HBO Max may be one of the newest platforms to enter the streaming world, but already it’s one of the best. Not only does the service offer a ton of exclusive content related to its hit properties — like Game of Thrones, The Wire, and The Sopranos — it also has a ton of fantastic films strengthening its online catalog.
Thanks to HBO’s partnerships with standout companies and networks like TCM, Studio Ghibli, and DC, the service has an absolutely stacked selection of films you’re able to choose from.
Whether you’re in the mood for a classic black and white monster movie from the ‘30s, a beloved anime film from Hayao Miyazaki, or a recent blockbuster from this past summer, there’s no end to the number of great films you’re able to choose from.
From universally praised films like The Lord of the Rings and Good Will Hunting to celebrated modern movies like Elvis and The Batman, here are some of the best films you can find currently streaming on HBO Max.
Updated: September 29
Biopic: Elvis
There have been quite a few films focusing on the life and times of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. However, 2022’s Elvis manages to successfully bring something new to the table, capturing the flash and pazzazz of Elvis’s lifestyle, all the while focusing on the complicated private life of the man himself.
Elvis follows Presley’s (Austin Butler) rise to prominence in the music industry, from his humble beginnings as a controversial rock and roller in the ‘50s to his career heights in the ‘70s.
Throughout it all, we witness Presley’s shady business partnership with his Faustian manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), and the gradual decline of his relationship with his parents and wife Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge).
A visually astounding film with a career-making lead performance from Butler, Elvis’s larger-than-life presentation perfectly captures the aura and presence commanded by the real-life Presley himself.
Sci-Fi: Inception
Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a professional thief who specializes in infiltrating his quarry’s dreams and stealing information from their subconscious. When he and his crew plan a heist on a wealthy CEO (Cillian Murphy), Dom’s own traumatic past and the CEO’s mental defenses threaten to undermine the group’s efforts.
Christopher Nolan has become one of the biggest and most recognizable directors of the past two decades, thanks mostly to his transformative work on The Dark Knight and this 2010 experimental epic.
Its intricacy, narrative structure, and lucid flow make it a little hard to follow in some parts, but any confusion can be patched up with repeated viewings (something we strongly urge). It’s one of those movies that will likely stand the test of time as a classic of 2000s’ cinema.
Superhero: The Batman
Prior to its winter 2022 release, superhero fans eagerly awaited the arrival of the Robert Pattinson-led Batman film. Fortunately, unlike other underwhelming DC films like Suicide Squad, the finished movie actually lived up to the hype surrounding it, delivering a Batman movie stylistically different from any other that came before it.
Set early in Batman’s career, The Batman follows the Dark Knight (Pattinson) as he investigates “The Riddler” (Paul Dano), a serial killer targeting Gotham City’s most influential political figures.
Modeled as a police procedural thriller, The Batman seems more akin to the psychological horror films of David Fincher (Seven and Zodiac) than it does other superhero movies.
Dark, gritty, and disturbing in more than a few ways, it’s a bold take on the Batman mythos, repopularizing the hero after the somewhat mixed reception to Ben Affleck’s tenure as the character.
Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings
It doesn’t get any more epic in scope than Peter Jackson’s influential Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Star Wars of its day, Jackson’s adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s magnum opus continues to stand tall as one of the greatest contributions to the fantasy genre there is.
Over the course of three lengthy films, the inhabitants of Middle Earth band together to prevent the Dark Lord Sauron from returning. To ensure the safety of their realm, a small group of humans, Dwarves, Elves, and hobbits battle Sauron’s armies and attempt to destroy Sauron’s One Ring — a powerful weapon that could mean the end of Middle Earth.
One of the greatest trilogies of all time, The Lord of the Rings is a film that must be experienced at least once in everyone’s lifetime. With its mix of practical and CGI effects, astounding score, and sweeping cinematography, it’s like a fantasy version of Lawrence of Arabia.
Comedy: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Sports comedies are a niche genre, but have contributed so many memorable movies in the past, from golf-centric movies like Happy Gilmore and Caddyshack to slightly more serious films like Slap Shot. One of the more underrated among these is the utterly hilarious 2004 comedy, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Facing the prospect of shuttering their doors for good, the employees of a small, rundown gym enter a dodgeball tournament in the hopes of winning the $50,000 cash prize.
