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The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now
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As Netflix pours more of its resources into original content, Amazon Prime Video is picking up the slack, adding new movies for its subscribers each month. Its catalog has grown so impressive, in fact, that it’s a bit overwhelming — and at the same time, movies that are included with a Prime subscription regularly change status, becoming available only for rental or purchase. It’s a lot to sift through, so we’ve plucked out 100 of the absolute best movies included with a Prime subscription right now, to be updated as new information is made available.As Netflix pours more of its resources into original content, Amazon Prime Video is picking up the slack, adding new movies for its subscribers each month. Its catalog has grown so impressive, in fact, that it’s a bit overwhelming — and at the same time, movies that are included with a Prime subscription regularly change status, becoming available only for rental or purchase. It’s a lot to sift through, so we’ve plucked out 100 of the absolute best movies included with a Prime subscription right now, to be updated as new information is made available.
Here are our lists of the best TV shows and movies on Netflix, and the best of both on Hulu and Disney+.Here are our lists of the best TV shows and movies on Netflix, and the best of both on Hulu and Disney+.
John Cleese writes and stars in this uproariously funny satire of ugly Americans, British politeness and caper movies. Jamie Lee Curtis is Wanda, the femme fatale of a criminal crew who sets her sights on Cleese’s uptight barrister; Kevin Kline is her partner in crime and in bed, who is very jealous and very stupid (but don’t call him that); Cleese’s fellow Monty Python alum Michael Palin is a criminal of a much meeker sort. The director Charles Crichton, who helmed many of England’s classic Ealing Studios comedies, orchestrates the insanity with verve. (For more wild comedy, try “The Out of Towners.”)Watch it on Amazon The director Brian De Palma took an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to the conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s with his “flashy, eclectic” and ultimately tragic 1981 masterpiece, as our critic put it. It cheerfully cribs elements of Chappaquiddick, Watergate and the Kennedy assassinations to create the hybrid story of a movie sound man (John Travolta, excellent) who accidentally tape-records what may have been a politically motivated murder. Nancy Allen gracefully transcends the clichés of her “hooker with a heart of gold” character, while John Lithgow is as scary as he’s ever been — which is no small statement. (For more from De Palma, queue up his horror classic “Carrie.”)
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The director Neill Blomkamp made his feature film debut with this thrilling nominee for the best picture Oscar. Set in an alternate timeline in which extraterrestrials landed in Johannesburg in 1982 (significantly, the year “E.T.” was released), the film makes clever use of faked “found footage” — surveillance videos, news reports and interviews — while following a government bureaucrat’s attempt to relocate an alien encampment. The effects dazzle, but Blomkamp has more on his mind than mere spectacle, using the conventions of science fiction as a cloak for smuggling in his pointed commentary on xenophobia, segregation and apartheid-era South Africa. Our critic called it “an ingenious, propulsive and suspenseful genre entertainment.”
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Jeff Bridges, 17 years before “The Big Lebowski,” starred in another subversive riff on the detective yarns and films noir of the past, also focused on the burnouts of sunny California. Here he stars as Richard Bone, a handsome loser who inadvertently witnesses the disposal of a dead body. John Heard comes on like a hurricane as his best buddy Alex Cutter, a roaring, wheelchair-bound, alcoholic Vietnam vet who becomes convinced that his friend caught a glimpse of a criminal conspiracy. The plot nuzzles into “Chinatown” territory, but the tone is closer to “The Long Goodbye”; the director, Ivan Passer, is less interested in the story than the vibes, and his laid-back style captures the intricacies of this world and these characters, in their frustrated days and drunken nights. (“The King of Marvin Gardens” and “Fat City” work a similar vibe.)
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One of the most hard-edge and thought-provoking pictures of the so-called “blaxploitation” cycle, this New York action drama pairs Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto as N.Y.P.D. detectives investigating the blood-spilling robbery of a mob-controlled numbers bank in Harlem. The case is a dangerous intersection of organized crime interests, a conflict exacerbated by the contrasts between these two cops — Black and white, young and old, idealistic and corrupted — resulting in an explosive and decidedly un-Hollywood conclusion. (For more ’70s action, stream “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!”)
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Robert Townsend spent much of the early 1980s struggling in Hollywood, occasionally landing a decent supporting role, but mostly auditioning for a series of infuriating stereotypes. He channeled his frustration into art, raising (and charging to his credit cards) the low budget for this “exuberant satire,” which he not only stars in but co-writes, produces, and directs. He plays an actor much like himself, spending his days in a humiliating fast-food job and sneaking off to the occasional humiliating audition, while indulging in daydreams of the kind of roles he’d like to play. It’s less a sturdy narrative than a series of comic blackout sketches, but Townsend’s charisma and good spirit carries it through.
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After nearly a decade of miscasting and near-misses, Robin Williams finally found an ideal big-screen vehicle with this service comedy from the director Barry Levinson. It casts him, ideally enough, as something akin to a stand-up comedian; he plays Adrian Cronauer, a fast-talking, uproariously funny disc jokey for Armed Forces Radio, working out of Saigon in the early days of the Vietnam War. He quickly becomes a favorite of the men in the field, but his interactions with the real world become a wake-up call that everything is not a joke. Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for the role, which our critic called “one man’s tour de force.” (For a more serious war movie, queue up “Paths of Glory.”)
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Jim Jarmusch directs this documentary portrait of Iggy Pop and his seminal punk band the Stooges with a fan’s enthusiasm and a filmmaker’s craft. His best asset is Iggy himself, aged and hardened but still an entertaining storyteller with a novelist’s knack for details — no mean feat considering the volume of substances he recalls having ingested in the Stooges’ short but eventful existence. Jarmusch supplements Pop’s remembrances with interviews from surviving band mates and collaborators, along with enough archival material to delight his fellow superfans. Our critic praised its “many moments of foaming-at-the-mouth musical fury.”
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The Coen Brothers teamed up, for the first time, with their frequent leading man George Clooney for this enjoyably goofy and buoyantly energetic Depression-era comedy, which our critic called “a rambunctious and inspired ride.” Clooney and fellow Coen regulars John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson play a trio of dimwitted convicts who escape from a chain gang and try to make their way back to civilization, only to become accidental recording stars along the way; the old-timey soundtrack, assembled by the acclaimed producer T-Bone Burnett, was a runaway best seller.
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The “Freaks and Geeks” co-stars Seth Rogen and James Franco reunited for this uproariously funny stoner action comedy, penned by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and directed by David Gordon Green, then best known for modest indie dramas like “George Washington.” That odd combination of backgrounds and specialties could’ve made for a real mess, but Rogen and Goldberg’s script is wry and witty, Green’s direction is sure-handed, and Rogen and Franco are a pitch-perfect team, their opposites-attract chemistry recalling ’80s buddy movies like “48 HRS” and “Midnight Run.” Our critic praised the film’s “waves of playful nonsense.” (If you like this film’s live wire vibe, try “Freeway.”)
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Wes Anderson had his first big hit — and began his career-long collaboration with Bill Murray — with this wryly funny and occasionally heartbreaking comedy-drama. Jason Schwartzman stars as Max Fisher, a student at the elite Rushmore Academy, whose scholastic mediocrity is frequently eclipsed by his ambition and enthusiasm. Murray is Herman Blume, a depressed millionaire whom Max first sees as a mentor, and then as competition for the affections of a teacher at the academy (Olivia Williams). This was only Anderson’s sophomore effort, but his distinctive aesthetic was already in place, along with his affection for eccentrics, weirdos and outcasts.
