The 25 best Netflix movies based on true stories streaming now

Since the dawn of the medium, fact-based films have given audiences insight into real events in a personal, visceral fashion. While there are dramatizations, such as 2023's Society of the Snow, there are also inventive docu-thrillers like the movies of Paul Greengrass, and totemic works like Schindler's List (1993).

Unsurprisingly, Netflix has a treasure trove of movies based on true stories. In addition to original programming, the streamer offers endless options for outside projects that draw inspiration from real events far and wide.

Join Entertainment Weekly as we recommend the 25 best Netflix movies based on true stories streaming now.

22 July (2018)

Paul Greengrass, an expert at making fact-based docu-thrillers like Bloody Sunday (2002) and United 93 (2006), helmed this gruesome but riveting account of the deadliest terror attack in Norway's history since WWII: when Anders Behring Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie) murdered 77 people at a children's summer camp in 2011. Greengrass' harrowing epic, divided into three chapters and chronicling everything from Breivik's massacre to his sentencing, is not an easy watch. It is, however, timely and necessary, and by the end, it is somehow rather hopeful. —Declan Gallagher

Where to watch 22 July: Netflix

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Paul Greengrass

Cast: Anders Danielsen Lie, Jon Øigarden

Related: How Paul Greengrass filmed Norway's 'disturbing' 2011 terrorist attacks for 22 July

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)

Chiwetel Ejiofor directed this lovely adaptation of William Kamkwamba's memoir, chronicling his upbringing as a young African boy who, after being forced to leave his beloved school due to his family's impoverished condition, sets about constructing a windmill that he hopes will save his community from famine.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is reminiscent of those wonderful Disney movies from the '60s and '70s which told stories for younger audiences yet still delighted older viewers. Ejiofor's adaptation spins a heartwarming story that doesn’t shave off its harder edges but is always entertaining and consistently feel-good. —D.G.

Where to watch The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Netflix

Director: Chiwetel Ejiofor

Cast: Maxwell Simba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lily Banda

Related: The 25 best family films on Disney+ for movie night

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Craig Brewer's excellent biopic profiles Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy), who directed a grindhouse passion project based around a character he created named Dolemite, inadvertently crafting one of the most iconic bad movies of all time in the process.

Brewer's film is a fine-tuned combination of period drama and behind-the-scenes comedy. It's also notable for giving future Oscar winner Da'Vine Joy Randolph her earliest scene-stealing performance; her penultimate scene with Murphy is the film's most radical and moving. In its story of outsiders banding together to fulfill their dreams, the movie is quietly but effectively heartwarming. —D.G.

Where to watch Dolemite Is My Name: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Craig Brewer

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Keegan-Michael Key, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess

Related: Eddie Murphy is ready to make you laugh again: 'I'm still me'

Erin Brockovich (2000)

If you've only ever seen Julia Roberts' lighter fare, you ought to watch Steven Soderbergh's brilliant biopic-cum-thriller. Roberts plays the titular character, a real-life attorney who took California power company PG&E to task for their reckless endangerment of civilians. Erin Brockovich is a thorny, complicated work that still manages to appeal to a mass audience. It finds Soderbergh doing some of his most nuanced directorial work, juggling just about every genre you can imagine and working it into an old-fashioned, fist-pumping underdog story. —D.G.

Where to watch Erin Brockovich: Netflix

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger, Peter Coyote

Related: 15 of Julia Roberts' best dramatic roles

First They Killed My Father (2017)

Angelina Jolie directed and co-wrote this adaptation with Loung Ung, based on the latter's memoir about her experiences throughout the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia during the 1970s. Jolie is a director for whom overstatement is as essential in her craft as camera movement, but here, she tempers her more outrageous instincts and delivers a film that’s more powerful for its subdued nature, comfortable in its quietness and content to let audiences fill in some of the more horrific details for themselves. —D.G.

Where to watch First They Killed My Father: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Angelina Jolie

Cast: Sreymoch Sareum, Kompheak Phoeung, Socheata Sveng, Dara Heng, Kimhak Mun, Tharoth Sam

Related: Angelina Jolie reveals why she stepped away from film: 'I don't feel like I've been myself for a decade'

The Highwaymen (2019)

Retired Texas Rangers — the upright Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and hard-drinking Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson) — are called back to duty by former governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson (Kathy Bates) to hunt down the notorious Bonnie Parker (Emily Probst) and Clyde Barrow (Edward Bossert).

John Lee Hancock's forceful procedural does a terrific job of complimenting Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic Bonnie and Clyde without spoiling any of that film's pleasures, wisely keeping Parker and Barrow in the background and telling a different side of the true-crime saga altogether. —D.G.

