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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+.
‘Milk’ (2008)
The life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to political office in California, is brought to vivid life in this masterful biopic from the director Gus Van Sant. Sean Penn picked up his second best-actor Oscar of the decade for his powerful title turn, which beautifully captures not only Milk’s compassion and drive but also his considerable warmth and humor; Josh Brolin was nominated for an Oscar for his complex work as Dan White, Milk’s former colleague on the San Francisco board of supervisors who murdered him in 1978. Dustin Lance Black’s Academy Award-winning screenplay pays tribute to Milk without turning him into a saint or martyr.
‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002)
One of 20th-century cinema’s oddest pairings — the “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia” auteur, Paul Thomas Anderson, and the “Happy Gilmore” star, Adam Sandler — resulted in a film that brought out the best in both artists. Sandler harnessed the genuine rage and discomfort of his throwaway comedies to create a character of pain and complexity. His light touch, in turn, seemed to give Anderson permission to pare down his extravagant style. Their collaboration is strange, funny and heartbreaking, a potentially terrible idea that takes majestic flight.
‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ (1977)
Steven Spielberg had a lot to live up to with his follow-up to “Jaws,” particularly with his pal George Lucas preparing a science-fiction movie for release the same year. (You might’ve heard of that one.) And although “Close Encounters” concerns humans making contact with alien visitors, this is no mere spaceships-and-lasers story; Spielberg finds his greatest drama by examining the psychological effects of a U.F.O. sighting on a blue-collar family man (Richard Dreyfuss, at his Everyman best), and how his obsession alienates everyone around him. Couple that intellectual intensity with Spielberg’s signature emotional and aesthetic mastery (including special effects that are still breathtaking, four decades on), and you’ve got one of the greatest sci-fi pictures in cinema history.
‘Thelma & Louise’ (1991)
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are dangerously good in this Ridley Scott road movie, which became the center of a national conversation for its portrait of two modern women who reject toxic masculinity. Sarandon and Davis play friends whose weekend getaway is derailed by an attempted sexual assault; when they strike back, they find themselves on the run. Callie Khouri won an Oscar for her screenplay. “It reimagines the buddy film with such freshness and vigor that the genre seems positively new,” our critic wrote.
‘Call Me By Your Name’ (2017)
Sometimes a movie can seem to meander, running on vibes and nostalgia, and then snap itself together with full emotional force in its closing passages. That’s what happens in Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of the novel by André Aciman (with a screenplay by the great James Ivory, of Merchant-Ivory productions). Timothée Chalamet is remarkable in the leading role of Elio, a withdrawn young man who falls in love for the first time with a visiting graduate student (Armie Hammer). The rural Italian locations are gorgeous, and the supporting players are charming (particularly Michael Stuhlbarg as Elio’s understanding father). But most important, and impressive, is Guadagnino’s skill at capturing the sheer intoxication of one’s first flush of love and playful lust. (“Summer of 85” and “Cinema Paradiso” are similarly nuanced coming-of-age stories.)
‘Erin Brockovich’ (2000)
Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for best actress — and Steven Soderbergh solidified his status as one of Hollywood’s great contemporary journeyman directors — with this ruthlessly intelligent yet undeniably crowd-pleasing drama, based on a true story. Roberts plays the title character, a tough-as-nails single mom in deep debt who talks her way into a nothing job at a law firm, only to become the key investigator in a horrifying case of corporate malfeasance. Albert Finney (himself nominated for an Oscar) is terrific as her seen-it-all boss. Our critic praised the picture’s “offbeat pacing” and “sharp sense of visual detail.” (For more Oscar-winning acting, watch “Glory”; for more of Finney, try “The Dresser.”)
‘The Holdovers’ (2023)
Nearly two decades after the triumph of “Sideways,” the director Alexander Payne and the actor Paul Giamatti reunited for this bittersweet comedy-drama. Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, an unapologetically miserable (if masterfully insulting) instructor at a boarding school who finds himself stuck spending the Christmas break with a smarmy student (Dominic Sessa) and a grieving cafeteria manager (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Giamatti finds poignant new notes for the kind of acerbic character he’s made his specialty, Oscar-winner Randolph is both uproarious and heartbreaking and newcomer Sessa shows real promise. And Payne uses the look, feel and ephemera of ’70s cinema to make a film that not only recalls the work of masters like Hal Ashby, but earns comparison to it. (Ashby’s influential “The Last Detail” and “Shampoo” are also streaming on Prime.)