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You can see the DNA of “Mad Men” — not to mention pretty much every other sophisticated romantic comedy of the modern era — in this uproariously funny and deeply melancholic best picture winner from the co-writer and director Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon is pitch-perfect as an office drone whose bachelor apartment becomes the go-to hideaway for his corporate superiors, and thus a tool for climbing to their ranks; Shirley MacLaine sparkles as the elevator operator who catches his fancy, and who has a secret or two of her own. Our critic dubbed it “a gleeful, tender and even sentimental film.” (Wilder and Lemmon’s later “Avanti!” is also on Prime, as is Lemmon’s “The Out of Towners.”)
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Twenty-five years after “The Hustler,” Paul Newman returned to the role of the tortured pool shark “Fast” Eddie Felson — and won his first Oscar for the effort. As evidenced by his extended hiatus from the character, this was no cheap cash-in; no less than Martin Scorsese directed this follow-up, with his customary visual pizazz and psychological intensity. Newman’s Eddie is, all these years later, retired from pool and making a good living as a liquor salesman. But when a hotshot young pool master (Tom Cruise) catches his eye, Eddie decides to take the kid under his wing, with messy results. Our critic called it “a most entertaining, original film with its own, vivid, very contemporary identity and reason for being.” (Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” is also on Prime.)
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John Hurt was nominated for an Oscar for his “truly remarkable” performance as John Merrick, a disfigured man who is rescued from his life as a sideshow attraction by a kindhearted surgeon (Anthony Hopkins, wonderful), who discovers, underneath it all, a man of intelligence and sensitivity. The story is rendered with harsh realism and bizarre beauty by the director David Lynch (his second feature, after the wildly experimental “Eraserhead”). It’s a generous and moving film, with a powerful message of perseverance and acceptance but with enough of Lynch’s signature style to satisfy his devotees.
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Bruce Willis mounted yet another comeback, and helped launch the career of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, with this inventive ghost story. Willis stars as a child psychologist attempting to aid a young boy who believes not only that he can “see dead people” but also that he’s meant to help them settle their unfinished business. Willis is quietly excellent in the role, generating palpable warmth and trust with the young Haley Joel Osment, Oscar-nominated as his troubled patient. “The Sixth Sense” is best remembered for its twist ending, but there’s much more to the film than that; even viewers going in aware of its outcome are still likely to find it scary, moving and surprisingly poignant. (“Beasts of the Southern Wild” boasts a similarly astonishing, Oscar-nominated performance by a young actor.)
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Shyamalan followed up the huge success of “The Sixth Sense” by re-teaming with Willis and reuniting him with his “Pulp Fiction” and “Die Hard With a Vengeance” co-star Samuel L. Jackson for this moody action drama — “a superhero comic,” our critic wrote, “rendered as a haiku.” Beginning as the story of an Everyman who survives a horrifying train crash, it develops less as a traditional origin story than as a psychological mystery. Its superhero elements are unraveled gradually but thrillingly, culminating in a big revelation that is genuinely shocking. Willis is terrific, finding layers and textures within his hero’s unshakable melancholy, while Jackson deftly crafts a character who tells us everything while revealing nothing. (Shyamalan’s “Signs” is also streaming on Prime.)
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Howard Hawks’s newsroom farce wasn’t the first cinematic adaptation of the popular play “The Front Page,” but it cooked up a twist the 1931 version hadn’t: What if Hildy Johnson, the superstar reporter whom the ruthless editor Walter Burns will keep on his staff at any cost, wasn’t his drinking buddy but his ex-wife? It’s a movie that talks fast and moves faster, and the passage of nearly 80 years hasn’t slowed it down a bit. Our critic called it “a boldfaced reprint of what was once — and still remains — the maddest newspaper comedy of our times.” (For more recent romantic comedy, try “Brown Sugar” or “Under the Tuscan Sun.”)
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Arguably Mel Brooks’s finest and funniest film (and released, shockingly enough, in the same calendar year as “Blazing Saddles,” his other contender for that title), this gem finds the master of broad satire taking on the Universal horror pictures of the 1930s. Co-writer Gene Wilder is sublimely manic as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein — pronounced “Fronk-en-steen,” he insists — grandson of the famed corpse re-animator Victor, who returns to his grandfather’s estate and laboratory to claim his inheritance and finds himself drawn into the family business. Brooks and Wilder’s Oscar-nominated script is a hit parade of comedy classics, but what’s most surprising is its narrative discipline (relative to the rest of the Brooks filmography), which generates genuine pathos and charm.
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Few expected James Cameron’s dramatization of the 1912 sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic to become a nearly unmatched commercial success (it was the top-grossing movie of all time for over a decade) and an Academy Award winner (for best picture and best director, among others). Most of its prerelease publicity concerned its over-budget and over-schedule production. But in retrospect, we should have known — it was the kind of something-for-everyone entertainment that recalled blockbusters of the past, deftly combining historical drama, wide-screen adventure and heartfelt romance. And it stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, provided the latter in spades, becoming one of the great onscreen pairings of the 1990s. Our critic called it “a huge, thrilling three-and-a-quarter-hour experience.” (Fellow best picture winners “Braveheart” and “Forrest Gump” are also on Prime.)
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When the director Stanley Kramer, better known for issues pictures like “Inherit the Wind” and “Judgment at Nuremberg,” decided to make a comedy, he took no half-measures — he made the biggest comedy possible, a three-plus hour extravaganza featuring a who’s-who of funny people in supporting roles and cameo appearances. The giant cast includes Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Phil Silvers, and many, many more; the premise, from the thin plot (a cross-country pursuit of a big payday) to the celebrity-packed cast was later appropriated by the “Cannonball Run” movies. Our critic called it “a wonderfully crazy and colorful collection of ‘chase’ comedy.” (Classic comedy fans will also enjoy Jerry Lewis in “The Bellboy.”)
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The chef Jiro Ono’s 10-seat sushi-only Tokyo eatery is recognized worldwide and is less a restaurant than a temple. According to those who know and work with him, it’s an extension of his personality; he’s doggedly dedicated to his craft. But has that perfectionism made him (or the people around him) happy? David Gelb’s mouthwatering documentary poses that question and further explores the chef’s philosophies of life and work, while also painstakingly capturing the careful preparation of Ono’s culinary gifts and lovingly lingering on the results.
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Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar winner looks and sounds like an unapproachable foreign prestige picture, a grim post-Holocaust story in an austere style with moody (and gorgeous) black-and-white photography. And it is indeed a vivid historical drama and an evocative road movie. But its real subject is the bond between two very different women, young Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) and her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza) — a cold relationship that slowly thaws during this forceful and resonant trip through their shared history. It’s an emotional story about coming to terms with family secrets, containing, our critic wrote, “a cosmos of guilt, violence and pain.” (Pawlikowski’s “Cold War” is also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon
In investigating the death of a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla., the director Gabriela Cowperthwaite traces the sordid practice of capturing killer whales and training them to perform for audiences, creating a masterly juxtaposition of SeaWorld’s own commercials and promotional videos with grisly tales of accidents and attacks, accompanied by public relations spin. Paced like a thriller, the film is intelligent, methodical and harrowing; our critic called it a “delicately lacerating documentary.” (If you like investigative documentaries, try “Casino Jack and the United States of Money.”)
