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Sunday, August 24, 2025

The 35 Finest Motion pictures on HBO Max Proper Now (August 2025)


Because the birthplace of status TV exhibits like The Sopranos and The Wire, HBO—and, by extension, HBO Max—is greatest recognized for its spectacular lineup of authentic collection. The community has additionally been upping the ante with feature-length content material that’s the stuff of Oscar desires.

Under is an inventory of a few of our favourite movies streaming on HBO Max—from Oscar-winning epics to dystopian sci-fi classics. If you happen to determine you’re in additional of a TV temper, head over to our picks for the greatest exhibits on HBO Max. If you happen to’re on the lookout for much more suggestions, take a look at our lists of the greatest films on Netflix, the greatest films on Amazon Prime, and the greatest films on Disney+.

If you happen to purchase one thing utilizing hyperlinks in our tales, we could earn a fee. This helps help our journalism. Be taught extra.

Closing Vacation spot Bloodlines

Twenty-five years after Closing Vacation spot arrived in theaters, and greater than a decade after the final installment, the most recent entry within the so-bad-it’s-good horror franchise simply delivered what’s undoubtedly its greatest chapter. Whereas the story follows the identical plot followers have come to know and love—a bunch of individuals handle to cheat dying, so Loss of life comes again to complete the job—this one provides some historical past to that acquainted rubric. Whereas that offers this entry a extra emotional degree, it’s additionally fairly intelligent within the new methods it chooses to off these whose destiny was predetermined. And whereas it’s gory as hell, there’s one thing subtly comedic about the entire affair.

Sinners

Scorching on the heels of a few of the greatest, and most profitable Marvel films ever (that will be the Black Panther movies), writer-director Ryan Coogler discovered an entire new technique to blow cinephiles’ minds with this beautiful vampire story. Set in Nineteen Thirties Mississippi, the movie stars Michael B. Jordan in a twin function as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, two World Warfare I veterans who return dwelling from Chicago with mob cash with a plan to run a juke joint. Opening night time of their new institution, nonetheless, goes terribly mistaken when a bunch of blood-sucking white musicians exhibits up at their door. Lush and filled with fantastically shot motion scenes, Sinners is already headed to the highest of most Better of 2025 lists. Along with the unique theatrical launch, HBO Max is streaming the movie in Black American Signal Language (BASL).

Get Out

In 2017, Jordan Peele went from one half of Key & Peele to an Oscar-winning screenwriter (to not point out the primary Black author to win the Academy Award for Finest Authentic Screenplay and the primary Black filmmaker to be nominated as a producer, author, and director in a single yr). Eight years later, the impression of Peele’s Get Out remains to be simply as spectacular. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) has been invited by his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), to spend the weekend at her mother and father’ dwelling in upstate New York. Whereas Chris worries that her seemingly upper-class mother and father gained’t be accepting of an interracial relationship, Rose assures him it gained’t be an issue—and he or she’s proper, however for all of the mistaken causes. With Get Out, Peele cracked the code on making a movie that was a horror film, psychological drama, and telling commentary on race all of sudden.

Parasite

Even when you don’t care about awards, the truth that Parasite is the primary—and nonetheless solely—non-English-language film to win a Finest Image Oscar ought to let you know one thing in regards to the universality of its themes. The Kims, a household struggling to make ends meet, set their scheming sights on the Parks, a well-to-do household with loads of issues of their very own, but in addition loads of cash to muffle their dysfunction. A minimum of for a time. Simply whenever you assume you know the way class warfare is taking part in out on this black comedy, it adjustments course to succeed in an surprising conclusion. As at all times, director Bong Joon-ho is aware of simply easy methods to lead his viewers down one path, solely to open a trapdoor into one other.

Battle Membership

An workplace drone (Edward Norton) with a love of catalog buying and self-help teams meets a rebellious cleaning soap maker (Brad Pitt) on a flight—then doesn’t appear capable of shake him. However doesn’t actually appear to wish to, particularly once they understand that beating the shit out of one another is a good way to alleviate the stress of on a regular basis life. Quickly, they’ve assembled a military of Battle Membership members who’re able to tackle the world. It’s been greater than 25 years since David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s best-selling novel turned a technology of moviegoers on their heads, and regardless that the movie was a little bit of a bomb when it was launched in theaters, it has since gained a large cult following—and even spawned some very actual combat golf equipment.

