The 50 Best Movies on Max (Formerly Known As HBO Max), Updated for October 2024

DIRECTOR: Nancy Meyers
STARS: Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Keanu Reeves
RATING: PG-13

Focus on the interior design of a Nancy Meyers movie, and you’re missing the point. It’s exquisite, sure, but it has nothing on her treatment of the interior lives of women past a certain age. A character like Diane Keaton’s Erica Barry so often gets relegated to a supporting role or a perfunctory presence in lesser movies, but this divorced playwright finding love on her own terms gets the full spotlight here. Granted, she shares it some with an uproarious Jack Nicholson as a perpetual lothario, yet it’s Keaton (an avatar for Meyers herself) who gets to glow.

Watch Something’s Gotta Give on Max

DIRECTOR: Joel and Ethan Coen
STARS: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed
RATING: R

The question of an absent God looms large throughout the work of the Coen brothers, but none engage with it so openly as A Serious Man. This deeply Jewish parable restages the story of Job in the Minneapolis suburbs as Michael Stuhlbarg’s Larry Gopnik struggles to make sense of the parade of horrible things happening to him for seemingly no reason. The Coens allow us to laugh at both his grim trajectory and the absurdity of trying to assign logic to the events of our lives.

Watch A Serious Man on Max

DIRECTOR: Ang Lee
STARS: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
RATING: R

Over 15 years after busting open the possibilities for queer cinema, Brokeback Mountain is worth watching (or rewatching) away from the hype of its release. This is a movie that deserves to be seen and remembered for what it is, not just what it inspired. The tenderness between Heath Ledger’s Ennis and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack is almost unbearable as they try to navigate a world that is not ready to accept the love they feel for each other.

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DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky
STARS: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
RATING: R

Don’t let the fancy ballet trappings or the Oscar win fool you. Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a werewolf movie through and through, just wrapped in a high-brow setting and suffused with psychosexual thrills. Natalie Portman’s ballerina Nina Sayers seeks mastery over her craft beyond the technical precision she’s mastered. In order to embody this duality, Nina must give herself over to the darker, more impulsive side of her nature. This means surrendering control to a wolf – er, black swan – bursting out from inside of her. Aronofsky elicits screams and swoons alike as he renders his protagonist’s journey to self-actualization in all its promise and peril.

Watch Black Swan on Max

DIRECTOR: William Friedkin
STARS: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey
RATING: R

Fifty years later, that Best Picture win for The French Connection – a rare victory for an action-thriller – sure has aged well! William Friedkin’s story of two cops determined to bust up a French drug smuggling ring still crackles with craftsmanship in its stunning car chases. Contemporary viewers might also find that the way the film portrays the police’s dogged pursuit of a bust at all costs to contain surprising nuance and perspective as well.

Watch The French Connection on Max

DIRECTOR: George Miller
STARS: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
RATING: R

I run the risk of you just closing this list altogether by saying that I think the simplicity of Mad Max: Fury Road’s holds it back from being a truly great movie. But that quibble doesn’t matter all that much when the visceral force of George Miller’s filmmaking hits. The editing, the camerawork, the sound, the sheer vision … it’s just undeniable.

Watch Mad Max: Fury Road on Max

DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller
STARS: Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell
RATING: R

We see all of Jason Segel in the simultaneously uproarious and unsettling opening scene of Forgetting Sarah Marshall where his titular girlfriend unceremoniously dumps him. But the moment of exposure doesn’t feel like a gimmick because Segel spends most of the movie emotionally naked as well, openly grappling with his post-breakup insecurities. A less gifted performer would have made the film an insufferable pity party, but Segel’s sincerity tinged with self-awareness makes this an essential deconstruction of the male romantic ego.

Watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Max

DIRECTORS: Josh and Benny Safdie
STARS: Adam Sandler, Julia Fox, Lakeith Stanfield
RATING: R

Every few years, Adam Sandler reminds us that he’s not just phoning it in – he’s a genuinely talented actor willing to use his comedic chops and outsized personality to bring an outrageous character to life. The Safdie Brothers crank that talent up to 11 in Uncut Gems, a film so stressful in its cinematic tension that the pressure generate could generate a diamond. Sandler’s Howard Ratner, trade name “Howie Bling,” is a diamond dealer with a compulsive gambling habit and penchant for getting himself into binds with impossible odds. Warning: you may develop high blood pressure from watching him try to wiggle his way out of the stickiest situation ever here.

