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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+.
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
Joel and Ethan Coen won their first Oscars for best picture and best director (and their second for best screenplay) for this gripping, moody, and darkly funny adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel. Telling the stories of a ruthless killer (Javier Bardem, who took home an Oscar for best supporting actor), a morally flexible rancher (Josh Brolin) and a small-town sheriff whose paths cross when a border drug deal goes south, the Coens construct a Western contemporary in both its setting and style, setting the table for the standard standoffs and shootouts, then turning those expectations inside out. The result is a picture with genre trappings, but more on its mind than gunplay and drug money. Our critic called it “pure heaven.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Nosferatu’ (2024)
The writer and director Robert Eggers (“The Witch”) crafted his most ambitious effort to date with this remake of the influential 1922 horror classic, itself an unauthorized adaptation of “Dracula.” It’s a haunted, sweaty nightmare of a movie in which Eggers uses the cast iron pot of the original to cook up a hearty Transylvania stew, cheerfully intermingling ingredients from not only the previous adaptations but several official Draculas. Of particular note is the stylized and scary work by Bill Skarsgard in the title role, and the haunted, intense performance of Lily-Rose Depp as the object of his bloodthirsty desire. (Werner Herzog’s 1979 take on “Nosferatu” is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Red Rocket’ (2021)
Sean Baker is no stranger to matter-of-fact, explicit material, as evidenced by his new film, the Palme d’Or and Oscar winner “Anora,” and his previous feature, this razor-sharp, Texas-set comedy. The former MTV personality Simon Rex stars as Mikey, a grinning ne’er-do-well who returns to his hometown Texas City, Tex., where his estranged wife greets him with something less than open arms. Mikey spent the last several years as an adult film star, and if you think he’s come home to reform himself, well, you haven’t seen many Sean Baker movies. The director’s sprung comic rhythms are a treat, his filmmaking is energetic, and in Rex, he finds an unlikely vessel for a character that’s both loathsome and oddly empathetic. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ (2014)
Plenty of authors and filmmakers have explored the day-to-day logistics of living one’s life as a vampire, but perhaps only Jim Jarmusch could’ve looked at the undead and marveled at how much more time they’d have to read great books, watch wonderful movies and listen to cool albums. There is, to be clear, an actual plot in “Only Lovers,” in which the chic bloodsuckers Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston find their elegant existence erupted by her wild-child sister (a potent Mia Wasikowska). But it’s mostly a breezy hangout movie that also spills gallons of blood. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘September 5’ (2024)
The tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics — in which armed members of the militant Palestinian group Black September took several members of the Israeli delegation hostage — is mesmerizingly dramatized in this tightly-wound drama from the director Tim Fehlbaum. The approach is unconventional and unexpected: rather than focusing on the perpetrators or their victims, “September 5” sees the standoff through the eyes of the ABC Sports television crew, which was on the ground to cover the Olympics, only to find themselves in over their heads with a “real” news story. Our critic called it “a tense ethical showdown with the racing pulse of a thriller.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Mystic Pizza’ (1988)
Three young women contemplate the lives ahead of them — and away from the pizzeria where they work and hang out — in this charming romantic comedy-drama. The wise and witty script (whose authors include the groundbreaking filmmaker Amy Holden Jones and the playwright Alfred Uhry) is a real gem, but the key to the film’s success may well have been the director Donald Petrie’s keen eye for young talent: The film features, in early and important roles, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Annabeth Gish, Vincent D’Onofrio, and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it debut appearance by Matt Damon. (1980s rom-com fans will also enjoy “Baby Boom.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Licorice Pizza’ (2021)
The writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson picked up nominations for best director, best original screenplay and best picture for this richly textured, quietly bittersweet and frequently funny story of growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s. The actor Cooper Hoffman is charismatic and charming as a young would-be entrepreneur; the musician Alana Haim, in a star-making performance of astonishing depth, is the perpetually out-of-reach object of his affections. It’s the kind of movie that sneaks up on you with its warmth and insight. Our critic called it “a shaggy, fitfully brilliant romp.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Mad Max’ (1980)
