The 50 Best Movies on Max (Formerly Known As HBO Max), Updated for January 2025

DIRECTORS: Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
STARS: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
RATING: PG

How many animated films can claim they have Academy Award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (frequent DP for Denis Villeneuve and the Coen Brothers) as visual consultant? It’s clear to spot his influence in How to Train Your Dragon, which features soaring aerials that still dazzle even on the small screen. This story of a young Viking who seeks to help the very creatures his village seeks to hunt has a keen eye for action and a big, beating heart of compassion.

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DIRECTOR: Joel and Ethan Coen
STARS: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed
RATING: R

The question of an absent God looms large throughout the work of the Coen brothers, but none engage with it so openly as A Serious Man. This deeply Jewish parable restages the story of Job in the Minneapolis suburbs as Michael Stuhlbarg’s Larry Gopnik struggles to make sense of the parade of horrible things happening to him for seemingly no reason. The Coens allow us to laugh at both his grim trajectory and the absurdity of trying to assign logic to the events of our lives.

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DIRECTOR: Ken Kwapis
STARS: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper
RATING: PG-13

Need that rom-com fix? The starry omnibus He’s Just Not That Into You is the perfect way to get your fill. The film is an entertaining riff on a number of familiar plotlines and stock characters within the genre – the cheater! the desperate single! the jaded cynic! the couple that can’t commit! – with just enough fresh insight and heart to make it worth a watch.

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DIRECTOR: Darren Aronofsky
STARS: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
RATING: R

Don’t let the fancy ballet trappings or the Oscar win fool you. Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a werewolf movie through and through, just wrapped in a high-brow setting and suffused with psychosexual thrills. Natalie Portman’s ballerina Nina Sayers seeks mastery over her craft beyond the technical precision she’s mastered. In order to embody this duality, Nina must give herself over to the darker, more impulsive side of her nature. This means surrendering control to a wolf – er, black swan – bursting out from inside of her. Aronofsky elicits screams and swoons alike as he renders his protagonist’s journey to self-actualization in all its promise and peril.

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DIRECTOR: Jon M. Chu
STARS: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh
RATING: PG-13

We don’t really get many rom-coms from studios these days, let alone ones with the blowout opulence of Crazy Rich Asians. So lucky for us that this movie can sustain us for quite some time! There’s hilarity and heart alike flowing from the fish-out-of-water experience of humble Asian-American Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) plunging into the wealthy world of her boyfriend’s Singaporean family.

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DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller
STARS: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne
RATING: R

The sequel to Neighbors has absolutely no business being this funny, but it absolutely RIPS. Sorority Rising restages a lot of the original film’s conflict of adjoining properties between a family and a raucous college crew, only gender-swapped. But the real X-factor of this follow-up is how it wields Zac Efron’s Teddy Sanders from the first film as a frat star completely lost at sea as his brothers move on without him. It’s surprisingly sweet to watch him bop around the two houses in search of anything to provide him a sense of grounding and purpose in the absence of the fraternity that allowed him to be such a rockstar.

Watch Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising on Max

DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller
STARS: Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Kristen Bell
RATING: R

We see all of Jason Segel in the simultaneously uproarious and unsettling opening scene of Forgetting Sarah Marshall where his titular girlfriend unceremoniously dumps him. But the moment of exposure doesn’t feel like a gimmick because Segel spends most of the movie emotionally naked as well, openly grappling with his post-breakup insecurities. A less gifted performer would have made the film an insufferable pity party, but Segel’s sincerity tinged with self-awareness makes this an essential deconstruction of the male romantic ego.

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DIRECTOR: Garry Marshall
STARS: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Ralph Bellamy
RATING: R

We fool ourselves into thinking that the Hollywood star factory can churn out radiant talents like a factory. But a star that oozes charm like Julia Roberts are once-in-a-generation, and she’s at the height of her powers in Pretty Woman. Her charisma commands the screen as Vivian Ward, the hooker who grabs her Pygmalion-style makeover by the throat and makes a brassy impression wherever she goes.

