30 of the Best Recent Movies on HBO Max[html]
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HBO was, for at least a couple of generations, the home of movies on cable—no one else could compete. For a while, it seemed like HBO Max could well be the ultimate streaming destination for movie lovers, but the jury is still out.
Even so, HBO Max maintains a collaboration with TCM, giving it a broad range of classic American and foreign films. It's also the primary streaming home for Studio Ghibli and A24, so even though the streamer hasn't been making as many original films as it did a few years ago, it still has a solid assortment of movies you won't find anywhere else.
Here are 30 of the best of HBO Max's recent and/or exclusive offerings.
Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler's dusty, sweaty supernatural horror movie became the year's crossover hit, defying expectations for an R-rated horror movie—particularly when that movie is also a Depression-era period drama with an almost entirely Black cast. Michael B. Jordan plays a dual role as Smoke and Stack Moore, returning to rural Mississippi after having made names for themselves in Chicago. They intend to open a juke joint with some help from their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), an up-and-coming blues singer whose music has the power to bust down barriers, between the local Black and immigrant communities, and between our world and a darker one. Beautifully unclassifiable, and an increasingly rare example of a major studio movie with an original concept—it's already one of the year's best. Stream Sinners.
Mickey 17 (2025)
The latest from Bong Joon Ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer), Mickey 17 didn't do terribly well at the box office, but that's not entirely the movie's fault. It's a broad but clever and timely satire starring Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a well-meaning dimwit who signs on with a spaceship crew on its way to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Because of his general lack of skills, he's deemed an Expendable—his memories and DNA are kept on file so that when he, inevitably, dies (often in horrific ways), he'll be reprinted and restored to live and work and die again. Things get complicated when a new Mickey is accidentally printed before the old one has died—a huge taboo among religious types who can handle one body/one soul, but panic at the implications of two identical people walking around. It's also confusing, and eventually intriguing, for Mickey's girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Soon, both Mickey's are on the run from pretty much everyone, including the new colony's MAGA-esque leader (Mark Ruffalo). Stream Mickey 17.
Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)
Are we a little exhausted with all the nostalgic legacy sequels? We are. Does that mean there aren't some pretty damn good examples of the form floating around out there? It does not. Bloodlines picks up the franchise last seen in 2009 with an appropriately lean, mean, and bloody sequel that doesn't reinvent the Final Destination wheel, but that does everything these movies are supposed to do, and better than most. The opening sequence alone, set in 1969 at a high-rise restaurant tower, is a series best, rivaling even the log truck of part two for white-knuckle ingenuity. The movie also bids a lovely, spooky farewell to William Bludworth, played for the last time by the late, great Tony Todd. Stream Final Destination Bloodlines.
Pee-Wee as Himself (2025)
Paul Reubens participated in dozens of hours worth of interviews for this two-part documentary, directed by filmmaker Matt Worth, but from the opening moments, the erstwhile Pee-Wee Herman makes clear that he is struggling with the notion of giving up control of his life story to someone else. That's a through line in the film and, as we learn, in the performer's life, as he spent decades struggling with his public profile while maintaining intense privacy in his personal life. Reubens' posthumous coming out as gay is the headline story, but the whole thing provides a fascinating look at an artist who it seems we barely knew. You can stream Pee-Wee as Himself here.
The Legend of Ochi (2025)
In an age of encroaching AI, it's always encouraging to find that there are filmmakers still doing things the old-fashioned way—even more so with Ochi, which mostly forgoes even CGI in favor of actual puppetry and animatronics for anything other than wide shots. There's nothing inherently wrong with digital imagery, but our brains still kinda know when something has weight and presence in the real world, and the work that went into this fantasy pays off beautifully. Helena Zengel plays Yuri, a young girl growing up on the remote island of Carpathia. Her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe) leads teams of (mostly) boy soldiers to hunt the island's wild Ochi—vaguely simian creatures that they've been trained to fear. Yuri discovers an injured infant Ochi and, rather than kill or capture it, she sets out to return it to its family. A rare family film from A24. Stream The Legend of Ochi.
The Brutalist (2024)
Brady Corbet's epic period drama, which earned 10 Oscar nominations and won Adrian Brody his second Academy Award for Best Actor, follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who emigrates to the United States following the war. His course as a refugee follows highs and devastating lows—he's barely able to find work at first, despite his past as an accomplished Bauhaus-trained architect in Europe. A wealthy benefactor (Guy Pearce) seems like a godsend when he offers László a high-profile project, but discovers the limitations of his talent in the face of American-style antisemitism and boorishness. Stream The Brutalist.
Babygirl (2024)
Nicole Kidman stars in this modern erotic thriller as CEO Romy Mathis, who begins a dangerous (i.e. naughty) affair with her much younger intern (Harris Dickinson). After an opening scene involving some deeply unfulfilling lovemaking with her husband (we'll have to suspend disbelief on the topic of Antonio Banderas as a schlubby, sexually disappointing husband), Romy runs into Samuel (Dickinson), who saves her from a runaway dog before taking her on as his mentor at work. She teaches him about process automation while he teaches her about BDSM, but his sexy, dorky charm soon gives way to something darker. For all the online chatter (Nicole Kidman on all fours lapping up milk!), the captivating performances, and the chilly direction from Halina Reijn, elevate it above more pruient erotic thrillers. Stream Babygirl.
Death of a Unicorn (2025)
Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, playing father and daughter Elliot and Ridley, accidentally kill a unicorn whose parents go on a blood-soaked rampage by way of avenging their offspring. And if that isn't the platonic ideal of a plot for an A24 horror movie, I don't know what is. There are some themes here about class and the dangers of big pharma that don't entirely work, but there's still a well-acted family drama here with plenty of unicorn action—so it's certainly unique. Stream Death of a Unicorn.
