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Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Photo-Illustration: A24
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.
Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 19m
Director: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Believe it or not, this is the first drop on a subscription streaming service for the 2023 Best Picture winner, a movie that defies categorization as it tells a story of alternate realities and butt plugs. A film that debuted at SXSW, this daring piece of work built an audience through 2022 until it won multiple Oscars, including Best Picture and Director. It’s like nothing else. Anywhere.
Year: 1969
Runtime: 2h 28m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
It’s hard to overstate how much everything changed when Kubrick went to space to craft one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all time. Before 2001, there weren’t really movies like 2001, a film that blends genre storytelling with deeply philosophical themes about what it means to be human. It’s also a film that holds up remarkably well, although not one that fits casual watching while on your phone. Give this one all of your attention.
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Kogonada
What a beautiful movie this is. Colin Farrell stars in a near-future tale in which androids are more common. When one dies, it feels like a member of the family is gone, almost like losing a child. Farrell’s character tries to fix Yang, discovering what’s important about life along the way. It also contains a gorgeous score by Ryuichi Sakamato.
Year: 1993
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack directed this adaptation of the hit 1991 novel by John Grisham and delivered one of the most beloved legal dramas of all time. Tom Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law School grad who gets offered a job at an exclusive law firm, discovering the toxic culture of evil that it not only protects but engages in. This has held up much better than most mid-‘90s blockbusters, in part because of the way it confronts a corruption that has only flourished in the time since its release.
Year: 2021
Runtime: 2h 9m
Director: David Lowery
An adaptation of the 14th century poem, this is one of the most visually striking films of the decade so far. David Lowery directs Dev Patel as Gawain, who sets out on a journey to face the title character. More than just a mere tale of heroism, this is a surreal, gorgeous piece of work that challenges preconceptions of fantasy dramas and feels vitally fresh.
Year: 1967
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Norman Jewison
Fifty years before Green Book won Best Picture, a very different portrait of race relations in the South took home that same prize. Sidney Poitier stars as a black officer who gets caught up in a murder case in the south, and Rod Steiger plays his white, Southern counterpart. Both men are breathtakingly good, and the film contains one of cinema’s most notable slaps.
Year: 1962
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer’s 1962 espionage classic remains incredibly timely and powerful, especially in an era of increased political rhetoric. Adapting Richard Condon’s novel, the film stars Laurence Harvey as a survivor of the Korean War who has been turned into a sleeper agent to destroy the U.S. government. Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury, who won an Oscar for her work here, co-star.
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.
Year: 1980
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Martin Scorsese
As the decade turned, one of the best American filmmakers reunited with his muse to deliver what is widely considered one of the best films of the 1980s, possibly THE best. Much has been written about the physical transformation that would win Robert De Niro an Oscar for this film, but there’s more to this story of Jake LaMotta than just that. It’s an unforgettable character study of violence, rage, and self-destruction.
Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 13m
Director: Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson directs Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in the story of a man who learns he has a brother who is an autistic savant after the death of his father. Both gentlemen are fantastic in a movie that’s arguably a little manipulative but should be watched or rewatched purely for the strength of its performances. The movie won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Hoffman.
Year: 1955
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
There’s not much Hitchcock on any of the streaming services, so take the opportunity to watch his 1955 thriller, a great flick that doesn’t get the attention that some more commonly beloved Hitch flicks get. Based on the novel of the same name by David Dodge, this one features the amazing Cary Grant as a retired cat burglar who is drawn back into the criminal world when he discovers that someone is posing as him on the French Riviera. Grace Kelly co-stars.
Year: 1992
Runtime: 2h 8m
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.
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
One of the most inventive directors of his era adapted a screenplay for the first time when he tackled Paul Tremblay’s stunning 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World. Shyalaman does some bad things to the final act, but this is still worth a look for its incredible craft and an excellent performance from Dave Bautista as the leader of a group of people who believe that a sacrifice must be made to stop a pending apocalypse.
Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Alexandre Aja
This movie is bonkers. Directed by Alexandre Aja (and sometimes called Switchblade Romance) it stars Cecile de France and Maiwenn as two young woman who go to a secluded farmhouse, where they’re attached by a serial killer. The twist ending to this brutal film will likely either make it or break it for you. Note: Shudder also added a few other French Horror Wave films, including Inside and Martyrs—both essential for horror fans, neither for the faint of heart.
Year: 1978
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Philip Kaufman
There’s a reason that Hollywood keeps returning to Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers—it strikes at a common fear that our neighbors and loved ones aren’t who they were yesterday. The best film version of Finney’s tale is the ‘70s one with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. A riveting unpacking of ‘70s paranoia, this is a truly terrifying movie.
Year: 1990
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne’s 1990 horror film has developed an increasingly vocal fan base in the three decades since its release (helped in part by a horrible remake in 2020 that reminded everyone how much better the original was.) Tim Robbins stars as Jacob, a man who starts having increasingly terrifying visions and hallucinations, many of them related to his time in Vietnam. A stunning journey into Hell, it’s also an anti-war film that’s given weight by Robbins’s genuine, in-the-moment performance.
Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Jordan Peele
The genius behind Get Out and Us delivered his most controversial film in 2022, a story that blends an alien invasion with a commentary on movie-watching and spectacle in general. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are fantastic in this story of people beset upon by an alien species that likes to watch. Brilliantly structured and gorgeously shot, Nope is blockbuster horror filmmaking at its finest.
Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Don Coscarelli
Another low-budget flick that produced an empire, Don Coscarelli’s totally bonkers 1979 film isn’t as much an influential genre classic as it is kind of unlike anything before or since. Who can forget the first time they saw Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man, one of the best horror characters of his era? The crazy plot here is secondary to the unforgettable imagery and style. There’s a reason it spawned four sequels and has a very loyal cult following 40 years later.
Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols’ remake of the beloved La Cage aux Folles is a joyous comedy about acceptance and love that still works well today (which is not something you can about a lot of mid-‘90s comedies). Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are phenomenal as a gay couple forced to jump through hoops for their son’s new in-laws, played wonderfully by Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest. It’s funny and smart from front to back.
Year: 1988
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Charles Crichton
Movies simply don’t get much funnier than this Oscar winner starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The story of a jewel robbery gone very wrong, the barrister who gets involved, and the fish that gets caught in the middle is regularly included on any short list of the funniest movies ever made. You know how the Academy Awards never include any comedy performances? This one won an Oscar for Kevin Kline, who is simply impossible to deny.
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.
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h 24m
Director: Martin Campbell
It’s hard to believe the most famous movie spy in history ever needed a comeback, but that’s really what happened when Daniel Craig stepped into 007’s shoes and it turned out to be one of the most acclaimed James Bond movies of all time. An origin story for the suave superspy, Casino Royale introduced new layers to the classic character, resulting in an action film that felt like it had real stakes. This is one of the best modern action movies, period, not just in the Bond franchise.
Year: 2012
Runtime: 2h 45m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
QT loves to play with history with revisionist epics like Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This heavily stylized tribute to Spaghetti Westerns is another example of the writer/director’s love for rewriting history books. Jamie Foxx stars as a slave who escapes and trains with a bounty hunter (Oscar winner Christoph Waltz) to get his revenge. Sharply written and gorgeously shot by Robert Richardson, this is one of Tarantino’s most consistent films.
Year: 1995
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Martin Campbell
The legend of 007 was in a pretty dark place in the mid-‘90s as the response to Timothy Dalton playing James Bond had been pretty much a universal shrug. Enter Pierce Brosnan in this film that revitalized the screen legend in a way that’s still going today. Brosnan’s best Bond film features the character trying to stop a rogue MI6 agent, played by Sean Bean. (Note: There are a bunch of other 007 films on Prime too from all eras.)
Year: 2009
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
The director of Near Dark and Point Break became the first female Oscar winner for Best Director for a film that also won Best Picture and stands now as one of the best movies made to date about the American soldier experience in Iraq. Jeremy Renner stars as an explosives expert, the kind of guy who goes in the room that everyone else runs from, and someone brings home the trauma of what he sees overseas. As precise as the profession it captures, this movie has not one bit of fat on it, and it’s just as thrilling now as when it was released.
Year: 2009
Runtime: 2h 32m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
One of the most famous filmmakers of all time is reportedly prepping his last film, The Critic. Before then, why not catch up with one of his best in this Oscar-winning revision of history? For his last few films, QT has been blending actual history with his love of cinema to create a hybrid that only he could make. And Christoph Waltz’s Oscar-winning performance here might be the best in any Tarantino movie.
Year: 2014
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Christopher Nolan
The most underrated film from the director of The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer remains this 2014 sci-fi epic, a film that’s better if you approach it as an emotional journey instead of a physical one. Matthew McConaughey gives one of the best performances of his career as an astronaut searching for a new home for mankind, and realizing all that he left behind to do so. It’s a technical marvel with some of the most striking visuals and best sound design of Nolan’s career.
Year: 1997
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
It wouldn’t be a streaming service without a Quentin Tarantino movie or two and Prime Video has one of the Oscar winner’s best in this adaptation of the Elmore Leonard book. The only time that Tarantino explicitly worked from someone else’s material results in a film that beautifully blends both his and Leonard’s voices, anchored by great performances from Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Year: 1993
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Steven Spielberg
An instant classic when it was released in 1993, Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster spawned a franchise that’s still humming almost three decades later with the 2022 release of the wildly successful Dominion. The first three films in the series, including Spielberg’s sequel The Lost World, are on Prime right now.
Year: 2003
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
We will still have to wait for the long-promised full cut of the two Kill Bill films into one epic movie (and the long-rumored third volume of this tale), but that shouldn’t stop you from revisiting two of Quentin Tarantino’s best films—both volumes are on Prime Video. In a catalog that includes a lot of great performances (and a few Oscar winners), one of QT’s best is Uma Thurman as The Bride, a legendary action character seeking vengeance on the man who betrayed her.
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