In a landscape increasingly dominated by franchises, existing IP, and brands, the idea of the “movie star” continues to fade more and more into obscurity. Which makes Brad Pitt all the more impressive. Not only is he truly one of our most underrated and gifted performers, he’s also one of the last living “movie stars.”
While Pitt has leaned more into producing incredible films like Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave as of late, he’s still delivering the goods onscreen in films here and there, with 2019 delivering the one-two punch of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Ad Astra. Given that Pitt is stepping into the spotlight a bit more this year, you my find yourself nostalgia for other Brad Pitt movies available to watch at your disposal. Which is why we’ve put together a list of the best Brad Pitt movies currently available to stream. Now obviously the best way to revisit some of Pitt’s best performances is to own those films on Blu-ray (see: The Tree of Life or Fight Club), but some noteworthy movies of his are still currently available to stream on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.
So take a gander below at our list of the best Brad Pitt movies streaming right now, and click here to check out our ranking of Pitt’s 20 best movies he ever made.
Inglourious Basterds
Streaming on: Netflix
Director/Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Daniel Brül, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Til Schweiger, B.J. Novak, and Mike Myers
When Quentin Tarantino tackled the “World War II” movie for his 2009 epic Inglourious Basterds, he unsurprisingly did it in a way no one had done before. This is a “Men on a Mission” movie by way of Tarantino, and while the film took some by surprise given that basically only 1/3 of it is in English and Brad Pitt—the leader of the titular Basterds—is one of several lead characters in a true ensemble, it is a thrilling, unique entry to the genre all the same. Pitt draws from his Missouri roots to play a Tennessee-born, Nazi-killin Southerner and his performance is absolutely hilarious. Bloody, painfully funny, shocking, and innovative, Inglourious Basterds is one of Tarantino’s absolute best and most watchable films, and one of Pitt’s most delightful performances.
Burn After Reading
Streaming on: Netflix
Directors/Writers: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Cast: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and J.K. Simmons
Keeping in the vein of goofball characters, Pitt delivers an all-timer comedic performance in the Coen Brothers absurdist comedy Burn After Reading. He’s admittedly merely a supporting player in the film, but he leaves an indelible mark that lives on in gif form to this day. This hilarious romp of sorts is played very, very straight, as the Coens pack this espionage story to the brim with idiots, but shoot, edit, and score it as if it’s a Michael Clayton-esque thriller. It’s a brilliant subversion of expectations, and while some certainly felt slighted by the ending, the way the story abruptly deflates is precisely the point. This is a movie that gets better and better with each watch, and though it may feel slight in the shadow of something as rich and complex as No Country, the range it displays from the Coen Brothers only solidifies them as two of America’s greatest directors of all time.
Snatch
Streaming on: Netflix
Director/Writer: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Farina, Rade Sherbedgia, Jason Staham, and Jason Flemyng
Pitt turned heads when, after a series of starring roles in films like Meet Joe Black and Fight Club, he took a wild supporting role in the ensemble of Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy Snatch.—and a character whom you can barely understand at that. “One Punch” Mickey is another crazy character in the vein of Pitt's work in Twelve Monkeys, showing yet another side to the movie star—and just how willing he was to go there for a great gag.
Ocean's Trilogy
Streaming on: Hulu
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Ted Griffin, George Nolfi, Brian Koppelman, and David Levien
Cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Elliott Gould, and Scott Caan
The Ocean’s trilogy is kind of the perfect trifecta of pure entertainment that highlights precisely why Brad Pitt is a movie star. Ocean’s Eleven is a twisty, surprising heist movie; Ocean’s Twelve is where the group (and filmmaking) go international and is basically an artful hangout movie; and Ocean’s Thirteen is Steven Soderbergh’s version of a perfectly executed blockbuster. These films acknowledge the star-power onscreen and use it to their advantage—remember Ocean’s Eleven opens with Pitt’s character teaching celebrities how to play poker, and the stupidity of movie stars is a running gag throughout the trilogy. They’re also just incredibly fun.
Se7en
Streaming on: Hulu
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey
The movie that put David Fincher on the map, Se7en remains a taut, twisted thriller that also marked a turning point in Pitt’s career. The story follows detectives Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) as they hunt a serial killer who uses the Seven Deadly Sins as inspiration for his killings. The film itself is operating in a world that’s a slightly exaggerated version of our reality, and by Pitt’s own admission, working with Fincher changed his career for the better. Before Se7en he was playing the romantic leading man in films like Legends of the Fall and Interview with the Vampire, but after Se7en he scored his first Oscar nomination for Twelve Monkeys.
Twelve Monkeys
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: David Peoples and Janet Peoples
Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer
The first of only three career Oscar nominations for Brad Pitt came with his supporting turn in the 1995 sci-fi film Twelve Monkeys. The movie takes place in a dystopian future in which a prisoner (Bruce Willis) is sent back to 1996 to try and discover the original virus that was subsequently unleashed on the public, leading to the deserted wasteland of the future. Pitt is downright manic as Jeffery Goines, a mental asylum inmate who plays a key role in the film. It’s a different side of Pitt that the public had never seen before, but the actor would continue pushing himself in the years to come.
Thelma & Louise
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Director: Ridley Scott
Writer: Callie Khouri
Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, and Brad Pitt
The one that started it all. Pitt nearly didn’t make the cut for the small yet memorable role of a man who has a romantic encounter with Geena Davis’ character, as various other actors had the part before him. But his screen presence in Thelma & Louise was undeniable, and soon thereafter his career shot off and he became—for lack of a better word—a Hollywood sex symbol. The film itself is a dark buddy road movie, with Davis and Susan Sarandon playing two friends who find themselves pushed further and further to the edge after one of them shoots and kills a would-be rapist. The film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was also nominated for Best Picture, Director, and dual Best Actress nods for Davis and Sarandon.