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DIRECTOR: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
STARS: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube
RATING: R

21 Jump Street heralded the full arrival of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as creative talents; nearly a decade on from their breakout hit, it really does appear that they created the mold for the modern intellectual property revival. Their reimagining of the ‘80s TV show of the same name about two undercover cops at a high school irreverently sends up its own existence, a self-awareness that makes all the difference as they embrace certain genre conventions. You can’t notice something is a shameless ploy for dollars when you’re grinning ear to ear as this movie inspires!

Watch 21 Jump Street on Max

DIRECTOR: Costa-Gavras
STARS: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas
RATING: PG

Political thrillers rarely manage to capture the raw rage of the people quite like Costa-Gavras does in Z. This fictionalization of the fallout from a Greek politician’s assassination is boiling over with a scaldingly potent fury. Expect an experience full of suspense and void of any rosy-eyed notions of false comfort.

Watch Z on Max

DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
STARS: Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane
RATING: R

The comic energies of Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are almost too much to contain within a single movie. Yet somehow, director Mike Nichols corrals them within his uproarious The Birdcage. This is a family film of the highest order – that’s not to say it’s for the whole family, just that it’s one of the most moving and hysterical tributes to how love makes a family. As two lovers and Miami nightclub owners, Williams and Lane put on the show of their lives to put on a clean-cut front to meet their son’s new conservative in-laws.

Watch The Birdcage on Max

DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
STARS:Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman
RATING: R

In the Nolan era of comic-book movies, the genre has an aggressive self-seriousness — almost as if there’s a fear of embracing the pulpiness of their origins. Not so in Timur Bekmambetov’s assassin flick Wanted, which just wants to be a barrel of badass fun. It’s high-octane action delivered with undeniable verve in everything from curved bullets to its final mic drop of a line.

Watch Wanted on Max

DIRECTOR: Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Muffie Meyer
STARS: Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale
RATING: PG

And you thought your family was weird? Grey Gardens reigns as the champion of cinematic kookiness as a group of documentarians plunges us into the world of two distant cousins of Jackie O. Truth is truly stranger than fiction when it comes to dysfunction between mother and daughter Little and Big Edie, recluses on the slippery slope of isolation to outright entropy.

Watch Grey Gardens on Max

DIRECTOR: Bradley Cooper
STARS: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott
RATING: R

At least for now, HBO Max has access to multiple versions of A Star Is Born. There’s value in seeing them all just to see the evolution of this paradigmatic narrative of fortunes rising and falling in the entertainment industry. But the most recent incarnation is particularly striking because director and star Bradley Cooper cracks one of the toughest conundrums of the story: making us care about the fall from grace of Jackson Maine. By starting him on a downward trajectory from the beginning rather than having his decline come at the decline of an ascendant starlet, this A Star Is Born sells its central tragedy to devastating effect.

Watch A Star Is Born on Max

DIRECTOR: Cory Finley
STARS: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano
RATING: TV-MA

Move over, All the President’s Men, there’s a new shoe leather investigative journalism movie in town. The less you know about Bad Education before you go in, the better. Prepare yourself to be shocked by the corruption that a simple high school journalism story can reveal — and the hilarious extent to which people will go to avoid accountability for what she uncovers.

Watch Bad Education on Max

DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman
STARS: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot
RATING: Not Rated

A Swedish movie best known for a pale-faced Grim Reaper playing chess against a soul he hopes to take might not sound like the most pleasant viewing experience. Yet Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal does not get nearly enough credit for having a real funny bone. The humor is quite dark, of course, given that it’s a film about God and death. But just because something plumbs the depths of some of the most complex ontological questions does not mean it’s an entirely heady, enjoyable experience!

Watch The Seventh Seal on Max

DIRECTOR: Pierre Morel
STARS: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
RATING: PG-13

Taken opened a new chapter for Liam Neeson as the leading AARP action star. This international thriller where Neeson chases down his kidnapped daughter introduced us to a special set of skills we didn’t know he had, and the movies have never been the same since. This is not advised for viewing immediately before international travel unless you want to feel a sudden urge to cancel that trip.

Watch Taken on Max

DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón
STARS: Daniel Radcliffe, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson
RATING: PG

You can make an argument for just about any Harry Potter movie as the best, but it’s pretty hard to dispute that Prisoner of Azkaban is the most important of them all. Director Alfonso Cuarón’s infusion of dark ambiance and devilish humor helped the series graduate from kiddie literature into the stuff of serious adult drama. Rather than relegate it forever to the dustbin of fantasy, he grounded it in the realities of teenage anxieties and growing pangs. It’s got a wicked sense of style and fun that set the tone for all that was to come from the franchise on-screen.

Watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Max

DIRECTOR: Hiyao Miyazaki
STARS: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki
RATING: PG

Pixar isn’t the only animation house capable of inspiring pathos with their imagination. HBO Max bought the streaming rights for the movies of Japan’s Studio Ghibli, which had all been previously unavailable online. If you don’t know where to start taking advantage of this opportunity, try Spirited Away. The story of a young girl, Chirono, who must rescue her parents from a world of spirits recalls the childhood classics that convinced us we could do anything.

Watch Spirited Away on Max

DIRECTOR: D.A. Pennebaker
STARS: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding
RATING: Not Rated

D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop might be the closest thing to a time machine you can get from home. Press play to be transported back to the Summer of Love and experience the music festival that brought together Simon and Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and more. The real highlight, though, is Otis Redding’s sublime rendering of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” He’s shot in silhouette against the glare of the blinding spotlight, and the effect is nothing short of transcendent.

Watch Monterey Pop on Max

DIRECTOR: Joel Zwick
STARS: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine
RATING: PG

There may never be another word-of-mouth cultural sensation like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a film that rose from a modest limited release to a box office sensation with months of staying power. It’s the perfect movie to stop and watch anytime it plays on TV because you’re never more than a minute away from a really solid joke or gag. But it’s also great to watch straight-through on streaming to connect with the heart and soul of Nia Vardalos’ script. This is an unforgettable story about how we reconcile the people and culture who made us with the person we want to become when those two things appear to be in conflict.

Watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding on Max

DIRECTOR: Michael McCullers
STARS: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Dax Shepard
RATING: PG-13

The comedic chemistry of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s on-screen pairing makes it so that, as the old adage goes, they could make reading the phonebook entertaining. But luckily they have much better material in Baby Mama as a single career woman desperate to have a baby (Fey) and the hapless surrogate whose womb enables her dream to become a reality (Poehler). This mom-com is packed to the brim with great one-liners, zany supporting characters, and hilarious gags.

Watch Baby Mama on Max

DIRECTOR: Joe Talbot
STARS: Jimmie Fails, Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan
RATING: R

“You don’t get to hate San Francisco unless you love it,” insists Jimmie Fails in The Last Black Man in San Francisco. The line perfectly sums up this movie and any that captures the tumultuous relationship anyone has to a changing city. Jimmie laments a gentrifying city that seems to no longer have a place for him, yet it only steels his resolve to identify with it all the more. It’s a gorgeous tribute and elegy all rolled up in one.

Watch The Last Black Man in San Francisco on Max

DIRECTOR: Yasujiro Ozu
STARS: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura
RATING: Not Rated

“There is only one place for the camera,” said Martin Scorsese. “That’s the right place.” It’s astonishing to watch Yasuiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story and realize the camera is in the right place for the entirety of the film, perfectly calibrating its physical and emotional distance from the characters. This wistful story of two grandparents visiting their family will both warm and break your heart.

Watch Tokyo Story on Max

DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
STARS: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
RATING: PG

Whether it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship or you’re asking Sam to play it again, Casablanca always satisfies. This is the Hollywood studio apparatus working at its finest. From the iconic quotes to the passionate performances, this is pure excellence.

Watch Casablanca on Max

DIRECTORS: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh
RATING: R

Most people probably know the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time because of that cursed meme featuring a gnarly-looking Robert Pattinson standing awkwardly in a kitchen. Let’s change that and get people to recognize the film for its value as a gripping, propulsive thriller. The title is a bit of a misnomer – Good Time applies to the audience but certainly not for Pattinson’s Connie, a slimy criminal evading consequences by the seat of his pants. He’s on a noble mission to protect his developmentally disabled brother, but the way he’ll use anyone in his path to achieve those ends makes him quite the conundrum as a protagonist. This night from hell through the grimy corners of contemporary New York makes for quite the ride.

Watch Good Time on Max

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
STAR: James Franco
RATING: R

The survival drama 127 Hours first made headlines on the festival circuit for multiple people passing out during the film’s graphic amputation, the climactic scene where James Franco’s Aron Ralston frees himself from the boulder crushing his arm. (Fun fact: Fox Searchlight even sent out “I Kept My Eyes Open for 127 Hours” shirts to people who made it through the scene.) But there’s more to the film than shock value. Danny Boyle’s visually inventive work turns one man’s miserable misadventure into an invitation for us all to rediscover our humanity and priorities. It’s nothing short of ebullient.

Watch 127 Hours on Max

DIRECTOR: Lulu Wang
STARS: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Zhao Shuzhen
RATING: PG

Make sure you have some tissues handy for The Farewell, a family drama told with delicate gracefulness. Filmmaker Lulu Wang crafted the narrative from her own experience as a Chinese-American going back to her native country to grapple with the illness of her beloved grandmother, Nai Nai. Her avatar in the film, Awkwafina’s Billi, must deal not only with her own grief but also with cultural customs dictating she must keep Nai Nai in the dark about her condition. It’s a devastating but enriching examination of how best to handle hardship.

Watch The Farewell on Max

DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
STARS: David Byrne
RATING: TV-14

I am not ashamed to admit that I got up and danced around my room when I watched Spike Lee’s stunningly filmed version of the Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia. The Talking Heads music would be great all on its own, sure, but Byrne weaves into a hopeful story that does not make choosing optimism seem naive. Try to stay in your seat, I dare you.

Watch David Byrne's American Utopia on Max

DIRECTOR: François Truffaut
STARS: Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger
RATING: Not Rated

If you’re just trying to hit the movies you’d watch an intro film class, the Truffaut film to watch is The 400 Blows. But if you want to dig a little deeper into one of the titans of the French New Wave, the move has to be Shoot the Piano Player, his irreverent mashup of the comedy and gangster flick. This hilarious, inventive movie ought to dispel any mistaken notions that watching old foreign films is some somber chore.

Watch Shoot the Piano Player on Max

DIRECTOR: Judd Apatow
STARS: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson
RATING: R

Amy Schumer’s take on the rom-com in Trainwreck is unforgettable entertainment. She’s a devotee of the genre and ensures that the starring vehicle she wrote for herself hits all the classic hallmarks. But she’s also got a keen eye for who is not particularly well-served by these stories – who gets love, who gets attention, who must change – and tweaks it to her own delightful and enlightening ends.

Watch Trainwreck on Max

DIRECTOR: David O. Russell
STARS: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro
RATING: R

I cannot deny that there is something a little too simplistic, and borderline problematic, about the way Silver Linings Playbook boils down to “love can overcome mental illness.” Yet I also cannot deny the way my heart swoons at this tender romance … nor the way the corners of my mouth curl into a grand smile. The aching, vulnerable performances of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as two newly single people connecting because of and through their brokenness make David O. Russell’s deeply personal film shine like gold.

Watch Silver Linings Playbook on Max

DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson
STARS: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen
RATING: PG-13

“Epic” only scratches the surface of Peter Jackson’s work bringing The Lord of the Rings to life on screen. Cinema at this scale and scope never ceases to amaze. The Fellowship of the Ring, the series’ kickoff, achieves a remarkable balance between easing us into the world of Middle Earth, introducing the characters and providing a taste of the heavily grounded fantasy action that would follow.

Watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on Max

DIRECTOR: David Wain
STARS: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks
RATING: R

Role Models is in a rare echelon of movies that I’ve had to pause multiple times at home. And that’s not so people can go to the bathroom, mind you, that’s so people have time to catch their breath between belly laughs that last a distractingly large amount of time. The comedy flies fast and furious in David Wain’s film about two energy-drink salesmen doing court-ordered mentorship of children. Be it in the form pithy one-liners or a hold on Paul Rudd’s skeptical scowl just a second longer than you think it should, there’s always more to discover here.

Watch Role Models on Max

DIRECTOR: Jason Reitman
STARS: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
RATING: R

The passing of the Great Recession might have dulled some of the topical sting from Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, an irony-rich dramedy about a man who finds professional satisfaction in firing people he doesn’t know. But separated from the immediate context of its release, the poignancy of its emotional story really shines. Its themes about making connections and finding the humanity in unexpected places have a timeless resonance.

Watch Up in the Air on Max

DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
STARS: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart
RATING: PG-13

There are two distinct periods in cinematic adaptations of comic books. There’s the period before The Dark Knight, when people didn’t know it was possible to scale such an imposing height, and the period after The Dark Knight, when people didn’t know it would be so hard to reach such a height again. Anchored in Heath Ledger’s harrowing incarnation of terroristic mayhem as the Joker, The Dark Knight is the definitive piece of post-9/11 cinema. In the Trojan horse or superhero IP, Christopher Nolan stages a society-wide tussle over the limitations of lawfulness on the grandest canvas he could find. We’re still feeling the reverberations today.

Watch The Dark Knight on Max

DIRECTOR: Phillip Noyce
STARS: Harrison Ford, Sean Bean, Anne Archer
RATING: R

With all due respect to John Krasinski, Chris Pine, Ben Affleck, and Alec Baldwin … the character of Jack Ryan belongs to Harrison Ford. His first outing in the character developed by Tom Clancy, Patriot Games, is the platonic ideal of ‘90s-era dad cinema. Ford’s CIA analyst Ryan protects the world from the IRA, but the thrills get real as the assassins start to target his family. Anyone with a strong protective instinct will find themselves roused by the film’s climactic action battle.

Watch Patriot Games on Max

DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
STARS: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
RATING: G

Over 50 years later, the wonder and awe of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 remains intact. The movie that made all your favorite directors want to make movies is a beguiling mystery box, indescribable as it conjures the ineffable. The visuals have not aged a bit, nor has the film’s understanding of the twinned promise and peril in the vastness of outer space.

Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on Max

DIRECTOR: Robert Luketic
STARS: Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Luke Wilson
RATING: PG-13

A look back at turn-of-the-millennium comedies often yields cringe-worthy results, but one that has aged quite flawlessly is Legally Blonde. This female empowerment tale of Elle Woods rising from flippant fashionista to high-powered Harvard Law graduate is remarkably ahead of its time in many ways. Here is a comedy that refuses to make easy punchlines out of its protagonist’s intelligence or insist she has to change herself completely to ascend to her position; the prowess and possibility has been within Reese Witherspoon’s iconic character all along. (And the film does not pit her against other women to achieve her success, either!)

Watch Legally Blonde on Max

DIRECTOR: David Lynch
STARS: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart
RATING: Not Rated

Want to get into the surrealistic stylings of David Lynch but find Twin Peaks and Mulholland Dr. too impenetrable? Try his feature debut Eraserhead, a perfect mixture of artful and accessible. You don’t need to understand every image for it’s overwhelming terror about being a new parent to permeate your soul. Lynch’s images might be abstract, but their impact is chillingly real.

Watch Eraserhead on Max

DIRECTOR: Jonathan Glazer
STARS: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller
RATING: PG-13

This is not your average WWII or Holocaust movie. The Zone of Interest isn’t about what you see — it’s about what you don’t. Jonathan Glazer’s masterful depiction of Auschwitz as seen from the perspective of the perpetrators forces us to conjure a vision of horror from nothing but staccato bursts of sound coming from inside. Our imagination can take us to some terrifying places, revealing the depravity of humanity as it remains still in the face of suffering.

Watch The Zone of Interest on Max

DIRECTORS: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
STARS: Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds
RATING: G

No movie about the movies captures the magic of the medium quite like Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain. This Technicolor musical captures all of Hollywood’s anxieties as it transitioned from silent films to talkies right when the ascendancy of television proved an existential threat to movies. One glimpse of Kelly’s exuberant dancing is all it takes to have your faith renewed in the enduring viability of cinema.