Before the massive production of “Fury Road,” or even the rough-and-tumble “The Road Warrior,” the Australian director George Miller introduced the action legend “Mad” Max Rockatansky in this lean, mean slab of “Oz-ploitation” filmmaking. And he introduced a little-known Aussie actor named Mel Gibson in the title role, a police officer in a crumbling society who becomes a bloodthirsty vigilante after a criminal gang attacks his wife and child. A first-time director, Miller was working with a tiny budget and limited resources. But his talent for genre filmmaking was already evident; the metal-crunching car chases are staged with jittery ingenuity, while the emotional beats are brutally effective. (If you like revenge movies, try “Rolling Thunder.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Nixon’ (1995)
Oliver Stone’s “furiously ambitious” biopic views the peculiar life of President Richard Milhous Nixon through a Shakespearean prism, telling the story of a man who strove for greatness, but could not ultimately overcome his own pettiness and insecurity. The actor Anthony Hopkins is a peculiar casting decision on the surface, but he quickly overcomes any concerns, psychologically immersing himself in the role with a feverish intensity. Stone’s shuffled-up chronology — which owes no small debt to “Citizen Kane” — further complicates this compelling portrait of an American enigma. (If you like knotty biopics, try “Patton.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘A Simple Favor’ (2018)
Paul Feig made his name directing such movies as “Bridesmaids” and “Spy,” uproarious comic gems that provided career-best showcases for their stars. He shines a similarly flattering spotlight on Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively here, though with a surprising genre shift, eschewing the broad comedy of his earlier work for this stylish neo-noir thriller. Kendrick is a typical suburban mom who finds herself dazzled by (and quietly attracted to) Lively’s sophisticated outlier; their children are schoolmates, but they may as well be from different planets. The twists and turns of Jessica Sharzer’s screenplay (from the Darcey Bell novel) are compelling, but Kendrick and Lively’s swoony relationship, and its spiky playfulness, are what make “A Simple Favor” sing. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ (2005)
Steve Carell’s wide-eyed lead performance as Andy in this hit romantic comedy made him a star; it also turned the writer-director Judd Apatow from a TV talent to a moviemaking machine. Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, Kat Dennings and Jonah Hill all turn up in early roles, but the film’s tone is its masterstroke: Apatow somehow manages to find a balance that indulges the ribald possibilities of the premise with the sweet romance at the story’s center. Catherine Keener is tender and terrific as the object of Andy’s affection, while Leslie Mann puts in a memorable appearance as one of his first terrible dates. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Nickel Boys’ (2024)
The documentarian RaMell Ross (“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”) makes his narrative feature debut with this heart-wrenching, lyrical adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead. Ross’s direction is thrillingly unconventional, with delicate camerawork that tells the story through the eyes of his protagonist, a promising young man who is unjustly placed in a reform school. Ross’s storytelling style is elliptical but efficient; the narrative spans decades, yet he just grabs an image or an impression, capturing the way we think back on a second of a memory, until that second becomes that memory. Even standard narrative events feel fresh, thanks to each scene’s sense of being overheard, glimpsed in the periphery, without ever softening what we see and hear. Our critic called it “a stunning achievement.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Night Comes On’ (2018)
This Sundance sensation is a heart-wrenching story of grief, pain, regret and struggle. The director and co-writer Jordana Spiro tells the story of Angel (Dominique Fishback, of “The Deuce” and “Judas and the Black Messiah”), released from jail on the eve of her 18th birthday and torn between getting her life together and finishing the crime that put her there. Spiro adopts a no-nonsense approach, digging into the nuts and bolts of the probationary process and the various ways in which the deck is already stacked against her protagonist. Fishback takes a similar tack, eschewing showy moments for a lived-in authenticity. It’s an unforgettable performance in a quietly powerful movie. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘In the Land of Saints and Sinners’ (2024)
