Max doesn’t just have HBO’s storied shows—there’s also HBO’s celebrated original movies. Add in the catalogue of Warner Bros, one of Hollywood’s great studios, and you have an amazing collection full of gems.
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7 Days in Hell (2015)
WATCH ON MAXThis sports mockumentary is absolutely loopy and I heartily endorse it. The subject is the longest tennis match in history, fought between an American bad boy (Andy Samberg) and a nervy British prodigy (Kir Harington). It goes for a week, and the experts adding to the hilarity include John McEnroe and Serena Williams.
All the President’s Men (1976)
WATCH ON MAXAlan J Pakula’s riveting procedural about the pair of young Washington Post reporters (Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman), whose coverage of the Watergate break-in eventually brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, is a study of institutional strength and individual fortitude. Masterful deep focus newsroom shots strikingly convey the struggle.
American Splendor (2003)
WATCH ON MAXA biopic that delightfully plays with visual form and narrative structure, this spirited indie gave Paul Giamatti his breakthrough role as Harvey Pekar, a curmudgeonly comic book writer who finds a measure of success after a lifetime of disdain. Every scene adds to your understanding of the man—even when the real Harvey meets Giamatti’s version.
Bad Education (2019)
WATCH ON MAXIn a welcome change of pace, Hugh Jackman delivers a nuanced lead performance in this real-life crime saga about a pair of celebrated American school district officials (Jackman and Allison Janney) who used academic successes to hide large-scale fraud. It’s a story of charisma run amuck, told with exceptional skill.
Barbie (2023)
WATCH ON MAXGreta Gerwig’s maximalist feminist comedy, which turns a historic toy line into existential satire and scathing social critique, is that rare Hollywood beast: an event film with an appeal that hasn’t dissipated with the headlines. If anything, the performances of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are only richer and funnier with the passing of time.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
WATCH ON MAXOne of Stanley Kubrick’s least heralded films is also one of his best: the story of a young man from 1750s Ireland (Ryan O’Neal) who becomes inured to his own cruelty as he pursues wealth. It’s told with a technical mastery that’s ritualistic and enthralling.
Beetlejuice (1988)
WATCH ON MAXTim Burton’s macabre sensibility met the classic Hollywood screwball comedy in this madcap film about a ghostly young couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who invite the titular ghoul (Michael Keaton) into their home to teach them how to scare off the dreadful new owners. The result is fierce, funny, and fearlessly exact.
The Big Sleep (1946)
WATCH ON MAXIt’s still surprising that cinema screens didn’t combust during screenings of this flinty Howard Hawks film noir, such are the sparks thrown off by the soon-to-be married Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. He’s the private eye paid to clean up a young woman’s mistakes, she’s the sister of his wayward subject. The plot is labyrinthine, but the dialogue has a wolfish pleasure.
Blade Runner (1982)
WATCH ON MAXWhatever the edit, Ridley Scott’s dystopian noir about a former police detective (Harrison Ford) hunting to terminate a group of escaped androids through 2019 Los Angeles is a science fiction masterpiece. With a beautiful, haunted Rutger Hauer as the artificial antagonist, the movie takes cinematic wonder into inescapable tragedy.
Blazing Saddles (1974)
WATCH ON MAXMel Brooks broke the fourth wall and anything else in his path with this satiric western. A plot of thugs trying to clear out a town is just the backdrop to revisionist absurdism, sight gags, anachronistic punchlines, and genre criticism. The film’s double-speed antics now looks like a template for a large swathe of modern animated comedy.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
WATCH ON MAXA sensation upon release in America, this fictionalised account of the eponymous Depression-era bank robbers is a mordant, telling movie that spoke to both generational and sexual unease. Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty play the gun-wielding pair for veteran Hollywood filmmaker Arthur Penn, giving a pulp tale a fetid, fascinating hum.
Conspiracy (2001)
WATCH ON MAXHow do you plan for genocide? The horror in this diligent drama, which is set at the 1942 meeting where Hitler’s subordinates planned the mass extermination of Europe’s Jews, is the way planning overwhelms morality and euphemisms give way to blunt explanations. As historic figures, Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci show how an unchecked state can render any nightmare as “normal”.
