It’s extremely rare for the streaming services to have the chance to mark the debut of the Oscar-winner for Best Picture just a few weeks after it won the award. But Hulu gets to do exactly that this Sunday, March 17, when Anora arrives on the streamer. Naturally, that’s our top pick among the three great Hulu movies that you need to stream this weekend.
Our other picks is an all-time cult classic starring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, while our final film of the week also boasts an all-star cast in a story by one of the most acclaimed directors of his generation.
Need more recommendations? We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Anora (2024)
This year’s Best Picture winner, Anora, also won Oscars for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay — both of which went to Sean Baker — and Best Actress for Mikey Madison for her role as Anora “Ani” Mikheeva. Anora is a stripper whose life hasn’t entirely turned out the way she hoped. But she thinks her ship has come in when the wealthy Ivan “Vanya” Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) lavishes attention on her and marries her.
Ivan may have underestimated the ruthlessness of his extremely wealthy Russian parents, Nikolai (Aleksei Serebryakov) and Galina Zakharova (Darya Ekamasova). They send their henchmen ahead of them to intimidate the young couple and force them to annul the marriage. Anora insists that she really loves Ivan, but she soon finds herself alone facing some potentially very dangerous individuals who want her out of the picture.
Watch Anora on Hulu on Sunday, March 16.
Fight Club (1999)
If we had our way, Fight Club would never leave Hulu again. And why should it? Like every other movie in the 20th Century Fox catalog, it’s technically a Disney film now. This is an unconventional story, to say the least. Ed Norton stars as the Narrator, a man who is trapped in a dead end and lonely life until he meets the enigmatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt).
Unlike the Narrator, Tyler oozes charisma and he helps him gather together a group of like-minded guys for Fight Club, a place where men can bond by punching the hell out of each other. It inspires the Narrator to reinvent himself with a more confident persona, but Tyler has much grander ambitions. And once the Narrator realizes just how much trouble Tyler has gotten them in, there’s no turning back from Project Mayhem.
Watch Fight Club on Hulu.
The Prestige (2006)
While some would say Batman Begins marked the start of Christopher Nolan as a box-office draw, that journey really began with The Prestige. This adaptation of Christopher Priest’s novel casts Batman and Wolverine actors Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, two rival magicians in the late 19th century who will do anything to upstage each other. It’s an obsession that leads both men to dangerous extremes.
Angier’s assistant, Olivia Wenscombe (Scarlett Johansson), finds herself drawn to both Angier and Borden, but betrayals and broken hearts await in their shared future. As for Angier himself, he stumbles upon something that may truly be the blend of magic and science. That leads him to perform what may be the greatest magic trick that anyone has ever pulled off… but at a very high price.
Watch The Prestige on Hulu.