‘Superbad’ (2007)
Our critic praised this “sweetly absurd high school comedy,” in which a pair of teenage outcasts (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera) try to bluff their way into the party of the year. The screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the script when they were in high school and that proximity to the subject matter gives the picture an honesty and truth too often lacking in teen sex romps. Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Emma Stone (in her debut role) all shine, but Hill is the M.V.P., a roaring lighting bolt of comic energy and surprising vulnerability.
‘Manhunter’ (1986)
Five years before Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” Michael Mann (“Heat,” “The Insider”) directed this film adaptation of the first novel in the Hannibal Lecter series, “Red Dragon,” with Brian Cox as everyone’s favorite cannibal psychiatrist. His take on the character is more coolly cerebral than the one offered by Anthony Hopkins, who won an Oscar for his portrayal in “Silence,” but it is no less effective. And Mann’s sleek, stylized, noir-inspired take on the material is gripping, taut and often unsettling. William Petersen is convincingly haunted as the F.B.I. agent trying to catch a killer; Tom Noonan is nightmare-inspiring as the target of his investigation.
‘Creed’ (2015)
The saga of Rocky Balboa, the club fighter plucked from obscurity to fight the heavyweight champ, seemed to have ended with Sylvester Stallone’s 2006 back-to-basics effort “Rocky Balboa.” But nearly a decade later, the filmmaker Ryan Coogler cast a fresh eye on the saga, recasting Stallone’s Rocky as the mentor to Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan), the son of Apollo Creed, Rock’s old rival turned friend. What sounds like a desperate attempt to revive a failing franchise is instead a powerful story of legacy, loss and love, thanks to the energetic direction of Coogler (who would next helm “Black Panther”) and the sensitive performances of Jordan, an Oscar-nominated Stallone and Tessa Thompson, who plays Bianca, the romantic interest. Our critic called it “a dandy piece of entertainment, soothingly old-fashioned and bracingly up-to-date.”
‘Whiplash’ (2014)
The “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle’s breakthrough feature was this 2014 hybrid of sports movie and musical melodrama, in which a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) at a Juilliard-inspired music school comes under the tutelage — or, perhaps, the thumb — of an uncompromising professor and conductor (J.K. Simmons). It’s a complicated tale of the sacrifices one must make in pursuit of excellence. Teller is an ideal anchor for such a story, projecting a mixture of both arrogance and uncertainty, and Simmons deservedly won an Oscar for his nightmare-fuel performance as the merciless mentor.
‘Titanic’ (1997)
Few expected James Cameron’s dramatization (and fictionalization) of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic to become a nearly unmatched commercial success (it was the top-grossing movie of all time for over a decade) and 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 its stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, became one of the great onscreen pairings of the 1990s. Our critic called it “a huge, thrilling three-and-a-quarter-hour experience.” (For more romance, watch “The Notebook” or “Heaven Can Wait.”)
‘West Side Story’ (1961)
Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’s 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 real 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 in support — and won Oscars for their efforts. (Fans of ’60s cinema should also check out “Lilies of the Field.”)
‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ (1982)
More than a decade before their era-defining hits “Clueless” and “Jerry Maguire,” the director Amy Heckerling and the screenwriter Cameron Crowe teamed up for this adaptation of Crowe’s nonfiction book, in which he went undercover at a California high in the early 1980s. His screenplay fictionalized events, and ramped up the sex and comedy, but retained a deft ear for the rhythms of teen-speak. Heckerling’s insightful direction eschewed the misogynist gaze so typical of the era’s teenage sex comedies, focusing on the struggles of a girl who’s growing up too fast (the wonderful Jennifer Jason Leigh), while handing Sean Penn his breakthrough role as the stoner surfer Jeff Spicoli. (For more teen comedy, try “Cooley High” and “Bottoms.”)
‘The Dead Zone’ (1983)
The director David Cronenberg rarely made traditional horror films, and his adaptation of the best seller by Stephen King is no exception. It’s as much science-fiction as horror, focusing on a regular Joe (Christopher Walken, muted and effective) who comes out of a coma with the ability to see the futures of those he touches. This thoughtful and tricky picture is as interested in moral dilemmas and historical ramifications as it is in thrills and chills; our critic found it “unsettling” and “quietly forceful.” (For more stylishly spooky stuff, try “Pearl” and “Bird With the Crystal Plumage.”)
‘A Thousand and One’ (2023)
The writer and director A.V. Rockwell begins this wrenching character drama in New York City circa 1994, nicely recapturing the look and feel of Gotham indies of that era. But that’s not just window dressing. While ostensibly telling the story of a young woman trying to raise her son after a stint at Rikers Island, Rockwell adroitly incorporates relevant reminders of the city’s history into her characters and their ongoing struggle, reminding us that “quality of life” policing and the dirty business of gentrification are never purely policy issues. Yet it’s more than just a polemic; Teyana Taylor is shattering as the mother in question, Josiah Cross is charismatic and sympathetic as her son as an older teenager, and the revelations of the closing scenes are wrenching and powerful. (If you like heart-wrenching dramas, try “Morvern Callar” or “A Raisin in the Sun.”)
‘Monster’ (2003)
The power of Charlize Theron’s Oscar-winning performance in this film from Patty Jenkins goes much deeper than a physical transformation into the real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Theron manages to provoke both fear and sympathy in her portrayal, capturing not only Wuornos’s rage and dangerousness but also her love for a kind woman (Christina Ricci, also excellent). Jenkins (who later directed “Wonder Woman”) makes no apologies for Wournos’s acts, but neither does she minimize them, telling Wuornos’s story with grace and nuance and allowing her actors the space to bring these haunted souls to life.
‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1978)
The original 1956 version (also streaming on Prime), in which alien invaders implant themselves in humans and take on their form, was widely seen as an allegory for the Red Scare. This “dazzling remake,” as our critic described it, is updated and released from that context, but it found another in post-hippie, health-obsessed San Francisco. The stakes are lower, but the remake has a self-aware sense of humor and a decent proportion of gross-outs and jump-scares, as well as an ending that’s just as creepy as the original’s.
‘Women Talking’ (2022)
The writer and director Sarah Polley, adapting the novel by Miriam Toews, tells the haunting tale of an insular religious community ripped apart by the actions of its predatory men. Those crimes are seen briefly, in flashback; the primary focus of Polley’s film is a long, difficult debate between several of the women in the community about what will happen next. Assembling a cast of first-rate actors (including Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand and Ben Whishaw), Polley turns what could have been a polemic into an urgent, thoughtful morality play. (Polley’s “Away From Here” is also on Prime.)
‘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.” (Fans of classic cinema will also enjoy “The Best Years of Our Lives” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”)
‘Capote’ (2005)
In 1959, the famed novelist and bon vivant Truman Capote traveled to Kansas to write about the shocking murder of the Clutter family; the resulting book, “In Cold Blood,” all but created the nonfiction novel. It also 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 moment in the writer’s life and career and then and zooming in. (Hoffman is also magnificent in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.”)
‘The Accused’ (1988)
Jodie Foster won her first Academy Award for her forceful turn in this brutal but essential sexual-assault drama. It’s a hard film to watch, particularly in its relentless dramatizations of the rape, and yet it is not without hope or catharsis, and it prompts fascinating (and still very poignant) questions about responsibility, harassment and victim blaming. Foster’s performance is still a stunner: Detailed and grounded, her character refuses to pander for sympathy or “likability.” Our critic deemed it “a consistently engrossing melodrama.”
‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979)
Francis Ford Coppola’s loose, Vietnam-era adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” was a notoriously troubled production, harassed by weather woes, political struggles, budget and schedule overages and problems with actors. Considering how much drama occurred offscreen, it’s somewhat miraculous that the final product is so singular and powerful — an awe-inspiring fusion of ’60s psychedelic film, ’70s genre reimagining and classic wide-screen epic, its ambition even more striking in this extended“Redux” cut from 2001. Our critic called it “a stunning work.” (For more epic drama, stream Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”)
‘Schindler’s List’ (1993)
After almost 20 years of popcorn moviemaking, Steven Spielberg proved himself to be not only a serious dramatist but also one of our most gifted historical chroniclers with this 1993 film. In it, he tells the true story of Oskar Schindler (the Oscar nominee Liam Neeson), a German businessman and member of the Nazi party who became the unlikely savior of more than 1,000 Jewish workers in his factories. Our critic wrote that Spielberg directed the film “with fury and immediacy.” (For more Oscar-nominated acting, stream “Sounder” and “The Kids Are All Right.”)
