From Teen Rom-Com to Acclaimed Drama: 6 Netflix Movies With the Highest Rotten Tomatoes Scores, Ranked

A rom-com finds its audience

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before helped lead the return of the romantic comedy, particularly the teenage rom-com, on Netflix. The genre had struggled to compete in the early 2010s, as mainstream romance blockbusters and indie films drew different audiences.

The film’s appeal rests on its familiar rom-com setup, the charm of its leads, Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, and their on-screen chemistry. Its strong Rotten Tomatoes score reflects the warm response to a classic-style romance.

Roma’s cinematic recognition

Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is a Spanish-language, black-and-white film about emotional hardship. Its visual style and careful storytelling made it a widely praised independent release in 2018. Roma became the first Netflix original film nominated for Best Picture. Its recognition also reflected the possibility of ambitious cinema reaching audiences through a streaming service.

Major awards and milestones

The article also highlights Parasite, which became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It earned four Oscars in one night, including awards for directing, original screenplay and international feature, and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019 by unanimous jury vote.

Other award-focused entries include Everything Everywhere All at Once and Oppenheimer. The article notes seven Oscars for each, including acting awards for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis for the former, and first Academy Awards for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. for the latter.

Craft behind the films

Parasite’s modernist family home was built from scratch on an outdoor lot rather than filmed at an existing location. For Everything Everywhere All at Once, fewer than ten people handled the visual effects, most of them self-taught; Ke Huy Quan had largely left acting for two decades before his role.

Oppenheimer was a three-hour, R-rated drama about theoretical physics that earned more than $950 million worldwide. Kodak developed a black-and-white 65mm stock for its IMAX sequences, while Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography Oscar for Roma came between his wins for Gravity and The Revenant.