Our curated list of the best movies streaming on HBO Max includes blockbusters, Oscar-winning dramas, rom-coms, underrated gems and more.
If you’re trying to figure out what to watch on HBO Max, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ve assembled a list of the best movies available to stream on HBO Max right now, from comedies to blockbusters to rom-coms to Oscar-winning dramas and beyond. Since first launching in 2020, HBO Max has quickly solidified itself as lowkey one of the best streaming services around, with a robust library of some genuinely great movies past and present to choose from. It’s a true bounty of choice with plenty of older films alongside bona fide new releases. Take a look at our curated list of the best movies on HBO Max below. This list will be updated weekly with new titles, so be sure to check back often. Putting a new spin on a character like Batman is incredibly difficult, but director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson accomplish this and much more in the 2022 reboot “The Batman.” The film picks up in Bruce Wayne’s second year of prowling the streets as the caped crusader, and finds him roped into an investigation into a series of killings committed by The Riddler (Paul Dano). Reeves draws from films like “Zodiac” and “All the President’s Men” to result in a process-driven (and wildly compelling) crime thriller that packs some of the most striking cinematography in the character’s history thanks to Oscar-winner Greig Fraser. And that score by Michael Giacchino is a new classic. At three hours in length this one’s quite long, but it’s the detective-driven Batman story fans have long been waiting for. Tim Burton’s comedy classic is a great watch pretty much anytime. “Beetlejuice” revolves around a couple who die in a car accident (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) and become ghosts trapped inside their home where they’re forced to witness its sale and renovation by a gauche family from the city. They enlist the help of a “bio-exorcist” named Beetlejuice (played by Michael Keaton), and all hell breaks loose. The film is a colorful and inventive twist on the afterlife, offering up a darkly comic spin on the living dead. If you’re in the mood for a true story drama, director Bennett Miller’s Oscar-winning 2005 biopic “Captote” is a terrific watch. The film follow the events of the writing of Truman Capote’s seminal 1965 book “In Cold Blood,” as he investigates the harrowing murder that inspired the “non-fiction novel.” Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Best Actor Oscar for his astounding portrayal of the iconic author, and Catherine Keener plays celebrated author Harper Lee in the film. “Moulin Rogue!” and “The Great Gatsby” filmmaker Baz Luhrmann has always had a flair for the theatrical, which made him a brilliant fit for 1996’s reimagining of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Aptly named “Romeo + Juliet,” the film retains much of Shakespeare’s dialogue but features a contemporary setting and characters, trading swords for guns and Verona for “Verona Beach.” The freshly popular duo of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes make a firecracker pairing at the center of the film, and a hip soundtrack pairs nicely with Luhrmann’s fast-paced visual approach. Director Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” is the kind of prestige, epic sci-fi adaptation that studios rarely make, and for that alone it’s worth seeking out. Based on the Frank Herbert novel of the same name, the film stars Timothee Chalamet as the young Paul Atreides, a man who accompanies his family House Atreides as they’re tasked with overseeing the mining of a valuable resource on the planet Arrakis. But once they arrive, they struggle against the planet’s native population and the nefarious House Harkonnen who wants its position back at all costs. This film, gorgeously crafted, is the first half of the “Dune” story with the second half due to be adapted in the forthcoming sequel “Dune: Part Two.” Steven Spielberg’s first-ever musical “West Side Story” is one of the best films he’s ever made, and that’s saying something. This new adaptation of the Broadway hit is set in 1957 New York, where two warring gangs – the Polish youths The Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks – battle for control over a strip of land that’s due to be gentrified anyway. Caught in the middle are Tony (Ansel Elgort) and Maria (Rachel Zegler) who fall in love despite coming from opposite sides of the tracks. Spielberg crafts a film set in the past that speaks to the tensions we face today, grounded in an emotional and tragic love story. If you’re in the mood for a contained action movie, Bob Odenkirk’s “Nobody” will do the trick. The “Better Call Saul” actor trained for over a year to get in fighting shape to play a family man who, after experiencing a home invasion, returns to his dangerous former life. Directed by Ilya Naishuller, the film boasts some jaw-dropping action scenes in the vein of “John Wick” (and it’s no surprise to find that the film was written and produced by “John Wick” alums). A sequel to “The Shining” has no reason being this good, but that’s the magic of filmmaker Mike Flanagan. The writer and director behind the Netflix series “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass” brings his touch to Stephen King in “Doctor Sleep,” which stars Ewan McGregor as the grown-up Danny Torrance who is drawn back to the Overlook Hotel by the sudden arrival of a band of near-immortal psychics. The film toes the line between supernatural and grounded horror beautifully, and in that regard serves as a bridge between Stanley Kubrick’s supernatural-lite approach to “The Shining” and King’s more ghostly source material. Check out the extended version (also streaming on HBO Max) for the full experience. A delightful original blockbuster, “Free Guy” stars Ryan Reynolds as an NPC (aka Non-Playable Character) living in a “Sims”-like video game populated largely by online players. When he suddenly gains consciousness, he begins making decisions for himself outside of his predetermined routine, all the while a female gamer from the outside world played by Jodie Comer enlists his help to find some embedded code within the game. Taika Waititi plays a nefarious video game designer and “Stranger Things” breakout Joe Keery plays an employee at the game company who may or may not be helpful in Reynolds and Comer’s quest. If you’re looking for a delightful and surprisingly emotional film for all ages, check this one out. There’s an effortlessly cool vibe to Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s Eleven” that makes it one of the most rewatchable movies ever made, and while it’s certainly a heist film, it’s also hilarious. Soderbergh’s cast plays the whole thing with a dryness that suits the suave con men looking to rob a Las Vegas casino, and clearly George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, etc. are having a blast. So yes, while “Ocean’s Eleven” is a thrilling heist movie all its own, it’s also sneakily one of the best comedies of the 21st century. Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 thriller “Contagion” was wildly prescient, but if you feel like taking the jump the film is oddly comforting in the wake of our own real-life pandemic. The film charts the rise of a deadly global pandemic from various points of view, with an ensemble cast that includes Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Ehle, Bryan Cranston and Gwyneth Paltrow. Guillermo del Toro’s 2021 drama “Nightmare Alley” is not for the faint of heart, but it is a rich and disturbing character piece about identity. Set in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Bradley Cooper stars as Stanton Carlisle, a drifter who ends up working for a traveling carnival where he picks up a mentalist act. Years later, he’s now stolen this mentalist act as his own and finds success in the big city, but when he teams up with a mysterious therapist (played by Cate Blanchett), his world begins to crumble. Cooper is terrific in the lead role, and the film builds to one of the most unforgettable endings in recent memory. If you want to watch a movie that’s purely a good time, you can’t go wrong with “The Mummy” – just make sure you pick the 1999 one. The Brendan Fraser-fronted adventure film follows an adventurer whose fate is tied to that of a librarian (played by Rachel Weisz) when they get wrapped up in an ancient curse.