Mountainhead

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong simply may be in the present day’s foremost chronicler of the world’s 1 %. He stays in that lane with Mountainhead, his characteristic directorial debut, which follows an unexpectedly eventful weekend gathering of 4 of the tech world’s strongest males on the new mountain retreat of Hugo “Souper” Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), the one non-billionaire of the bunch. Whereas it’s meant to be a pleasant get-together between outdated friends, everybody has an ulterior motive for blocking the weekend on their calendar. However all plans exit the window when the social media platform owned by Ven Parish (Cory Michael Smith), the world’s richest man, sends the world into upheaval as the results of a fast-tracked AI characteristic that’s spreading disinformation at an alarming price. Which everybody however Ven sees as a possibility to extend each their energy and web price.

Babygirl

Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) is a high-powered CEO with a husband (Antonio Banderas) who doesn’t excite her and two teenage daughters she adores. However her life is turned the wrong way up when one morning, whereas strolling to her workplace, she is almost attacked by a canine. A good-looking younger stranger (Harris Dickinson) steps in and manages to avert the assault, which leaves Romy shaken—and curious. Later, that very same younger man is launched to her as Samuel, certainly one of her latest interns, who appears to maintain discovering methods to push the boundaries of applicable office conduct. Finally, Romy provides in to Samuel’s advances, and his style for BDSM-ish kink. Regardless of Romy’s considerations in regards to the unfair energy dynamic, Samuel insists that he’s the one who holds the facility of their relationship, as she is the one with all the pieces to lose. He may be proper about that.

The Brutalist

Adrien Brody earned his second Finest Actor Oscar for this historic epic from director Brady Corbet about László Tóth (Brody), a Bauhaus-trained architect who emigrates to America after surviving the Buchenwald focus camp. Tóth settles within the Philadelphia space and should rebuild his life by working menial jobs for little pay. However Tóth’s skills don’t go hidden for lengthy. A rich industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Man Pearce), learns about Tóth’s previous and commissions him to design an enormous venture. He additionally helps to hurry up the immigration of Tóth’s spouse, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), whom he has not seen since his incarceration. However Tóth quickly learns that the American Dream comes at a worth. Whereas, at its coronary heart, The Brutalist is a frank depiction of the immigrant expertise, it’s additionally a heartbreaking assertion on the ache that comes with processing trauma. The movie gained three of its 10 Oscar nominations, and is totally deserving of every.

Aftersun

Although Paul Mescal scored a Finest Actor Oscar nomination for his function in Aftersun, the movie—Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut—stays grossly underseen. Calum (Mescal) is a father scuffling with psychological anguish, and doing his greatest to cover it, whereas vacationing together with his precocious 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) in Turkey. However she sees by means of the facade, even when she doesn’t perceive what’s occurring. Whereas their leisurely seaside days occupy many of the movie’s working time, it’s Sophie’s recollection of the holiday and the paradox of its ending—to not point out the amazingly genuine chemistry between Mescal and Corio—that make the film each a robust meditation on psychological sickness and its impact on these round us, in addition to a putting coming-of-age story.

Home

Put together to have your thoughts blown by this trippy 1977 horror-comedy from Japan. Attractive (Kimiko Ikegami) is the daughter of a famed movie composer who returns from a visit to Italy with a shock: a brand new spouse. In an effort to keep away from the awkwardness of the scenario, she asks her aunt if she will keep at her creepy outdated mansion for the summer season, then brings alongside six of her closest mates. It doesn’t take lengthy for bizarre issues to begin occurring. Disembodied head assaults, homicidal pianos, and possessed cat portraits? This thrillingly bonkers cult traditional has all of it!

Gimme Shelter

Legendary documentarians Albert and David Maysles reinvented the rockumentary with this riveting first-hand recounting of the ultimate days of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour, which led to their notorious Altamont Free Live performance. The live performance, which attracted an estimated 300,000 individuals to California’s Altamont Speedway on December 6, 1969, was a catastrophe from the get-go—particularly given the band’s determination to usher in the Hells Angels because the present’s safety (one member famously stated they had been reportedly paid in beer). The Stones weren’t the one artists, however by the point they took the stage the group was uncontrolled. At one level, one of many Angels stabbed a person, Meredith Hunter, proper in entrance of the stage—a second that the filmmakers later realized that they had captured on movie. Seeing the band’s response to watching the footage themselves makes for a really compelling perspective on rock stardom.

