This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Amazon Prime
Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Amazon has a little bit of everything on their streaming service, but they don’t have an interface that makes it particularly easy to find any of it. They also love to rotate out their selection with reckless abandon, making it hard to pin down what’s available when you want to watch a movie. It’s the kind of digital minefield that demands a guide. That’s where we come in! This regularly updated list will highlight the best films currently on Prime Video, free for anyone with an Amazon Prime account, including classics and recent hits. There’s truly something here for everyone, starting with our pick of the week.
This Week’s Critic’s Pick
*Imitation of Life
Year: 1959
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Douglas Sirk
There are SO few movies on any streaming service made before 1990 that you should take the chance to watch a timeless classic like this Sirk melodrama, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin. Sirk’s final Hollywood film adapts Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel of the same name into a gorgeous, moving tale of race, class, and gender.
Drama
Challengers
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 11m
Director: Luca Guadagnino
One of the most acclaimed dramas of the year is exclusively on Prime Video. Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor star in a story of tennis players who also happen to be lovers. Smart and sexy, this is the kind of film they’re talking about when they say that Hollywood doesn’t make movies for adults anymore. Watch this one so they do.
Dark City
Year: 1998
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Alex Proyas
So far ahead of its time that people barely paid attention to it when it came out, this sci-fi masterpiece has only grown in esteem in the quarter-century since its release. Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer Connelly star in a sci-fi noir, a film with some of the most unforgettable imagery of the ‘90s.
*Do the Right Thing
Year: 1989
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: Spike Lee
Over 35 years after its release, Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece feels as urgent and current as the day it was released. After the unrest in early 2020, many people seemed to revisit this classic, to discover it’s lost none of its power. In fact, every viewing of Do the Right Thing feels fresh and new again. It’s one of the best films ever made.
Donnie Darko
Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Richard Kelly
It’s a mad world in Richard Kelly’s sci-fi hit starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and Jena Malone. Darko made almost nothing in theaters but developed a loyal following on the home market, becoming one of the more acclaimed sci-fi films of the ‘00s. Join in the conversation that seems to constantly surround this film (and maybe Kelly will be encouraged to make another one soon — he hasn’t directed in over a decade).
Fitzcarraldo
Year: 1982
Runtime: 2h 37m
Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog set out to make a movie about a man who was insane enough to try and move a steamship over land from one river to another and Herzog himself was insane enough to actually try and replicate it. The result is a film that’s mesmerizing in its detail and blatant in its study of power gone mad, both in the narrative and the filmmaking. Watch Burden of Dreams after – a great doc about the crazy making of this film. (It’s on Prime too.)
Glengarry Glen Ross
Year: 1992
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: 1992
For a long time, it felt like David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1984 masterpiece was unfilmable, but Foley, working with the playwright as screenwriter, figured it out, assembling one of the best ensembles of the ‘90s to do so. Alec Baldwin notoriously steals his one scene, but the entire cast here is a stunner, especially Al Pacino (who was Oscar-nominated), Alan Arkin, and Jack Lemmon.
King of New York
Year: 1990
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Abel Ferrara
The amazing Abel Ferrara directed this crime epic that oozes with style. Three decades after its release, it’s still one of the most cited films of this kind of its era. One of the main reasons for that is the cast. Christopher Walken leads the way as the legendary drug lord Frank White, but the whole ensemble here is amazing, including Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, Steve Buscemi, and Giancarlo Esposito.
L.A. Confidential
Year: 1997
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: Curtis Hanson
Curtis Hanson directed this adaptation of James Ellroy’s epic crime novel of 1950s Los Angeles. Starring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, and Kim Basinger, it’s a perfect thriller. So many films since this one have tried to mimic the tough-talking thrills of it and fallen completely flat. It’s harder than it looks to be this cool.
The Limey
Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh directs a searing performance by Terence Stamp in his thriller about a Brit who comes to California trying to find his missing daughter, and those who may be responsible for hurting her. Soderbergh rarely missteps and The Limey is one of his most underrated films, a perfectly paced angry shout of a movie that matches its captivating leading man.
