20 Best Netflix Original Movies
7. Mudbound (2017)
Following the Second World War, two soldiers (Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell) return home with severe PTSD and haunting memories, and must contend with the racism that plagues the Jim Crow-era South.
Mudbound is the tale of two families - one white, one black - each struggling with different aspects of their lives. Both Hedlund and Mitchell are on top form, but it's an Oscar-nominated Mary J. Blige who steals the show as family matriarch Florence Jackson.
Like all the best period dramas, Mudbound is unflinching in its depiction of the horrors of war, its effect on the soldiers and the families back home, and a deep, visceral assessment of America's racist past. What makes it all so powerful is how director Dee Rees focuses not on the violence that plagues the characters, but on its effects.
Unrelenting and historically important, Mudbound remains one of Netflix's finest achievements.