Bloody Trophy (2025)
Credit: Bloody Trophy, HBO Max
This documentary, centered on the illegal rhinoceros horn trade, gets extra points for going beyond poaching in southern Africa to discuss the global networks involved, and by focusing on the activists and veterinarians working to protect and preserve the endangered species. The broader story is as awful as it is fascinating: webs of smuggling that start with pretend hunts, allowing for quasi-legal exporting of horns to Europe countries (Poland and the Czech Republic being particular points of interest), and often coordinated by Vietnamese mafia organizations. You can stream Bloody Trophy here.
A Minecraft Movie (2025)
A fun, and wildly successful (third-highest grossing movie of the year, so far) live-action take on the very popular sandbox video game, Minecraft stars Jack Black as Steve, a doorknob salesman who first discovers the Overworld, a world of easy-to-manipulate cubes (a la the game), and then is kidnapped and taken to the hellish Nether. Following in his wake are four normal people: Garrett “The Garbage Man” (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) who are pulled into the Overworld and have to learn to work together to master the rules of the game/world. The mythology is surprisingly complicated, but the leads have great chemistry, which is where the movie's charm lies. Stream A Minecraft Movie.
Adult Best Friends (2024)
Katie Corwin and Delaney Buffett co-write and star as a pair of lifelong friends, now in their 30s, who find their lives going in very different directions. Delaney (Buffett, who also directs) who has no interest in settling down or committing to one guy, while Katie (Corwin) is afraid to tell her hard-partying bestie that she's getting married. Katie plans a BFF weekend to break the news, only to see that the trip back to their childhood home town fall prey to a string of wild and wacky complications. Stream Adult Best Friends.
2073 (2024)
Inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 featurette La Jetée, which itself inspired the feature 12 Monkeys, docudrama 2073 considers the state of our world in the present through the framing device of a woman (Samantha Morton) gazing back from the titular year and meditating on the road that led to an apocalypse of sorts. Her reverie considers, via real-life, current news footage, the rise of modern popular authoritarianism in the modes of Orbán, Trump, Putin, Modi, and Xi, and their alignment with tech bros in such a way as to accelerate a coming climate catastrophe. It's not terribly subtle, but neither is the daily news. Stream 2073.
Flow (2024)
A gorgeous, wordless animated film that follows a cat through a post-apocalyptic world following a devastating flood. The Latvian import, about finding friends and searching for home in uncertain times, won a well-deserved Best Animated Picture Oscar. It's also, allegedly, popular with pets—though my dog slept right through it. Stream Flow.
Opus (2025)
Mixed reviews for this thriller from debut director Mark Anthony Green, but a stellar cast (lead by Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich) and plenty of outright weirdness lend the movie some spooky watchability. Edebiri plays rookie journalist Ariel Ecton, on assignment with her boss (Murray Bartlett) to cover the forthcoming return of a '90s rock icon played by Malkovich. Ariel is meant to be, largely, a note-taker, but she's the first one to see through the glitz and glamour of this king of rock and roll and understand that there's more to the bizarre goings-on at his compound than mere eccentricity. Stream Opus.
Heretic (2024)
Two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) show up at the home of a charming, reclusive man (a deeply creepy Hugh Grant) who invites them in because, he says, he wants to explore different faiths. Which turns out to be true—except that he has ideas that go well beyond anything his two guests have in their pamphlets. It soon becomes clear that they're not going to be able to leave without participating in Mr. Reed's games, and this clever thriller doesn't always go where you think it's going. Stream Heretic.
Queer (2024)
Director Luca Guadagnino followed up his vaguely bisexual tennis movie Challengers with this less subtle (it's in the title) William S. Burroughs adaptation. Daniel Craig plays William Lee (a fictionalized version of Burroughs himself), a drug-addicted American expat living in Mexico City during the 1950s. He soon becomes infatuated with Drew Starkey's Eugene Allerton, and the two take a gorgeous journey through Mexico, through ayahuasca, and through their own sexualities. Stream Queer.
The Parenting (2025)
Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn) invite both their sets of parents to a remote country rental so that everyone can meet, which sounds like plenty of horror for this horror-comedy. But wait! There's more: A demon conjured from the wifi router enters the body of Rohan's dad (Brian Cox), an event further complicated by the arrival of the house's owner (Parker Posey). It's wildly uneven, but there's a lot of fun to be had. The supporting cast includes Edie Falco, Lisa Kudrow, and Dean Norris. Stream The Parenting.
Juror #2 (2024)
Clint Eastwood's latest (last?) is a high-concept legal drama that boasts a few impressive performances highlighted by his straightforward directorial style. Nicholas Hoult stars as Justin Kemp, a journalist and recovering alcoholic assigned to jury duty in Savannah, Georgia. The case involves the death of a woman a year earlier, presumably killed by the defendant, her boyfriend at the time. But as the case progresses,Kemp slowly comes to realize that he knows more about the death than anyone else in the courtroom, and has to find a way to work to acquit the defendant without implicating himself. Stream Juror #2.
We Live in Time (2024)
Director John Crowley had a massive critical success with 2015's Brooklyn, but 2019's The Goldfinch was a disappointment in almost every regard. Nonlinear romantic drama We Live in Time, then, feels like a bit of a return to form, with Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield displaying impressive chemistry as the couple at the film's center. The two meet when she hits him with her car on the night he's finalizing his divorce, and the movie jumps about in their relationship from the early days, to a difficult pregnancy, to a cancer diagnosis, without ever feeling excessively gimmicky. Stream We Live in Time.
Trap (2024)
Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is a pretty cool dad in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see a Billie Eilish-ish pop star in concert. But we soon learn that Cooper is also a n
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May 08, 2026, 05:15:59 AM