Creed (2015)
WATCH ON MAXIt’s exceedingly rare that an historic franchise can launch a worthy offshoot, but that’s what Ryan Coogler and Sylvester Stallone did with this Rocky-endorsed spin-off about Adonis Johnson (Michael B Jordan), son of Rocky Balboa’s one-time opponent-turned-pal Apollo Creed. The young man’s rise is documented with powerful image-making and economical pathos.
The Dark Knight (2008)
WATCH ON MAXWith Heath Ledger’s Joker—a jittery, nihilistic force who feels like a city’s dread come to life—as the antagonist, Christopher Nolan took the Batman franchise to a new level. He grounds the superhero epic in the streets and gives muscular authenticity to the obsessive deeds of Christian Bale’s masked vigilante.
Dirty Harry (1971)
WATCH ON MAXClint Eastwood’s feel for sparse dialogue and director Don Siegel’s eye for hard-nosed pulp combine in this action-thriller about a San Francisco police inspector (Eastwood) pursuing a sociopathic sniper. The movie is full of digs at 1960s permissiveness, but the images lean to the point of iconic at times.
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
WATCH ON MAXIn Sidney Lumet’s gripping crime thriller, Al Pacino plays a fledgling stick-up artist who tries to rob a Brooklyn bank and instead sets off a siege that turns into a block party. With Lumet’s calm, declarative style, the movie is a tough condensation of real-life events, becoming, with the passing of time, both funnier and tragic.
Dune (2021)
WATCH ON MAXDenis Villeneuve brought otherworldly wonder, tactile action, and deep familial pain to his first adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction classic. Subverting the “chosen one” narrative so that destiny is a cruel burden, Timothee Chalamet’s aristocratic scion is plunged into a conflict that feels as if it was sculpted from the filmmaker’s deepest intimations.
The Exorcist (1973)
WATCH ON MAXThe first horror film nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, William Friedkin’s hugely influential depiction of the battle between Catholic priests (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) and a demon that has possessed a 12-year-old girl (Linda Blair) remains a terrifying landmark. Shocking in design, graphic in execution.
Game Night (2018)
WATCH ON MAXSalted with 1990s movie nods, this entertaining Hollywood studio comedy neatly plays to Generation X as a couple’s weekly games night for friends gets entangled with a criminal conspiracy. There’s quick-witted dialogue, an evolving plot and comic equality between the leads: both Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams take turns flipping out or delivering burns.
Get Carter (1971)
WATCH ON MAXCold to the touch and frequently vicious, this British gangster film remains a genre benchmark. Michael Caine is a London enforcer whose quest for vengeance is never less than amoral, making viewers tense observers to a documentary-like investigation that can only have one ending.
Godzilla (2014)
WATCH ON MAXIn his first Hollywood feature, English filmmaker Gareth Edwards offers more by showing less. Toho’s legendary kaiju is an emblem of the nuclear age, returning to face a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism) in a clash of the titans, in which humans are but specks compared to the city-shattering beasts.
Gravity (2013)
WATCH ON MAXAlfonso Cuaron’s orbiting survival story follows a biomedical engineer (Sandra Bullock) who, alongside a veteran astronaut (George Clooney), loses the tiny tether they have to safety. Swathed in silence, with a vast blackness looming, the film’s structure and motivation is straightforward, but the setting keeps changing your expectations.
Gremlins (1984)
WATCH ON MAXAn increasingly chaotic black comedy that upends Christmas sentimentality, Joe Dante’s delirious horror film updated creature feature fairytales for the 1980s, revolving around a mysterious pet that spawns evil successors. The practical special effects are a delight.
Grey Gardens (2009)
WATCH ON MAXAlbert and David Maysles’ acclaimed 1975 documentary introduced the world to reclusive mother and daughter “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Beale, hidden away in their rundown mansion. With a never-better Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore as the idiosyncratic duo, this biographical drama tells their life story.