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DIRECTOR: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
STARS: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Ice Cube
RATING: R

21 Jump Street heralded the full arrival of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as creative talents; nearly a decade on from their breakout hit, it really does appear that they created the mold for the modern intellectual property revival. Their reimagining of the ‘80s TV show of the same name about two undercover cops at a high school irreverently sends up its own existence, a self-awareness that makes all the difference as they embrace certain genre conventions. You can’t notice something is a shameless ploy for dollars when you’re grinning ear to ear as this movie inspires!

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DIRECTOR: Costa-Gavras
STARS: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas
RATING: PG

Political thrillers rarely manage to capture the raw rage of the people quite like Costa-Gavras does in Z. This fictionalization of the fallout from a Greek politician’s assassination is boiling over with a scaldingly potent fury. Expect an experience full of suspense and void of any rosy-eyed notions of false comfort.

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DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
STARS: Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane
RATING: R

The comic energies of Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are almost too much to contain within a single movie. Yet somehow, director Mike Nichols corrals them within his uproarious The Birdcage. This is a family film of the highest order – that’s not to say it’s for the whole family, just that it’s one of the most moving and hysterical tributes to how love makes a family. As two lovers and Miami nightclub owners, Williams and Lane put on the show of their lives to put on a clean-cut front to meet their son’s new conservative in-laws.

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DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
STARS:Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman
RATING: R

In the Nolan era of comic-book movies, the genre has an aggressive self-seriousness — almost as if there’s a fear of embracing the pulpiness of their origins. Not so in Timur Bekmambetov’s assassin flick Wanted, which just wants to be a barrel of badass fun. It’s high-octane action delivered with undeniable verve in everything from curved bullets to its final mic drop of a line.

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DIRECTOR: Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Muffie Meyer
STARS: Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale
RATING: PG

And you thought your family was weird? Grey Gardens reigns as the champion of cinematic kookiness as a group of documentarians plunges us into the world of two distant cousins of Jackie O. Truth is truly stranger than fiction when it comes to dysfunction between mother and daughter Little and Big Edie, recluses on the slippery slope of isolation to outright entropy.

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DIRECTOR: Bradley Cooper
STARS: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott
RATING: R

At least for now, HBO Max has access to multiple versions of A Star Is Born. There’s value in seeing them all just to see the evolution of this paradigmatic narrative of fortunes rising and falling in the entertainment industry. But the most recent incarnation is particularly striking because director and star Bradley Cooper cracks one of the toughest conundrums of the story: making us care about the fall from grace of Jackson Maine. By starting him on a downward trajectory from the beginning rather than having his decline come at the decline of an ascendant starlet, this A Star Is Born sells its central tragedy to devastating effect.

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DIRECTOR: Cory Finley
STARS: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano
RATING: TV-MA

Move over, All the President’s Men, there’s a new shoe leather investigative journalism movie in town. The less you know about Bad Education before you go in, the better. Prepare yourself to be shocked by the corruption that a simple high school journalism story can reveal — and the hilarious extent to which people will go to avoid accountability for what she uncovers.

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DIRECTOR: Ingmar Bergman
STARS: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot
RATING: Not Rated

A Swedish movie best known for a pale-faced Grim Reaper playing chess against a soul he hopes to take might not sound like the most pleasant viewing experience. Yet Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal does not get nearly enough credit for having a real funny bone. The humor is quite dark, of course, given that it’s a film about God and death. But just because something plumbs the depths of some of the most complex ontological questions does not mean it’s an entirely heady, enjoyable experience!

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DIRECTOR: Pierre Morel
STARS: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
RATING: PG-13

Taken opened a new chapter for Liam Neeson as the leading AARP action star. This international thriller where Neeson chases down his kidnapped daughter introduced us to a special set of skills we didn’t know he had, and the movies have never been the same since. This is not advised for viewing immediately before international travel unless you want to feel a sudden urge to cancel that trip.

