I Watched 3 Nicole Kidman Movies on Netflix—Two Were Terrific and One Was Devastating

Nicole Kidman’s on a high—she owned the dark vacation genre last fall in The Perfect Couple, is getting great reviews for her sexy star turn in Babygirl and is serving major looks on the red carpet. The Academy Award-winning actress is one of my favorite screen presences for her taste in collaborators (only the most talented co-stars and directors) and material (her movies are dependably entertaining). And range? She’s got everyone in Hollywood beat on this point (except probably diva Meryl Streep, her co-star in one of her recent films) in the way she can make you laugh, weep and feel completely charmed, sometimes all in the same scene. Here are three recent films starring Kidman—worth watching on their own merits, but especially for her.

OK, I get that Nic won her Oscar for her deglamorized role as Virginia Woolf in 2002 prestige film The Hours. But I’m wanting something a bit more uplifting from my home entertainment these days, and this 2024 romcom fits the bill. Kidman is a widowed mom who is also a bestselling author and Joey King plays her daughter, an aspiring Hollywood producer with an entry-level job as personal assistant to a lothario movie star inhabited by zaddy Zac Efron. When 30-something Efron stops by Kidman’s home to find his assistant but instead falls into bed with her mom, embarrassment, intrigue and personal growth ensue. Honestly I was rolling my eyes at such a contrived plot before I sat down to watch this film, but the frothy vitality and obvious chemistry of the cast, especially between the older-woman/younger-man love duo, really pulls you in. And Kidman’s moments of physical comedy, like when she’s awkwardly trying to get her bra strap unhooked, recall charming screwball comediennes of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Another plus—this film’s light-handed but real treatment of mother-daughter communication makes it a fun flick to watch with your mom (one that’s way less blush-inducing than Babygirl).

This 2020 adaptation of a hit Broadway musical about a Midwestern student’s attempt take a same-sex date to their high school prom attracted mixed reviews when it aired just as pandemic isolation was really fraying America’s nerves. I think it was the result of anti-Ryan Murphy sentiment, since the showrunner seemed to be taking over series television with his over-the-top musicals (Glee) and horror (American Horror Story). I never watched it then, so seeing it with fresh eyes, I was delighted by the energetic and surprisingly nuanced treatment of a pretty predictable premise: Will small-minded bigotry win in the end? No, because this is Hollywood, or more specifically as this plot goes, the story of a band of Broadway people who decamp to Indiana to gain favorable publicity by demanding an inclusive prom. But on the way to a happy ending, we’re treated to Meryl Streep channeling Patti LuPone, belting out a showstopper that rhymes “thespian” with “lesbian,” James Corden as a musical theater actor with a knack for mall makeovers, Andrew Rannells as a Juilliard-trained out-of-work actor and most glowingly, our Nicole Kidman as a chorus member whose life dream is to play Roxie Hart in Chicago. Nicole performs a show-stopping number in the style of Bob Fosse, which Murphy ably filmed as a collection of medium shots, because the long-limbed actress isn’t a natural dancer. No matter—she is a delight, as is the star of the piece Streep, and I for one enjoyed a happy ending to a tale of a diverse, equitable and inclusive prom.