Led by the underachieving gym owner Peter (Vince Vaughn) and mentored by unhinged former dodgeball pro Patches (Rip Torn), the team does their best to survive the competition, going head to head with rival gym owner, White Goodman (Ben Stiller).
Dodgeball may not be altogether well-known or openly praised as Caddyshack, but that doesn’t make it any less funny to watch. With a talented cast headlined by Vaughn and Stiller, it’s an endlessly quotable movie that’s impossible to keep a straight face while watching.
Horror: American Psycho
Christian Bale is an actor apparently able to play any role he sets his mind to. Starring in the 2000 dark comedy horror film, American Psycho, Bale handed in one of his strangest, terrifying, yet perversely humorous performances of his career to date.
Patrick Bateman (Bale) is a high-earning, egotistical yuppie in 1980s New York who moonlights as a serial killer. As Bateman tries his best to fit in with the toxic, narcissistic world of Manhattan’s society life, his sanity slowly deteriorates as the number of his victims continues to balloon.
American Psycho provides an unflinching look at the unscrupulous principles of the fashion-, wealth, and material-obsessed in modern society. Incredibly dark, extremely disturbing, and somehow still surprisingly hilarious, it’s a film that’s truly earned its status as a timely cult classic in today’s culture.
Drama: Good Will Hunting
The film that made co-writers and lead actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck stars in Hollywood, Good Will Hunting is a film you’re able to rewatch again and again. With its warm themes, complicated characters, and sublime acting, it never fails to please.
Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a young janitor employed at M.I.T. who secretly harbors a genius intellect. Struggling to come to terms with his superior intelligence, a psychologist (Robin Williams) tries to help Will find some direction in his life.
Good Will Hunting is often placed on a pedestal of treasured 1990s feel-good films — and for good reason. Alongside Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, and A Beautiful Mind, it’s a movie that openly addresses the anxieties and fears of its main characters, concluding on an ultimately cathartic note for all players involved.
Documentary: The Princess
Britain’s royal family has long been in the public eye. But with the proliferation of cameras and video recording devices, their personal lives have virtually become non-existent — everything they do on their own soon making its way to national headlines the world over.
Using archival footage of news stories centered around Princess Diana, The Princess traces Diana’s life from her first courtship with Princes Charles and their marriage together to the bitter nature of their divorce.
A meditation on celebrity status and the lack of privacy such influential figures are granted, The Princess is also an intimate look at Diana’s life, cut all too short by an untimely car accident that England has still yet to fully heal from.
Crime: No Country for Old Men
Stumbling upon a desert drug deal gone wrong, a Texan welder (Josh Brolin) collects the $2 million in cash he finds at the scene, fleeing across the state into Mexico as he’s relentlessly pursued by a psychopathic hitman (Javier Bardem) and an elderly sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones).
The Coen Brothers are a sibling duo known for their more idiosyncratic films, characterized by frequent plot twists, off-brand humor, and more awkward, comedic characters. In 2007, though, the brothers turned their attention to adapting legendary novelist Cormac McCarthy’s book, No Country for Old Men, as their next project.
The resulting film was a stark departure from the usual brand of films the Coens had worked on previously, one that was steeped in Western stereotypes but also offered a radically modern, realistic portrayal of good versus evil.
Family: Spirited Away
Studio Ghibli has long been considered one of the finest animation companies in the entertainment industry. Not since the glory days of Walt Disney has a studio released as many memorable films as Ghibli has in the past, with many of their most famous movies — such as 2001’s Spirited Away — going on to achieve massive success in front of worldwide audiences.
While traveling to their new home in the country, young Chihiro and her parents cross into a fantastical realm inhabited by spirits. After her parents are turned into pigs by a cantankerous witch, Chihiro finds work at a ghostly bathhouse, secretly devising a way for her and her family to return to the mortal world.
Before Spirited Away, director Hayao Miyazaki had already established himself as a gifted filmmaker with movies like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. With the release of this film, though, Miyazaki proved to everyone that he was on a whole other level, crafting films that spoke to an entire generation of younger and older audiences alike.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Richard Chachowski is a freelance writer based in New Jersey. He loves reading, his dog Tootsie, and pretty much every movie to ever exist (especially Star Wars).