Sing Sing

Colman Domingo proves but once more why he’s certainly one of in the present day’s most acclaimed actors with this Oscar-nominated efficiency. Divine G (Domingo) is an inmate at New York’s notorious Sing Sing jail, serving time for a criminal offense he didn’t commit. Throughout his imprisonment, he finds function and pleasure within the jail’s theater group, a part of its (very actual) Rehabilitation Via the Arts program. By tapping into his inside thespian, Divine G is ready to join together with his feelings, and he turns into decided to show his innocence. However his plain appearing expertise, which evokes a few of his fellow inmates, finally ends up posing an issue when it comes time for a parole listening to. In the end, Divine involves respect the transformative energy of the humanities in serving to him and a few of his fellow inmates to beat their previous traumas. Making the movie much more highly effective is the truth that most of the actors are previously incarcerated males who took half in this system.

Heretic

Hugh Grant earned some much-deserved awards consideration for enjoying to date towards kind on this religion-themed psychological thriller. Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are two younger Mormon missionaries who’re determined to search out somebody—anybody—who will allow them to discuss their faith in an try to convert new members to the church. When Mr. Reed (Grant), a seemingly type older man, invitations them into his dwelling as a way to ship their spiel to him and his spouse, it shortly turns into obvious, at the least to Sister Barnes, that one thing is amiss. And that Reed doesn’t a lot wish to hear about faith as he does speak about it—and pressure his personal beliefs on the younger girls in more and more weird, and lethal, methods.

Beau Is Afraid

Like author/director Ari Aster’s earlier two movies, Hereditary and Midsommar, a written abstract by no means fairly appears to do justice to his very particular model of moviemaking. In Beau Is Afraid, which is undoubtedly essentially the most surreal of all his movies, Joaquin Phoenix stars within the title function of Beau, a middle-aged man who lives alone in a crime-ridden neighborhood the place even working throughout the road to the shop is usually a lethal journey. When Beau, after a weird collection of occasions, learns that his mom has died, he should discover a technique to forge forward within the face of his many anxieties as a way to journey dwelling and cope with the aftermath. If solely he didn’t preserve falling prey to individuals promising to assist him, solely to attract him into their very own surreal circumstances. Although at occasions it will possibly really feel somewhat self-indulgent—and, at two hours and 59 minutes, overly lengthy—Phoenix’s efficiency and Aster’s auteurist stamp make it nonetheless compelling.

Carrie

Even when you’ve seen it 100 occasions and know what’s coming subsequent, Carrie nonetheless has the power to make you leap out of your chair—almost 50 years after its authentic launch. Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a shy, awkward teen who has been criminally sheltered (and recurrently abused) by her God-fearing mom (Piper Laurie). However when the neighborhood youngsters nicknamed her “Creepy Carrie,” they had been on to one thing. As a result of when Carrie is harassed, pissed, or in any other case going through some form of psychological torment, she lashes out—along with her kinetic powers. Sadly, her classmates solely find out about this latent expertise when it’s too late: after they’ve correctly humiliated her at her highschool promenade. Although there are sequels and remakes—together with Mike Flanagan’s upcoming remake for Prime Video—there’s just one authentic (and stable) adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel, and it’s this one.

We Dwell in Time

Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh ignite the display with their chemistry on this romantic tearjerker that follows the couple over the course of a decade, from their meet-not-so-cute (she hits him along with her automobile) to their journey into parenthood and, finally, going through the last word curveball that threatens their happily-ever-after. Garfield and Pugh are two of essentially the most acclaimed actors of their technology, and We Dwell in Time proves why.

Juror #2

Up till now, most of what you’ve heard about Juror #2 is the way it’s certainly one of Clint Eastwood’s most completed directorial efforts—and but by some means it obtained shafted when it got here to its theatrical launch. Now’s your likelihood to see what all of the fuss is about. Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is a journalist and recovering alcoholic who’s making each effort to keep up his sobriety. That turns into a little bit of a problem when he’s placed on the jury of a high-profile homicide trial … solely to appreciate that he could have inadvertently performed a component in what occurred. Hoult is incredible on this edge-of-your-seat authorized (and moral) drama.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

It has been almost 40 years since Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice stormed the late ’80s field workplace. Within the many years since, we’ve usually heard rumblings {that a} sequel was within the works. Or may be within the works. Or most positively was within the works. Or won’t be within the playing cards in any respect. Effectively, in 2024 it lastly occurred, and it was as if Michael Keaton had by no means stepped away from the function in any respect (everlasting life has a approach of doing that to you). This time, nonetheless, Lydia (Winona Ryder) remains to be doing her greatest to neglect her rendezvous with the bio-exorcism professional. However when she returns to her childhood dwelling, it’s her personal badass daughter (Jenna Ortega) who finds a technique to carry him again into all their lives.

Tremendous/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Along with the all-new Superman film, audiences have James Gunn and his DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran (partly) to thank for bringing this long-overdue documentary in regards to the final superhero actor to worldwide audiences. Administrators Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui ship a heartfelt, shifting tribute to Reeve—as an actor, sure, however much more in order an individual who by no means gave up. Alexandra Reeve Givens, Matthew Reeve, and Will Reeve—Reeve’s kids—share their very own tales about their dad, giving the venture one more layer of intimacy. No, you’re crying.

Watchmen: Chapter I

Brandon Vietti (Batman: Beneath the Pink Hood) directs this revolutionary animated adaption of Alan Moore’s Hugo Award-winning graphic novel about an investigation into the homicide of Edward Blake—higher referred to as a superhero named the Comic. When the police come up empty by way of suspects, the costumed vigilante Rorschach (Titus Welliver) decides to take the case into his personal fingers, and finally involves imagine that somebody is making an attempt to knock off superheroes. So he enlists the assistance of a bunch of them as a way to put a cease to the killing spree.

MaXXXine

MaXXXine is the third movie in writer-director Ti West’s X trilogy, which started with X and Pearl. It’s set instantly after the occasions of Pearl: Mia Goth’s Maxine Minx is determined to flee her upbringing as a preacher’s daughter and make the transfer from porn to extra mainstream films. She will get her likelihood when she lands the lead in a horror film, The Puritan II. Then her mates begin getting murdered. In the end, Maxine is pressured to confront the sins of her previous and discover a technique to obtain the celebrity she so desperately desires of.

Civil Warfare

Within the not-too-distant future, america has remodeled into an all-out battlefield between an authoritarian authorities, headed by a third-term president (Nick Offerman), and a stream of secessionist actions that threaten to destroy the nation as we all know it. However a bunch of journalists (led by Kirsten Dunst) is decided to doc the downfall of America at any price, in order that they set about heading to the White Home as a way to interview the embattled president. Which is way simpler stated than executed. Oscar nominee Alex Garland (Ex-Machina) writes and directs this dystopian drama that usually hits uncomfortably near dwelling.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Furiosa could have been dubbed final summer season’s first field workplace “bomb,” however don’t let these dollar-focused headlines deter you from this one. Anya Taylor-Pleasure, who’s undoubtedly one of the vital versatile actors working in the present day, shines within the function of Imperator Furiosa, a badass emancipator who dares to problem gender conventions in a harmful, postapocalyptic world the place (no shock in any respect) males make the foundations. Taylor-Pleasure does an admirable job embracing the function that Charlize Theron memorably originated in Mad Max: Fury Highway.

Drive My Automobile

Regardless of incomes 4 Oscar nominations in 2022—and profitable one for Finest Worldwide Function Movie—it nonetheless feels fully correct to state that Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Automobile stays woefully underseen. Right here’s your likelihood to do your half to repair that. Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) ia a famend theater director nonetheless reeling from the dying of his spouse. Finally, he makes the choice to start working once more and agrees to a two-month residency to direct a play in Hiroshima, an hour from his dwelling. So every day, a younger girl (Toko Miura) drives him to and from the theater. All that point spent in a confined house collectively finally results in a friendship—one the place Kafuku feels comfy sharing the challenges he’s going through together with his new venture and, finally, the reality about the best way by which his spouse betrayed him. Highway films have by no means felt so intimate—or leisurely.

