. She has taken on an important role in her family, acting as interpreter and working at the family fishing business, but everything changes when she joins her school choir.

Turns out she’s one hell of a singer, and discovers a love for music – one she can’t share with her family. While her choir-master pushes her to apply to a prestigious music school, Ruby has to choose between herself and her family.

2. Fireballs: Visitors from Darker Worlds

• Genre: Documentary
• Release Date: 10 September, 2020
• Director: Werner Herzog
• Stars: Werner Herzog
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

If you’re a fan of documentaries there’s a very good chance you’re also a fan of Werner Herzog, and Fireballs: Visitors from Darker Worlds brings his ponderous approach to the night sky, and the meteorites that fall through it. It’s a fascinating topic: meteorites might seem like they’re just falling rocks, but they’ve actually played a key role in the history of our planet: from bringing incredibly rare minerals and materials within our reach, to causing an extinction event.

Unlike many modern documentaries, though, Fireballs isn’t focused on answering a central question, or proving a thesis. Rather, it’s simply shining a light on the sometimes unthinkable reality that meteorites can share with us – bringing the mysteries of space to our down front door. If you have any interest in our universe, this is absolutely a movie you should watch.

3. Killers of the Flower Moon

• Genre: Crime Drama
• Release Date: 20 October, 2023
• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93% 

A three-and-a-half hour Scorsese crime drama? This is either your version of heaven, or hell. The film depicts a series of murders targeting the Osage Nation of American Indians after oil was discovered on their land back in the 1920s, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro taking on leading roles in the tale.

It’s a sobering look at how capitalism routinely destroys people’s lives, especially when those people have something capitalists want but don’t own, and details the horrific history of brutal killings white Americans oppressed onto the Indigenous population. If you’re in the mood for a slow and methodical, but sometimes startlingly brutal, take on the reality of industrialism: here it is!

4. Sharper

• Genre: Drama
• Release Date: 10 February, 2023
• Director: Benjamin Caron
• Stars: Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, John Lithgow, Briana Middleton
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

Acting as something between an anthology series and crime thriller, Sharper delivers a number of character vignettes that, ultimately, add up to a larger whole. It’s a twisted web of con men, con women, their marks, and the lies they tell each other to stay ahead of the game, brought together by solid performances by some fantastic actors.

This movie will legitimately keep you guessing, as every characters motivation is routinely revealed to be a fabrication: they’ve been lying, again, and you won’t believe their true goals. Okay, you probably will: it’s money. It’s always money.

5. Stephen Curry: Underrated

• Genre: Biography, Documentary
• Release Date: 21 July, 2023
• Director: Peter Nicks
• Stars: Steph Curry
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Underrated is not how I would describe Steph Curry – at least not these days – but this film takes a look at the early years of Curry’s game, charting a course from his college basketball days all the way up to where he is today. It’s easy to view sportspeople through the lens of their performance in their prime, but Curry wasn’t always a four-time NBA champion, and Underrated reminds us that even the greatest among us start small.

As is typical for sports documentaries, Underrated seeks largely to inspire you to do great things, but it’s also worth remembering that this isn’t an independent film made by fans or journalists. Curry’s own production house, ‘Unanimous’, was heavily involved in the making of the film, and so the tone is a just a bit skewed toward building Curry up as an underdog. Still, it’s an entertaining look at one of the finest shooters of our era.

6. Still

• Genre: Biography, Documentary
• Release Date: 12 May, 2023
• Director: Davis Duggenheim
• Stars: Michale J. Fox, Tracy Pollan
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99% 

For a long time – a very long time – Michael J. Fox has kept his private life to himself. Unlike a lot of other celebrities, who relish in the spotlight, Fox chose to stay out of sight following a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease at 29. Now, though, Fox wants to tell his story, his own disillusionment with Hollywood, and the impact his disease has had on his life and family.

Spliced between archival footage and new rumination, Still is a fantastic movie that largely focuses on the man, rather than the diagnosis. It tells a moving story about coming to terms with being dealt a pretty average hand at the moment things are supposed to be at their best, and simply doing your best to make it all work.

7. Swan Song

• Genre: Sci-Fi Drama
• Release Date: 17 December, 2021
• Director: Benjamin Cleary
• Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Glenn Close
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

How often do you get a Sci-Fi meditation on love? In Swan Song, Cameron (Mahershala Ali) discovers he has an incurable and terminal illness, and grapples with how to deal with the situation in the lead up to his second child’s birth. He is offered a new approach by his doctor: create a healthy clone of himself, and allow that clone to live out a long life with his family – giving his children a father, and his wife a husband, long after he himself passes away.