This dramatic thriller from the director Robert Lorenz is the best Liam Neeson vehicle in years, deftly merging the current, action-heavy thread of his career with his earlier, heftier work. Neeson stars as Finbar Murphy, a contract killer whose plans to hang up his gun are waylaid by a nasty bit of business with an I.R.A. faction. Neeson is excellent, finding the character’s modest moments of melancholy, and Lorenz surrounds him with stellar Irish character actors like Colm Meaney and Ciarán Hinds. But the showcase turn here comes from Kerry Condon (an Oscar nominee for “The Banshees of Inisherin”), who is utterly ferocious as Neeson’s primary antagonist. (“Ronin” is a similarly gripping combination of action movie and political thriller.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Fire Inside’ (2024)
This based-on-a-true-story boxing drama from the cinematographer-turned-director Rachel Morrison and the screenwriter Barry Jenkins hits all of the expected sports movie beats (the humble beginnings, the rising stakes, the training montage, the darkness before the dawn, the big win) with energy and enthusiasm. What makes this one special is how it looks past the happily-ever-after endings of the genre, exploring the wide gulf between the excellence of an athlete and the business of sports. The performances are masterful, particularly from Ryan Destiny as 17-year-old gold medal winner Claressa Shields and Brian Tyree Henry as Jason Crutchfield, the coach who became something of a surrogate father. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Escape From New York’ (1981)
This sci-fi-action thriller from the director John Carpenter imagines the distant future, 1997, in which the island of Manhattan has become a giant, chaotic, maximum-security prison. A grizzled Kurt Russell stars as Snake Plissken, a bank robber attempting to rescue the kidnapped president of the United States from the island. Carpenter manically orchestrates Plissken’s mission as a darkly funny free-for-all, loaded with slam-bang set pieces and memorable supporting turns by a rogues’ gallery of character actors. Our critic called it “by far Mr. Carpenter’s most ambitious, most riveting film to date.” (If you love action and sci-fi, try “Robocop.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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. (Cleese and Palin’s “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘A Most Violent Year’ (2014)
The writer and director J.C. Chandor sought to replicate the style and feel of Sidney Lumet’s New York movies — even down to casting Oscar Isaac, a latter-day Al Pacino, in the leading role — with this sharp crime drama. Isaac stars as the owner of a heating oil company battling truck hijackers, Teamsters, a particularly curious assistant district attorney (David Oyelowo) and a wife with Lady Macbeth inclinations (Jessica Chastain). Chandor gets the look of early-1980s Gotham right, but this isn’t just “Joker”-style cosplay. “A Most Violent Year” reaches for the moral ambiguity of the films it is aping, using its period settings and costumes as support, rather than substitution, for the complex characters within them. Our critic called it a “pulpy, meaty, altogether terrific” film. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Saint Maud’ (2021)
This feature debut from the director Rose Glass is the kind of piercing examination of faith in a cynical world that we’ve come to expect from the likes of Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese. Morfydd Clark is stunning in the title role as a nurse who believes she is a vessel of God, and must personally save the soul of her dying patient (a prickly, terrific Jennifer Ehle) — whether her patient likes it or not. It’s the kind of film that burrows under your skin and settles there, and its shocking conclusion does not take any easy exits. Our critic praised the picture’s “dark, spoiled beauty” and “mesmerizing” lead actor. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Conversation’ (1974)
Between the first two “Godfather” epics, Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed this modest character study, in which the proudly impersonal surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), becomes unexpectedly invested in the subjects of his work and then decides he must step in to save their lives. Like its protagonist, “The Conversation” is most riveting in its quietest moments, though its bold opening sequence — in which Caul attempts to eavesdrop on a whispered conversation in a crowded park — is both brilliant filmmaking and a riveting snapshot of the Watergate era. Our critic praised Hackman’s “superb performance.” (Hackman is also excellent in “No Way Out”; Fans of vintage thrillers will also enjoy “Dressed to Kill” and “Play Misty for Me.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.” (“Till” is another excellent docudrama account of the era.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.” (For more coming-of-age comedy-drama, try “Party Girl” or “Cooley High.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Something Wild’ (1986)
This thrillingly unpredictable romantic comedy and 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 it into something much darker and more dangerous. Throughout, Demme keeps the focus on his colorful characters and sharp dialogue. (If you like quirky comedies, try “Prizzi’s Honor.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967)
