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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.
Here are our lists of the best TV shows and movies on Netflix, and the best of both on Hulu and Disney+.
‘Past Lives’ (2023)
The playwright Celine Song makes her feature filmmaking debut with this astonishing story of love, loss and the passage of time. An Oscar-nominated Greta Lee is resplendent as Nora, whose family moves from Korea to the United States when she’s a child, leaving behind her best friend Hae Sung. Years later, she and Hae Sung (played as an adult by Teo Yoo) reconnect virtually, raising the specter of an adult relationship; years after that, they meet again in person, and ponder what could have been, a trickier proposition now that Nora is married to Arthur (John Magaro). Song’s writing is keenly observed, displaying a deft understanding of the what-if questions that can keep us up at night. (If you like indie dramas, try “Morvern Callar.”)
‘A Single Man’ (2009)
The designer Tom Ford made his feature directorial debut with this moving, melancholy (and, unsurprisingly, aesthetically stunning) adaptation of the novel by Christopher Isherwood. An Oscar-nominated Colin Firth stars as George, a college professor in Los Angeles in the 1960s who is a “bachelor,” as gay men were so often euphemistically known. Accompanying George through the anniversary of his boyfriend’s death, Ford burrows deep into the tortured psyche of his protagonist. Firth is up to the challenge, playing the role with what our critic called “a magnificent depth of feeling.” (For more award-worthy drama, stream “The Immigrant” and “The Claim.”)
‘Legally Blonde’ (2001)
When this Reese Witherspoon vehicle hit theaters, a fair number of critics dismissed it as lightweight, disposable fluff — a reaction strangely appropriate to this story of a young woman whose peers underestimate her based on looks and first impressions. But just as Elle Woods thrived, against all odds, at Harvard Law School, this summer comedy has become a cultural touchstone thanks to its quotable dialogue, modulated lead performance and timeless message about self-determination in the face of adversity. (For more summer comedy, stream “Bottoms.”)
‘Snack Shack’ (2024)
Adam Rehmeier’s coming-of-age story is set in the summer of 1991, and initially seems not only about that era, but of it, replicating the look and sound of teen sex comedies. (You can’t get more ’90s than a montage set to EMF’s “Unbelievable.”) But that’s a bit of a head fake; this is a movie with more on its mind. A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) are a pair of young entrepreneurs who see a moneymaking opportunity in the concession stand at the local public pool. As often happens in these tales, a girl threatens to come between them, but that’s where we diverge from the formula; as written by Rehmeier and played by Mika Abdalla, the “cool girl” Brooke has the complexity and agency of a contemporary heroine, allowing Rehmeier to navigate a third-act flip into serious waters with grace and dexterity.
‘A Hijacking’ (2013)
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. “A Hijacking” focuses on the logistics of the hostage situations and the formalities of negotiation, while never letting the psychological intensity go slack. (“Captain Phillips” and “A Quiet Place: Day One” are similarly tense dramas.)
‘Mississippi Burning’ (1988)
This procedural drama inspired by the 1964 murders of the civil-rights workers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner netted several Oscar nominations, including a best actor nod for Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand’s first nomination (for best supporting actress), and a best director nomination for Alan Parker. The filmmaker nails the insidiousness of racism (and the violence it engenders), Hackman and McDormand are beautifully understated, and Willem Dafoe finds just the rote note for his no-nonsense F.B.I. newbie. Our critic called it “first-rate.” (Hackman is also excellent in “Get Shorty” and “Cisco Pike.”)
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ (2024)
The current media ecosystem isn’t conducive to cult movies anymore, but occasionally one breaks through, an out-of-nowhere slice of outsider cinema that astounds and baffles viewers in equal measure. That’s the case with this refreshingly unconventional frontier comedy from the director Mike Cheslik, a black-and-white, dialogue-free romp filled with surrealist slapstick and actors in oversized animal costumes. Ryland Brickson Cole Tews stars as a fumbling fur trapper who must catch and kill the beavers to win the hand of his lady love, but that’s just a clothesline on which to hang a seemingly inexhaustible supply of clever comic bits. Its low-budget chintziness becomes its charm, with Cheslik drawing inspiration from everything, whether it’s Chaplin or Nintendo. It’s just the darnedest thing — and that’s a compliment.
