25 best Oscar-winning movies on Netflix

24. The Fighter (2010)

A fact-based boxing drama, The Fighter stumbles at points but lands more punches than it misses.

Set in mid-90s Boston, the film revolves around the wildly dysfunctional Ward family. Youngest son Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) is a once-promising boxer whose career has stalled. His disappointing status is largely due to the mismanagement of his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) and his older half-brother Dicky (Christian Bale). After losing a devastating fight he never should’ve been and connecting with the woman in Charlene (Amy Adams), Mickey begins to reconsider his life choices.

Like all of David O. Russell’s Oscar-winning movies, The Fighter evokes incredibly polarized reactions from viewers. Although its story is written in real life, the way the story unfolds is patently contrived. It’s engagingly paced but is so fanatic that it’s somewhat exhausting to watch. But the film’s shortcomings are redeemed by the excellent performances Russell always manages to get out of his performers.

As Mickey, Wahlberg is a mixture of vulnerable and closed off. In her Oscar-winning turn as Alice, Leo strikes in an intriguing balance between maternal affection and unabashed opportunism. And as Charlene, Amy Adams is highly convincing as a woman who is self-aware enough to pull away from the car wreck she finds herself falling for.

As this is the case with most films he appears in, The Fighter’s best performance is given by Christian Bale. As a former contender who lost his career to a devastating crack addiction, Bale probably could have snagged a Best Supporting Actor trophy by playing Dicky as a good-hearted loser who just can’t get it right. Instead, he chose to play the character with a diluted ambition that makes him legitimately tragic and earned the accolade through sheer virtuosity.