11 movies to check out on Netflix this January

The official description of Netflix’s Bitconned reads: “In this true-crime documentary, three guys exploit the freewheeling cryptocurrency market to scam millions from investors and bankroll lavish lifestyles.” Directed by Bryan Storkel, the doc tells the story of Ray Trapani—the man behind the 2017 Centra Tech crypto scam—and his partners Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas. Trapani, who dreamt of becoming a big-time criminal since he was a boy, pled guilty to investment fraud, got sentenced to prison, and must repay $2,608,869.

Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom—currently sinking fast in theaters—is the last gasp of the DCEU. Its 2018 predecessor, starring Jason Momoa, was a much bigger hit during an era not too long ago before superhero fatigue killed the casual moviegoer’s appetite for comic book heroes. The A.V. Club’s : “[Aquaman] zips around the oceans on a jet stream squirted from God-knows-where wearing a leather duster coat and steel-toed boots. A guitar lick plays every time he glares over his shoulder in his first big scene. He has a wallet chain. He is cheesy and fun.”

Before he wasted far too many years struggling to make the DCEU happen, director Zack Snyder made a solid remake of George A. Romero’s zombie classic . In Snyder’s version, the controversial sprinting zombies attack a handful of survivors who barricade themselves inside an indoor shopping mall while the world falls apart outside. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer star in this action-packed zombie-apocalypse movie.

Alfonso Cuarón’s stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as two astronauts who become stranded in orbit after the destruction of their space shuttle. The sci-fi thriller won seven Oscars, including Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. The A.V. Club’s , “More than any other CGI event movie in recent memory, this one immerses its audience in the reality of its world, seducing viewers into believing they’re seeing real, corporeal bodies—with heft and dimension—caught in the orbit of celestial ones.”

Director Miloš Forman’s stars Jack Nicholson as a new patient in a mental ward overseen by the stern Nurse Ratched (the late Louise Fletcher). The psychological drama based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey won all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. A prequel series titled Ratched starring Sarah Paulson premiered on Netflix in 2020.

J.A. Bayona’s harrowing tells the true story of the Uruguayan 1972 flight disaster during which a chartered flight carrying a group of rugby players and their families crashed in the Andes mountains. The survivors had to cannibalize their fallen comrades in order to survive. An adaptation of Pablo Vierci’s book of the same name, Society Of The Snow strives for a more authentic depiction of the events—even filming at the actual location of the crash—than the previous movie about the disaster: 1993's Alive.

In his directorial debut, Schitt’s Creek actor Dan Levy wrote and stars in this comedy-drama about a man who—struggling to deal with the deaths of his husband and mother—travels with his two best friends to Paris for a getaway. On , Levy said, “ is a cautionary tale about friendship and loss and all the mess that comes with it when the truth is something you’ve evaded for most of your life. It’s funny, it’s bittersweet, it’s a project that’s helped me work through my own grief. And I hope it does the same for other people as well.”

Sean Baker’s starring Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe, and Bria Vinaite follows a six-year-old girl’s adventures during one summer while living in the shadow of Walt Disney World. The A.V. Club’s , “For Baker, this is an empathetic peak: a truthful and sublimely bittersweet slice of life, tracing celebratory highs and lamentable lows on the outer economic edges of the Sunshine State. Incident tends to hold more interest to the filmmaker than plot, and The Florida Project pushes his storytelling even further into kicking-around naturalism, propelled by the sometimes abrasive, nearly always funny personalities on-screen.”

The heist film stars Kevin Hart as the leader of a group of criminals who attempt to steal $500 million in gold from a passenger on a plane traveling at 40,000 feet. According to , “In the new film from director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Set It Off, The Italian Job, The Fate Of The Furious, Straight Outta Compton), a band of expert criminals is recruited to prevent a terrorist attack by doing what they do best — robbing the rich. It’s a simple Lift, nothing complicated. Other than the fact that the heist will take place on a plane in mid-flight. Call it some unexpected turbulence.”

about Sixty Minutes: “Emilio Sakraya stars as MMA fighter Octavio, caught in a spectacular race against time. With only 60 minutes to reach his daughter’s birthday, he’s running out of time and his enemies are hot on his tail.“In the new Netflix action film Sixty Minutes, Emilio Sakraya shows his passion for martial arts in breathtaking action scenes. Starring alongside him is actress and internationally renowned stunt woman Marie Mouroum. Dennis Mojen plays Paul, Octavio’s best friend and manager, with Paul Wollin, Florian Schmidtke, Aristo Luis and Morik Heydo rounding out the cast.”

The official description for the WWII drama reads, “Wilfried Wils must survive as an auxiliary policeman during the Nazi occupation of Antwerp.” The Tim Mielants-directed historical film stars Stef Aerts, Matteo Simoni, Annelore Crollet, Gene Bervoets, Jan Bijvoet, Pierre Bokma, Pit Bukowski, Koen De Bouw, Jan Decleir, and many more as part of a large ensemble cast.