‘Challengers’ (2024)
The first of the director Luca Guadagnino’s two 2024 releases is this “fizzy, lightly sexy, enjoyable tease of a movie,” detailing every ill-advised kiss and every strategic volley of a love triangle in the world of professional tennis. Zendaya is Tashi, a rising star who becomes the simultaneous object of desire for best friends and fellow tennis prodigies Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) — though desire is a messy emotion, easily diverted and manipulated. Guadagnino shoots the tennis matches with thrilling, electric style, but the real fireworks happen off the court.
‘My Old Ass’ (2024)
It sounds like the plot of a high-concept ’80s comedy: The teenage Elliot (the charismatic Maisy Stella), while tripping on mushrooms, meets the 39-year-old version of herself (a delightfully dry Aubrey Plaza). But wacky high jinks do not ensue; the writer and director Megan Park instead uses this premise to craft a firmly grounded serio-comic drama about life, love and regret. Her smart script has a great ear for dialogue (she’s particularly adept at understanding how young adults who are ready to take on the world talk) and a keen understanding of young love, and the closing passages are tender and touching. And then it’s wildly funny, on top of all of that. Our critic called it “a buoyant comedy with a big heart.”
‘Compliance’ (2012)
This Sundance sensation from the writer and director Craig Zobel tells a story so unbelievable, it had to be true: a man calls a fast-food restaurant, claiming to be a police officer, and instructs the manager to interrogate an employee on suspicion of theft. With the caller’s explicit instructions, the manager proceeds to humiliate and assault the young woman. Zobel crafts his film as both a morality play and a steadily tightening noose, its escalating discomfort complemented by the credible performances of Ann Dowd as the manager, Dreama Walker as the victim and Pat Healy as the caller.
‘West Side Story’ (1961)
This ingenious musical adaptation of “Romeo and Juliet,” which updated its setting and story to the streets and gangs of New York, remains one of the towering achievements of the Broadway stage. So it’s no surprise that it spawned one of the great movie musicals. The original stage director and choreographer Jerome Robbins and the filmmaker Robert Wise shared directorial duties, thrillingly placing the show’s songs and dances on the streets of New York City while using the proximity and intimacy of the camera to render the longing and loss of the story even more poignant. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer perform admirably in the leads, but Rita Moreno and George Chakiris steal the show — and won Oscars for their efforts, two of the film’s astonishing 10-statue haul, which included prizes for best picture and best director. (For more Oscar winners on Prime, stream “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Dances with Wolves.”)Watch it on Amazon
‘The Bouncer’ (2019)
It was very easy, for quite some time, to dismiss Jean-Claude Van Damme as just another blank-slate action star. But something truly fascinating has happened as he’s grown older — in his best roles, he’s playing his age rather than ignoring it. He no longer seems like a guy who can win every fight, so his fights are far more interesting. His face, like Clint Eastwood’s, has grown richer as its lines grow deeper and harder, and like Eastwood, he does his best acting when he seems to be doing nothing at all. This rough-and-tumble crime thriller from the gifted action director Julien Leclercq (“Sentinelle”) gives Van Damme plenty of character moments — it’s quieter and moodier than your typical bone-cruncher — but when the action beats arrive, they’re lean, mean and effective.
‘Submarine’ (2011)
The British comic actor Richard Ayoade (“The IT Crowd”) made his feature directorial debut with this clever, witty and ultimately tender coming-of-age story. Adapting the novel by Joe Dunthorne, Ayoade introduces us to Oliver (Craig Roberts), a 15-year-old Welsh schoolboy, as he navigates his first love and a schism in his parents’ marriage. Critics compared Ayoade’s style to Wes Anderson (not always favorably), but the influences and ideas run deeper than such simple homage, and the director proves himself an adroit chronicler of a certain kind of outcast.
‘Bridesmaids’ (2011)
Kristen Wiig stars in and writes (with her frequent collaborator Annie Mumolo) this comedy smash from the director Paul Feig. Wiig is Annie, an aimless baker whose lifelong pal Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting hitched and asks Annie to serve as maid of honor. This duty sets off an uproarious series of broad comic set pieces and thoughtful introspection; both the comedy and drama are played to the hilt by an ensemble that includes Rose Byrne, Jon Hamm, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Chris O’Dowd and an Oscar-nominated Melissa McCarthy. (For more wild comedy, stream “MacGruber” or “Horrible Bosses.”)
‘Platoon’ (1986)
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. Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger are his sergeants, one free-spirited and open, the other hard-edged and cruel. Our critic called it a “vivid, terse, exceptionally moving” film. (The similarly stirring war movie “The Thin Red Line” is also on Prime.)