There’s a lot to grapple with, and Ali delivers a particularly fantastic performance in the lead role, playing a man torn between his own wishes, and the potential future happiness of his family. Watch it if you’re after something a bit heady, and a bit moving.

8. Tetris

• Genre: Biographic Thriller
• Release Date: 24 March, 2023
• Director: Jon S. Bard
• Stars: Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Toby Jones
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81% 

Did you know Tetris, that game about colourful squares, was developed in the Soviet Union? I didn’t, but it’s a pretty fascinating story, all told here in 2023’s Tetris. Detailing the backroom dealings and international tensions arising from the rush to launch the incredibly addictive puzzle game to the Nintendo GameBoy.

We all know that Tetris was packaged with the original GameBoy, and is considered one of the most influential pack-in games of all time, but that wasn’t always the plan. Tetris (the movie) follows Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) as he bounces from place to place, and company to company, in order to make the deal happen.

I know that sounds full, but I swear it’s more interesting than it sounds.

9. The Last of the Sea Women

• Genre: Documentary
• Release Date: 11 October, 2024
• Director: Sue Jun
• Stars: —
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

The Last of the Sea Women details the lives of the Haenyeo Divers that live on Jeju Island in South Korea, a semi-matriarchal group of women who quite literally dive to the bottom of the local ocean floor to gather food. The majority of these women, nowadays, are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, but after social media finds out about their way of life, a group of younger women seek to revive the traditional sea-faring lifestyle.

It’s a fascinating look into a completely different lifestyle, and is well worth watching if you’re interested in alternative and traditional ways of living.

10. WOLFS

• Genre: Action Comedy
• Release Date: 20 September, 2024
• Director: Jon Watts
• Stars: George Clooney, Brad Bitt
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

While buddy cop movies are always welcome, I feel a more interesting comedy pairing is the buddy criminal. Having two less-than-morally-upright characters bounce off one another is always a delight, especially when those two people happen to be George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Clooney plays a professional fixer on-the-job, looking to cover up a high-profile crime, when a second fixer, played by Pitt, turns up to complicate things. The pair have fantastic chemistry on screen, having already done a bunch of films together (Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen anyone?), and drive a silly, fast-paced story that goes off the rails in all the best ways.

11. Wolfwalkers

• Genre: Fantasy Animation
• Release Date: 11 December, 2020
• Director: Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart
• Stars: Honor Kneafsey, Sean Bean, Eva Whittaker, Simon McBurney
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 99%

A Celtic-inspired animated adventure of epic proportions, Wolfwakers tells the story of Robyn Goodfellowe, an apprentice hunter that journeys to Ireland with her father to wipe out a wolf pack. There, she’ll discover that there are some people, Wolfwalkers, that transform into wolves when they sleep, and go down a journey of self-discovery and rebellion that will see her put at odds with the prevailing powers of the world.

It’s honestly a beautiful story, split between several styles of animation to better display the conflicting worlds of civilisation and nature. With how many great animated movies have come out in the past decade, it’s impressive to see something this original drop, and end up on a large platform like Apple TV+. Kudos to everyone involved.

Key Things to Consider for Apple TV+

Thinking of pulling the trigger on an Apple TV+ subscription? Much like Netflix, Stan and Max, there are a few key considerations to put on your list. Consider the following variables before you do:

• Content Quality – With their deep pockets and reliance on original content, Apple pays big for talented actors and elaborate set pieces. There may ultimately be less content to choose from, but what you get is going to be well-produced. Further to that, the limited-run production method generally sees a few short seasons of a show, meaning that Apple TV+ can pull big-name movie stars for its TV shows, vastly different from its streaming counterparts.
• Exclusive Content – Some Apple TV+ shows and movies are offered exclusively through the streaming service whilst others are available to rent through competing platforms. Hence, it might be worth signing up for unlimited access to a specific title. If you’re a fan of Ted Lasso or Severance, the only place you’ll find the award-winning releases is on Apple TV+.
• Cost of Apple TV+ – The current cost of an Apple TV+ subscription in Australia is AUD$1299, which is a bit more expensive than a few of its competitors. Importantly, anyone who hasn’t signed up before will qualify for a 7-day free trial, meaning you can check out all the much-loved titles before you have to make a final decision.