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Todd Haynes, the director of “Carol” and “Far From Heaven,” might seem an odd choice for a kid-friendly film, but his ability to craft precise portraits of the past make him an ideal match for this adaptation of a novel by Brian Selznick, who also pushed Martin Scorsese to an unlikely PG rating with “Hugo.” Haynes not only replicates the look of contemporary films from 1927 and 1977 (when the story’s parallel timelines are set), but ingeniously intercuts between them to create a singular narrative with a lump-in-the-throat conclusion. Our critic called it “a lovely ode to imagination and to the stories that make us who we are.”Watch it on Amazon
He gets up every morning, writes a line or two of poetry in his journal, goes to work, drives his bus, has dinner with his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), writes a few more lines, walks the dog to his favorite bar, has a beer, goes home, goes to bed and then starts it all over again the next day. Over the course of this wistful, lovely, “delectably funny” and deceptively low-key dramedy from the writer and director Jim Jarmusch, Paterson (Adam Driver) does not seek success, discovery or even publication. That’s not why he writes — it’s about routine and release. Above all, “Paterson” is a valentine to all of those who create art not to make a living, but to sustain their souls. (Fans of character-driven indie fare should also check out “Raising Victor Vargas,” “All or Nothing” and “Passion Fish.”)Watch it on Amazon
The legendary actor Ossie Davis made his feature directorial debut in this energetic adaptation of the comic crime novel by Chester Himes. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques star as “Grave Digger” Jones and “Coffin Ed” Johnson, a pair of NYPD detectives investigating a con man (Calvin Lockhart), an armored car robbery and warring Harlem gangsters. Cambridge and St. Jacques have the ease and rhythm of a great comedy team, the comedian Redd Foxx steals every scene he’s in, and Davis makes ingenious use of his Harlem locations, including an unforgettable climax at the Apollo Theater. (Fans of ’70s crime cinema can also check out “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown” on Prime.)Watch it on AmazonThe legendary actor Ossie Davis made his feature directorial debut in this energetic adaptation of the comic crime novel by Chester Himes. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques star as “Grave Digger” Jones and “Coffin Ed” Johnson, a pair of NYPD detectives investigating a con man (Calvin Lockhart), an armored car robbery and warring Harlem gangsters. Cambridge and St. Jacques have the ease and rhythm of a great comedy team, the comedian Redd Foxx steals every scene he’s in, and Davis makes ingenious use of his Harlem locations, including an unforgettable climax at the Apollo Theater. (Fans of ’70s crime cinema can also check out “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown” on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon
The director Robert Altman teamed up with his frequent collaborator Elliott Gould, and paired him up with George Segal, for this “fascinating, vivid” snapshot of two lovable losers. Gould and Segal play a pair of Los Angeles gamblers, floating from card table to racetrack to casino, in constant search of that one big score. Such a payday presents itself at the end of their journey, but Altman is too unconventional a filmmaker to put much stock in that destination. He’s more interested in the journey, and is film is propelled by the rowdy hum of those rooms and the colorful personalities of the people who inhabit them.Watch it on Amazon
John McTiernan’s remake of the Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway classic makes a few modifications, primarily changing its title character from a bored playboy bank robber into a bored playboy art thief. That change sets up one of the snazziest set pieces in the caper movie canon, as Pierce Brosnan’s art thief, Thomas Crown, stages an elaborate museum diversion to return his stolen prize. Along the way, sparks fly between the enigmatic Crown and Catherine Banning, Rene Russo’s impeccable investigator, with extra juice supplied by a returning Dunaway in a sublime supporting turn; it’s enchanting, intoxicating fun.Watch it on AmazonJohn McTiernan’s remake of the Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway classic makes a few modifications, primarily changing its title character from a bored playboy bank robber into a bored playboy art thief. That change sets up one of the snazziest set pieces in the caper movie canon, as Pierce Brosnan’s art thief, Thomas Crown, stages an elaborate museum diversion to return his stolen prize. Along the way, sparks fly between the enigmatic Crown and Catherine Banning, Rene Russo’s impeccable investigator, with extra juice supplied by a returning Dunaway in a sublime supporting turn; it’s enchanting, intoxicating fun.Watch it on Amazon
Joel and Ethan Coen’s story of a struggling folk singer in Greenwich Village in 1961 cheerfully intertwines fact and fiction; they faithfully reproduce that period, and incorporate many of its key figures into a week in the life of the title character (played by Oscar Isaac). But this is not just a museum piece, or a “music movie.” It’s about the feeling of knowing that success is overdue, and yet may never arrive. A.O. Scott called it an “intoxicating ramble.” (Fans of character-driven indie fare should also check out “Raising Victor Vargas” and “Passion Fish.”)Watch it on Amazon Joel and Ethan Coen’s story of a struggling folk singer in Greenwich Village in 1961 cheerfully intertwines fact and fiction; they faithfully reproduce that period, and incorporate many of its key figures into a week in the life of the title character (played by Oscar Isaac). But this is not just a museum piece, or a “music movie.” It’s about the feeling of knowing that success is overdue, and yet may never arrive. Our critic called it an “intoxicating ramble.” (For more musically motivated drama, try “Walk the Line” or “24 Hour Party People.”)Watch it on Amazon
The ’50s gangster movie gets a snazzy musical makeover in this 1955 film adaptation of the Broadway hit, itself based on the colorful New York characters of Damon Runyon’s fiction. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“All About Eve”) directs with energy and pizazz, coaxing cheerful, engaged performances out of Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, Vivian Blaine and that most unlikely of crooners, Marlon Brando. Our critic called it “as tinny and tawny and terrific as any hot-cha musical film you’ll ever see.” (If you like your movies loaded with music, try the biopics “Walk the Line” and “What’s Love Got To Do With It”)Watch it on Amazon The ’50s gangster movie gets a snazzy musical makeover in this 1955 film adaptation of the Broadway hit, itself based on the colorful New York characters of Damon Runyon’s fiction. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“All About Eve”) directs with energy and pizazz, coaxing cheerful, engaged performances out of Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons, Vivian Blaine and that most unlikely of crooners, Marlon Brando. Our critic called it “as tinny and tawny and terrific as any hot-cha musical film you’ll ever see.” (If you love classic musicals, add “Funny Girl” to your watch list; for more Sinatra, try “The Man With the Golden Arm.”)Watch it on Amazon
Set in a strict New England prep school circa 1959, this Peter Weir film dramatizes the literary, cultural and ultimately social awakening of a group of young men. Their guiding light is the English teacher John Keating, played by Robin Williams in what our critic called an “exceptionally fine performance”; the ensemble cast is noteworthy now for early work by the likes of Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles and Robert Sean Leonard. Some of the tropes on parade here lean a tad to the musty side, but this is a heartfelt and moving picture, with a closing scene that still raises goosebumps.Watch it on Amazon Set in a strict New England prep school circa 1959, this Peter Weir film dramatizes the literary, cultural and ultimately social awakening of a group of young men. Their guiding light is the English teacher John Keating, played by Robin Williams in what our critic called an “exceptionally fine performance”; the ensemble cast is noteworthy now for early work by the likes of Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles and Robert Sean Leonard. Some of the tropes on parade here lean a tad to the musty side, but this is a heartfelt and moving picture, with a closing scene that still raises goose bumps. (“River’s Edge” offers up a darker portrait of high school life.)Watch it on Amazon
This “assured, intense” drama follows the monthslong hijacking of a Danish cargo ship by Somali pirates. The events span oceans and continents, but most of the action is confined to two tight spaces: below the ship’s deck somewhere in the Indian Ocean, where the pirates’ spokesman dictates their demands; and the sterile Copenhagen conference room at the other end of the line. The director, Tobias Lindholm, tightly squeezes both locations, with the company’s CEO seemingly as trapped and helpless as the men onboard, while the hours tick away at a glacial pace. “A Hijacking” focuses on the logistics of the hostage situations and the formalities of negotiation, while never letting the psychological intensity go slack.Watch it on Amazon The director Billy Wilder followed up the triumph of “Sunset Boulevard” with this similarly “sordid and cynical drama,” starring Kirk Douglas as a ruthless and amoral newspaper man who turns a minor story of a man trapped in a collapse into a nationwide media circus, all to bolster his own profile. “Ace in the Hole” was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release, a reception that now seems an indication that Wilder was ahead of his time; the picture’s unflinching portrait of mass media (and of humanity in general) seems much more in tune with our contemporary mood. (Classic movie lovers can also stream “The Naked Kiss” or “In a Lonely Place.”)Watch it on Amazon