‘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” — building 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.
‘Rear Window’ (1954)
James Stewart stars as an antsy magazine photographer recovering from an on-the-job injury whose nosy but harmless observation of his apartment-complex neighbors turns deadly in this “tense and exciting” nail-biter from the director Alfred Hitchcock. Grace Kelly is his high-society girlfriend who joins him in his amateur investigation of a possible murder. It’s a deliciously good mystery, and more besides; as in his best films, Hitchcock uses the genre story as clever cover for his explorations of voyeurism, sexual frustration and guilty impulses. (Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” “Vertigo” and “The Birds” are also on Prime.)
‘The Graduate’ (1967)
This wryly funny drama from Mike Nichols, adapted from the novel by Charles Webb, has become such an entrenched piece of popular culture, it is easy to lose track of what great entertainment it is. But it is: Using Dustin Hoffman as his marvelously dry-witted vessel, Nichols dramatizes youthful ennui with a skill rarely seen in American cinema. Our critic called it “funny, outrageous, and touching.” (Nichols’s “Carnal Knowledge” is also streaming on Prime.)
‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ (1991)
Fannie Flagg’s best-selling book “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” got the big-screen treatment via director Jon Avnet (“Up Close and Personal”). Kathy Bates plays a housewife who finds escape from her unsatisfying life in the stories a nursing home resident (Jessica Tandy) tells her about her hometown; Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson are among the residents whose yarns she spins. Some of the edges of Flagg’s book have been sanded down to make this adaptation, which is regrettable — but as it stands, it’s a lovely film, capably crafted and poignantly played.
‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978)
The writer and director Michael Cimino won the Oscars for best picture and best director for this harrowing drama, one of the first American films to deal with the ramifications of the Vietnam War on those who fought it. Robert De Niro, John Savage and (in an Oscar-winning turn) Christopher Walken, star as friends from a Pennsylvania steel town who head off to do their patriotic duty, though their experiences during the war and beyond it are far more complicated. Meryl Streep is marvelous in her big-screen breakthrough role, while John Cazale (“The Godfather”) makes his final film appearance as a pal back home. Our critic at the time wrote, “its vision is that of an original, major new filmmaker.” (The post-Vietnam revenge thriller “Rolling Thunder” is similarly harrowing.)
‘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.” (If you love classic dramas, stream “The Swimmer.”)
‘On the Waterfront’ (1954)
The director Elia Kazan (“A Streetcar Named Desire”) and the star Marlon Brando teamed up for this hard-hitting drama of corruption and betrayal among the longshoreman working the docks of Hoboken, N.J. Brando won his first Academy Award for his tortured and sensitive turn as Terry Molloy, a dockworker torn between doing the smart thing and doing the right thing; Eva Marie Saint also won an Oscar for her work as the woman who could love him. Our critic called it “moviemaking of a rare and high order.” (For more classic drama, stream Douglas Sirk’s “Magnificent Obsession” and “All That Heaven Allows.”)
‘Bull Durham’ (1988)
Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were all propelled to the next level of stardom by this 1988 sleeper hit from the writer-director Ron Shelton, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a laid-back charmer, endlessly funny and casually sexy, and it gives all of them the opportunity to do what they do best: it features Costner shooting straight, Sarandon smoldering and Robbins playing an amiable goofball. Our critic praised its “spirit and sex appeal.” (Sports film fans will also enjoy “Air.”)
‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ (1985)
The director Susan Seidelman was just trying to make a small New York movie — a slightly more mainstream portrait of the downtown art scene than her breakthrough picture “Smithereens” — when she cast a somewhat popular club performer in the title role of this delightful comedy. By the time the film came out, that actress, Madonna, had become one of the biggest stars on the planet. Yet her persona doesn’t eclipse Seidelman’s screwball-tinged presentation; the character of the free-spirited Susan is something of a celebrity to Roberta (Rosanna Arquette), the suburban housewife who first lives vicariously through her, and ends up taking on her identity. “Susan” is energetic and engaging, while simultaneously capturing a distinct moment in the city’s subculture. (For more ’80s comedy, stream “The Blues Brothers.”)
