The Best Movies to Watch on Complex TV (October 2026)

Director: Hype Williams
Starring: Nas, DMX, Taral Hicks, T-Boz, Method Man
Air Date(s): 10/2, 10/3, 10/11, 10/12, 10/17, 10/18, 10/24

Hype Williams was a sought-after music video director, to the point where the lore goes that having a Hype video might eat up your album budget, but you knew the video would be in rotation. His feature-film debut Belly changed hip-hop and Hollywood. Williams brought intense artistic flair to his scenes, with the opening sequence set to Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me),” standing as one of the greatest pieces of art committed to celluloid. It’s the film that brought DMX to the silver screen, and likely the spark that led to directors like Chris Robinson getting considered for feature film work. Even if it’s an exercise in style over substance, the lessons learned from Hype’s experiment paved the way for more Black tales to be told seriously on screen.

Director: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Sam Shepard
Air Date(s): 10/2, 10/3, 10/9, 10/16, 10/17, 10/20, 10/21, 10/28

Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, and Ray Liotta in one film?! The film, based on the 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade, follows hitman Jackie Cogan (Pitt), who is dispatched to handle the fallout from a stick-up that took place during a mob-run private poker game. It’s a funny, violent film that tells a story of excess hanging over the 2008 financial crisis.

Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Gonzalez Gonzalez
Air Date(s): 10/3, 10/4, 10/8, 10/11, 10/17, 10/19, 10/24, 10/26, 10/27, 10/29

Surprisingly one of the darker films on this list, One Eight Seven is also one of Samuel L. Jackson’s more slept-on performances. In the film, he plays Trevor Garfield, a teacher who finds the police code for homicide—”187”—written in a textbook by one of his students, who eventually stabs him. After relocating and taking a substitute teaching job that brings the same issues, Trevor is driven over the edge, and the story culminates in a violent conclusion. Worth it for Jackson’s work alone.

Director: Cess Silvera
Starring: Ky-Mani Marley, Spragga Benz, Paul Campbell, Louie Rankin
Air Date(s): 10/3, 10/9

Like Belly, Shottas is a cult classic that you may not be able to recreate. Starring one of Bob Marley’s children and legends like Spragga Benz and Louie Rankin, Shottas follows the life of two guys from Kingston and their criminal escapades across Jamaica and throughout Miami. It’s the type of film that may not have been accessible to many at the time of release, but that resonates throughout the hip-hop and dancehall scenes on both sides of the pond.

Director: Craig Ross Jr.
Starring: Allen Payne, Andrew Divoff, Clarence Williams III, William Forsythe
Air Date(s): 10/3, 10/9, 10/18, 10/31

While many films detail what crime in cities like Los Angeles or New York is for Black people, Blue Hill Avenue takes viewers to the South End of Boston through an engaging story and dynamic acting performances. Allen Payne is one actor in particular who always delivers, and aside from Jason’s Lyric, Blue Hill Avenue is one of the films in his career where he’s truly been able to deliver as a lead. If you don’t watch anything else on Complex TV, watch Blue Hill Avenue.

Director: Abdul Malik Abbott
Starring: Beanie Sigel, Jay-Z, Damon Dash, Memphis Bleek, Omillio Sparks
Air Date(s): 10/4, 10/5, 10/9, 10/10, 10/18, 10/19, 10/24, 10/25

Loosely based on the Junior Black Mafia’s notorious tales from the late 80s and early 90s drug trade in Philadelphia, Roc-A-Fella is heavy in State Property. The film stars and is narrated by Beanie Sigel in the most Beanie Sigel performance ever captured on film. It’s drenched in Beanie’s voice and lingo, adding a more unique appeal to this tale of street soldiers trying to provide for their families. An undeniable hood classic, if you haven’t seen this one, you’re in for a Tahitian Treat.

Director: Troy Duffy
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, Billy Connolly
Air Date(s): 10/6, 10/14, 10/23, 10/29

There was a time when you needed a Boondock Saints poster or DVD in your dorm room to have certain conversations. A tale of twin brothers using violence to eradicate the criminal underworld from Boston, The Boondock Saints became a cult classic after the Columbine High School massacre hindered the film’s box office dreams. Somehow, the film went from taking in under $31,000 at the box office to $50 million by the end, mostly due to word of mouth and those aforementioned DVD sales.

Director: Boots Riley
Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, Armie Hammer
Air Date(s): 10/16, 10/30

Shout out to pivots in life. If you grew up in the ‘90s, you knew Boots Riley as part of The Coup, the Oakland group that put revolutionary messages over dope beats. Putting together the kind of pitch-black comedy that was advertised in the trailers, featuring Atlanta star LaKeith Stanfield perfecting his “white” voice at his telemarketing job into a lucrative career that finds him losing parts of himself, felt closer to what Riley wrote about…until the other shoe drops. Without spoiling the major twist in this film, just know that things get very hairy before coming to a satisfying end. For his first foray into film, Riley brought the absurdist Trojan Horse straight to your door.

Director: Roy London
Starring: Forest Whitaker, John Bedford Lloyd, James Belushi, Lois Chiles, Sharon Stone, Sherilyn Fenn
Air Date(s): 10/28

One of the more slept-on films on this list, Diary of a Hitman is a great introduction to Forest Whitaker’s filmography. In this, Whitaker plays Dekker, a hitman looking to complete his last job. When that job is to murder a man’s wife (Sherilyn Fenn) and child, Dekker struggles with the weight of that job, and what will happen if he can’t—read “won’t”—complete it. An actual cult classic.

Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Starring: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
Air Date(s): 10/28

In one of the rare horror films on Fuse TV this month, Grant entertains a pair of Mormon women, getting them into his house before the tables turn. If you have any skepticism surrounding religion, this may be the one to get lost in. Some truly intriguing visuals in this house that becomes a frightening maze of terror!