The director Billy Wilder followed up the triumph of “Sunset Boulevard” with this similarly “sordid and cynical drama,” starring Kirk Douglas as a ruthless and amoral newspaper man who turns a minor story of a man trapped in a collapse into a nationwide media circus, all to bolster his own profile. “Ace in the Hole” was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release, a reception that now seems an indication that Wilder was ahead of his time; the picture’s unflinching portrait of mass media (and of humanity in general) seems much more in tune with our contemporary mood. (Wilder’s “Avanti!” and “Kiss Me, Stupid” are also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon Decades later, it’s easy to focus on the multipronged influence of John McTiernan’s blockbuster: How it reconfigured action movies to focus on everymen over pumped-up cartoon characters; how it fueled an entire subgenre of white-knuckle exercises in confined spaces (“Under Siege,” “Speed,” “Passenger 57”); how it remade Bruce Willis into an action superstar. But that’s the intellectual approach — “Die Hard” was cleverly conceived and breathlessly executed, filled with smart plot twists, quotable dialogue and brilliantly realized character turns by Willis, Reginald VelJohnson and, of course, Alan Rickman as the ultimate ’80s erudite villain.Watch it on Amazon
Jeff Goldblum made the transition from quirky ensemble player to leading man with this 1986 hit from the director David Cronenberg. In adapting the 1958 monster flick of the same name, Cronenberg cuts out the cheese and piles on the body horror, while also embracing the rich psychological subtext of the story; Goldblum’s Seth Brundle is a man undone by his own ambition and ego, and his journey of self-destruction is both riveting and tragic. Geena Davis is in fine form as the woman who falls for him, while witnessing his horrifying decay.Watch it on Amazon When Steven Spielberg set out to make a film about Abraham Lincoln, the early scripts encompassed the entirety of his presidency. But the director and his screenwriter, Tony Kushner, wisely chose to focus on a single moment in Lincoln’s life — the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery — and ingeniously use that struggle as an emblem not only of Lincoln the politician, but also of Lincoln the man. In doing so, this biographical snapshot tells us far more about its subject than the typical, shallow, cradle-to-grave biopic. Nominated for a dozen Oscars (Daniel Day-Lewis won for his towering work as the 16th president), “Lincoln” is, according to our critic, “a rough and noble democratic masterpiece.”Watch it on Amazon
Decades later, it’s easy to focus on the multipronged influence of John McTiernan’s blockbuster: How it reconfigured action movies to focus on everymen over pumped-up cartoon characters; how it fueled an entire subgenre of white-knuckle exercises in confined spaces (“Under Siege,” “Speed,” “Passenger 57” ); how it remade Bruce Willis into an action superstar. But that’s the intellectual approach — “Die Hard” was cleverly conceived and breathlessly executed, filled with smart plot twists, quotable dialogue and brilliantly realized character turns by Willis, Reginald VelJohnson and, of course, Alan Rickman as the ultimate ’80s erudite villain.Watch it on Amazon Because it begat so many sequels, reboots, adaptations and other ephemera, it’s easy to forget that James Cameron’s original “Terminator” film was, as our critic put it, “a B-movie with flair” — a stripped-down, low-budget exploitation picture with an ingenious central idea, a well-selected cast and a director who knew how to stretch a dollar. Linda Hamilton is charismatic and sympathetic as Sarah Conner, a woman who discovers a cyborg from the future (a terrifying Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent to hunt her down.Watch it on Amazon
Oliver Stone graduated from a respected screenwriter to a top-flight filmmaker with this harrowing Vietnam War drama, which won Oscars for best Picture and director. Stone based the film on his own experiences in Vietnam, with Charlie Sheen as his avatar, a clean-cut kid from a privileged background whose eyes are opened to the horrors of combat and conflict. Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger singe the screen as his sergeants, one free-spirited and open, the other hard-edged and cruel. Our critic called it a “vivid, terse, exceptionally moving” film.Watch it on Amazon The Coen Brothers (“at their clever best,” per our critic) found their first big Oscar success — seven nominations and two wins — with this wildly funny and disturbing crime story. A wonderfully wormy William H. Macy stars as a car salesman who plots the kidnapping of his own wife in order to extract a handsome ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. The plan goes to pieces, thanks in no small part to a sharp-as-a-tack small-town police chief, played to plucky perfection by Frances McDormand; she won the first of her three Oscars for best actress for her carefully modulated performance, which deftly combines first-rate comic touches with genuine warmth and depth. (Crime film fans may also enjoy “Kalifornia”; for more dark comedy, try “I Heart Huckabees.”)Watch it on Amazon
When Steven Spielberg set out to make a film about Abraham Lincoln, the early scripts encompassed the entirety of his presidency. But the director and his screenwriter, Tony Kushner, wisely chose to focus on a single moment in Lincoln’s life — the passage of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery — and ingeniously use that struggle as an emblem not only of Lincoln the politician, but also of Lincoln the man. In doing so, this biographical snapshot tells us far more about its subject than the typical, shallow, cradle-to-grave biopic. Nominated for a dozen Oscars (Daniel Day-Lewis won for his towering work as the 16th president), “Lincoln” is, according to A.O. Scott, “a rough and noble democratic masterpiece.”Watch it on Amazon This zombie-apocalypse thriller from the South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho, set onboard a train hurtling toward possible safety, is a fantastic entry in the “relentless action in a confined space” subgenre (recalling “Snowpiercer,” “The Raid,” “Dredd” and the granddaddy of them all, “Die Hard”). The pacing is energetic, the makeup effects are convincing and the storytelling is ruthless. (Don’t get too attached to anyone.) But it’s not all blood and bluster; there’s a patient, deliberate setup before the orgy of gore and mayhem, leading to a surprising outpouring of emotion at the story’s conclusion. Our critic deemed it “often chaotic but never disorienting,” and praised its “spirited set pieces.” (For more white-knuckle, train-centered action, watch “The Train.”)Watch it on Amazon
The first two collaborations between the actor Clint Eastwood and the director Sergio Leone, “A Fistful of Dollars” and “For A Few Dollars More,” reinvented a genre, diverting popular attention from the increasingly stodgy traditional Western to the so-called Spaghetti Western, which ramped up the bloodshed, self-awareness and stylistic exuberance. Those films were modest, low-budget affairs, but Leone and Eastwood broke the mold with this trilogy-ending masterpiece in 1966, which runs nearly three hours and elevates its antiheroes to near-mythic status. Our critic called it “luridly intoxicating.” (“A Fistful of Dollars” is also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon
Our critic deemed Stanley Kramer’s adaptation of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s stage play (based on the notorious Scopes “monkey trial”) to be “triumphant,” its climax “one of the most brilliant and engrossing displays of acting ever witnessed on the screen.” The actors Fredric March and Spencer Tracy play, respectively, a Bible-pounding orator and an agnostic defense attorney on opposite theological and philosophical sides of the evolution debate. Kramer cranks up the carnival atmosphere, to great effect, and pulls a rare (and entertaining) nonmusical supporting turn from Gene Kelly as an H.L. Mencken-esque newspaper reporter.Watch it on Amazon
Because it begat so many sequels, reboots, adaptations and other ephemera, it’s easy to forget that James Cameron’s original “Terminator” film was, as our critic put it, “a B-movie with flair” — a stripped-down, low-budget exploitation picture with an ingenious central idea, a well-selected cast and a director who knew how to stretch a dollar. Linda Hamilton is charismatic and sympathetic as Sarah Conner, a woman who discovers a cyborg from the future (a terrifying Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent to hunt her down. (Fans of ’80s action will also enjoy “RoboCop.”)Watch it on Amazon
The Coen Brothers (“at their clever best,” per our critic) found their first big Oscar success — seven nominations and two wins — with this wildly funny and disturbing crime story. A wonderfully wormy William H. Macy stars as a used-car salesman who plots the kidnapping of his own wife in order to extract a handsome ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. The plan goes to pieces, thanks in no small part to a sharp-as-a-tack small-town police chief, played to plucky perfection by Frances McDormand; she won the first of her three Oscars for best actress for her carefully modulated performance, which deftly combines first-rate comic touches with genuine warmth and depth.Watch it on Amazon