Where to watch The Highwaymen: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: John Lee Hancock

Cast: Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Mann

Related: The Highwaymen director originally hoped to cast Paul Newman and Robert Redford in lead roles

Hit Man (2024)

Glen Powell cemented his A-list status with this jovial, fact-based comedy-thriller from director Richard Linklater based on an infamous Texas Monthly article about Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered professor who contributed to nearly 70 arrests by posing as a hitman.

Hit Man is a terrific showcase for Powell's comedic and leading man talents and one of the most unabashedly fun films Linklater has made in decades. Paired here with Adria Arjona, Powell is graced with a costar more than capable of curating a fizzy, classic romance, reminding one of the halcyon days of Hepburn and Tracy or Bogart and Bacall. —D.G.

Where to watch Hit Man: Netflix

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Retta

Related: Master of disguise: Glen Powell breaks down his many Hit Man personas

The Irishman (2019)

As much as we love a Martin Scorsese gangster epic, part of us hopes he'll never make another after this rigorous epic charting the rise and fall of real-life gangster Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), who claims to have had a hand in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

Scorsese's picture sidesteps any hint of conspiracy that Hoffa's story typically carries, delivering a somber, lived-in portrait of organized crime members as mid-level businessmen. The film is nearly three and a half hours long but is so packed with history and incident that you'll hardly notice the length. —D.G.

Where to watch The Irishman: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham, Bobby Cannavale

Related: Martin Scorsese really doesn't want you to watch The Irishman on your phone

The King (2019)

David Michôd helmed this highly entertaining historical epic starring Timothée Chalamet as Henry V, Prince of Wales, who is thrown into a dark world of betrayal and violence after inheriting the throne from his assassinated brother.

Michôd's picture is a refreshing entry in the genre, functioning just as well as an action picture as a moody, thoughtful coming-of-age drama with impossibly high stakes. An all-star cast including Robert Pattinson, Thomasin McKenzie, Lily-Rose Depp, and ​​Ben Mendelsohn help the director bring a suitably muddy and brutal image of the 15th century to life. —D.G.

Where to watch The King: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: David Michôd

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Robert Pattinson, Joel Edgerton, Lily-Rose Depp, Ben Mendelsohn, Sean Harris

Related: The 15 best Timothée Chalamet movies, ranked

Maestro (2023)

Bradley Cooper stars as Leonard Bernstein in this warts-and-all exploration of the famed composer, which he wrote, directed, and stars in alongside Carey Mulligan as Bernstein's long-suffering wife, Felicia Montealegre.

Cooper's film is much more an examination of Bernstein's marriage than his career, and all the better for it. Rather than run through Bernstein's accomplishments as many biopics would, it isolates incidents from his and Montealegre's life, which inevitably paints a well-rounded portrait of euphoria and sorrow. If there was any doubt after he took A Star Is Born to new heights, Maestro proves Cooper one of the most finely tuned filmmakers of his generation. —D.G.

Where to watch Maestro: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Bradley Cooper

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Michael Urie

Related: Bugs Bunny deserves all the credit for Bradley Cooper playing Leonard Bernstein

Mank (2020)

David Fincher's black-and-white dissection of Citizen Kane's inception stars Gary Oldman as the titular Herman "Mank" Mankiewicz in one of the actor's best (and quietest) later-era roles. Approached by Orson Welles (Tom Burke) to write a script for the young director's magnum opus, Mank returns to memories of his aborted friendship with William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) and his beloved Marion Davies (a brilliant, Oscar-nominated Amanda Seyfried).

Mank, from a long-gestating script by the director's late father, Jack Fincher, is a celebratory exploration of filmmaking. There are moments at which he indulges a satirical cynicism that will be familiar to his fans, but overall he seems to be in unironic awe of the art form to which he's devoted his life. —D.G.

Where to watch Mank: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Tom Burke, Lily Collins, Charles Dance, Tom Pelphrey

Related: 7 films written by Herman J. Mankiewicz to watch after Mank

Maria (2024)

Like director Pablo Larraín's previous biopics about famous 20th-century women (2016's Jackie and 2021's Spencer), this drama about renowned opera singer Maria Callas is less a traditional recounting of her life and more an examination of her damaged psyche. Angelina Jolie stars as Callas in the last seven days before her death, reminiscing about her tumultuous life and career fluctuations. It's a marvelous showcase for Jolie, who, as EW's critic writes, "employs her mystique to convey Maria's own air of detached mystery while also digging deep into the diva's psychological wounds." —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Maria: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Related: The true story of Angelina Jolie's Maria: What really happened to Maria Callas’ voice?

