We may earn a commission from links on this page.
HBO was, for at least a couple of generations, the home of movies on cable—no one else could compete. For a while, it seemed like HBO Max could well be the ultimate streaming destination for movie lovers, but the jury is still out.
Even so, HBO Max maintains a collaboration with TCM, giving it a broad range of classic American and foreign films. It's also the primary streaming home for Studio Ghibli and A24, so even though the streamer hasn't been making as many original films as it did a few years ago, it still has a solid assortment of movies you won't find anywhere else.
Here are 30 of the best of HBO Max's recent and/or exclusive offerings.
Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler's dusty, sweaty supernatural horror movie became the year's crossover hit, defying expectations for an R-rated horror movie—particularly when that movie is also a Depression-era period drama with an almost entirely Black cast. Michael B. Jordan plays a dual role as Smoke and Stack Moore, returning to rural Mississippi after having made names for themselves in Chicago. They intend to open a juke joint with some help from their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), an up-and-coming blues singer whose music has the power to bust down barriers, between the local Black and immigrant communities, and between our world and a darker one. Beautifully unclassifiable, and an increasingly rare example of a major studio movie with an original concept—it's already one of the year's best. Stream Sinners.
Mickey 17 (2025)
The latest from Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer), Mickey 17 didn't do terribly well at the box office, but that's not entirely the movie's fault. It's a broad but clever and timely satire starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a well-meaning dimwit who signs on with a spaceship crew on its way to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Because of his general lack of skills, he's deemed an Expendable—his memories and DNA are kept on file so that when he, inevitably, dies (often in horrific ways), he'll be reprinted and restored to live and work and die again. Things get complicated when a new Mickey is accidentally printed before the old one has died—a huge taboo among religious types who can handle one body/one soul, but panic at the implications of two identical people walking around. It's also confusing, and eventually intriguing, for Mickey's girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Soon, both Mickey's are on the run from pretty much everyone, including the new colony's MAGA-esque leader (Mark Ruffalo). Stream Mickey 17.
Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)
Are we a little exhausted with all the nostalgic legacy sequels? We are. Does that mean there aren't some pretty damn good examples of the form floating around out there? It does not. Bloodlines picks up the franchise last seen in 2009 with an appropriately lean, mean, and bloody sequel that doesn't reinvent the Final Destination wheel, but that does everything these movies are supposed to do, and better than most. The opening sequence alone, set in 1969 at a high-rise restaurant tower, is a series best, rivaling even the log truck of part two for white-knuckle ingenuity. The movie also bids a lovely, spooky farewell to William Bludworth, played for the last time by the late, great Tony Todd. Stream Final Destination Bloodlines.
Pee-Wee as Himself (2025)
Paul Reubens participated in dozens of hours worth of interviews for this two-part documentary, directed by filmmaker Matt Worth, but from the opening moments, the erstwhile Pee-Wee Herman makes clear that he is struggling with the notion of giving up control of his life story to someone else. That's a through line in the film and, as we learn, in the performer's life, as he spent decades struggling with his public profile while maintaining intense privacy in his personal life. Reubens' posthumous coming out as gay is the headline story, but the whole thing provides a fascinating look at an artist who it seems we barely knew. You can stream Pee-Wee as Himself here.
The Legend of Ochi (2025)
In an age of encroaching AI, it's always encouraging to find that there are filmmakers still doing things the old-fashioned way—even more so with Ochi, which mostly forgoes even CGI in favor of actual puppetry and animatronics for anything other than wide shots. There's nothing inherently wrong with digital imagery, but our brains still kinda know when something has weight and presence in the real world, and the work that went into this fantasy pays off beautifully. Helena Zengel plays Yuri, a young girl growing up on the remote island of Carpathia. Her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe) leads teams of (mostly) boy soldiers to hunt the island's wild Ochi—vaguely simian creatures that they've been trained to fear. Yuri discovers an injured infant Ochi and, rather than kill or capture it, she sets out to return it to its family. A rare family film from A24. Stream The Legend of Ochi.
The Brutalist (2024)
Brady Corbet's epic period drama, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and won Adrian Brody his second Academy Award for Best Actor, follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States following the war. His course as a refugee follows highs and devastating lows—he's barely able to find work at first, despite his past as an accomplished Bauhaus-trained architect in Europe. A wealthy benefactor (Guy Pearce) seems like a godsend when he offers László a high-profile project, but discovers the limitations of his talent in the face of American-style antisemitism and boorishness. Stream The Brutalist.
Babygirl (2024)
Nicole Kidman stars in this modern erotic thriller as CEO Romy Mathis, who begins a dangerous (i.e. naughty) affair with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). After an opening scene involving some deeply unfulfilling lovemaking with her husband (we'll have to suspend disbelief on the topic of Antonio Banderas as a schlubby, sexually disappointing husband), Romy runs into Samuel (Dickinson), who saves her from a runaway dog before taking her on as his mentor at work. She teaches him about process automatio
from News https://ift.tt/0WxySf8
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment