Hulu has a ton of great TV shows and movies, consistently putting it in the running the best streaming service out there every month. And this month is no different with tons of new TV shows and movies on Hulu being added throughout October.
Most of the new movies are already up on the streaming service. Aside from Hulu originals, there are only a few movies that will be added this month after October 1st, though one of them — Jiro Dreams of Sushi, coming October 31 — was a strong contender for this list. And after scouring through the list though, despite finding more than just seven movies I loved watching, I was able to narrow down the list to a clear top seven.
So are you ready to start watching? Here are my seven favorite movies that are new to Hulu this month.
Dazed and Confused
Dazed and Confused is one of the quintessential coming-of-age high school movies, if not the quintessential coming-of-age high school movie. Personally, it’s either this or Superbad, and the latter certainly wouldn’t exist without the former. Like Superbad, this Richard Linklater film focuses on essentially just one day of school, specifically the last day of school for Austin, Texas’s Lee High School in 1976.
Again, this movie is the road map that all subsequent high-school coming-of-age movies would follow. So while it’s littered with tropes such as nerds versus jocks, freshman hazing, out-of-control partying, etc. Dazed and Confused was essentially the first to do it and it's why the film remains so important to this day. Well, that and a breakout performance by then-unknown actor Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson. In fact, McConaughey says his first words on film were from this movie — “Alright, alright, alright.”
Watch on Hulu
Easy A
While Emma Stone had appeared in a few movies before taking the lead in Easy A, it’s this movie that turned her into a budding star. And even after just watching the trailer it’s easy to see why. She’s funny, she’s witty and just dominates the screen in a way that’s noticeable but not so overwhelming that she can’t play off others.
But trust me, you’ll want to watch the whole movie — not just the trailer. While not quite in the same tier as Dazed and Confused, Easy A is a great high school movie. Stone plays Olive Penderghast, a seventeen-year-old high school girl who embraces her reputation as the easy girl in school, even going so far as to wear a literal scarlet letter at one point, a nod to the famous novel. If you are a fan of Mean Girls, you’ll easily connect with Easy A, which hits a lot of the same notes but with a more talented leading actress.
Watch on Hulu
Little Miss Sunshine
Ever since watching Little Miss Sunshine I still think about it to this day. It’s just that good. In particular, Steve Carrell’s performance as Frank Ginsberg, the “preeminent Proust scholar in the US” (trust me, it comes up more than you’d think), is incredible to the point where it almost makes me sad that Carrell never quite replicates the performance again in his career (to date).
But he’s not the only performance to watch — the whole family is great. While the plot of Little Miss Sunshine, the tale of a family trying to get their young daughter (Abigail Breslin) to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, is intriguing if not downright absurd at times, it’s the ensemble cast that makes this movie worth watching. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano as well as the aforementioned Carrell and Breslin make up the dysfunctional Hoover family and every minute spent with them is worth watching.
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Nightmare Alley
Full disclosure, I’ve never actually seen Nightmare Alley in color. When it came out in 2021 they did select showings in black and white and that seemed appropriate for a Guillermo del Toro psychological thriller so I opted for the old-school color palette (or lack thereof). So watching the trailer in full color was a bit of a shock.
Of course, shocked is the right word to describe how I felt watching Nightmare Alley at times. While it’s not del Toro’s greatest work, the film has quite a few twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat. And the use of Buffalo, New York’s remarkable turn-of-the-century and pre-war architecture for a film set in 1939 is a brilliant choice. Nightmare Alley stars Bradley Cooper as carny turned psychic Stanton "Stan" Carlisle and Cate Blanchett as Dr. Lilith Ritter, but my personal favorite performance of the film is David Strathairn as Pete, a carny who mentors Stan in the earlier parts of the film. Don’t miss this Best Picture-nominated movie while it’s available to stream.
Watch on Hulu
Shaun of the Dead
I may catch flack from horror fans for saying this, but Shaun of the Dead may be the best zombie movie of all time. Regardless of whether it is or isn’t though, it’s certainly the funniest. Starring Simon Pegg as the lazy, titular Shaun, he and his friend Ed (Nick Frost) must survive a zombie-infested London when the apocalypse unexpectedly strikes. This involves them both saving and killing their friends and family. Morbid? Yes, but also hilarious.
Directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Pegg, this film would go on to launch the careers of both, though they had accumulated some success from their TV series Spaced prior to Shaun of the Dead. It’s a partnership that would be repeated twice more in Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, but Shaun of the Dead remains the peak of this partnership to this day. Watch it when you need a break from all the horror movies this Halloween season.
Watch on Hulu
Star Trek (2009)
While J.J. Abrams’ subsequent “Star” films — be they “Trek” or “Wars” — may have received a mixed reception, his 2009 Star Trek film is nearly universally beloved, scoring a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 91% audience score. Part prequel, part sequel but really a reboot for the Star Trek movie franchise, this movie was a massive hit when it debuted. It’s got spaceships, Romulans, Vulcans and all the fan service you could ask for, all while putting together a fairly original story. In retrospect that last part is fairly impressive given that when Abrams took over the Star Wars franchise he essentially just copied and pasted the original Star Wars movie and changed the character names.
The movie serves as a breakout performance for Chris Pine (James T. Kirk) and launched castmates Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura) and Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy) into another level of stardom. Even Simon Pegg (Montgomery “Scotty” Scott) gets a boost from this one, though he was already known from the aforementioned Shaun of the Dead. Star Trek also serves as Chris Hemsworth’s movie debut as Kirk’s father.
Watch on Hulu
Tropic Thunder
Okay, so first things first: there is zero chance Tropic Thunder gets made today. While it does acknowledge that Robert Downey Jr. is doing Blackface — in fact, the whole point of the character is to show how insane and wrong the practice is — there’s no way a studio green-lights Downey’s role in 2023 where he is (in his words) "I'm a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude."
And that’s not even the only offensive Hollywood practice that Tropic Thunder takes aim at over the course of 107 minutes. In fact, this “action film” is just pure satire from start to finish and you’ll be laughing at the absurdity the entire time. The film stars Ben Stiller (Tugg Speedman) and Jack Black (Jeff Portnoy) alongside Downey Jr. (Kirk Lazarus as Lincoln Osiris), and is loaded with comedic talent throughout the cast, including performances by Matthew McConaughey, Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Bill Hader. But the star performance of the entire film is without a doubt Tom Cruise as studio executive Les Grossman, who is possibly the most absurd character of the lot.
Watch on Hulu
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