Steven Spielberg won his second Academy Award for best director with this World War II epic that our critic called “soberly magnificent.” The film fuses the types and tropes of vintage war pictures with a less romanticized view of the horrors of combat. The virtuosic, nearly dialogue-free, over 20-minute recreation of the Omaha Beach landing at the start of the film is as vivid and visceral a demonstration that “war is hell” as has ever been put to celluloid. And while the story that follows — a no-nonsense captain (Tom Hanks) leads his shellshocked unit into Normandy in an attempt to find the sole surviving son (Matt Damon) of a battle-torn family — may be less intense, it’s no less powerful. (The World War II adventure “The Great Escape” is also on Prime, as is Hanks’ earlier Oscar-winning movie, “Forrest Gump.”)Watch it on Amazon
Sidney Lumet (“Serpico,” “Network,” “Dog Day Afternoon,”) made his feature directorial debut with this “incisively revealing” ensemble piece — one of the great courtroom dramas, or more accurately, jury room dramas. Twelve jurors huddle up to determine the fate of the man they’ve just watched on trial for murder, and what seems to be an open-and-shut conviction is complicated by the questions and protestations of a single juror (Henry Fonda). Lee J. Cobb is his primary antagonist; Jack Warden, Martin Balsam and E.G. Marshall are among the impressive cast. (For more Fonda, try “On Golden Pond.”)Watch it on Amazon
Between his first and second cracks at Batman, director Christopher Nolan slid in this twisty, stylish exercise in sleight-of-hand moviemaking, as if to assure the fans of his breakthrough movie “Memento” that he was still up to his old tricks. This time around, the term “tricks” is literal: In “The Prestige,” Nolan tells the story of two stage magicians in 1890s London, whose friendly rivalry first becomes fraught, then deadly. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale scheme and connive appropriately in the leading roles; a standout supporting cast includes Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall and David Bowie.Watch it on Amazon
Matthew Broderick (at his charismatically smarmy best) plays a high school computer whiz who uses his chunky PC and primitive modem to dial in to what he thinks is a video game company — unaware that he has instead dialed into the U.S. military’s supercomputer and started a nuclear war simulation. The screenplay (by the future “Sneakers” writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes) is smart and snappy while the director John Badham (“Saturday Night Fever”) orchestrates an effective mix of high-stakes drama and low-key comedy that, according to our critic, “grabs us where we’re most vulnerable.”Watch it on Amazon
The crime novels of Elmore Leonard had eluded filmmakers for years, until the director Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men in Black”) and the screenwriter Scott Frank cracked the code here. In this “clever Hollywood satire with an enlightened sense of fun,” John Travolta shines as Chili Palmer, a smooth-talking Miami debt collector who finds his skills are particularly valuable in the movie business; Gene Hackman is uproariously funny as the sketchy producer who is first Palmer’s target, and then his partner. (For more dark comedy, add “Death at a Funeral” and “I Heart Huckabees” to your watchlist; for more Hackman, try “No Way Out.”)Watch it on Amazon
Jeff Bridges won a long-overdue Academy Award for best actor in this adaptation of Thomas Cobb’s novel from the writer and director Scott Cooper. Bridges stars as “Bad” Blake, an alcoholic country singer-songwriter whose best days seem to be behind him. He falls hard for a younger music journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and starts to think he might be able to turn his career, and his life, around. A.O. Scott called this “a small movie perfectly scaled to the big performance at its center.” (For more character-driven drama, try “127 Hours.”)Watch it on Amazon
The actor Zero Mostel is an absolute gas in this leading role of this “leering clown of a movie,” adapted from the Broadway smash with energy and verve by the director Richard Lester (“A Hard Day’s Night”). Mostel stars as Pseudolus, a fast-talking and faster-thinking slave in ancient Rome who cooks up a plot to win his freedom, with uproarious complications blocking his path at every turn. Lester keeps things moving at a healthy clip, smoothly weaving in slapstick set pieces and songs from the great Stephen Sondheim. Keep an eye out for Buster Keaton in his final feature film role. (If you love classic musicals, add “Yentl,” “Funny Girl” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” to your watch list.)Watch it on Amazon
The masterful British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger helmed this mesmerizing drama about ballet, loosely adapted from the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. The filmmakers (and their fellow screenwriter Keith Winter) combine the conventions of the backstage drama with the operatic emotions of the dance itself, telling the story of a ballerina (Moira Shearer, divine) who finds herself caught between the company’s powerful owner (Anton Walbrook) and the composer she loves (Marius Goring). Our critic deemed it “a visual and emotional comprehension of all the grace and rhythm and power of the ballet.” (Classic movie lovers can stream “The Miracle Worker” and “His Girl Friday.”)Watch it on Amazon
This acclaimed romance from the director Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Grifters”) plays as both a tender relationship tale and a piercing commentary on Thatcher-era London. The racial tensions in that period fuel this story of a young British-Pakistani man (Gordon Warnecke) who takes over his uncle’s launderette with the help of his friend and eventual lover (a young Daniel Day-Lewis). There’s a wonderful offhandedness about the central relationship — these protagonists are drawn together not by labels, but by mutual attraction and affection — resulting in what our critic called “a fascinating, eccentric, very personal movie.”Watch it on Amazon
The acclaimed playwright David Mamet made his feature directorial debut with this razor-sharp, “wonderfully devious” story of con artists and their marks. Joe Mantegna is electrifying as a master of card bluffs, sleights of hand and other manipulations of the mind; Lindsay Crouse is the coolheaded psychiatrist fascinated by his world whose observation quickly turns to participation. Mamet deploys the tools of the thriller — there are guns, briefcases of money and a big score to take down — but the real thrills reside in his dialogue, where every line has at least two meanings and every interaction is loaded like a rifle. (Mamet’s “The Winslow Boy” and “Ronin” — co-written under a pseudonym — are also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon
Jeff Bridges, 17 years before “The Big Lebowski,” starred in another subversive riff on the detective yarns and films noir of the past, also focused on the burnouts of sunny California. Here he stars as Richard Boone, a handsome loser who inadvertently witnesses the disposal of a dead body. John Heard comes on like a hurricane as his best buddy Alex Cutter, a roaring, wheelchair-bound, alcoholic Vietnam vet who becomes convinced that his buddy caught a glimpse of a criminal conspiracy. The plot nuzzles into “Chinatown” territory, but the tone is closer to “The Long Goodbye”; the director, Ivan Passer, is less interested in the story than the vibes, and his laid-back style captures the intricacies of this world and these characters, in their frustrated days and drunken nights. (“The King of Marvin Gardens” and “Fat City” work a similar vibe.)Watch it on Amazon
The esteemed character actor Charles Laughton made his one and only trip behind the camera for this haunting small-town thriller, which melds the conventions of film noir and Hitchcock-style suspense with a healthy taste of Southern Gothic. Robert Mitchum crafts a chilling, unforgettable performance as Harry Powell, a mysterious stranger who romances a widowed mother (a superb Shelley Winters) whose children seem to be the only ones capable of seeing the evil within him. Our critic called it “clever and exceptionally effective.” (For more classic noir, stream “The Naked Kiss” or “In a Lonely Place.”)Watch it on Amazon
Ernest Borgnine won an Academy Award for his indelible performance as Marty, the title character, a melancholy Bronx butcher who looks in vain for love at a singles’ dance hall. He finally finds it — or something like it — in Clara (Betsy Blair), a similarly lonely schoolteacher, if only he can look past the sniping of his friends and overbearing mother. The film also won Oscars for best picture, director (Delbert Mann) and screenwriter (Paddy Chayefsky). Our critic called it “a warm and winning film.” (For more ’50s drama, add “The Man With the Golden Arm” and “The Defiant Ones” to your watch list.)Watch it on Amazon
Few fictional characters have embedded themselves in the pop culture consciousness as firmly as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the brilliant monster brought to bone-chilling life by an Oscar-winning Anthony Hopkins in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 adaptation of the Thomas Harris best seller. The film also won awards for best picture, best director, best screenplay, and best actress. Jodie Foster’s indelible portrayal of the rookie F.B.I. investigator Clarice Starling sharply combines small-town naïveté with quick-witted strength. Our critic called it pop filmmaking “of a high order.” (Fans of ’90s thrillers may also enjoy “Romeo Is Bleeding.”)Watch it on Amazon
