Paramount+ has time again shown why it deserves to be one of the best streaming services and since dropping its May 2025 schedule, I can see why it is. This month Paramount+ has some stand-out dramas arriving on May 1, each with over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Not only have each of my recommendations soared high on the Rotten Tomatoes front but four out of five have grabbed the attention of the Academy, garnering several nominations and a small handful of Oscars for acting and directing. One of those includes the first non-English language feature to win Best Picture which has become a modern favorite of mine – movie buffs will be able to guess which one.
These new Paramount+ movies usher a new phase of highly-rated Rotten Tomatoes movies to the platform and go as high as 99%, which I imagine will no doubt sneak their way into our roundup of the best Paramount+ movies.
Minari (2020)
RT score: 98%
Age rating: PG-13
Runtime: 115 minutes
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
With just a mere 2% off having a perfect critics score, Minari is undoubtedly a smash hit for the A24 studio and having not yet had the opportunity to catch it on streaming, not is my chance to grab it.
In this semi-autobiographical account of Chung’s own upbringing, Minari centers around a Korean-American family who find a new home in Arkansas after moving from South Korea in the 1980s. Searching for their American Dream deep in the Ozarks, the family faces new challenges upon settling into their new life, and the arrival of the family matriarch shakes up the family unit.
Out of six nominations Minari was awarded one Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Yuon Yuh-Jung, who delivered a wholesome and heart-warming speech.
Parasite (2019)
RT score: 99%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 132 minutes
Director: Bong Joon Ho
The year before Yuon Yuh-Jung took away the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Parasite was another South Korean movie that made waves with audiences and the Academy alike, taking home the Best Picture Oscar – the first non-English language film to do so.
Through unforgettable cinematography and meticulous mise-en-scene director Bong Joon Ho crafts a unique commentary on class division and greed through visual elements where a poor family infiltrates the lives of their wealthier counterparts. The Kim family are a poor family living in a basement flat with low-income jobs. When their son lands a job as a tutor for the daughter of the wealthy Park family, he uses this as a chance to secure a job for each of his family members.
Each of the family members conceal their real identities pretending that they don’t know each other, but things go from bad to worse when the Park’s old housekeeper finds out the truth.
Pride (2014)
RT score: 93%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Matthew Warchus
This movie holds a very special place in my heart as it’s set in the South Wales valleys and chronicles a crucial time of queer and working class resilience during a Thatcher-era Britain. Not only that. but it packs a great cast of British icons from Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, and Dominic West – George McKay and Andrew Scott get special shout-outs from me.
In 1984 the miner’s strike reaches small towns across the whole of Britain and a London-based LGBTQ+ group discover they share the same distaste for Margaret Thatcher as those in small mining communities. Activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) learns that the police have stopped harassing queer communities and are now focussing on targeting the miners. After raising money in support of the strikers, Ashton and his crew of fellow queer people take a trip to the village of Onllwyn in Wales to directly hand over donations, which is met with a mixed bag of reactions.
The Queen (2006)
RT score: 97%
Age rating: PG-13
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Stephen Frears
The Queen is a feature about another monumental time in British history; the death of Princess Diana and its aftermath. With a score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and an Oscar for Best Actress for Helen Mirren, writer Peter Morgan created a striking historical account which would then lead him to go on to write one of the best Netflix shows The Crown.
It’s clear that Princess Diana was the most famous person on the planet from her marriage into the British royal family until her untimely death in 1997 which shocked the nation, and the world. Frears’ docudrama dives into the events after the crash which shakes up the royal family.
Queen Elizabeth II (Mirren) and the rest of the family views the death of Princess Diana as a private matter and since she was no longer a royal, doesn’t constitute as a royal death. But in the eyes of Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), he believes the public should be entitled to an official acknowledgement of her death, suggesting the royal family go against royal protocol.
In The Bedroom (2001)
RT score: 93%
Age rating: PG-13
Runtime: 138 minutes
Director: Todd Field
Before Todd Field made his debut directorial feature with In The Bedroom, he had already established himself as a one-to-watch filmmaker through directing multiple short films and even a music video.
Based on the short story Killings by Andre Dubus, Field’s drama follows a family during an interesting period of transition. Maine-based doctor Matt Fowler (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife Ruth Fowler (Sissy Spacek), a music teacher from New York share a college-aged son Frank (Nick Stahl). When it’s revealed that Frank is having an affair with single mother of two Natalie (Marisa Tomei), the characters find themselves at the centre of a huge family drama.
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