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DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón
STARS: Daniel Radcliffe, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson
RATING: PG

You can make an argument for just about any Harry Potter movie as the best, but it’s pretty hard to dispute that Prisoner of Azkaban is the most important of them all. Director Alfonso Cuarón’s infusion of dark ambiance and devilish humor helped the series graduate from kiddie literature into the stuff of serious adult drama. Rather than relegate it forever to the dustbin of fantasy, he grounded it in the realities of teenage anxieties and growing pangs. It’s got a wicked sense of style and fun that set the tone for all that was to come from the franchise on-screen.

Watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on Max

DIRECTOR: Hiyao Miyazaki
STARS: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki
RATING: PG

Pixar isn’t the only animation house capable of inspiring pathos with their imagination. HBO Max bought the streaming rights for the movies of Japan’s Studio Ghibli, which had all been previously unavailable online. If you don’t know where to start taking advantage of this opportunity, try Spirited Away. The story of a young girl, Chirono, who must rescue her parents from a world of spirits recalls the childhood classics that convinced us we could do anything.

Watch Spirited Away on Max

DIRECTOR: D.A. Pennebaker
STARS: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding
RATING: Not Rated

D.A. Pennebaker’s Monterey Pop might be the closest thing to a time machine you can get from home. Press play to be transported back to the Summer of Love and experience the music festival that brought together Simon and Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and more. The real highlight, though, is Otis Redding’s sublime rendering of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.” He’s shot in silhouette against the glare of the blinding spotlight, and the effect is nothing short of transcendent.

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DIRECTOR: Joel Zwick
STARS: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine
RATING: PG

There may never be another word-of-mouth cultural sensation like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a film that rose from a modest limited release to a box office sensation with months of staying power. It’s the perfect movie to stop and watch anytime it plays on TV because you’re never more than a minute away from a really solid joke or gag. But it’s also great to watch straight-through on streaming to connect with the heart and soul of Nia Vardalos’ script. This is an unforgettable story about how we reconcile the people and culture who made us with the person we want to become when those two things appear to be in conflict.

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DIRECTOR: Michael McCullers
STARS: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Dax Shepard
RATING: PG-13

The comedic chemistry of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s on-screen pairing makes it so that, as the old adage goes, they could make reading the phonebook entertaining. But luckily they have much better material in Baby Mama as a single career woman desperate to have a baby (Fey) and the hapless surrogate whose womb enables her dream to become a reality (Poehler). This mom-com is packed to the brim with great one-liners, zany supporting characters, and hilarious gags.

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DIRECTOR: Andrew Fleming
STARS: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Elisabeth Shue
RATING: R

Hamlet 2 may never live down its status as a quintessential Sundance bomb, sold for a high price out of the festival only to fall flat with regular audiences. But, hey, now the conditions are right for it to become a cult hit! Andrew Fleming’s quirky comedy achieves a tricky balance of mocking the grandiosity of Steve Coogan’s Dana Marschz, a failed actor-turned-high school drama teacher who thinks he can write a sequel to Shakespeare’s classic play, while also indulging it a bit. Getting high off your own supply every once in a while can be fun, as the movie shows.

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DIRECTOR: Yasujiro Ozu
STARS: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura
RATING: Not Rated

“There is only one place for the camera,” said Martin Scorsese. “That’s the right place.” It’s astonishing to watch Yasuiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story and realize the camera is in the right place for the entirety of the film, perfectly calibrating its physical and emotional distance from the characters. This wistful story of two grandparents visiting their family will both warm and break your heart.

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DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
STARS: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
RATING: PG

Whether it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship or you’re asking Sam to play it again, Casablanca always satisfies. This is the Hollywood studio apparatus working at its finest. From the iconic quotes to the passionate performances, this is pure excellence.

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DIRECTORS: Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
STARS: Robert Pattinson, Benny Safdie, Jennifer Jason Leigh
RATING: R

Most people probably know the Safdie Brothers’ Good Time because of that cursed meme featuring a gnarly-looking Robert Pattinson standing awkwardly in a kitchen. Let’s change that and get people to recognize the film for its value as a gripping, propulsive thriller. The title is a bit of a misnomer – Good Time applies to the audience but certainly not for Pattinson’s Connie, a slimy criminal evading consequences by the seat of his pants. He’s on a noble mission to protect his developmentally disabled brother, but the way he’ll use anyone in his path to achieve those ends makes him quite the conundrum as a protagonist. This night from hell through the grimy corners of contemporary New York makes for quite the ride.

