Best Movies on HBO Max to Watch Right Now
This past May, the HBO Max streaming service rebranded as Max, creating a single platform offering content from the many entertainment companies under the HBO's Max streaming service rebranded as Max in May, offering content from the many entertainment companies under the Warner Bros. corporate umbrella. According to JustWatch, there are nearly 2,200 movies offered on Max, less than half of what Netflix offers. With 18 “hubs” of categorized content, there is now literally something for everyone on the expanded streaming platform. We've ranked the top movies available to stream on Max below, including Jackie Robinson's Jackie Robinson in a biopic, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, American Honey, Annabelle: Creation, and Woody Allen's The Stand-up for Best Picture.
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This past May, the HBO Max streaming service rebranded as Max, creating a single platform offering content from the many entertainment companies under the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) corporate umbrella. By dropping “HBO” from the name, WBD hoped to highlight that the new Max service was more than just films, with thousands of hours of programming from networks including HGTV, TLC, Food Network, and The Travel Channel. With 18 “hubs” of categorized content, there is now literally something for everyone on the expanded streaming platform.
The main draw of Max, however, remains the movie libraries of HBO and Turner Classic Movies. According to JustWatch, there are nearly 2,200 movies offered on Max, less than half of what Netflix offers. However, what Max lacks in volume, it makes up for in the sheer quality of classic films. We found Max carries a few of the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Films of All Time, far more than any other streaming service. We’ve ranked the top movies available to stream on Max below. Rather than picking films on the AFI list, we chose a variety of movies from several genres and film eras, including crowd-pleasing blockbusters.
Updated on September 2nd, 2023, by Ben Hathaway: This article has been updated with additional content to keep the discussion fresh and relevant with even more information and new entries.
The late Chadwick Boseman was something else. A man who served as an inspiration to children (of all ages) not just in his role as Black Panther, but in the way he carried himself and treated others. So, who better to play a similarly sweet source of inspiration, Jackie Robinson, in a biopic?
42 is a home run of a sports film and, like Moneyball or Remember the Titans, it’s not as if one must love sports (baseball or otherwise) to enjoy it. It’s a human interest story, about an interesting human and starring an interesting human. Toss in a sterling and game-supporting performance from Harrison Ford, and 42‘s a winner.
Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey certainly takes its time to unfold its epic story of man’s first encounter with extraterrestrial life. Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood play astronauts en route to Jupiter to explore the origins of an alien artifact.
Along for the ride is the spacecraft’s computer, HAL-9000, which Kubrick used to warn us over half a century ago of the dangers of relying on technology. If you want to jump down a philosophical rabbit hole, search online for discussions of the film’s symbolism and meaning, particularly the infamous ending.
A truly fascinating coming-of-age tale about American teens and teens across the world who only yearn for freedom and belonging, American Honey follows Star, a rebellious teenage girl who, on a whim, joins a traveling sales crew cruising across America’s heartland. Star has had a troubled home life and has lived in a province all her life, so, naturally, she finds this new escapism and instant connection with the crew’s main guy, Jake, to be healthy and comfortable.
As they crisscross the dusty backroads, visiting towns and encountering colorful characters, Star discovers adventure, liberation, and first love. The movie is visually very stunning and it also has an empowering feminist message. What’s more, Shia LaBeouf and Sasha Lane elevate this poetic tale with their restless and relatable performances.
The original Annabelle film feels like the rote spinoff of The Conjuring franchise that it is. It’s a cash grab, nothing more. Annabelle: Creation, a prequel, is something else entirely.
Every bit as well-put-together as James Wan’s original The Conjuring film, Creation is a consistently tense experience heavily bolstered by sublime work from young lead actor Lulu Wilson.
Annie Hall is the film that won the 1977 Best Picture Oscar instead of Star Wars, which still rubs fans of the space opera the wrong way. It’s hard to deny the timeless appeal of Woody Allen’s comedy, however. It’s an insanely witty look at love and life and how people manage to ruin both.
