The 28 Best Movies On Amazon Prime To Watch Tonight
Avoiding the scrolling hell of flicking through your TV in search of something to watch is the best home hack we can recommend. As such, we've put in the time and sifted through Amazon Prime Video to pick out the best films you can stream without leaving home.
These include former award season favourites like Vice and Green Book, less-recognised gems like Animals and Beautiful Boy, and blasts from the past like The Squid and the Whale and Requiem for a Dream.
If you're only using your Amazon Prime membership to expedite a crate of loo roll to your house, you're missing out.
Into The Wild
Sean Penn directs this 2007 film which tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a man who hiked across North America into the Alaskan wilderness during the Nineties, eventually setting up a campsite in an abandoned bus. Steeped in wanderlust and with sweeping mountain and sky views, the film has become something of a Bible for people wanting to reject modern society in favour of a simpler life.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Martin Scorsese's money-stuffed 2013 film tells the story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker who cashed in after the Wall Street crash and conned his way to the big time. Belfort is played brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio, whose crowning glory in the film is a twisted crawl towards his car while out of his mind on Quaaludes. There's also excellent performances from Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey and Jonah Hill in this decadent and high-octane car crash.
Contagion
It might feel a little too close for comfort to bed down with the story of a virus which originates in China and wreaks havoc around the world, but the strangely prescient 2011 film shows that dystopian fiction can hold some answers in how humanity reacts when tested. Directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon and Kate Winslet, Contagion is one of a select number of pandemic films actually worth watching.
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's seminal horror novel features a tour-de-force performance from Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a crazed writer who spends a winter at the Overlook Hotel with his wife and son. King might have never warmed to the film but its motifs, from the winding maze to the spooky twin girls in the hallway, and even the geometric carpets, have gone on to influence horror ever since.
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The Imitation Game
The story of how mathematician Alan Turing saved the country with a code-breaking computer during the darkest hours of World War II is a chapter in British history that is sadly unknown to so many. Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent as Turing in this 2014 retelling of his work at Bletchley Park, with a strong ensemble cast that includes Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode.
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Booksmart
Actress Olivia Wilde makes her directorial debut in this sharp comedy about two friends Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) and Molly (Beanie Feldstein) who reach the end of their time in school to realise they have traded their social lives for academic prowess. A Superbad remix for a more woke era, Booksmart delivers laughs and heart as well as nailing Gen Z in a way that feels fresh.
No Country for Old Men
Joel and Ethan Coen's gritty Western thriller took home awards for best picture, director, screenplay and supporting actor for Javier Bardem's performance at the 2008 Oscars, a clean sweep that shows just how gripping this tightly-woven story is. The plot follows a hunter who discovers a bounty of $2m in the aftermath of a bloody drug deal, leading him to be pursued by a psychopathic killer in a breathless game of cat and mouse.
Manchester by the Sea
Sometimes there are no happy endings and life keeps trudging on even after a tragedy that feels as though it should end the world. This is what Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is faced with after being named guardian to his teenage nephew, Patrick, and forced to return to his hometown and confront his past. Michelle Williams give a sublime performance as Lee's ex-wife Randi and Lucas Hedges is also brilliant as the awkward but endearing Patrick.
Hustlers
Jennifer Lopez may have never got her Academy Award nomination for Lorene Scafaria's excellent 2019 film, but this strobe-lit dive into the strip clubs and shopping mall excesses of pre-crash New York City shines without a gold statue. Based on a New York Magazine article about strippers who drugged and robbed their clients when they stopped spending, Hustlers is a slick, funny and compelling look at bending the rules when the system is broken.
Disobedience
Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola all excel in this slow-burn romance drama which follows a woman returning her orthodox community after her father's death; a world of control and forbidden passions set against the affair she enters into with a woman from her past.
The Report
Long-time Steven Soderbergh screenwriter Scott Z. Burns makes his directing debut in the compelling true story of Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, the man who forensically compiled a report into CIA Detention and Interrogation Program, a scheme which saw the brutal torture of suspects in the wake of 9/11. Adam Driver is excellent as Jones, a character who makes the case for speaking truth to power even at extreme personal cost.
Animals
Based on Emma Jane Unsworth's book of the same name, this hedonistic look at the drug and drink-fuelled nights that seep from our late twenties to our early thirties are the backdrop for this funny romp. Holliday Grainger and Alia Shawkat play best friends whose wild nights are interrupted when one of them falls in love, their story showing how friendship can be the real love story of our lives in the same vein as works like Girls and Fleabag.
Silver Linings Playbook
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are at their best in this David O'Russell directed story about a Pat, a man with bi-polar disorder who finds an unlikely ally, and dance partner, in a a Tiffany, woman also struggling with her mental health. Jacki Weaver and Robert DeNiro also star, giving wonderful performances as Pat's doting but infuriating parents.