The Hangover (2009)
WATCH ON MAXThe first shot of Todd Phillip’s gonzo comedy franchise about the morning after a bachelor party in Las Vegas has a convulsively funny narrative. It’s about men—notably Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis—both appalled and excited as they retrace their drugged-out misdeeds.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
WATCH ON MAXFresh from the licentiously frank Y Tu Mamá También, Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) brought adolescence to the wizardry school of Hogwarts. The franchise’s third—and best—instalment has a grittier, practical feel and terrific foils to the young stars in the form of Gary Oldman and David Thewlis.
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
WATCH ON MAXDirected with an unyielding eye by Shaka King, this is a wrenching depiction of historic Black activism and institutional power. Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield deliver compelling performances as the two Black men (charismatic leader and FBI informer respectively) on either side of Chicago’s Black Panther Party in the late 1960s.
Kelly’s Heroes (1970)
WATCH ON MAXWhat if the first counterculture war movie was made in 1970 and stars Clint Eastwood? Set during the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France in World War II, this blood-strewn farce follows an American unit that goes rogue in pursuit of a stolen gold stash. Eastwood leads the way, with Donald Sutherland as a beatnik tank commander.
Kimi (2022)
WATCH ON MAXEvery tumultuous era gets a worthy Steven Soderbergh thriller, and for the age of lockdown and mental fatigue it was this film about a Seattle software engineer (Zoe Kravitz) who overhears what sounds like a murder via one of her company’s devices. It’s a sleek, satisfying mix of Rear Window and The Conversation.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
WATCH ON MAXPeter Jackson and a small army of New Zealand collaborators set the modern ideal of the fantasy epic in stone with this epic middle instalment of the Tolkien trilogy. Good and evil clash on both vast and intimate levels. Technical skill—as much physical as digital—brings a world into being.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
WATCH ON MAXThe best action film of the 21st century, or simply of all time? George Miller rebooted his post-apocalyptic franchise with Tom Hardy as the taciturn anti-hero and Charlize Theron as a feminist rebel, creating a magisterial automotive experience. “Fang it!” screams one of the road warriors, and this astonishing movie absolutely does.
Maria Full of Grace (2004)
Where to watchGalvanised by a nuanced performance from Catalina Sandino Moreno as a Colombian teen who knowingly chooses to work as a cocaine courier to get a ticket to New York, Joshua Marston’s debut is an economical thriller and a heart-rending character study. Maria knows she’s a tiny, expendable piece, and that she must treat others the same way if she is to survive.
McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971)
WATCH ON MAXWith Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as opportunists in the rain-soaked Pacific northwest, Robert Altman inverted frontier tropes that governed the western. Altman turns genre staples (such as the climactic shootout) into tragic vignettes of summary judgment. The entire film is an immersive experience with panoramic sets explored via long lens.
Mean Streets (1973)
WATCH ON MAXMartin Scorsese’s breakthrough, primed by Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro as bit players in the rackets of New York’s Little Italy neighbourhood, is a feverish introduction of the director’s obsessions: the spiritual binding of faith and crime, impeccable needle drops, and use of the camera as a lightning rod for unvarnished expression.
Ninotchka (1939)
WATCH ON MAXIn Ernst Lubitsch’s witty and urbane comedy, a stern Soviet commissar (Greta Garbo) is sent to Paris to investigate her less than dedicated colleagues, while a dissolute aristocrat (Melvyn Douglas) sets out to charm her. Garbo’s Ninotchka: “What have you done for mankind?” Douglas’ Leon: “Not so much for mankind…for womankind, my record isn’t quite so bleak.”
The Normal Heart (2014)
WATCH ON MAXHBO has a long and valuable history of adapting historic LGBT works and documenting that community’s real-life struggles. Directed by scream king Ryan Murphy, this adaptation of Larry Kramer’s groundbreaking 1985 play proves to be both. Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer star as gay activists in a vital, heartbreaking work.
North by Northwest (1959)
WATCH ON MAXLike many of its rear projected settings, the sense of danger in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic is so patently not real that the question becomes whether anyone involved will stop having fun long enough to call the bluff. With Cary Grant as a Madison Avenue exec wrongly caught up in a conspiracy, this adventure has iconic set-pieces and note-perfect banter.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
WATCH ON MAXCzech filmmaker Milos Forman, who knew a thing or two about oppressive regimes, directs Jack Nicholson in one of his signature performances as Randle McMurphy, a troublemaker who chooses a psychiatric hospital over jail but clashes with the controlling ward boss (Louise Fletcher). It’s a black comedy steeped in tragedy, and a still-relevant indictment.