Manhunter
Year: 1986
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Michael Mann
Believe it or not, this Michael Mann flick isn’t regularly available for streaming subscribers, so take this chance while you can to watch one of the best from a masterful American director. Adapting Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, this is actually the first cinematic iteration of Hannibal Lecter, played here by future Succession Emmy winner Brian Cox. William Petersen is great as Will Graham, the role that Hugh Dancy would play many years later in the NBC series. This one is tense, and truly terrifying.
*Melancholia
Year: 2011
Runtime: 2h 9m
Director: Lars von Trier
One of Lars von Trier’s best films is this 2011 sci-fi/drama starring Kirsten Dunst as a woman who becomes aware that the world is about to end. Von Trier has said the film is an allegory for his depression, something that can come out of nowhere like an apocalyptic event. It feels particularly appropriate for the mid-2020s too.
Memento
Year: 2001
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan announced himself to the world with this Sundance thriller that really reshaped the indie and eventually the blockbuster landscape. Guy Pearce gives one of his best performances as a man with such severe memory loss that he has to use his body to remind himself of the details he needs to solve a mystery. It’s still so clever and riveting.
Oppenheimer
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 58m
Director: Christopher Nolan
One of the biggest and best movies of 2023 has been doing a victory lap on the streaming services following its Oscar win for Best Picture. Of course, one of the draws of Nolan’s brilliant examination of the development of the atomic bomb was the way it played on Imax screens around the world. It’s best viewed large, loud, and in a one 3-hour chunk. So don’t break this one up and don’t watch it on your phone. Give yourself over to one of the most truly cinematic experiences of the decade.
Passion Fish
Year: 1992
Runtime: 2h 15m
Director: John Sayles
The brilliant writer/director John Sayles delivered one of his most beloved films in this 1992 drama about a soap opera star (Mary McDonnell) who has been paralyzed after being hit by a cab. She returns to her family home, where she crosses paths with a nurse (Alfre Woodard) who refuses to give up on her. It’s moving in a way that feels genuine, never manipulative.
Thelma & Louise
Year: 1991
Runtime: 2h 4m
Director: Ridley Scott
Very few films still have as much power as Ridley Scott’s drama/thriller about two women who go on the run after killing an attacker. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon do arguably the best work of their careers in a film that has lost absolutely none of its impact. All that and young Brad Pitt!
To Leslie
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Michael Morris
Andrea Riseborough is phenomenal as Leslie, an alcoholic who hits rock bottom and travels back to her hometown to find herself again. While some of the structure of this surprisingly Oscar-nominated film can be a bit by-the-numbers, it’s a stunning showcase for Riseborough, nicely accompanied by a supporting cast that includes Marc Maron, Owen Teague, and Allison Janney, all delivering.
*Unforgiven
Year: 1992
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Western completely deconstructed a genre that the director/star helped define and earned the filmmaker Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. It’s a straight-up masterpiece, the story of an aging outlaw dragged back into one more job that will remind him of his own history of violence and that of this country. In Eastwood’s notable career as a filmmaker, it’s arguably still his best work.
Horror
*Green Room
Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Jeremy Saulnier is one of the best current genre directors—seriously, go watch Blue Ruin and Rebel Ridge—and this might still be his best film. The sadly gone Anton Yelchin stars as a member of a band that ends up at an event populated by violent Nazis. Things go very wrong from there. It’s a perfectly paced movie with unexpected twists and brutal violence. See this one.
Suspiria
Year: 1977
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director: Dario Argento
The Luca Guadagnino remake is also on Prime, but the Argento original is the one to watch. One of the most important and influential of all the Giallo films, it stars Jessica Harper as a ballet student who goes overseas to study and discovers that her new school is populated by witches.