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DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
STAR: James Franco
RATING: R

The survival drama 127 Hours first made headlines on the festival circuit for multiple people passing out during the film’s graphic amputation, the climactic scene where James Franco’s Aron Ralston frees himself from the boulder crushing his arm. (Fun fact: Fox Searchlight even sent out “I Kept My Eyes Open for 127 Hours” shirts to people who made it through the scene.) But there’s more to the film than shock value. Danny Boyle’s visually inventive work turns one man’s miserable misadventure into an invitation for us all to rediscover our humanity and priorities. It’s nothing short of ebullient.

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DIRECTOR: Lulu Wang
STARS: Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Zhao Shuzhen
RATING: PG

Make sure you have some tissues handy for The Farewell, a family drama told with delicate gracefulness. Filmmaker Lulu Wang crafted the narrative from her own experience as a Chinese-American going back to her native country to grapple with the illness of her beloved grandmother, Nai Nai. Her avatar in the film, Awkwafina’s Billi, must deal not only with her own grief but also with cultural customs dictating she must keep Nai Nai in the dark about her condition. It’s a devastating but enriching examination of how best to handle hardship.

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DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
STARS: David Byrne
RATING: TV-14

I am not ashamed to admit that I got up and danced around my room when I watched Spike Lee’s stunningly filmed version of the Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia. The Talking Heads music would be great all on its own, sure, but Byrne weaves into a hopeful story that does not make choosing optimism seem naive. Try to stay in your seat, I dare you.

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DIRECTOR: François Truffaut
STARS: Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger
RATING: Not Rated

If you’re just trying to hit the movies you’d watch an intro film class, the Truffaut film to watch is The 400 Blows. But if you want to dig a little deeper into one of the titans of the French New Wave, the move has to be Shoot the Piano Player, his irreverent mashup of the comedy and gangster flick. This hilarious, inventive movie ought to dispel any mistaken notions that watching old foreign films is some somber chore.

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DIRECTOR: Gaspar Noé
STARS: Sofia Boutella
RATING: R

Climax begins with a dance rehearsal lensed with some of the most thrillingly bravura camerawork I’ve ever seen, and that alone would be worth the watch. But then someone spikes their sangria with LSD, and the joyous gathering quickly spirals into absolute madness. It’s gorgeously trippy fun laced with primordial terror – in other words, the full Gaspar Noé experience!

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DIRECTOR: David O. Russell
STARS: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro
RATING: R

I cannot deny that there is something a little too simplistic, and borderline problematic, about the way Silver Linings Playbook boils down to “love can overcome mental illness.” Yet I also cannot deny the way my heart swoons at this tender romance … nor the way the corners of my mouth curl into a grand smile. The aching, vulnerable performances of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as two newly single people connecting because of and through their brokenness make David O. Russell’s deeply personal film shine like gold.

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DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson
STARS: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen
RATING: PG-13

“Epic” only scratches the surface of Peter Jackson’s work bringing The Lord of the Rings to life on screen. Cinema at this scale and scope never ceases to amaze. The Fellowship of the Ring, the series’ kickoff, achieves a remarkable balance between easing us into the world of Middle Earth, introducing the characters and providing a taste of the heavily grounded fantasy action that would follow.

Watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on Max

DIRECTOR: David Wain
STARS: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks
RATING: R

Role Models is in a rare echelon of movies that I’ve had to pause multiple times at home. And that’s not so people can go to the bathroom, mind you, that’s so people have time to catch their breath between belly laughs that last a distractingly large amount of time. The comedy flies fast and furious in David Wain’s film about two energy-drink salesmen doing court-ordered mentorship of children. Be it in the form pithy one-liners or a hold on Paul Rudd’s skeptical scowl just a second longer than you think it should, there’s always more to discover here.