‘House of Games’ (1987)
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 “State and Main” and “The Spanish Prisoner” are also on Prime.)
‘To Leslie’ (2022)
Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for the Academy Award for best actress was a shock to the Hollywood establishment — except for those who’d seen the chameleonic actress’s breathtaking turn in this low-budget indie drama from the director Michael Morris. She stars as a single mother in Texas whose life-changing lottery win ultimately does more harm than good; after a brief and triumphant prologue, we catch up with Leslie six years later, when her alcoholism and irresponsibility have left her with none of her winnings, nor much of anything else. Riseborough adroitly captures the contradictions and complications of this prickly character, granting her a warm humanity without sanding down her rough edges; Marc Maron lends fine support as the kind motel owner who tries to lend her a helping hand.
‘A Fish Called Wanda’ (1988)
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. (If you like dark comedy, try “Tin Men.”)
‘Leaving Las Vegas’ (1995)
Nicolas Cage won — and earned — the Academy Award for best actor for his wrenching portrayal of a failed screenwriter who goes to Sin City to drink himself to death. Elisabeth Shue was nominated for an Oscar for her turn as a prostitute who falls into something like love with the suicidal writer, and it speaks to the richness of their performances and the texture of Mike Figgis’s direction that such a melodramatic narrative, populated by well-worn stock characters, has such emotional immediacy. Our critic called this moving indie drama “passionate and furiously alive.”
‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969)
The director John Schlesinger captures the sights and sounds of Times Square in the late 1960s with this absorbing winner of the Oscar for best picture — the first and only X-rated movie to capture that prize. Jon Voight was propelled to stardom by his charming performance as Joe Buck, a naïve Texan who comes to New York City with visions of rich women in his head; Dustin Hoffman created another memorable character as the street-wise guy who shows him the ropes. (“I’m walkin’ here!”) Our critic called it “a moving experiencethat captures the quality of a time and a place.” (“The Panic in Needle Park” is a similarly visceral portrait of New York’s seamiest era.)
‘Moonstruck’ (1987)
Norman Jewison helms this seductive blend of cynicism and schmaltz from the screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, in which several seemingly hardened New Yorkers discover they’re hopeless romantics. Cher has never been more glorious as the widow Loretta, especially when she reacts to Nicolas Cage’s morning-after declaration of love with “Snap out of it!” and a sharp slap in the face. Olympia Dukakis is frisky and funny as Loretta’s world-weary mother, who turns out to have man troubles of her own; both women won Oscars for their work in this joyous, swoony treat.
‘The Birdcage’ (1996)
Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are warm, winning and hilarious in this clever riff on the classic French comedy “La Cage aux Folles.” The screenwriter Elaine May and the director Mike Nichols smoothly reconfigure the material for the Clinton-era culture wars – our critic praised its “giddy ingenuity”— with Williams and Lane convincingly comfortable as a longtime gay couple who attempt to hide their sexuality for the strait-laced conservative parents (Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest) of their son’s fiancée. It’s the kind of farce in which each half-truth and outright deception leads to another, creating a house of cards that grows funnier and more precarious the higher it climbs.
‘Capote’ (2005)
In 1959, the novelist and bon vivant Truman Capote traveled to Kansas to write about the shocking, unprovoked murder of the Clutter family. The resulting book, “In Cold Blood,” changed the author forever, according to this biographical snapshot by the director Bennett Miller, which argues that Capote’s interactions with (and betrayal of) the killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith haunted him for the rest of his life. Philip Seymour Hoffman won a much-deserved Oscar for his stunning work in the title role, and much as his performance eschews impersonation in favor of psychological truth, “Capote” jettisons the clichés of the cradle-to-grave biopic, focusing instead on this key moment in the writer’s life and career and then zooming in.
‘Fast Color’ (2019)
Most superhero movies clobber the viewer with special effects; Julia Hart’s indie drama is barely a superhero movie at all, but a rich, tender character study of three women who just so happen to move objects with their minds. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is remarkable as Ruth, who has smothered her “abilities” in addiction and irresponsibility, returning home to join her mother (Lorraine Toussaint) and daughter (Saniyya Sidney) in an attempt to, well, save the world. Hart’s rich screenplay (written with Jordan Horowitz) vibrates with authenticity and hard-earned emotion; our critic called it “a small, intimate story that hints at much bigger things.”