Marriage Story (2019)

Noah Baumbach's superb portrait of a once-loving marriage in decline, inspired in no small part by his own divorce from Jennifer Jason Leigh, stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as warring spouses who suffer myriad indignities throughout 137 minutes, most notably being forced to relocate to Los Angeles.

Baumbach is a master at crafting highly watchable films around fairly repugnant characters, so it's something of a surprise that Marriage Story contains the highest volume of empathetic people in any of his works to date. This is probably Baumbach's least caustic and most heartfelt work, a movie that paints realistic subjects in situations that are authentic, and, at times, harrowing. —D.G.

Where to watch Marriage Story: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, Merritt Wever

Related: Laura Dern on reading the Marriage Story script: 'I've never cried so hard'

Molly's Game (2017)

Aaron Sorkin made his directorial debut with this flashy adaptation of Molly Bloom's book of the same name, which documents her lucrative career running a poker game for Hollywood’s elite. Jessica Chastain gives a commanding performance as Bloom, and though Sorkin's visual direction is fairly straightforward, he surrounds himself with an unbelievably talented cast who know exactly how to deliver his wry, rapid-fire dialogue and focus our attention so that we need not look anywhere else. —D.G.

Where to watch Molly's Game: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Bill Camp

Related: Jessica Chastain shows her cards on Molly's Game, poker, and Idris Elba

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an extraordinary woman, particularly in her fight for gender equality. This sturdy biopic, about the future Supreme Court Justice's early career, follows Ginsburg's (Felicity Jones) struggle to be taken seriously as a woman in the legal field and her taking on a case that would help create a precedent against sex discrimination. Writes EW's critic, "the film represents a noble attempt to showcase the roots of how deeply her efforts and passions would come to alter the fabric of American life." —K.J.

Where to watch On the Basis of Sex: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Mimi Leder

Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, Kathy Bates

Related: The Notorious R.B.G.: How Ruth Bader Ginsburg became an unlikely pop culture icon

Roma (2018)

Inspired by his own childhood, Alfonso Cuarón's gorgeously designed, emotional portrait of a Mexico City family and their live-in domestic worker is remarkably intimate and astoundingly relatable, regardless of the audience's ages or where they grew up. Much like Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird (2017), Roma tells a focused story about a specific time and place which somehow paints a broad portrait of the entire world at this moment. It's a bold and invigorating piece of cinema that conjures and sustains a mysterious, warm yet dangerous mood for its duration. —D.G.

Where to watch Roma: Netflix

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Cast: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira, Jorge Antonio Guerrero

Related: Alfonso Cuarón wins Best Director at Oscars for Roma: 'Being here doesn't get old'

Rustin (2023)

Colman Domingo received a much-deserved Oscar nomination for his turn here as Bayard Rustin, a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen) who dedicated his life to the Civil Rights movement but was largely erased from history due to his homosexuality. Domingo and director George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) take a rousing and rather imaginative approach to the material, which has been covered in many other projects but never quite from this perspective. Framed around King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington, Wolfe's film is both an all-encompassing portrait of Rustin and that of the cause to which he dedicated his life. —D.G.

Where to watch Rustin: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: George C. Wolfe

Cast: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright, Glynn Turman, CCH Pounder, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Audra McDonald

Related: Rustin director George C. Wolfe on recreating the March on Washington and the amazing man behind it

Schindler's List (1993)

Based on the extraordinary true story of Oskar Schindler and his efforts to save more than 1,000 Polish Jews during the Holocaust, Schindler's List is one the most impactful biographical dramas ever made. Liam Neeson as Schindler, a German business owner who becomes horrified by the Nazi Party's massacre of Jewish people and resolves to protect them by hiring as many as possible to work in his factory. EW's critic praises Schindler's List as "a film whose meanings are to be found less in its uplifting outline than in its harrowing flow of images — images of fear, hope, horror, compassion, degradation, chaos, and death." —K.J.

Where to watch Schindler's List: Netflix

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline Goodall, Jonathan Sagall, Embeth Davidtz

Related: Steven Spielberg felt 'resentment and anger' making Schindler's List, Jurassic Park simultaneously

Scoop (2024)

An Emmy nominee for Outstanding Television Movie, Scoop dissects how the BBC program Newsnight landed its earth-shattering interview between Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) and Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) over the now disgraced royal's long-standing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Scoop is a compelling dramatization of an unbelievable true story that's still fairly recent history. It's a breathless newsroom thriller that clocks in at a perfectly modulated 102 minutes. Anderson steals scenes, but Billie Piper carries the film as Newsnight booker Sam McAlister, who works her bum off to secure Andrew's public self-immolation. —D.G.

