The 20 Best Movies Streaming on HBO Max Right Now

HBO Max subscribers can browse a vast library of movies and television shows to satisfy every taste, from action to drama to comedy. If you’ve already made your way through their superhero selections and popular catalog titles, take a look at some of the best of the rest.

Baz Luhrmann’s big, loud, wild fever dream of the King is less a biopic than a frenzied fast-forward of his highs and lows. But that’s all right: Anchored by a potent Austin Butler, who resists falling into a parody of Presley, the film is an adrenaline shot.

According to Luhrmann, Butler became a frontrunner for the role when he received a call from the actor’s co-star on stage in The Iceman Cometh. The call was from Denzel Washington, who told Luhrmann that Butler had an incredible work ethic.

Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck, Adam Driver, and Matt Damon star in Ridley Scott’s drama based on a true story. In 14th century France, two rivals (Damon and Driver) find themselves at odds after Comer’s character accuses Driver’s character of sexually assaulting her. According to author Eric Jager, who wrote 2004’s The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France, the film is roughly 75 percent accurate to history—including those unfortunate haircuts.

Joel and Ethan Coen’s debut feature is a spare film noir about a bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who enlists a private detective to kill his wife (Frances McDormand) and her lover (John Getz). Naturally, things don’t go as planned. That was mirrored off-screen, too, when the Coens went looking to raise money for production and accidentally hit the car of one potential investor.

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star in this nail-biting thriller about two astronauts cast adrift who have to use every resource available to make it back home. A special effects rig dubbed “the light box” that projected LED lights onto Bullock to simulate space was named one of the 25 Best Inventions of 2013 by TIME.

Despite advances in special effects, few films have come close to the grandeur and visual impact of director Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film, which was co-written with Arthur C. Clarke, takes viewers on a psychedelic journey through space in the guise of a manned mission to Jupiter that’s soon thrown off-balance by the sentient HAL—a computer with plans of its own. Kubrick and Clarke went through a few prospective titles, including Project: Space and Tunnel to the Stars.

A seemingly mundane story of a blue-collar Italian worker (Lamberto Maggiorani) who finds his job in jeopardy when his only mode of transportation—a bicycle—is stolen turns into a mediation on the challenges of morality and ethics in the face of desperation. The film is regularly found on lists ranking the best films of all time.

Joaquin Phoenix followed in the oversized footsteps of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger with his own distinctive take on the infamous Batman villain. This time, performance clown Arthur Fleck finds himself in a seedy metropolis and drawn to the darker side of life. The result was a critical winner, albeit one that became the first Batman film to receive an R rating.

David Fincher directs this thriller based on the Gillian Flynn novel about a woman (Rosamund Pike) who goes missing, leaving her bereaved husband (Ben Affleck) juggling a persistent media and questions over his possible culpability. Boston native and avowed Red Sox fan Affleck reportedly clashed with Fincher after the director asked him to wear a Yankees cap while in character. The actor refused, insisting he’d never hear the end of it from fans. After four days of negotiations, the two compromised: Affleck wore a Mets hat.

Denzel Washington stars as a man sworn to protect a book in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that comes with a climactic twist worthy of The Twilight Zone. Washington said he didn’t wear any underwear while in character because the low-on-resources Eli would have worn them out.

A young professional (Georgina Campbell) finds her Airbnb double-booked and the stranger (Bill Skarsgård) a little too accommodating in this effective horror thriller. Though set in Detroit, the film was actually shot mostly in Bulgaria.

A nuanced story of love in a time of crisis, Breaking the Waves features Emily Watson as Bess McNeil, a Scottish woman who falls for an oil rig worker named Jan Nyman (Stellan Skarsgård). When tragedy befalls Jan, Bess must navigate their relationship through uncharted emotional waters. Helena Bonham Carter was slated to play Bess but backed out before filming again, reportedly due to the intensity of the sex scenes.

Bob Odenkirk stars as an unlikely professional killer who finds long-dormant skills reawakened in the aftermath of a home invasion. Because the film is from the same writer and producers of the John Wick franchise, there’s some potential for a crossover down the line.

FBI agent Keanu Reeves goes undercover to bust a gang of surf robbers led by the philosophical Patrick Swayze in this cult classic. Charlie Sheen and Johnny Depp were considered for the Reeves role.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are two patrons of an exclusive new restaurant hosted by chef Ralph Fiennes. On the menu: horror. Emma Stone was originally set to star.

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot offers a riveting example of sustained suspense in this fascinating story of four men who volunteer to drive two trucks of volatile nitroglycerine to the site of an oil field fire in South America. One bump in the road too many and they’ll explode. Consider it a predecessor to 1994’s Speed—only far more stressful to watch. The film suffered from edits during its initial U.S. release because distributors felt it was too long and that some scenes were anti-American. It was restored in 1992.

Director Ingmar Bergman received great acclaim for this enchanting story of two children (Pernilla Allwin and Bertil Guve) who find their happy home in ruins after their father dies and their mother remarries. Only their sibling bond and an indomitable will to survive can help them endure the upheaval. Bergman originally conceived the project as a television production and edited a 320-minute version down to 188 minutes for the theatrical release available on HBO Max.

Rodney Dangerfield scored the biggest hit of his career as Thornton Mellon, a middle-aged man who enrolls in college so that his son doesn’t drop out. Robert Downey Jr. co-stars; Jim Carrey was considered for the role of a put-upon professor that eventually went to Sam Kinison.

Jon Favreau took a break from MCU and Star Wars duties with this small-scale charmer about a superstar chef who rediscovers his passion for food after downsizing to a food truck. Favreau requested cooking lessons from mobile food master Roy Choi for the film.

This unsettling French film about a surgeon (Pierre Brasseur) who kidnaps young women with the hope that he can restore the beauty of his daughter (Édith Scob), who was in a disfiguring car accident, by grafting their faces to hers is a study in restraint. There’s little gore but plenty of unease in what amounts to a highbrow take on the mad scientist genre. The film inspired Billy Idol to record a song with the same title in 1983.

Joe Pesci is disarming lawyer Vinny Gambini, who attempts to defend two college kids (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) from a murder rap. While it’s undoubtedly a comedy, the film has often been praised in the legal community for being accurate in how it portrays the nuances of law. 

A version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2023.