This zombie-apocalypse thriller from the South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho, set onboard a train hurtling toward possible safety, is a fantastic entry in the “relentless action in a confined space” subgenre (recalling “Snowpiercer,” “The Raid,” “Dredd” and the granddaddy of them all, “Die Hard”). The pacing is energetic, the makeup effects are convincing and the storytelling is ruthless. (Don’t get too attached to anyone.) But it’s not all blood and bluster; there’s a patient, deliberate setup before the orgy of gore and mayhem, leading to a surprising outpouring of emotion at the story’s conclusion. Our critic deemed it “often chaotic but never disorienting,” and praised its “spirited set pieces.” (For more white-knuckle action, watch “Mission: Impossible IV — Ghost Protocol.”)Watch it on Amazon
Those dreading holidays with the family may find some comfort in this “intelligent and touching farce” from the writer and director Peter Hedges — which details how much worse such events could be. Katie Holmes stars as a free spirit who invites her estranged family (including Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt, Alison Pill and John Gallagher Jr.) to her rundown New York City walk-up for Thanksgiving dinner. The result is one of the few films in cinematic history to offer valuable advice on both dealing with a family member’s terminal illness and cooking a turkey without a proper oven. (For more family-based cringe comedy, try “The Family Stone.”)Watch it on Amazon
Two young men in Park Slope, Brooklyn, weather their parents’ nasty divorce in this ruthlessly intelligent and evenhanded coming-of-age story from the writer and director Noah Baumbach, who drew upon his own teenage memories and put himself, not altogether complimentarily, into the character of the 16-year-old Walt (a spot on Jesse Eisenberg). Laura Linney is passive-aggressive perfection as his mother, while Jeff Daniels, as the father, masterfully captures a specific type of sneeringly dissatisfied intellectual. The film is “both sharply comical and piercingly sad,” A.O. Scott wrote; Baumbach dissects this family’s woes and drama with knowing precision.Watch it on Amazon
This thrillingly unpredictable rom-com/crime movie mash-up from the director Jonathan Demme (“The Silence of the Lambs”) begins as a boy-meets-girl movie with a slightly psychosexual edge, seeming to tell the story of how a wild girl (Melanie Griffith) and a straight guy (Jeff Daniels) meet in the middle. Then Ray (a sensational Ray Liotta) turns up and hijacks the entire movie, turning into something much darker and more dangerous. Throughout, Demme keeps the focus on his colorful characters and sharp dialogue. (If you like this film’s live wire vibe, try “Freeway.”)Watch it on Amazon
Across six years in the mid-2000s, an analyst named Daniel Jones (portrayed by an excellent Adam Driver) pored through millions of pages of documents to write the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program. This taut, angry film from Scott Z. Burns dramatizes that investigative process and what Jones discovered — and the steady growth of his righteous indignation. Burns, in what our critic deemed a “smart, layered screenplay,” deftly translates the story’s intellectual urgency into emotional agency, making the political into something decidedly personal. (Driver is also first-rate in Leos Carax’s “Annette.”)Watch it on AmazonAcross six years in the mid-2000s, an analyst named Daniel Jones (portrayed by an excellent Adam Driver) pored through millions of pages of documents to write the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program. This taut, angry film from Scott Z. Burns dramatizes that investigative process and what Jones discovered — and the steady growth of his righteous indignation. Burns, in what our critic deemed a “smart, layered screenplay,” deftly translates the story’s intellectual urgency into emotional agency, making the political into something decidedly personal. (Driver is also first-rate in Leos Carax’s “Annette.”)Watch it on Amazon
This debut film from the director Andrew Patterson wears its “Twilight Zone” influence right on its sleeve, opening (on a vintage television, no less) with the spooky intro to an anthology series called “Paradox Theater,” and presenting this story as “tonight’s episode.” The throwback framework is key; this is a film that bursts with affection for analog, with the look, feel and sound of black-and-white TVs, reel-to-reel tape recorders, telephone switchboards and the distant voices of a radio disc jockey and his mysterious callers. Patterson orchestrates it all with the grinning giddiness of a campfire storyteller — he’s having a great time freaking us out. Manohla Dargis called it “a small-scale movie that flexes plenty of filmmaking muscle.” (For a more irreverent slab of throwback sci-fi, try “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai.”)Watch it on Amazon This debut film from the director Andrew Patterson wears its “Twilight Zone” influence right on its sleeve, opening (on a vintage television, no less) with the spooky intro to an anthology series called “Paradox Theater,” and presenting this story as “tonight’s episode.” The throwback framework is key; this is a film that bursts with affection for analog, with the look, feel and sound of black-and-white TVs, reel-to-reel tape recorders, telephone switchboards and the distant voices of a radio disc jockey and his mysterious callers. Patterson orchestrates it all with the grinning giddiness of a campfire storyteller — he’s having a great time freaking us out. Our critic called it “a small-scale movie that flexes plenty of filmmaking muscle.”Watch it on Amazon
Kenneth Lonergan makes films about people in turmoil, roiled by bottomless sadness, dysfunction and guilt. Casey Affleck won an Oscar for his nuanced portrayal of Lee Chandler, a Boston janitor who, for all practical purposes, is broken; Lucas Hedges is prickly and funny as the nephew who needs him to put himself together again. It’s a tear-jerker in the best sense, never stooping to cheap manipulation. Our critic called it “a finely shaded portrait.” (For more Oscar-winning acting, stream “Lilies of the Field” and “Paper Moon.”)Watch it on Amazon Kenneth Lonergan makes films about people in turmoil, roiled by bottomless sadness, dysfunction and guilt. Casey Affleck won an Oscar for his nuanced portrayal of Lee Chandler, a Boston janitor who, for all practical purposes, is broken; Lucas Hedges is prickly and funny as the nephew who needs him to put himself together again. It’s a tear-jerker in the best sense, never stooping to cheap manipulation. Our critic called it “a finely shaded portrait.” (For more Oscar-winning acting, stream “On Golden Pond” and “Paper Moon.”)Watch it on Amazon
It was only a matter of time before Whit Stillman, the writer and director of such literate comedies as “Metropolitan” and “Barcelona,” adapted Jane Austen, whose dissections of upper-class relationships had always been an influence. This “howlingly funny” expansion on Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” merges their voices seamlessly, with Kate Beckinsale’s sly, scheming heroine, the Lady Susan Vernon, enforcing a tone of cheerful irreverence. After decades of relatively benign adaptations of Austen’s novels, “Love and Friendship” is a reminder that her work is part of the tradition of lacerating British comedy, and this whip-smart adaptation favors slashing wit and ruthless gamesmanship over swooning romance.Watch it on Amazon It was only a matter of time before Whit Stillman, the writer and director of such literate comedies as “Metropolitan” and “Barcelona,” adapted Jane Austen, whose dissections of upper-class relationships had always been an influence. This “howlingly funny” expansion on Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” merges their voices seamlessly, with Kate Beckinsale’s sly, scheming heroine, the Lady Susan Vernon, enforcing a tone of cheerful irreverence. After decades of relatively benign adaptations of Austen’s novels, “Love and Friendship” is a reminder that her work is part of the tradition of lacerating British comedy, and this whip-smart adaptation favors slashing wit and ruthless gamesmanship over swooning romance. (Literature lovers will also enjoy “Enchanted April” and “The Joy Luck Club.”)Watch it on Amazon
This unapologetically dark comedy changed the high-school movie forever, from the heartfelt and ultimately sunny chronicles of John Hughes to something with a bit more bite. Winona Ryder is tart and charming as Veronica, a popular teen who has come to hate the clique she runs with. Then she meets J.D. (Christian Slater), a Jack Nicholson clone who suggests bumping off their less tolerable classmates. Nearly 30 years on, the sheer riskiness and take-no-prisoners attitude of this delightfully demented picture still shocks; our critic called it “as snappy and assured as it is mean-spirited.”Watch it on Amazon This unapologetically dark comedy changed the high-school movie forever, from the heartfelt and ultimately sunny chronicles of John Hughes to something with a bit more bite. Winona Ryder is tart and charming as Veronica, a popular teen who has come to hate the clique she runs with. Then she meets J.D. (Christian Slater), a Jack Nicholson clone who suggests bumping off their less tolerable classmates. Nearly 30 years on, the sheer riskiness and take-no-prisoners attitude of this delightfully demented picture still shocks; our critic called it “as snappy and assured as it is mean-spirited. (Ryder also shines in “Mermaids.”)