Rio Bravo (1959)
WATCH ON MAXThe last great film from one of Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers, Howard Hawks’ western adheres to masculine tradition and features crisply composed action sequences. But it also reveals a surprising emotional range and unusual insight. John Wayne plays a frontier sheriff with a prisoner, awaiting an armed rescue.
The Searchers (1956)
WATCH ON MAXOne of the essential westerns. Director John Ford had built star Joh Wayne’s stoic frontier persona, and in this tale of a Civil War veteran hunting for a niece kidnapped by a Native American raiding party he deconstructs it. Revenge and obsession overwhelm any sense of decency in Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, who doesn’t plan to rescue his kin, but kill her before she embraces the Comanche life.
Shaft (1971)
WATCH ON MAXThe blaxploitation crime thriller vaulted to popularity with this hard-nosed action-thriller about a private eye, John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), hired by a Harlem gangster to rescue his kidnapped daughter from the Mafia gang holding her. With Black talent behind the cameras as well as in front, Gordon parks’ movie translated the era’s political consciousness into commercial success. Banger of a theme song, too.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
WATCH ON MAXIt’s classic Hollywood to take a period of industry trauma—the abrupt transition from silent movies to talkies—and make it the backdrop for a great screen musical. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor hit every note and every step.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
WATCH ON MAXEverything that now defines the leading man in a drama—psychological expression, wrought physicality, a raw connection to the camera’s gaze—was pioneered by Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play about a southern belle (Vivien Leigh) overwhelmed by her brutish brother-in-law (Brando). It remains deeply potent.
Temple Grandin (2010)
WATCH ON MAXEvery now and then, Claire Danes will give a performance that’s good it’s almost otherworldly. This is one of them. In the title role, Danes plays the academic and autism advocate, who, as a young woman in the 1960s, revolutionised the treatment of livestock in America. It’s a remarkable performance—neurologically exact and wholly engaging.
The Town (2010)
WATCH ON MAXThe sharp-edged action sequences speak to necessity in Ben Affleck’s Boston-set crime thriller: everyone is desperately trying to find a way out. Affleck plays a working-class bank robber drawn to a bank manager (Rebecca Hall) he previously kidnapped. The sense of place, and how that defines people, is immense.
Trap (2024)
WATCH ON MAXIt took decades, but Josh Hartnett finally got to subvert his leading man persona. This cheerfully demented M Night Shyamalan thriller follows a grinning girl dad and covert serial killer (Hartnett), who takes his teenage daughter to a concert and tries to escape a tightening police cordon. The plot has holes, but Shyamalan is having too much fun for it to really matter.
Unforgiven (1992)
WATCH ON MAXEverything Clint Eastwood has learnt about the western, including the comfort it takes in its many myths, was brought to bear in this elegiac end-of-the-trail tale. His ageing gunslinger embraces his past sins when he takes up a contract for murder in a town run by Gene Hackman’s sheriff. Gnarled, brutal, haunting.
Wit (2001)
WATCH ON MAXIt’s a huge call, but this is the best performance of Emma Thompson’s formidable career. Adapted from Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, it follows a literary professor with stage four ovarian cancer (Thompson) who reflects on her life as death approaches. It’s unsparing, and deeply resonant.
The Wizard of Lies (2017)
WATCH ON MAXDirector Barry Levinson has enjoyed a telling parallel career making television movies for HBO that no Hollywood studio would endorse. Here he focuses on Bernard Madoff (Robert De Niro), the Wall Street financier whose empire was in a fact the largest Ponzi scheme in history. It’s a film about denial and accountability.
Zodiac (2007)
WATCH ON MAXAn immaculately recreated period piece about the killer who terrorised San Francisco in the early 1970s and wrote to the public. In this masterful David Fincher-directed procedural, characters played by Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal are each gripped by the case. As obsessives, they’re all Zodiac victims.