Comedy
*Bridesmaids
Year: 2011
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Paul Feig
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over a decade since Bridesmaids shattered all expectations, making a fortune and turning Melissa McCarthy into a household name (especially after she landed an Oscar nomination). Smart and heartfelt, it’s the story of a woman (Kristen Wiig) who struggles in her role as Maid of Honor to a friend played by Rose Byrne. It’s still very, very funny.
Heathers
Year: 1989
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Michael Lehmann
Talk about a movie ahead of its time. Coming-of-age teen comedies were never quite as wonderfully cynical before this movie about four teenage girls whose lives are upended by the arrival of a new kid, played by Christian Slater. More than just seeking to destroy the damaging cliques at his new school, Slater’s character has plans for something a little more permanent in this comedy that really shaped the teen genre for years to come.
The Holdovers
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 13m
Director: Alexander Payne
Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph were Oscar-nominated for this phenomenal comedy (and Randolph won!), which was exclusive to Peacock but has now escaped out to Prime Video. The ‘70s-set story of a boarding school over holiday break already feels like a comedy classic, a movie that people will be watching, especially around the end of the year, for generations to come.
*Some Like It Hot
Year: 1959
Runtime: 1h 56m
Director: Billy Wilder
One of the best comedies ever made. It’s as simple as that. When someone in your life is struggling to watch anything made before 2000, introduce them to this Billy Wilder classic, a movie that is so good that it works as a gateway drug to classic cinema. It may have been made in 1959, but the perfect performances by Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe, as well as Wilder’s masterful timing, mean that it’s just as funny as it was six decades ago.
*Something Wild
Year: 1986
Runtime: 1h 48m
Director: Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme was a master of tonal balancing, finding a way to perfectly blend the comedy and the dread in this story of an average man caught up in a criminal’s web. Charlie (Jeff Daniels) is a milquetoast banker who goes on a wild ride with a girl named Lulu (Melanie Griffith), but everything changes when Lulu’s ex (an unforgettable Ray Liotta) enters the picture.
Action
Die Hard
Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: John McTiernan
Finally! Streamers have a habit of dropping parts of the Bruce Willis franchise but never the whole thing, until now. Watch the whole series, from the masterful original through the abysmal A Good Day to Die Hard, in one sitting, only on Prime Video. The first one is still the masterpiece, a film that truly rewrote the rules for the genre, shifting it more to everyman characters like Willis and away from muscular stars like Sly and Ah-nuld. It’s held up perfectly, as entertaining today as when it came out.
*Edge of Tomorrow
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 47m
Director: Doug Liman
Also known as Live Die Repeat, this is one of the best video game movies even if it’s not technically a video game movie. But think about it. It’s about a guy (Tom Cruise) who respawns every time he dies, taking what he learned from the previous attempt to try and defeat an alien race. That’s kind of how video games work. This movie rules, partially because it also includes a fantastic Emily Blunt supporting performance.
*The Fall Guy
Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: David Leitch
Why can’t people just have fun at the movies anymore? This movie bombed at the theaters, but it’s already found a bit of life on digital and streaming, first as a Peacock exclusive and now breaking out to the competition. Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt star in a clever, funny homage to the men and women who put their bodies in jeopardy for our entertainment.
*Heat
Year: 1995
Runtime: 2h 50m
Director: Michael Mann
Robert De Niro and Al Pacino star in one of the best movies of the ‘90s, a stunning cat-and-mouse game between a career criminal and a workaholic cop. The book release of Heat 2 in 2022 brought a lot of people back to this movie, one that has held up remarkably well over the nearly three decades since it was released. It’s a masterpiece.
Family and Kids
*The LEGO Movie
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Phil Lord
The meta-era of films that comment on their own existence that looks like it could reach its apex with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie owes a debt to this clever family film that took the concept of the LEGO toy and turned it into creative gold. Chris Pratt stars as an ordinary LEGO guy who finds himself on an extraordinary journey in a film that’s really about the power of the imagination, distilling the creative joy of playing with LEGOs into a captivating story.
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