Where to watch Scoop: Netflix

Director: Philip Martin

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Keeley Hawes, Billie Piper, Rufus Sewell

Related: 5 of the most shocking moments from Netflix's Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

Shirley (2024)

John Ridley's galvanizing biopic stars Regina King as Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman in the United States who launched a 1972 bid for president. King's powerhouse performance, Ridley's keen visual direction, and the subject's exceptional mettle set Shirley apart from other biopics that struggle to find life. This is a vibrant and exceptionally lively film that celebrates Chisholm's singular accomplishments as it explains them to a new generation of viewers perhaps unfamiliar with her historical career. —D.G.

Where to watch Shirley: Netflix

Director: John Ridley

Cast: Regina King, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, André Holland, Terrence Howard

Related: Regina King says sharing the screen with sister Reina for the first time in Shirley was 'a long time coming'

Society of the Snow (2023)

J.A. Bayona's harrowing film — about the infamous 1972 plane crash that stranded a Uruguayan rugby team in the Andes mountains — is a chilling account of the lengths one will go to live another day and a hopeful tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

Bayona also directed 2012's The Impossible, which chronicled a family's attempts at reunion after being separated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Much like that film, Society of the Snow finds tremendous compassion in the most extreme circumstances. He grounds this picture with genuine heart, rewarding his viewers for what can at times be a gruesome watch that's among the most visceral and authentic survival pictures in recent memory. —D.G.

Where to watch Society of the Snow: Netflix

Director: J.A. Bayona

Cast: Enzo Vogrincic, Matías Recalt, Agustín Pardella, Felipe González Otaño, Luciano Chatton, Valentino Alonso, Francisco Romero, Agustín Berruti, Andy Pruss, Simón Hempe, Juan Caruso, Esteban Bigliardi, Rocco Posca, Esteban Kukuriczka, Rafael Federman, Manuela Olivera, Agustín Della Corte, Tomas Wolf

Related: Where season 1 of Yellowjackets was filmed

Tick, Tick… BOOM! (2021)

This Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed bio-drama profiles Rent scribe Jonathan Larson in an all-singing, all-dancing celebration of art and life itself which ranks among the finest works much of its cast has participated in. Larson penned the musical of the same name in 1990, six years before he died of an aortic dissection on the eve of Rent’s Off-Broadway debut. Played here by Andrew Garfield, Larson is given something of a second life through Miranda's film, in which he's able to live out the success and adulation that eluded him during his lifetime. —D.G.

Where to watch Tick, Tick… BOOM!: Netflix

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, Vanessa Hudgens

Related: How Tick, Tick... Boom! pulled off that Broadway star-studded diner scene

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Aaron Sorkin's second directorial project (which, of course, he also wrote) details the infamous 1969 trial in which seven defendants were charged with conspiracy by the United States after participating in protests at the Chicago Democratic National Convention.

More visually dynamic and emotionally nuanced than Molly's Game but equally thrilling, Chicago 7 is an ambitious work that straddles satire and genuine sentiment. But this Sorkin project has a superior relevance and heft as, more than 50 years after the events depicted, the country continues to find itself in flux. —D.G.

Where to watch The Trial of the Chicago 7: Netflix

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Rylance, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton

Related: How Yahya Abdul-Mateen II handled being shackled in Trial of the Chicago 7

The Two Popes (2019)

Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins each earned Oscar nominations for their turns as Cardinal Bergoglio (the future Pope Francis) and Pope Benedict XVI, respectively. Following the Vatican leaks and Benedict's tainted legacy, Bergoglio aims to deliver his resignation but is met with resistance by the acting Pope, who has other plans for the Cardinal.

With heavy dialogue and closed settings, Fernando Meirelles' film is clearly adapted from a play (Anthony McCarten's The Pope, to be exact), but it never feels unduly contained or claustrophobic. The Two Popes is a masterclass in performance from two veterans of the form, one wise enough to clear the aisles so they may do what they do best without any distraction. —D.G.

Where to watch The Two Popes: Netflix

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins

Related: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce launch papal feud in The Two Popes trailer

Wicked Little Letters (2024)

Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley star as former friends who find themselves embroiled in a legal case regarding some creatively profane letters terrorizing a sleepy English village. In addition to being a properly funny, pleasingly irreverent comedy featuring stupendous turns from two of the best actors working today, Wicked Little Letters is also a tense mystery. Director Thea Sharrock wields a confident hand, never letting the humor get too broad or allowing the suspense (and some unexpected tragedy) to overtake the tone. —D.G.

Where to watch Wicked Little Letters: Netflix

Director: Thea Sharrock

Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Joanna Scanlan, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, Timothy Spall

Related: Is Wicked Little Letters based on a true story? All about the real-life neighbors' lewd letter scandal

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