The film features an effervescent Diane Keaton in her Oscar-winning role as Annie. She’s the soulmate of the painfully neurotic Alvy Singer (Allen), who sabotages their relationship with his many character flaws. Watching Allen constantly break the fourth wall to speak with the audience is comedic perfection, and he would go on to win Oscars for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
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The Best Picture nominee and winner of many other awards, this poignant drama is set on a small island off the coast of Ireland in the 1920s. The Banshees of Inisherin tells the story of two lifelong best friends, Pádraic and Colm, who find themselves at an impasse when Colm abruptly decides to end their friendship. Pádraic is a kind and good-natured farmer and Colm is his neighbor. As Pádraic tries desperately to rekindle their relationship, Colm remains resolute and sends the close-knit community of the island into confusion and turmoil.
From the premise itself, one can hear the darkly comedic notes present in the film. And yet, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson imbue the simple story with deeper themes and subtle emotion as they navigate the many struggles of human connection, and the ending of Banshees of Inisherin is a haunting and poetic study of 20th-century wars and divisions in Ireland.
The Coen brothers’ first film is a neo-noir masterpiece of tension with an incredible early performance from the great Frances McDormand (Joel Coen’s wife). Blood Simple is a modern tale of deception and betrayal.
The dark Texas thriller follows a businessman who hires a disturbing scumbag (played to perfection by M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his wife, and things go horribly (and sometimes humorously) wrong in the fantastic entry in the Coen’s filmography.
Set against the backdrop of French Morocco in World War II, Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart as Rick, an American expatriate who owns a café in the city of Casablanca. Both the Nazis and the French authorities are present in the city, and Rick rides a fine line of neutrality while allowing French Resistance to use his café to organize their efforts. Rick soon realizes his former lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is in his café with her husband Victor (Paul Henreid), who is being hunted by the Nazis. As we see Rick and Ilsa’s past relationship play out in a series of flashbacks, the question becomes whether Rick will help Victor escape to America, or allow him to be captured, giving him a second chance to be with Ilsa.
Bogart was not the ideal romantic lead, but in Casablanca, he and Bergman are electric, and the supporting cast is equally good. The film’s ending is legendary, but the most powerful moment comes early in the third act when the diners at Rick’s drown out the singing of Nazi officers by singing “La Marseillaise.” For a film released at the height of the war, it is a moment of defiance that resonated with audiences then and carries equal weight even now. Casablanca is more than a romantic masterpiece — it’s one of the greatest films ever made.
Easily one of the 2010s’ best romantic comedies, Crazy, Stupid, Love is a star-studded dynamo of a motion picture. It was also the first film to announce “Yes, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are the next Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.”
Even for the macho men in the audience, there should be more than enough to enjoy the film. Whether it’s the humorous final fight or the perpetual series of misunderstandings, Crazy, Stupid, Love is enough to make anyone smile.
Batman fans define themselves by which actor is their favorite live-action Caped Crusader. Some swear by Adam West’s TV icon, while others make a worthy argument that Michael Keaton’s gothic turn in Tim Burton’s film was groundbreaking. In 2008, however, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight features Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. His portrayal works because everything around him is perfect, and the film is an achievement that stood apart from every cinematic incarnation of Batman before or since.
Combining the crime genre with comic book elements, Nolan’s sequel to Batman Begins also gave us Heath Ledger’s Joker, a charismatic, twisted genius who only wanted to see the world burn. Ledger earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, although he died unexpectedly before he was even nominated.
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Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, is adapted from a Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Despite being a far from perfect adaptation, its execution outweighs the originality, making it one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. When an alien race starts an unrelenting assault on Earth, destroying every nation with each passing day, Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), who has never seen a battle up close, is thrown into a suicide mission and dies abruptly.
However, he soon finds himself in a time loop where he lives the same day over and over until he decides to utilize the bizarre phenomenon to nip the enemies in the bud, ridding the Earth of the threat with the help of Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). With both the main cast members being great actors and giving their hundred percent in the film, its seemingly endless action and thrills contribute only a small portion to its success.
The scariest film that’s ever been made or ever will be, the late William Friedkin‘s The Exorcist is one of the few perfect movies out there. And, with the Halloween season right around the corner, now’s the time to rewatch Max (or, if the viewer hasn’t seen it, now is the time to check it out).