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DIRECTOR: Jason Reitman
STARS: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
RATING: R

The passing of the Great Recession might have dulled some of the topical sting from Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, an irony-rich dramedy about a man who finds professional satisfaction in firing people he doesn’t know. But separated from the immediate context of its release, the poignancy of its emotional story really shines. Its themes about making connections and finding the humanity in unexpected places have a timeless resonance.

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DIRECTOR: Susan Seidelman
STARS: Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn
RATING: PG-13

Lest you think the ‘80s was all contentment with commercialism and conformity, Susan Seidelman provides a jolt to the system with Desperately Seeking Susan. Hilarious hijinks ensue when a bored Jersey housewife becomes fixated with a mysterious newspaper classified ad. She lets her curiosity get the better of her and gets drawn into a realm of crime, intrigue and excitement she could never imagine. The film is also notable for being Madonna’s big-screen debut, and Seidelman sets an early standard by capturing her uniquely alluring presence with the appropriate amount of mystique.

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DIRECTOR: Chris Columbus
STARS: Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan
RATING: PG-13

Robin Williams serves outsized hilarity and overwhelming heart in Mrs. Doubtfire, an uproarious comedy where his character dresses in the elaborate drag of a British housekeeper so he can see his children while they’re with his ex-wife. When the laughs are over, it leaves us with a poignant observation: love, not structure, makes a family.

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DIRECTOR: Stanley Kubrick
STARS: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
RATING: G

Over 50 years later, the wonder and awe of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 remains intact. The movie that made all your favorite directors want to make movies is a beguiling mystery box, indescribable as it conjures the ineffable. The visuals have not aged a bit, nor has the film’s understanding of the twinned promise and peril in the vastness of outer space.

Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey on Max

DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson
STARS: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon
RATING: R

Don’t try to follow the plot of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice like you would any regular detective story. And that recommendation is only partially because the film is the first cinematic adaptation of notoriously dense novelist Thomas Pynchon! The point of the film is not to uncover a culprit. It’s to get lost in a cloud of cultural smoke with Joaquin Phoenix’s Doc Sportello as he attempts to navigate the hazy boundary between the waning days of the free-wheeling hippie era and the impending Nixonian disillusionment. The unique atmosphere Anderson conjures is potent enough to give a contact high.

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DIRECTOR: David Lynch
STARS: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart
RATING: Not Rated

Want to get into the surrealistic stylings of David Lynch but find Twin Peaks and Mulholland Dr. too impenetrable? Try his feature debut Eraserhead, a perfect mixture of artful and accessible. You don’t need to understand every image for it’s overwhelming terror about being a new parent to permeate your soul. Lynch’s images might be abstract, but their impact is chillingly real.

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DIRECTOR: Jonathan Glazer
STARS: Christian Friedel, Sandra Hüller
RATING: PG-13

This is not your average WWII or Holocaust movie. The Zone of Interest isn’t about what you see — it’s about what you don’t. Jonathan Glazer’s masterful depiction of Auschwitz as seen from the perspective of the perpetrators forces us to conjure a vision of horror from nothing but staccato bursts of sound coming from inside. Our imagination can take us to some terrifying places, revealing the depravity of humanity as it remains still in the face of suffering.

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DIRECTORS: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
STARS: Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds
RATING: G

No movie about the movies captures the magic of the medium quite like Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s Singin’ in the Rain. This Technicolor musical captures all of Hollywood’s anxieties as it transitioned from silent films to talkies right when the ascendancy of television proved an existential threat to movies. One glimpse of Kelly’s exuberant dancing is all it takes to have your faith renewed in the enduring viability of cinema.

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DIRECTOR: Andrea Arnold
STARS: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough
RATING: R

Sometimes, it takes an outsider to see a place for what it really is, and American Honey uses Andrea Arnold’s British gaze to see America clearly and compellingly. Her guerilla filmmaking style captures the heartland through the eyes of a roving group of teenage magazine sellers. The film feels as alive as its adolescents, taking everything in – the good, the bad, the ugly – with sensory receptors wide open to the fullness of life. Their mostly, raw unprocessed experiences are as vivid as cinema gets. Nothing is sweeter.