The “one night” of the title of Regina King’s feature directorial debut is Feb. 25, 1964 — the night Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) took down Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. But the fight footage is brief, because King isn’t making a boxing movie; she’s making a film about Black identity, filled with conversations that are still being had, and questions that are still being asked. The four participants — Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) — are giants in their fields and are friends celebrating a victory. It’s a moving, powerful film, confrontational and thought-provoking. A.O. Scott called it “one of the most exciting movies I’ve seen in quite some time.”Watch it on Amazon Watch it on Amazon
Riz Ahmed is devastatingly good as Ruben, a hard rock drummer whose entire life — his music, his relationship, his self-image — is upended by a sudden case of extreme hearing loss, in this wrenching drama from the writer and director Darius Marder. A former addict in danger of relapse, Ruben enters a school for the deaf, where he must confront not only his new condition, but the jitteriness that predates it. His sense of solitude, even with others, quickly transforms to self-consciousness, then self-doubt, then self-destruction, and “Sound of Metal” is ultimately less about finding a silver bullet cure than finding the stillness within oneself. Marder works in a quiet, observational style, skillfully avoiding every cliché he approaches, taking turns both satisfying and moving. Our critic praised the film’s “distinctive style.” (For more indie drama, try “The Indian Runner.”)Watch it on Amazon The “one night” of the title of Regina King’s feature directorial debut is Feb. 25, 1964 — the night Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) took down Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship. But the fight footage is brief, because King isn’t making a boxing movie; she’s making a film about Black identity, filled with conversations that are still being had, and questions that are still being asked. The four participants — Ali (Eli Goree), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) — are giants in their fields and are friends celebrating a victory. It’s a moving, powerful film, confrontational and thought-provoking. Our critic called it “one of the most exciting movies I’ve seen in quite some time.”Watch it on Amazon
Three years after reinventing the crime movie with “Bonnie and Clyde,” the director Arthur Penn worked similar magic on the Western, adapting Thomas Berger’s novel about a very old man (Dustin Hoffman) who tells the tale of his exploits in the Old West, where he was raised by Native Americans. The film’s attitudes toward Indigenous people were boldly progressive at the time of its release, in 1970, coming as it did during a period when most westerns still teemed with racist images of “merciless Indian savages,” in the words of the Declaration of Independence. Our critic called it a “tough testament to the contrariness of the American experience.” (Fans of revisionist Westerns will also want to stream “Hang ‘Em High” and “From Noon Till Three.”)Watch on Amazon Riz Ahmed is devastatingly good as Ruben, a hard rock drummer whose entire life — his music, his relationship, his self-image — is upended by a sudden case of extreme hearing loss, in this wrenching drama from the writer and director Darius Marder. A former addict in danger of relapse, Ruben enters a school for the deaf, where he must confront not only his new condition, but the jitteriness that predates it. His sense of solitude, even with others, quickly transforms to self-consciousness, then self-doubt, then self-destruction, and “Sound of Metal” is ultimately less about finding a silver bullet cure than finding the stillness within oneself. Marder works in a quiet, observational style, skillfully avoiding every cliché he approaches, taking turns both satisfying and moving. Our critic praised the film’s “distinctive style.” (For more indie drama, try “Garden State.”)Watch it on Amazon
Spike Lee adapts and updates Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” to the streets of contemporary Chicago in this wildly funny, vividly theatrical mash-up of gangland drama, musical comedy and surrealist fantasy. Teyonah Parris shines as the determined young woman who leads a sex strike to stop the city’s violence, while Samuel L. Jackson struts and rhymes as “Dolmedes,” the picture’s one-man Greek chorus. His Dolemite-style interludes push the premise to its bawdy extremes, but Lee isn’t just playing for laughs. He’s swinging for the fences, and the result, according to Manohla Dargis, “entertains, engages and, at times, enrages.”Watch it on Amazon Three years after reinventing the crime movie with “Bonnie and Clyde,” the director Arthur Penn worked similar magic on the Western, adapting Thomas Berger’s novel about a very old man (Dustin Hoffman) who tells the tale of his exploits in the Old West, where he was raised by Native Americans. The film’s attitudes toward Indigenous people were boldly progressive at the time of its release, in 1970, coming as it did during a period when most westerns still teemed with racist images of “merciless Indian savages,” in the words of the Declaration of Independence. Our critic called it a “tough testament to the contrariness of the American experience.” (Hoffman is also in fine form in “American Buffalo.”) Watch on Amazon
Spike Lee adapts and updates Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” to the streets of contemporary Chicago in this wildly funny, vividly theatrical mash-up of gangland drama, musical comedy and surrealist fantasy. Teyonah Parris shines as the determined young woman who leads a sex strike to stop the city’s violence, while Samuel L. Jackson struts and rhymes as “Dolmedes,” the picture’s one-man Greek chorus. His Dolemite-style interludes push the premise to its bawdy extremes, but Lee isn’t just playing for laughs. He’s swinging for the fences, and the result, according to our critic, “entertains, engages and, at times, enrages.”Watch it on Amazon
This “meticulously acted” serio-comic drama was the feature filmmaking debut of Joey Soloway (credited as Jill Soloway), the creator of “Transparent” and “I Love Dick.” Kathryn Hahn is astonishing in the leading role, clearly conveying her dissatisfied housewife’s longings and nerves but keeping her intentions enigmatic, and Juno Temple is electrifying as a young woman who’s learned how to use her sexuality as a weapon without fully considering the carnage left in its wake. Their byplay is vibrant, and it gets messy in fascinating ways; this is a sly, smart sex comedy that plumbs unexpected depths of sadness and despair.Watch it on AmazonThis “meticulously acted” serio-comic drama was the feature filmmaking debut of Joey Soloway (credited as Jill Soloway), the creator of “Transparent” and “I Love Dick.” Kathryn Hahn is astonishing in the leading role, clearly conveying her dissatisfied housewife’s longings and nerves but keeping her intentions enigmatic, and Juno Temple is electrifying as a young woman who’s learned how to use her sexuality as a weapon without fully considering the carnage left in its wake. Their byplay is vibrant, and it gets messy in fascinating ways; this is a sly, smart sex comedy that plumbs unexpected depths of sadness and despair.Watch it on Amazon
The director Frank Capra and the actor Jimmy Stewart took a marvelously simple premise — a suicidal man is given the opportunity to see what his world would have been like without him — and turned it into a holiday perennial. But “It’s a Wonderful Life” is too rich and complex to brand with a label as simple as “Christmas movie”; it is ultimately a story about overcoming darkness and finding light around you, a tricky transition achieved primarily through the peerless work of Stewart as a good man with big dreams who can’t walk away from the place where he’s needed most. Our critic said it was a “quaint and engaging modern parable.” (Classic movie lovers can also stream “The Best Years of Our Lives” or “Great Expectations” on Prime.) The director Frank Capra and the actor Jimmy Stewart took a marvelously simple premise — a suicidal man is given the opportunity to see what his world would have been like without him — and turned it into a holiday perennial. But “It’s a Wonderful Life” is too rich and complex to brand with a label as simple as “Christmas movie”; it is ultimately a story about overcoming darkness and finding light around you, a tricky transition achieved primarily through the peerless work of Stewart as a good man with big dreams who can’t walk away from the place where he’s needed most. Our critic said it was a “quaint and engaging modern parable.” (Classic movie lovers can also stream “The Best Years of Our Lives” or “49th Parallel” on Prime.)