Midsommar
Florence Pugh made her breakout role in this story of a couple who attend a Swedish midsummer festival which turns truly horrifying at the hands of a pagan cult. From the twisted mind of Hereditary director Ari Aster, Midsommar is one of the best products of the horror boom of recent years, using the genre as a foil for weighty ideas about misogyny, grief and betrayal.
Silence
Martin Scorsese leaves the gangster genre briefly for this 2016 adaptation of the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō. In it two Jesuit priests, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garrupe (Adam Driver), travel to japan during the 1640s in search of an older mentor named Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Though it was a film which polarised viewers at the time, Silence is a nerve-wracking, intense and at time almost entirely still film which demands your attention.
The Founder
The fable of how the McDonald's golden arches became as ubiquitous as Church crosses is a tale which feels as American as they come. Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, a struggling salesman who gets a taste of pure joy via a burger in California, deciding on tasting it to turn it into the biggest restaurant business in the world.
The Big Sick
Arguably one of the great romantic comedies of the last decade, this Academy Award-nominated film is based on the real-life romance between Pakistani-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his partner Emily, played in the film by Zoe Kazan. Balancing laugh-out-loud moments and sucker-punch moments of sadness as Emily's health deteriorates, The Big Sick is a story that stays with you.
Green Book
Mahershala Ali picked up his second Oscars in three years for the film which also went on to win the 'Best Picture' Oscar in 2019. Green Book follows the real story of a tour of the deep south which Jamaican-American pianist Don Shirley (Ali) took with his driver, former bouncer Tony "Lip" Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) in the 1960s. Both Ali and Mortensen's performances balance comedy and candour and have an on-screen chemistry and warmth with each other that carries the film.
The Squid and the Whale
Director Noah Baumbach is masterful at telling stories of families breaking down and this 2005 film about a couple divorcing feels like a prequel to his semi-autobiographical Academy Award-winning drama Marriage Story. It follows The Berkmans, a dysfunctional family coping with divorce as the children bear the brunt of their parents separation, with Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney playing the parents, and Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline as their two sons.
The Nice Guys
Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe play private eye and enforcer trying to find missing pornstar Misty Mountains in this dive into seedy Seventies Los Angeles. Powered by chemistry between Crowe and Gosling, both of whom do physical comedy very well here, The Nice Guys is bromance that will have you groaning and laughing in equal measure.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Best known for his work on Thor: Ragnorak or Oscar-winner Jojo Rabbit, New Zealand director Taika Waititi's 2016 film is a truly moving coming-of-age story with the jet-black humour of Ben Wheatley's films. Sam Neil plays the foster-father of a boy (Julian Dennison) with whom he goes off-grid in the New Zealand wilderness, accidentally sparking a mass manhunt.
Beautiful Boy
Chronicling a boy's descent into meth addiction and the repeated relapses that follow, Beautiful Boy is told through the eyes of David (Steve Carell), a father who watches his son, Nic (Timothée Chalamet) gradually be consumed by the drug. A role in which Chalamet cements his status as one of the most exciting actors of the moment after his Oscar-nominated performance in Call Me By Your Name.
Brokeback Mountain
With recent and celebrated releases like Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight, it's easy to forget quite how groundbreaking the gay love story Brokeback Mountain was back in 2005. The film, which won three Oscars, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as a cowboy and ranch hand who fall in love and share a tentative night of passion that defines the next 20 year of their lives.
Requiem for a Dream
Darren Aronofsky's look at lonely people searching for happiness is just as arresting now as when it was released in 2000. The film follows four strangers, all linked by the relationship between the lonely widow Sara Goldfarb and her sweet but sad son Harry, plunging into a desperate and unsettling end for each of them.
Vice
Coming from dark comedy expert Adam McKay (The Big Short), Vice stars Christian Bale as former VP Dick Cheney, Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush and Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld. The biopic charts Cheney's ascent from the early days of the Nixon White House to becoming 'the most powerful Vice President in history'.
Wild Rose
Irish actress Jessie Buckley earned a Bafta for her turn in this superb musical about an aspiring country singer and single mother from Glasgow who is released from prison after serving a drug smuggling charge. When given the chance to pursue her musical ambitions she travels to Nashville, Tennessee on a journey that is more complicated, and ultimately uplifting, than a standard Dream Big fairytale.
Room
Based on Emma Donoghue's harrowing novel of the same name, Brie Larson plays a kidnapped mother who is held captive in a tiny room with her young son Jack. The film does justice to the book by showing the perspective of Jack in this strange world, one where his friend is a lamp and the stranger that comes into 'room' is hidden away from him. A difficult but enormously powerful watch.
Chef
Feel-good, perfectly soundtracked and utterly mouthwatering, this Jon Favreau-directed film tells the story of a chef who quits his job at an uninspiring fancy restaurant after being snubbed by a critic. He goes on to bring his culinary skills to making tacos from a food truck, a journey which lets him spend quality time with his son (and eat very good cuban sandwiches.)
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