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DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
STARS: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera
RATING: PG-13

Even apart from the “Barbenheimer” hype, Barbie still hits. It’s an intelligent, entertaining blockbuster that provides a sugar rush of nostalgia followed by a hearty helping of vegetables in the form of incisive cultural commentary. Filmmaker Greta Gerwig once again flips familiar narratives and figures on their head to explore what they say about our society — and, by extension, us. Margot Robbie’s “Stereotypical Barbie” and Ryan Gosling’s (just) Ken are ingenious vehicles to explore the traps of pre-set gender roles and the necessity of claiming one’s own identity and humanity.

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DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve
STARS: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac
RATING: PG-13

Dessert POWER! It feels like a shame to watch Denis Villeneuve’s fantasy epic Dune in any environment other than a giant cinema, but the grandeur of his vision is sure to translate on a screen of any size. This is classical hero’s journey monomyth as Timothée Chalamet’s young Paul Atreides comes to realize the full weight of his messianic potential. This is the rare work of cinema that truly aspires to inspire shock, awe, and wonder – and Villeneuve’s engrossing universe commands that respect.

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DIRECTOR: David Frankel
STARS: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt
RATING: PG-13

With a decade and change of distance, it’s safe to say The Devil Wears Prada is the millennial workplace movie. The adventures of Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs as she tries to please her demanding and mercurial boss, Meryl Streep’s sinfully savvy magazine editor Miranda Priestly, are a crash-course in how to navigate the corporate world. The lessons Andy learns as she tries to find that delicate balance between work and life are timely to the emergence of a new generation in the workforce and also timeless to mull over. That’s all.

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DIRECTOR: Greta Gerwig
STARS: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein
RATING: R

I’ve made the case that we should all watch Lady Bird on Thanksgiving because it’s as persuasive a case for us to express our gratitude as a movie can make. “The film can – or dare I say, should – serve as a yearly reminder to return to the table and count our blessings,” I wrote. “As Christine finds, it’s hard to tune out the constant cultural noise that the best version of yourself is off in the distance. The answers to a more grateful life are already there at home and in ourselves, like nourishing food for the soul perfectly arranged by Greta Gerwig.” It’s a lesson we could stand to hear on the other 364 days of the year besides Turkey Day, too.

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DIRECTOR: Luca Guadagnino
STARS: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg
RATING: R

It’s exceedingly rare these days for a true “star is born” moment to play out on screen, but that’s exactly what happens with Timothée Chalamet’s breakout role in Call Me By Your Name. As precious teenager Elio Perlman who discovers the unknowns of his sensual side, Chalamet is in full control of his character’s turbulent emotional and physical state. He exhibits a stunning mastery of externalizing Elio’s internal confusion as he slowly gives over to his newfound infatuation for another man. His raw vulnerability makes this a journey of self-discovery and romance truly worth swooning over.

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DIRECTOR: Wong Kar-Wai
STARS: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung
RATING: PG

Wong Kar-Wai’s tale of doomed would-be lovers in 1960s Hong Kong may well be a perfect movie. The sumptuous In the Mood for Love drips with longing as two neighbors who realize their spouses are cheating on them struggle to sublimate their own feelings for one another. With each subsequent needle drop of the plucky violin tune “Yumeji’s Theme,” Wong dials up the passion and the devastation.

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DIRECTOR: Charlie Chaplin
STARS: Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
RATING: G

Cinema may never produce a filmmaker who understands the connection between form and content like Charlie Chaplin. His final official outing as his iconic Little Tramp character, Modern Times, is the very definition of a classic. This silent comedy of Depression-era woes was timely for its release, but it endures because it’s a timeless satire of industrial society. This winning movie warms the heart as it places fire in the belly to strive for a world where all humans and their work have dignity.

Watch Modern Times on Max