Watch Singin' in the Rain on Max

DIRECTOR: Andrea Arnold
STARS: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough
RATING: R

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to see a place for what it really is, and American Honey uses Andrea Arnold’s British gaze to see America clearly and compellingly. Her guerilla filmmaking style captures the heartland through the eyes of a roving group of teenage magazine sellers. The film feels as alive as its adolescents, taking everything in – the good, the bad, the ugly – with sensory receptors wide open to the fullness of life. Their mostly, raw unprocessed experiences are as vivid as cinema gets. Nothing is sweeter.

Watch American Honey on Max

DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
STARS: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera
RATING: PG-13

Even apart from the “Barbenheimer” hype, Barbie still hits. It’s an intelligent, entertaining blockbuster that provides a sugar rush of nostalgia followed by a hearty helping of vegetables in the form of incisive cultural commentary. Filmmaker Greta Gerwig once again flips familiar narratives and figures on their head to explore what they say about our society — and, by extension, us. Margot Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” and Ryan Gosling’s (just) Ken are ingenious vehicles to explore the traps of pre-set gender roles and the necessity of claiming one’s own identity and humanity.

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DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve
STARS: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac
RATING: PG-13

Dessert POWER! It feels like a shame to watch Denis Villeneuve’s fantasy epic Dune in any environment other than a giant cinema, but the grandeur of his vision is sure to translate on a screen of any size. This is classical hero’s journey monomyth as Timothée Chalamet’s young Paul Atreides comes to realize the full weight of his messianic potential. This is the rare work of cinema that truly aspires to inspire shock, awe, and wonder – and Villeneuve’s engrossing universe commands that respect.

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DIRECTOR: David Frankel
STARS: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt
RATING: PG-13

With a decade and change of distance, it’s safe to say The Devil Wears Prada is the millennial workplace movie. The adventures of Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs as she tries to please her demanding and mercurial boss, Meryl Streep’s sinfully savvy magazine editor Miranda Priestly, are a crash-course in how to navigate the corporate world. The lessons Andy learns as she tries to find that delicate balance between work and life are timely to the emergence of a new generation in the workforce and also timeless to mull over. That’s all.

Watch The Devil Wears Prada on Max

DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
STARS: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein
RATING: R

I’ve made the case that we should all watch Lady Bird on Thanksgiving because it’s as persuasive a case for us to express our gratitude as a movie can make. “The film can – or dare I say, should – serve as a yearly reminder to return to the table and count our blessings,” I wrote. “As Christine finds, it’s hard to tune out the constant cultural noise that the best version of yourself is off in the distance. The answers to a more grateful life are already there at home and in ourselves, like nourishing food for the soul perfectly arranged by Greta Gerwig.” It’s a lesson we could stand to hear on the other 364 days of the year besides Turkey Day, too.

Watch Lady Bird on Max

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
STARS: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty
RATING: R

To some extent, we have Robert De Niro to blame for the last four years of awards-bait acting; his incredible physical transformation to play both a lean and bloated iteration of boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull solidified a notion of the best acting as the most visible acting. But any bitterness for yet another “he’s unrecognizable!” biopic fades away within minutes of watching the film itself. As LaMotta, a prizefighter who sabotages his own life and success thanks to ceaseless envy and doubt, he’s most effective at conveying self-destruction by exposing the character’s brooding inner world.

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DIRECTOR: Wong Kar-Wai
STARS: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung
RATING: PG

Wong Kar-Wai’s tale of doomed would-be lovers in 1960s Hong Kong may well be a perfect movie. The sumptuous In the Mood for Love drips with longing as two neighbors who realize their spouses are cheating on them struggle to sublimate their own feelings for one another. With each subsequent needle drop of the plucky violin tune “Yumeji’s Theme,” Wong dials up the passion and the devastation.

Watch In The Mood For Love on Max

DIRECTOR: Charlie Chaplin
STARS: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
RATING: G

Cinema may never produce a filmmaker who understands the connection between form and content like Charlie Chaplin. His final official outing as his iconic Little Tramp character, Modern Times, is the very definition of a classic. This silent comedy of Depression-era woes was timely for its release, but it endures because it’s a timeless satire of industrial society. This winning movie warms the heart as it places fire in the belly to strive for a world where all humans and their work have dignity.

Watch Modern Times on Max