With note-perfect performances from Jason Miller, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, and, especially, Ellen Burstyn (who will reprise her role in David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer). What makes the movie work so well is that it’s not so much about possession as much as it’s about a mother’s unbelievably stressful struggle, and just how far she’ll go (even against her belief system) to save her daughter’s mortal soul.
Paul Schrader’s late masterpiece First Reformed takes a lot of the Taxi Driver writer’s perpetual themes (the sacred and the profane, lonely men discovering a transcendental connection) and perfects them.
A loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s Winter Light and Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest, the film has wonderful performances from Ethan Hawke as a depressed priest and Amanda Seyfried as a recent widow. Hawke’s tortured character in this dark, beautiful drama is a perfect stand-in for the modern world.
Every bit as responsible for kicking off the slasher craze as John Carpenter’s Halloween, Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th is arguably the most divisive stone-cold classic ever shot. The film does not get enough credit for its favoring of pacing over excessive kills (though, naturally, there’s a bit of excess).
It’s also about as atmospheric as a movie can get, with a vibe that makes the viewer feel as if they’re right there at Camp Crystal Lake alongside Alice, Bill, Jack, Marcie, Brenda, Steve Christy, and Ned. Toss in an iconic death sequence for Kevin Bacon and the original Friday the 13th is required viewing for the horror-inclined out there.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
Jim Jarmusch’s impeccably cool ’90s film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, is a brilliant blend of hip-hop, gangster film, and samurai classic. The movie studies Forest Whitaker’s lone urban samurai.
The titular character gets involved in an overcomplicated hit job that threatens his life. With a killer score from RZA and great performances all around, Ghost Dog is a truly cool, melancholic, and suspenseful meditation on film genre and isolation.
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Gone with the Wind (1939)
When it comes to grand, old-Hollywood epics, Best Picture winner Gone with the Wind still reigns supreme. Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for Best Actress playing the feisty, iconic character of Scarlett O’Hara.
Hattie McDaniel took home Best Supporting Actress playing Mammy, the sympathetic voice of reason to both Scarlett and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable, who lost his bid for Best Actor). The film’s problematic racial content caused Max to add a video introduction to the film, which provides more context.
Hereditary, featuring The Sixth Sense’s Toni Collette, demonstrates what horror is capable of when taken seriously, with genuine nightmares akin to the old-fashioned films. Most of the time, it feels like two separate films, with one half being peak horror while the other is very much like a brooding drama, but in a good sense.
In the film, Annie (Toni Collette) and her family are mourning the loss of her mentally ill mother, and each turns to different means to handle their grief. However, their discoveries about ancestry unravel some terrifying secrets that lead to a sinister presence, worsening their situation. Hereditary is a slow-burn horror that takes its time to pick up the pace, but it creeps the hell out of you, which is why it is a must-see.
Andy Muschietti may have hit a bit of a career speedbump with The Flash (he’ll be fine), but he hit a home run with It. And, for that matter, It: Chapter Two isn’t half bad considering it was working with the infinitely inferior half of the novel.
Fortunately for the Stephen King fans out there who want to take in a double feature, both It and It: Chapter Two are available on Max. Just don’t expect the latter half to be as scary (or effective, for that matter) as the first.
A spy thriller based on a hit comic book might not seem all that impressive, given how every modern espionage movie is often compared to James Bond films. However, there is no comparison with Kingsman: The Secret Service, as it is unique, embracing the British heritage to the fullest while featuring some of the most insane and brutal action scenes we’ve ever seen in film history.
The story is about a young boy named Gary Eggsy, who has to deal with a creep living with his mother after his father dies abruptly. After doing something stupid to one of the creep’s friends, he gets into trouble and is saved by a man named Harry, who reveals himself as his father’s friend. Eggsy’s father died while saving the world and is part of a secret organization named “The Kingsman.” When Harry presents him with the same opportunity, Eggsy accepts it without hesitation and embarks on a new adventure fraught with violence and responsibilities.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
Yes, this is technically three movies, and yes, there are technically better-reviewed films offered on Max than Peter Jackson’s epic adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic books. However, The Lord of the Rings is a must-see, landmark film series.
It’s perfect for anyone looking for a supremely entertaining weekend movie marathon. Max offers The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) in both its theatrical versions and extended versions, which dive deeper into the lore of Middle Earth.
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