‘American Psycho’ (2000)
The director Mary Harron and her fellow screenwriter Guinevere Turner transformed Bret Easton Ellis’s gory, divisive 1991 novel into a ruthless satire of the yuppie ethos, with Christian Bale in frighteningly good form as a Wall Street climber who moonlights as a serial killer. But Harron spends less time fetishizing his kills than his status symbols — business cards, skin-care products, compact discs. Watching the result, our critic wrote, “is like witnessing a bravura sleight-of-hand feat.” Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe and Chloë Sevigny co-star.
‘Mickey One’ (1965)
Before they reunited to shake up the entire art of cinema with “Bonnie and Clyde,” the director Arthur Penn and the actor Warren Beatty teamed up for this wildly, delightfully experimental drama. Beatty, already futzing with his persona just four years after debuting in “Splendor in the Grass,” stars as a nightclub comic who goes underground when he finds himself targeted by the Detroit mob, fleeing to Chicago and trying to make a new start. That would make for a fairly standard neo-noir, but Penn’s cockeyed vision folds in art film existentialism, surrealist gags and winking metatextual commentary, resulting in a crime film unlike any other.
‘Heat’ (1995)
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had never shared the screen before the writer and director Michael Mann put them on opposite sides of the law in this moody, thrilling cops-and-robbers story from 1995 (they appeared in separate sequences of “The Godfather Part II”). And Mann gives that match-up the proper weight: By the time it arrives halfway into this expansive, three-hour movie, we’re expecting fireworks, and we get them. But the best surprise is that there’s so much more to “Heat” than The Big Scene — it features a cool-as-a-cucumber heist, a heart-stopping shootout on the streets of Los Angeles, multiple meditations on the nature of obsession, stylish cinematography, and a jaw-dropping deep bench of supporting players. That scene, though. It’s really something. (Action thriller fans should also try “Romeo Is Bleeding,” “Deep Cover” and “52 Pick-Up.”)
‘Modern Times’ (1936)
Charles Chaplin made this, his final silent feature, nearly a decade after the talking picture “The Jazz Singer” turned the movie business upside down. The great director-star’s argued that there were some stories that were simply better told, more effective and affecting, in pantomime; this deft mixture of slapstick and social commentary makes that case beautifully. Chaplin plays a factory worker whose resistance to the mechanical age makes him unemployed and desperate. The picture’s Great Depression setting makes it more than a mere comic folly, but a pointed examination of how society treats its haves and have-nots. Our critic wrote, upon its initial release, “Time has not changed his genius.” (Chaplin’s “City Lights” and “The Gold Rush” are also on Prime.)
‘Die Hard’ (1988)
This loose adaptation of the 1979 novel “Nothing Lasts Forever” was a game-changer for shoot-‘em-up cinema, shifting the paradigm for the action hero from the superhuman likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone to the vulnerable everyman — here brought to wisecracking life by Bruce Willis. It also created a new kind of action formula, prompting “Die Hard” riffs on a battleship (“Under Siege”), an airplane (“Passenger 57 “) and a bus (“Speed”), among others. But it retains its chokehold on pop culture not because of its influence, but its quality; this is a crackerjack thriller, cleverly constructed and directed with quicksilver intensity by the great John McTiernan. (For more classic action, stream “Foxy Brown” or “Coffy.”)
‘Unforgiven’ (1992)
Clint Eastwood began as a star of a television western and starred in (and often directed) some of the most memorable westerns of the 1970s and ’80s. His farewell to the genre had to be special — and it was. This Oscar winner for best picture is both an elegy to the form and a reckoning with it, as its characters (and its makers) wrestle with the implications of killing and dying. Eastwood’s brutal but lyrical direction nabbed him an Oscar for best director, while Gene Hackman picked up a best supporting actor statue for his unforgettable turn as the casually sadistic villain, the standout in a cast that also includes Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris and Eastwood. Over two decades later, “Unforgiven” stands with “The Searchers,” “Red River” and “Stagecoach” among the finest of all screen westerns. (Eastwood’s “American Sniper” is also on Prime; western fans will also enjoy “Red River.”)
‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’ (2007)
The director Sidney Lumet capped off a 50-year filmmaking career with this 2007 caper drama, released four years before his death. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are beautifully matched as ill-tempered brothers, both in desperate need of cash, who attempt to stage a robbery of their family jewelry store — a bad idea even if executed perfectly, which it is not. Albert Finney is staggeringly good as their perpetually disappointed father, while Marisa Tomei finds the right, difficult notes for her work as Hoffman’s wife (and Hawke’s girlfriend). It’s a tough and uncompromising swan song from a true modern master.(If you love crime thrillers, check out “The Last Seduction” and “King of New York.”)
