Yousra Attia/Searchlight Pictures/Warner Bros./Getty Images/C&I Entertainment
The essential query of “What movie should I watch tonight?” grows only more vexing because the streaming landscape becomes ever-oversaturated. Picking a platform from which to stream is dicey enough—Netflix? Hulu? Wait…Peacock, seriously?—even before the hundreds of options in seemingly random order flood your screen. Decision fatigue sets in; suddenly, it’s easier to observe The Office again than it’s to try that prestige vehicle your #FilmTwitter friends won’t shut up about. Calm down, we get it, and we’re here to chop out the guesswork.
If you happen to’re in a movie-watching mood, among the best streamers to hit first is HBO Max. The Warner Bros. treasure trove is home to not only a crop of the newest Oscar nominees, but collections from Studio Ghibli, Turner Classic Movies, DC Comics, and—in fact—HBO itself. The total list of titles available shifts throughout this yr, so we’ll update this story frequently to maintain you abreast of the perfect and the newest. Within the meantime, read ahead for 15 of the perfect movies streaming on HBO Max this month. Finally, you may put the distant down, and settle in.
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Director Martin McDonagh expertly fuses the quaint and the absurd in his Oscar-nominated tale of frenemies in Twenties-era Ireland. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star because the central duo, long-term friends who—seemingly out of nowhere—split on the seams when one suddenly decides he doesn’t “like” the opposite “anymore.” The resulting drama is hilarious, heart-wrenching, and troubling, made all of the more absorbing through top-tier performances from supporting solid members including Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan.
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The winner of 2022’s Best International Feature Film Academy Award—it was also nominated for Best Picture that very same yr—Drive My Automobile relies on acclaimed Japanese creator Haruki Murakami’s short story, a few recently widowed actor who befriends the young woman assigned as his chauffeur. It’s a gorgeously shot though simply crafted story—accessible, immersive, and deeply affecting.
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Undoubtedly the perfect Batman film since The Dark Knight—sorry, Batfleck—The Batman stars lovable weirdo Robert Pattinson as lovable weirdo Bruce Wayne, taking over Paul Dano’s Riddler with the assistance of a implausible Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman.
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Adore it or hate it, Austin Butler’s Elvis accent is inescapable today. As he makes a run for Best Actor at this yr’s Academy Awards, it’s value watching (or re-watching) his turn because the King in Baz Luhrmann’s dazzling, at times confounding tackle Elvis Presley’s explosive, inimitable profession.
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A 2021 Best Picture nominee, Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah is among the best crime dramas in recent memory. The story follows Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, the Illinois chapter leader of the Black Panther party, and LaKeith Stanfield as William O’Neil, the titular Judas, who betrays Hampton to the FBI.
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An enormous splashy sci-fi movie starring Timothy Chalamet and Zendaya—for, uh, seven minutes—Dune won’t be an ideal adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sandy masterwork, but it surely is required viewing in the event you’re planning to tune in for Dune: Part II, out November 3.
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Widely agreed to be among the best movies ever made—and for good reason, given the intimacy and care with which it’s crafted—Within the Mood for Love stars iconic actors Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung as two strangers drawn together by their spouses’ affair. Twenty-plus years on, it’s still a crowd and critic favorite: In 2022, Sight & Sound ranked it No. 5 on its “Biggest Movies of All Time” list.
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A clever, well-executed horror film concerning the terrors of renting an Airbnb—form of, anyway—Barbarian churned through its paltry budget to make a surprising smash on the box office in September of last yr. It’s a must-watch in the event you love zany plot twists and indie movies that might, or if the concept of a stranger lurking behind your hotel shower curtain keeps you up at night.
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If you happen to’ve managed to make it through life to this point without seeing Casablanca in its entirety—you’re not alone!—it’s finally time to devote a pair hours to Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s dazzling performance as Rick and Ilsa, lovers caught amidst the backdrop of World War II in Casablanca, Morocco.
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Imagine it or not, journalism is riveting!! Starring considered one of Mark Ruffalo’s best performances of all time—yes, even higher than 13 Occurring 30—Best Picture winner Highlight is a harrowing look into the Boston Globe’s investigation of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. Equally heartbreaking and mobilizing, the film is considered one of the best so-called “journalism movies” ever made.
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Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford in two of probably the most beloved roles of their storied careers, classic western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is just as rollicking and fascinating a watch now because it was during its 1969 release. Newman and Redford are a natural duo as a pair of charming robbers and outlaws in 1899 Wyoming; and together, they created some of the iconic freeze frames in all of movie history. No easy feat given Ratatouille as competition!
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A lot of us ’90s babies keep a Studio Ghibli movie or two (or ten) near the center—for me, it’s Kiki’s Delivery Service—but even those less acquainted with Hayao Miyazaki groundbreaking animation will find themselves charmed, moved, and heartened by My Neighbor Totoro. A tale of friendship and childhood wonder, it’s not only among the best animated movies of all time, but among the best movies period.
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Hysterically funny even years past the prime of its mid-2000s aesthetic—though the Y2K girlies might beg to differ—Juno brought Elliot Page hurtling into the highlight as a pregnant teenager straddling the chasm between youth and maturity. Today, it stays compulsively re-watchable, the sort of film you reach for regardless of the hour, regardless of the mood.
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Directed by Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro within the starring role, Raging Bull is far more of a personality study than it’s a sports drama, featuring De Niro in considered one of his characteristic impossible-to-look-away-from roles—regardless of how ugly it may be to observe. The film is now considered obligatory viewing within the Scorsese canon, if not the perfect of the acclaimed director’s profession.
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Titanic has its charms, but my formative Leonardo DiCaprio viewing experience will all the time be Catch Me If You Can. Starring DiCaprio as con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. and Tom Hanks because the FBI agent hot on his trail, the film is breezy and delicious without sacrificing substance, supplied in full by DiCaprio at his best.
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