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Early in Garrett Bradley’s extraordinary documentary (a coproduction of The New York Times), someone asks Fox Rich about her husband, and she replies, “He’s, uh, out of town now.” Technically, it’s true; he’s in Angola prison, for a 1997 bank robbery, serving a 60-year sentence without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Fox Rich has spent years fighting for her husband’s release — and against mass incarceration — and Bradley interweaves her crusade with years of grainy home video footage, moving back and forth from past to present, contrasting the possibilities of those early videos and the acceptance, even resignation, of today. But Fox Rich never gives up hope, and this “substantive and stunning” film suggests that even in the grimmest of circumstances, that never-say-die spirit can pay dividends.Watch it on Amazon Early in Garrett Bradley’s extraordinary documentary (a coproduction of The New York Times), someone asks Fox Rich about her husband, and she replies, “He’s, uh, out of town now.” Technically, it’s true; he’s in Angola prison, for a 1997 bank robbery, serving a 60-year sentence without the possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. Fox Rich has spent years fighting for her husband’s release — and against mass incarceration — and Bradley interweaves her crusade with years of grainy home video footage, moving back and forth from past to present, contrasting the possibilities of those early videos and the acceptance, even resignation, of today. But Fox Rich never gives up hope, and this “substantive and stunning” film suggests that even in the grimmest of circumstances, that never-say-die spirit can pay dividends. (Documentary aficionados will also want to check out “Attica.”)Watch it on Amazon
The South Korean master Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) takes the stylistic trappings of a period romance and gooses them with scorching eroticism and one of the most ingenious con-artist plots this side of “The Sting.” Working from the Sarah Waters novel “Fingersmith,” Park begins with the story of a young woman who, as part of a seemingly straightforward swindle, goes to work as a Japanese heiress’s handmaiden, occasionally pausing the plot to slyly reveal new information, reframing what we’ve seen and where we think he might go next. Manohla Dargis saw it as an “amusingly slippery entertainment.”Watch it on Amazon The South Korean master Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) takes the stylistic trappings of a period romance and gooses them with scorching eroticism and one of the most ingenious con-artist plots this side of “The Sting.” Working from the Sarah Waters novel “Fingersmith,” Park begins with the story of a young woman who, as part of a seemingly straightforward swindle, goes to work as a Japanese heiress’s handmaiden, occasionally pausing the plot to slyly reveal new information, reframing what we’ve seen and where we think he might go next. Our critic saw it as an “amusingly slippery entertainment.”(For more period romance with a kick, try Jane Campion’s “The Portrait of a Lady.”)Watch it on Amazon
Asghar Farhadi writes and directs this lucid and contemplative morality play, in which a married couple must grapple with the fallout of an assault on the wife in their home, particularly when the husband’s desire for vengeance surpasses her own. Farhadi’s brilliance at capturing the complexities of his native Iran’s culture is as astonishing as ever — particularly when coupled with insights into victimhood, justice, poverty and intimacy that know no borders. A.O. Scott praised the picture’s “rich and resonant ideas.” (Cinephiles may also enjoy “Cold War” and “The Wedding Banquet.”)Watch it on Amazon Asghar Farhadi writes and directs this lucid and contemplative morality play, in which a married couple must grapple with the fallout of an assault on the wife in their home, particularly when the husband’s desire for vengeance surpasses her own. Farhadi’s brilliance at capturing the complexities of his native Iran’s culture is as astonishing as ever — particularly when coupled with insights into victimhood, justice, poverty and intimacy that know no borders. Our critic praised the picture’s “rich and resonant ideas.” (Farhadi’s “A Hero” is also on Prime; fans of international cinema may also enjoy “Transit.”)Watch it on Amazon
The broad plot outlines — a traumatized vet, working as a killer-for-hire, gets in over his head in the criminal underworld — make this adaptation of Jonathan Ames’s novella sound like a million throwaway B-movies. But the director and screenwriter is Lynne Ramsay, and she’s not interested in making a conventional thriller; hers is more like a commentary on them, less interested in visceral action beats than their preparation and aftermath. She abstracts the violence, skipping the visual clichés and focusing on the details another filmmaker wouldn’t even see. Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerizing in the leading role (“there is something powerful in his agony,” A.O. Scott noted), internalizing his rage and pain until control is no longer an option. (Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon The broad plot outlines — a traumatized vet, working as a killer-for-hire, gets in over his head in the criminal underworld — make this adaptation of Jonathan Ames’s novella sound like a million throwaway B-movies. But the director and screenwriter is Lynne Ramsay, and she’s not interested in making a conventional thriller; hers is more like a commentary on them, less interested in visceral action beats than their preparation and aftermath. She abstracts the violence, skipping the visual clichés and focusing on the details another filmmaker wouldn’t even see. Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerizing in the leading role (“there is something powerful in his agony,” our critic noted), internalizing his rage and pain until control is no longer an option. (Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is also on Prime.)Watch it on Amazon
Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani based their first screenplay on their own, unconventional love story — a courtship that was paused, then oddly amplified by an unexpected illness and a medically induced coma. This isn’t typical rom-com fodder, but it’s written and played with such honesty and heart that it somehow lands. Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan (standing in for Gordon) generate easy, lived-in chemistry and a rooting interest in the relationship, while a second-act appearance by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano as her parents creates a prickly tension that gives way to hard-won affection. Our critic deemed it “a joyous, generous-hearted romantic comedy.” (If you like indie comedy-dramas, we also recommend “Living in Oblivion” and “The Opposite of Sex.”)Watch it on Amazon Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani based their first screenplay on their own, unconventional love story — a courtship that was paused, then oddly amplified by an unexpected illness and a medically induced coma. This isn’t typical rom-com fodder, but it’s written and played with such honesty and heart that it somehow lands. Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan (standing in for Gordon) generate easy, lived-in chemistry and a rooting interest in the relationship, while a second-act appearance by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano as her parents creates a prickly tension that gives way to hard-won affection. Our critic deemed it “a joyous, generous-hearted romantic comedy.” (If you like indie comedy-dramas, we also recommend “Living in Oblivion” and “The Opposite of Sex.”)
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