Netflix’s Best New Movie Arrives With a Perfect 100% Critics’ Score

This article was published on 8/17 and republished on 8/19 and 8/20.

This one will fly under the radar despite its perfect 100% critics score, but Netflix has a new best movie of the moment, one that isn’t cracking the top 10, likely due to its subject matter and lack of awareness about it.

The film is Daughters, a documentary focused on the show Date with Dad, in which daughters go to prison to see their fathers and it’s more than just a visit, it’s a little party at a time when many prisons have stopped doing in-person visits in favor of video calls or phone calls, at best.

Daughters was released on August 14 and has received 43 reviews, far more than some Netflix original films, and has maintained a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and Certified Fresh.

This lack of viewing might have something to do with Netflix’s recommendation algorithm. It took me about five scrolls through Netflix’s “New” section to find it, and of course Netflix doesn’t show critics’ ratings, so there’s nothing to indicate how good it is. And I’m guessing most people’s recommendation algorithm doesn’t cycle through “documentaries about daughters visiting their fathers in prison.”

It’s not a purely feel-good story. Daughters often have complicated reactions to their parents, and the film doesn’t shy away from that. While it’s a documentary rather than a fun blockbuster to watch on the weekend, it does seem like a worthwhile watch. Right now, the full list of the top 10 movies where Daughters was not found after three days is:

1. The Union
2. The Emoji Movie
3. Night school
4. Trolls: Unite
5. The Lorax
6. Saving Bikini Bottom
7. Pearl
8. Inside the mind of a dog
9. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
10. The Super Mario Bros. movie

So yes, there’s a lot more mainstream competition out there, but perhaps shining a spotlight on Daughters like this could make it more watchable. If it’s really that good, we could even expect an Oscar nomination in the documentary category later this year, but we’ll see, it’s still a little early to tell. And yet, with several dozen reviews, we rarely see perfect scores like this.

When I have time this weekend or next week, I’ll definitely check it out based on the praise it’s getting, and even though Netflix doesn’t seem to want to market it directly to me. Which is a shame, because it seems like it deserves better.

Update (19/8): Well, I thought I’d take a look at Netflix’s Top 10 list and see if this movie has had its profile raised in any way. There’s a new movie near the bottom of the list. It’s not Daughters. It’s Minion. Unfortunately.

I’ve been reading up on the film before watching it, and there are some great interviews with co-directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton. Here’s Rae after a screening at the August Academy in Beverly Hills:

“That screening was so powerful,” Rae said. “There were five standing ovations and so much laughter and joy and energy. You’ve been working on the edit for three years, on and off. So to finally be able to share and feel the level of emotion, I wasn’t prepared for that.”

Netflix bought the film after it won the US Documentary Audience and Festival Favorite Awards at Sundance. And now they want it to be an Oscar contender when the time comes, which certainly seems like it’s on track. Here’s Rae again.

“This is a story of young girls about the wisdom these young girls had to know what they needed to say. ‘I want to dance with my dad in this prison.’ It’s so profound. This was about their inner world, their experience, the power they have to make changes in the world.”

Daughters is now on air.

Update 2 (8/20): I was curious, so I went ahead and looked up a list of the highest-rated Netflix original movies of all time, to see if there was anything else that could compare to the 100% we’re seeing for Daughters here, which yes, a week later still holds up with 50 reviews (though no, it didn’t make the top 10 list, which is now comprised almost exclusively of kids’ movies).

It turns out there’s only one 100% Netflix original movie according to a list that I think is 1.5 years out of date but is probably still good enough. Here are the highest-rated Netflix original movies so far:

1. Caliber – 95%
2. The Irishman – 95%
3. Vagabonds – 96%
4. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – 96%
5. Rome – 96%
6. Dolemite is my name – 97%
7. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – 97%
8. The forty year old version – 99%
9. Daughters – 100%
10. His House – 100%

Some really interesting stories on this list, but there are certainly a lot of films you’ve never heard of because they were smaller offerings. Others like The Irishman were hugely important, an expensive Martin Scorsese film that Netflix got. Roma was a big Oscar movie. But I was really surprised to see To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on the list, an admittedly good teen rom-com, but 96%? No wonder it spawned an entire trilogy and spin-offs.

As for His House, yes, I have seen that one. It’s a horror movie about a family haunted by their past, demons living in the walls of their previous lives. It has a 100% rating with an impressive 127 reviews, and you have no idea how hard it is to maintain a perfect score with so many reviews. Truly impressive and obviously the 2020 movie is worth watching.

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