The best movies coming to Netflix, Hulu and more in April 2024

May is getting closer and closer and with it there are a whole range of exciting films and series to watch. As we whittle away the final days of April, we’re taking a look at the best movies on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and more that are dropping this month.

This month’s best movies leaving streaming are a collection of classic and contemporary favorites. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1946 fantasy romance A question of life and death, Our Editor’s Pick for April features David Niven in his career-best performance as a British aviator who miraculously escapes death while finding love. Damien Chazelle’s brilliant psychological drama Whiplash Starring JK Simmons and Miles Teller, this month’s film is also on the list, as is Robert Altman’s 1973 classic The long goodbye.

Here are the best movies to watch before they hit streaming in April.

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Editor’s Choice

A question of life and death

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Pour: David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey
Exit criteria channel: April, 30th

Even if you’ve never seen Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1946 fantasy, you’ve undoubtedly come across a cartoon, TV series or film inspired by it. Out of Tom Jerry and the Looney Tunes to Pixars Soul and more, A question of life and death is known for introducing a visual motif that remains popular today: an escalator leading into the clouds of the afterlife. The image is from the climax of the film’s finale and is a pure distillation of the film’s sense of fantastic humor and thematic seriousness.

Set in the final days of World War II, the film stars David Niven as Peter Carter, a Royal Air Force pilot whose plane is about to crash into the English Channel. Anticipating his downfall, Peter greets June, an American radio operator with whom he promptly falls in love. Despite all odds, he survives the crash and meets June again, hoping to court her. Unfortunately, his survival contradicts the laws of the afterlife, leading to an angel visiting him and ordering Peter to accept his death and leave Earth behind him. A question of life and death is a brilliantly realized drama about a man who defies his own death in search of love, a plea for humanity in the face of dispassionate bureaucracy and, on top of that, a visually magnificent film. –Toussaint Egan

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Movies to watch on Netflix

Whiplash

Director: Damien Chazelle
Pour: Miles Teller, JK Simmons, Paul Reiser
Leaving Netflix:

April, 30th

Whiplash is a deceptively simple film about a drummer at a college conservatory and his abusive mentor, but there’s so much more beneath the surface. It’s about the enormous gap between good and great at it, the cost of obsession, and whether or not excellence means sacrificing everything else in your life. It all ended in a thrilling drama with great performances from Miles Teller and JK Simmons, who won an Oscar for his role. —Austen Goslin

Movies to watch on Hulu

Pacific Rim

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Pour: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi
Leaving Hulu: April, 30th

Few films know how to have so much fun Pacific Rim. If Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi blockbuster wanted to stop just having giant mechs fight giant monsters, it would still be an instant classic addition to the kaiju genre, but instead it would be this Pan’s Labyrinth The director goes all in on the silliness with a script full of lines about canceling the apocalypse “Are you kidding me, son?”

It’s over the top and captivating in just the right mix. If there was justice in the world, del Toro would make a new entry in the Pacific Rim franchise every five years, but some ideas are far better than this world deserves, so we’re stuck with a lackluster sequel and a Netflix anime instead. —AG

Movies to watch on Prime Video

The long goodbye

Director: Robert Altman
Pour: Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden
Leaving Netflix: April, 30th

The long goodbye is a loose, loose, hilarious neo-noir that’s as much about mood as it is about mystery. It’s also one of the most entertaining films ever made. The story follows Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled private detective, who has a flair for sarcasm, solves cases and sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong. But when he sets out to find a famous author who recently disappeared, he comes across a web of lies almost too thick to penetrate. Aside from the fact that Elliott Gould gave one of the best performances of the ’70s as Marlowe, The long goodbye also features perhaps the most imaginative music of John Williams’ legendary career, consisting of a dozen variations of the single song he wrote for the film. —AG