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
*Out of Sight
Year: 1998
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh only makes good movies, and one of his best remains this 1998 crime dramedy that features George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez at the peak of their blinding star power. An ode to old-fashioned noir/crime films with a modern twist, Soderbergh’s adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name is one of the most purely entertaining films ever made.
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.
*Contagion
Year: 2011
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Steven Soderbergh
It’s impossible to watch Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 drama in the same way after the COVID-19 pandemic changed the entire world. In fact, it’s startling how prophetic the film turned out to be in its presentation of how quickly an international virus could derail just about everything. It’s still a razor-sharp piece of entertainment, but it just feels different now, especially given news around the recent measles outbreak and the current administration’s stance on public health.
*The Conversation
Year: 1974
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
One of the best directors of the ’70s took a break from The Godfather movies to write, produce, and direct one of his masterpieces, a study in paranoia that gave Gene Hackman a chance to deliver arguably his best screen performance. The legendary actor plays a surveillance expert who stumbles onto what could be a potential murder, leading him down a rabbit hole of violence and paranoia. This is a must-see that’s as powerful today as when it was released, and even more so after the passing of its legendary star.
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).
Fargo
Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Joel Coen
Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1996 masterpiece is only one of the best films ever made, a story of violence and redemption in the great American North. The Coens won Best Original Screenplay and Frances McDormand took her first Oscar home for playing the unforgettable Marge Gunderson, a Minnesotan cop who gets entangled in a car salesman’s deeply inept foray into the criminal world.
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.)
*Ford v Ferrari
Year: 2019
Runtime: 2h 32m
Director: James Mangold
It’s your dad’s favorite movie of 2019! Christian Bale and Matt Damon star in this retelling of the automobile industry race to build the dominant sports car on the market. The excellent and underrated James Mangold keeps the film moving at a remarkable clip—it won Best Film Editing and Best Sound Editing at the Oscars for a reason. This is a great one to revisit on Prime Video, a better film than you probably remember.
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.
Hoosiers
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director: David Anspaugh
Any list of crowdpleasing sports movies that doesn’t include this 1986 smash hit is incomplete. The true story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that won the state championship stars Gene Hackman as the new coach, and co-stars Barbara Hershey and Dennis Hopper, who landed the only acting Oscar nomination of his career for his great work here.
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.
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.
Michael Clayton
Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Tony Gilroy
George Clooney does phenomenal work as the title character in Tony Gilroy’s feature debut. He’s a lawyer who has spent his career defending big business, but he finds himself in a moral quandary over a toxic cover-up. Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, it won Best Supporting Actress for the legendary Tilda Swinton.
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.
The Thin Red Line
Year: 1999
Runtime: 2h 50m
Director: Terrence Malick
Terrence Malick wrote and directed one of his most acclaimed films with this 1998 World War II film based on the 1962 novel of the same name by James Jones. Well, as based as a Malick film can be. Lyrical and harrowing in equal measure, it’s a stunning ensemble piece about the Battle of Mount Austen in the Pacific Theater of WWII featuring strong work from Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Ben Chaplin, and many more.
Touch of Evil
Year: 1958
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Orson Welles
Putting aside the problematic nature of Charlton Heston playing a Mexican, this 1958 crime film is a masterful study in tension building, courtesy of one of the best directors who ever lived. Just the opening unbroken shot is an influential work of art. Streamers struggle with stocking films made before 2000, much less 1960, so take the chance to watch a classic while you can.
Horror
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
*Dazed and Confused
Year: 1993
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater’s masterful comedy about teenage life is over thirty years old! The story of the final day of high school in 1976 has lost none of its heart or humor, thanks in large part to an incredible ensemble that includes future stars Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, and Matthew McConaughey. It’s hysterical and kind of perfect.
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.
Midnight Run
Year: 1988
Runtime: 2h 6m
Director: Martin Brest
Martin Brest directed one of the best ‘80s buddy comedies in this gem of a movie that paired Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. The Oscar winner plays a bounty hunter assigned to bring back Grodin’s embezzling accountant, who stole money from the Chicago mob. Easier said than done. Grodin and De Niro have perfect comic chemistry.
*Poor Things
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 21m
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Emma Stone took home a second Oscar for her fearless portrayal of a Bella Baxter in the latest mind-f*ck from the director of The Lobster and The Favourite. Bella is the Frankenstein-esque creation of a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe), who teaches her the way of the world, until she discovers sex and her own identity.
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.
Dunkirk
Year: 2017
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight director returned to his homeland to tell one of its most formative war stories in the evacuation of British soldiers from northern France in 1940. Telling a story of land, sea, and air evacuations simultaneously, Dunkirk is a technical marvel, a film that only a filmmaker as ambitious and crazy as Nolan could even consider, much less pull off. Don’t watch this one on your phone. And turn it up loud.
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.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Year: 1967
Runtime: 2h 58m
Director: Sergio Leone
Is this Sergio Leone’s best movie? It might be. It’s arguably his most influential, changing the landscape of the Western in ways that are still being felt a half-century later. Clint Eastwood plays “The Good,” Lee Van Cleef plays “The Bad,” and Eli Wallach plays “The Ugly.” It’s even better than you remember.
Starship Troopers
Year: 1997
Runtime: 2h 9m
Director: Paul Verhoeven
The bugs! No one else but the director of Robocop could have made this unforgettable sci-fi/action epic about giant bugs from outer space. On the surface, it’s a wildly entertaining action movie about young soldiers trying to stop an unimaginable force. Dig deeper and you’ll find richly rewarding satirical levels about the military complex and even fascism. However you enjoy it, just enjoy it while you can.
Family and Kids
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Joel Crawford, Januel P. Mercado
There was no reason to believe that this decade-in-waiting sequel to Puss in Boots would be better than the original but it undeniably is. One of the reasons is the stunning visual design for the film, clearly inspired by Spider-verse, but it’s also a more poignant animated film than usual, anchored by what’s really a theme of mortality that’s embedded in its heroism. It made a deserved fortune: half a billion dollars worldwide. It’s probably the last one, but, if it’s not, don’t wait another decade for the next sequel.
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