‘The Aviator’ (2004)
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese’s next collaboration, after 2002’s “Gangs of New York,” was this uncommonly nuanced biopic of the notoriously reclusive and eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. DiCaprio ages several decades as Hughes, who goes from the boy genius of a Texas tool company to a celebrated film producer, pilot and tycoon — all while dealing with various mental maladies. Scorsese’s stylish direction vividly captures the 20th-century settings, while DiCaprio ably conveys both the brilliance and madness of the man. (Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” is also streaming on Prime Video.)
‘The African Queen’ (1952)
Humphrey Bogart won his only Oscar for his role as the gin-soaked roughneck at the helm of the titular vessel; this was also his only on-screen pairing with his fellow icon Katharine Hepburn. Most of what happens is predictable, from the outcome of the dangerous mission to the eventual attraction of the opposites at the story’s center, but the actors and John Huston’s direction keep the viewer engaged and entertained. Our critic praised the picture’s “rollicking fun and gentle humor.” (Classic film fans can also check out “The Red Shoes” and “The Quiet Man” on Prime.)
‘Guys and Dolls’ (1955)
The classic gangster movie gets a snazzy musical makeover in this bouncy 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.” (For more Sinatra, stream “The Man With the Golden Arm”; for more classic musical fun, stream “South Pacific” or “Oklahoma!”)
‘A Quiet Passion’ (2017)
This vibrant and playful exploration of the life of Emily Dickinson comes from the fertile mind of the great British writer and director Terence Davies (“The Deep Blue Sea”), who so frequently and masterfully unearths raw desires and emotional truths. This time, he has the good fortune of partnering up with Cynthia Nixon; she adroitly dramatizes Dickinson’s journey, emphasizing the humor and happiness of her earlier years and how that joy gradually dissipated. (Her cheerful interactions with her sister, played with warmth by Jennifer Ehle, place the role closer to her “Sex and the City” breakthrough than you might expect.) This is filmmaking that is searing, smart and often sublime.
‘Memento’ (2000)
Christopher Nolan made his first big splash with this, his second feature film, a stylish film noir riff that tells its familiar story in an exuberantly inventive way: In order to mirror the disorientation of its protagonist, Leonard (Guy Pearce), who has lost his ability to create new memories, Nolan tells the story by ordering its scenes in reverse chronology. As Leonard pursues an investigation of his wife’s murder, revelations fold back on themselves and betrayals become clear to the audience before they’re known to him. Yet even without that narrative flourish, “Memento” would be a scorching piece of work, loaded with sharp performances, moody cinematography and a noir-inspired sense of doom. (Nolan’s “Interstellar” is also on Prime, as is the similarly stylized “Run Lola Run.”)
‘Selma’ (2014)
Ava DuVernay directs this “bold and bracingly self-assured” dramatization of the events surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 marches for voting rights in Selma, Ala. DuVernay is telling the story not of a man but of a movement; the picture bursts with the urgency of promises unkept. David Oyelowo is astonishing as King, capturing the unmistakable cadences but also the man — uncertain, jocular, determined. The stellar ensemble cast includes Dylan Baker, Carmen Ejogo, André Holland, Stephan James, Wendell Pierce, Tim Roth, Tessa Thompson, Lorraine Toussaint, Tom Wilkinson and Oprah Winfrey.
‘The Lady From Shanghai’ (1948)
Orson Welles attempted to repair his flailing film career (and his marriage to Rita Hayworth, whom he cast as a femme fatale) in this moody and visually striking film noir. Welles portrays a crewman hired to sail Hayworth and her husband’s yacht, and finds himself drawn into a wicked web of deception, sex and murder. As was often the case with his later works, “Shanghai” suffered from extensive studio interference and reshoots. But even in its expurgated form, this is an expert potboiler, and its oft-imitated house-of-mirrors climax is as gripping as ever. Our critic called it “at once fluid and discordant,” and “filled with virtuoso set pieces.” (Hayworth’s iconic turn in “Gilda” is also on Prime.)
‘In a Lonely Place’ (1950)
This hard-edged 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. (The Bogart-fronted “The Barefoot Contessa” is also on Prime.)
‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968)
It looks, at first glance, like the perfect New York City romance: a roomy apartment on the Upper West Side, a beautiful wife and her handsome actor husband, a baby on the way. Look closer. Roman Polanski’s “mainstream masterpiece” is a chilling examination of the terror that lurks just beneath those shiny surfaces, beneath the wide-eyed good intentions of new friends and the cheerful opportunism of the young couple at it center. Mia Farrow does some of her finest acting as the increasingly sickly mother-to-be, John Cassavetes is appropriately devil-may-care as her career-minded husband, and Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her work as the couple’s nosy next-door neighbor.
‘The Limey’ (1999)
On the heels of “Out of Sight,” the director Steven Soderbergh further fused art-house experimentation and genre storytelling in this tale of a revenge-seeking ex-con (Terence Stamp, in a career-best performance). The film combines fractured timelines, stream-of-consciousness editing and even clips from an earlier Stamp performance (in Ken Loach’s “Poor Cow”). In doing so, Soderbergh turns what could’ve been a “Death Wish” remake into a thoughtful, mournful, elegiac meditation — on family, on forgiveness, on the past in general and the ’60s in particular. (Thriller fans should also try “The Spanish Prisoner.”)
‘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.” (The team’s earlier comedy “Animal Crackers” is also on Prime.)
‘Serpico’ (1973)
Al Pacino followed up the triumph of “The Godfather” with this gripping police drama, based on the true story of a New York Police Department whistle-blower. Pacino stars as Frank Serpico, the socially conscious “hippie” cop who rises quickly to become an undercover officer, only to discover rampant corruption and extortion among New York’s finest. Pacino’s bravura performance is a simmering cauldron of righteous indignation; the director Sidney Lumet grounds the film in documentary-style authenticity. Our critic deemed it “Lumet’s toughest, most provocative film in years.” (For more iconic ’70s cinema, stream “Last Tango in Paris” or “Saturday Night Fever.”)
‘Midnight Run’ (1988)
Robert De Niro took his first big swing at comedy with this wildly entertaining mixture of action and laughs. He stars as Jack Walsh, a grouchy bail bondsman sent to collect a Mafia accountant (Charles Grodin) and take him across the country — with the mob, the feds and a rival bounty hunter in hot pursuit. It sounds like your typical ’80s action-comedy, but “Midnight Run” transcends those tropes thanks to its crackling dialogue, energetic direction (by Martin Brest, of “Beverly Hills Cop”) and winning leads, who, as our critic noted, “give the comedy their own very humane comic dimension.”
‘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 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. (For more on the horrors of war, check out “Paths of Glory”; for more Dafoe, try “Light Sleeper.”)
‘Strawberry Mansion’ (2022)
Audley and Albert Birney wrote, directed and edited this “soulful sci-fi oddity” — a true indie with a look, sound and feel all its own. Audley is also the deadpan leading man, a government auditor in a not too distant future, where citizens are taxed for the extravagancies of their dreams. It’s a digital process, so he meets a considerable challenge in the form of the batty Bella (Penny Fuller), whose dreams are still analog, leaving him with thousands of videotapes to watch and log. And that’s when things start getting really weird. Audley and Birney’s wild screenplay adroitly captures the touch-and-go intricacies of dream logic, the special effects are impressively D.I.Y. and the humor is deliriously cockeyed throughout.
‘Blow Out’ (1981)
The director Brian De Palma took an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to the conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s with this clever, funny and ultimately tragic 1980 masterpiece, which cheerfully cribs elements of Chappaquiddick, Watergate and the Kennedy assassinations to create the hybrid story of a movie sound man (John Travolta) 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 saying something.
‘High Noon’ (1952)
This classic Western from the director Fred Zinnemann is best remembered for its innovative construction, in which a small-town marshal’s looming standoff with a revenge-seeking outlaw is dramatized in real time. The film was widely read as an allegory for the film industry blacklists of the era — the screenwriter Carl Foreman was deemed an “uncooperative witness” by the House Un-American Activities Committee. But “High Noon” also cleared an important path for the future of the Western, replacing the usual genre high jinks with thoughtful explorations of masculinity and violence; our critic called it “a Western of rare achievement.” (If you love classic Westerns, try “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”)
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