This blistering entertainment won the Oscar for best picture over such stiff competition as “The Graduate” and “Bonnie and Clyde.” It might not have been as formally groundbreaking as those films, but it was just as much of its era, a murder mystery and police procedural that was deeply entrenched in the civil rights struggle of the time. Sidney Poitier is magnificent as a Northern police detective who is caught up in a crime when passing through a small Southern town; Rod Steiger is well-matched as the casually bigoted sheriff whose assumptions are quickly and frequently upended. Our critic called it “a film that has the look and sound of actuality and the pounding pulse of truth.” (For more ’60s drama, stream “The Miracle Worker” and “The Fugitive Kind.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.” (For more award-worthy drama, stream “A Family Thing” and “Conclave.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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 experience that captures the quality of a time and a place.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (1999)
John McTiernan’s remake of the Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway classic (also streaming on Prime) 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 the title character (an appropriately elegant Pierce Brosnan) 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. Enchanting, intoxicating fun. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005)
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway turn in career-high performances in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story of the same name about the romance between Ennis (Ledger) and Jack (Gyllenhaal), two rough-edged cowboys who meet in the summer of 1963. The men are required, by the times and the expectations of those around them, to hide their love. The Oscar-winning screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana renders their passion, longing and loneliness with clarity and sensitivity; our critic called it a “moving and majestic film.” (If you like indie dramas, try “Morvern Callar” or “The Bikeriders.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Apartment’ (1960)
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.” (Lemmon and Wilder’s “The Fortune Cookie” is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1960)
Six years after Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,” John Sturges produced and directed this remake, relocating Kurosawa’s epic from feudal Japan to the American West. But the bones of the story remain the same: a village is terrorized by outside forces, and hires a small band of outlaws to help them fight back. Sturges’s marvelous ensemble cast includes some of the toughest guys in the movies — including Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Eli Wallach — along with Yul Brynner, elegant yet credible, as the leader of the guns-for-hire. Elmer Bernstein contributes the iconic score. (The Denzel Washington-fronted 2016 remake is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘25th Hour’ (2002)
Spike Lee was developing his adaptation of the New York City-set novel by David Benioff when the tragedy of 9/11 upended the world’s perception of his beloved hometown. Rather than ignore those events, Lee reworked his film, weaving that fateful day into the fabric of the story of Monty Brogan (Norton), a white-collar drug dealer whom we meet on the last day before he is to report for a seven-year incarceration. Lee didn’t just capture the way New York looked in those uncertain, shellshocked months. His film captured how the city felt, the strange quiet that fell over the streets, the overwhelming melancholy that embedded itself in our collective DNA. The result is perhaps the best film to date about September 11th. (Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” and “Chi-Raq” are also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Long Goodbye’ (1973)
Robert Altman adapted Raymond Chandler’s late-period Philip Marlowe novel as only he could: idiosyncratically, by updating the hard-boiled story’s setting to the feel-good California of the 1970s and casting one of the era’s most of-his-time actors, Elliot Gould, in the role made famous by Humphrey Bogart. Purists resisted, and some critics scratched their heads. But Gould is brilliant, Altman’s direction is brash and confident, and this “tough, funny, hugely entertaining movie” homes in on the character’s essential, outsider nature, while ingeniously rethinking the conventions of the genre. (Mystery lovers can also stream “Cutter’s Way” and “Knives Out” on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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.” (For more classic drama, stream “Bicycle Thieves.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
’12 Angry Men’ (1957)
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 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. (The 1997 remake is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’ (1974)
