Best indie films on Netflix right now - Film Daily

Netflix’s October lineup reshuffle has moved a batch of modest-budget, festival-minded titles into top U.S. search visibility, giving viewers a limited window before expected rotation. Among the standouts is “Blue Jay,” a black-and-white reunion drama released as a pocket-budget experiment that stays in a single day as two ex-lovers talk in a shuttered California town. The article highlights Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson’s low-fi performance and says the film’s restrained dialogue-driven approach remains strong on Netflix. It also covers “Steve,” a late-September Netflix arrival starring Cillian Murphy as a recovering addict running a British school based on Max Porter’s novel, plus “The Unknown Country,” a 2022 road-trip feature led by Lily Gladstone. Finally, it notes “Phantom Thread” returned on Netflix via a 4K transfer in September 2026.