‘Haywire’ (2012)
Steven Soderbergh isn’t exactly the first person you’d think of to helm a globe-trotting action movie featuring a mixed martial arts champ, but he’s never really been one for easy categorization. That said, this is no typical action movie: He uses wide shots and long takes for his action sequences, forgoing the incoherent compositions and rapid-fire edits of too many bone-crunching blockbusters, to better showcase the skills and athleticism of the star Gina Carano. And the script by Lem Dobbs (who wrote Soderbergh’s “The Limey,” also on Prime) is a crisp, lean piece of work, in which a black-ops soldier (Carano) takes the fall for a mission that goes sideways, only to meticulously track down and take out the men who set her up.
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ (1946)
The director Frank Capra and the actor James 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 called it a “quaint and engaging modern parable.” (Classic movie lovers can also stream “Imitation of Life” on Prime.)
‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1935)
This Alfred Hitchcock hit — which he would later remake with James Stewart and Doris Day — features an irresistible setup (a dying man whispers a clue about his killer to a near-stranger, but she can’t act on the information or it will endanger her child), “fascinating staccato violence” and one of Hitchcock’s most memorable set pieces: an assassination attempt during a concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The early passages are playful and dapper, almost comic in tone, before Hitchcock gets around to some of our most primal fears: child peril, random violence, hypnosis, even dentistry. And it has a first-rate villain in the great Peter Lorre, a marvel of purring menace in his first English-speaking role. (Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” and “The Lady Vanishes” are also on Prime.)
‘Short Term 12’ (2013)
Set at a group home for troubled teens, this touching indie drama from Destin Daniel Cretton casts aside the after-school-special conventions typical of such stories and digs out the dramatic truths buried within. Cretton offsets the inherently downbeat subject matter with an exuberant directorial hand and coaxes gutsy performances from his ace cast, including “before they were stars” turns by Brie Larson, LaKeith Stanfield, Stephanie Beatriz and Rami Malek. Our critic noted, “Mr. Cretton manages to earn your tears honestly.” (For more character-driven drama, stream “The Eternal Daughter” or “The Bikeriders.”)
‘Fargo’ (1996)
Frances McDormand won her first Oscar for her unforgettable performance in this indie smash from Joel and Ethan Coen (“at their clever best,” per our critic). McDormand takes what could have been a caricature — Marge Gunderson, the very pregnant Minnesota police chief with a cheerful Midwestern disposition — and turns it into one of the warmest characters of the entire Coen canon: She deftly conveys not only Marge’s sense of “Minnesota nice,” but her sharp investigative skills and keen instincts for the nuances of human nature.
‘Scarface’ (1983)
When the combustible elements of the actor Al Pacino, the director Brian De Palma and the screenwriter Oliver Stone mixed at high velocity, explosions followed. Freely updating Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson’s 1932 bootleg-gangster classic to the coke-fueled era of early-’80s Miami, “Scarface” gives us some of Pacino’s most operatic overacting (and that’s saying something), De Palma’s wildest filmmaking (ditto), and Stone’s most memorable dialogue. (“Say hello to my little friend!”) Throw in Michelle Pfeiffer as the slinkiest mob moll since Virginia Mayo, and you’ve got a certified ’80s classic. (For a killer crime thriller double feature, try Abel Ferrara’s “King of New York.”)
‘Inherit the Wind’ (1960)
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 Frederic March and Spencer Tracy are in career-best form as the Bible-pounding orator and the 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. (For more ’60s drama, stream “The Miracle Worker” and “The Fugitive Kind.”)
‘In a Lonely Place’ (1950)
This hard-edge and harrowing drama from the director Nicholas Ray (“Rebel Without a Cause”) has elements of not only shadowy noir but movie-biz roman à clef, yet it ultimately takes on a much bigger subject: the recklessness, jealousy and distrust of a dysfunctional relationship. Humphrey Bogart turns in perhaps his finest screen performance, as the troubled and unstable Hollywood has-been, while Gloria Grahame is dizzyingly complex as the woman who could save him if she can survive him. Ray’s dark direction and the shockingly downbeat conclusion make for a rich and honest picture that still seems decades ahead of its time. (For more classic drama, stream “Brief Encounter” and “Bicycle Thieves.”)
The post The Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video Right Now appeared first on New York Times.