One of the greatest of all “gritty Gotham” tales — our critic called it “a movie that really catches the mood of New York and New Yorkers” — this darkly funny, white-knuckle thriller from the director Joseph Sargent concerns four armed men who take a subway car hostage, demanding a million-dollar ransom for the lives of the passengers aboard. Robert Shaw is coolly ruthless as the leader of the gang while Walter Matthau is at his hangdog best as the cynical transit cop hot on their trail. (For more vintage action, try “Assault on Precinct 13” or “The Killing.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Duck Soup’ (1933)
The wild and woolly Marx Brothers teamed with the ace comedy director Leo McCarey (“The Awful Truth,” “Love Affair”) for this delightfully anarchic mixture of knockabout farce and political satire. Groucho Marx stars as Rufus T. Firefly, who takes over the fictional country of Freedonia in a back room deal and drives it right into the ground — and into war, with the help of two wildly incompetent spies (brothers Chico and Harpo). Never mind the plot; it’s just a clothesline to hang a series of classic comic set pieces, including a hilarious confrontation at a peanut stand, the uproariously funny war climax and, most memorably, Groucho and Harpo’s beloved “mirror sequence.” (For more classic comedy, stream “Ball of Fire” or “Harvey.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Gladiator’ (2000)
Winner of Academy Awards for best picture and best actor (Russell Crowe), Ridley Scott’s action extravaganza from 2000 brought back the sword-and-sandal epic, one of the standbys of late ’50s and early ’60s cinema (particularly out of Italy), but with a modern sensibility and a comparatively gargantuan budget. Crowe stars as Maximus, a Roman general betrayed and enslaved by the evil Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who returns to prominence as an unstoppable gladiator to exact his revenge. This is Crowe at his best, combining brute physicality and intense emotion, and Phoenix is an appropriately vile villain. (The earlier best picture winner “The Best Years of Our Lives” is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959)
Two jazz musicians (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis) disguise themselves in drag to escape some gangsters, but one of them falls for a seductive singer (Marilyn Monroe, in one of her best performances), while the other becomes the object of a millionaire’s desire. Both uproariously funny and tight as a drum, “Some Like It Hot” works through every complication of its farcical setup, landing not only on a picture-perfect conclusion but also on one of the best closing lines in all of cinema. Our critic called it “a rare, rib-tickling lampoon.” (Wilder and Monroe’s earlier collaboration “The Seven Year Itch” is also on Prime, as is Lemmon’s later “Glengarry Glen Ross.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘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 Fredric 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. (The 1999 version of “Inherit the Wind” is also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998)
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 more contemporary, less romanticized view of the horrors of combat. The latter are fully on display in the virtuosic, nearly dialogue-free, over 20-minute recreation of the Omaha Beach landing at the start of the film, 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 similarly well-made war movies “Paths of Glory” and “A Bridge Too Far” are also on Prime.) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Night of the Hunter’ (1955)
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.” Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ (1968)
The first two collaborations between Clint Eastwood and director Sergio Leone, “A Fistful of Dollars” and “For a Few Dollars More” (also each on Prime) did nothing less than reinvent 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.” (Western fans will also love “Red River.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ (1966)
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 one of his final feature film roles. (Musical comedy fans will also enjoy “Fiddler on the Roof.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Across 110th Street’ (1972)
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 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. (If you love crime movies, try “The Usual Suspects” or “King of New York.”) Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
‘Rocky’ (1976)
A struggling young actor named Sylvester Stallone became a worldwide superstar when he wrote himself the plum role of a C-list boxer who gets a shot at the championship. And it’s a star-making performance, with a vulnerability that the actor shed far too quickly. (This work is closer to Brando than Rambo.) John G. Avildsen directs in a modest, unaffected style that underlines the palooka’s solitude. The supporting cast is stunning, particularly Talia Shire, heartbreaking as the painfully shy object of Rocky’s affection. Read our review. Watch it on Amazon.
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