Love Lies Bleeding

English writer-director Rose Glass follows up her BAFTA-nominated Saint Maud with this twisty, hyper-violent love story. It’s 1989 in a rural New Mexico city the place health club supervisor Lou (Kristen Stewart) is doing her greatest to remain below the radar and keep watch over her sister Beth (Jena Malone), who’s in an abusive relationship along with her husband JJ (Dave Franco). However Lou’s life is turned the wrong way up when Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a stunning younger bodybuilder, begins coming to Lou’s health club to coach for an upcoming competitors in Las Vegas. The 2 fall in love—after which Lou’s hidden household secrets and techniques come tumbling out of the closet and threaten her life, and the lives of these she cares about.

Faye

“I’m Faye Dunaway. That’s who I’m.” That’s the best way the Oscar winner introduces herself within the trailer for Laurent Bouzereau’s feature-length documentary. However what the movie reveals is that there’s much more to Faye Dunaway than the glamorous picture related to the legendary star of Community. Dunaway opens up in a approach that has hardly ever been seen earlier than, discussing her childhood and household, her struggles with bipolar dysfunction, and the way the characters she has performed proceed to impression her. It’s an interesting portrait of a real Hollywood icon.

Quad Gods

Jess Jacklin’s characteristic documentary follows the fascinating journey of Blake, Prentice, and Richard—three people with quadriplegia who meet in a neuro-rehabilitation lab at Mount Sinai Hospital and launch a plan to create the world’s first all-quadriplegic esports staff. It’s a noble pursuit, however one fraught with challenges as they break down the doorways of ableism. At its coronary heart, Quad Gods is a narrative of friendship, perseverance, and survival.

Am I OK?

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a thirtysomething residing in Los Angeles, always failing at relationships and questioning why she doesn’t have all the pieces discovered but. After drunkenly sharing the story of the time she kissed a feminine pal as a teen, she begins to appreciate that the issue in her love life won’t be the lads she’s selecting, however that she’s selecting males in any respect. Former Saturday Evening Dwell author Lauren Pomerantz penned the script for the movie primarily based on her personal expertise of popping out in her thirties. Tig Notaro and her spouse Stephanie Allynne do an admirable job as codirectors, treating Lucy’s journey of self-discovery with the respect it deserves—and loads of humor.

MoviePass, MovieCrash

For higher or worse, hundreds of thousands of movie followers will keep in mind 2012 because the yr of MoviePass. For $25 per 30 days, you might mainly stay in a movie show—which was nice for audiences, not so nice for film theaters (which had been already struggling), and finally disastrous for the corporate itself. For anybody who nonetheless has their MoviePass, this revealing documentary tells the actual story of all that went mistaken behind the scenes, and shares the story of the unsung heroes who actually did simply wish to create a product that film lovers might embrace. By the best way: If you happen to do certainly nonetheless have your authentic MoviePass, this doc has made it a worthwhile piece of memorabilia—with some promoting for north of $1,000.

Dune and Dune: Half Two

Since breaking by means of with the Oscar-nominated Incendies (2010), Denis Villeneuve has continued to show that he’s one of the vital gifted filmmakers working in the present day. As if making a Blade Runner sequel that didn’t suck wasn’t sufficient, Villeneuve then went on to crack the cinematic code on Frank Herbert’s Dune collection—one thing that true visionaries like David Lynch and Alejandro Jodorowsky had tried earlier than him, albeit largely unsuccessfully. Each the 2021 authentic movie and its sequel are streaming on HBO Max—as is Lynch’s 1984 adaptation (which has change into a little bit of a cult traditional through the years). The movie follows the destiny of the planet Arrakis—and its provide of melange, a singular spice and essentially the most invaluable substance within the universe—which rests within the fingers of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), the untested son of a robust duke. Searching for extra Dune motion? The prequel collection Dune: Prophecy, starring Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, and Mark Robust is streaming in full.

The Zone of Curiosity

In 1943, Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) was the commandant of Auschwitz who spent his days taking part in god with the lives of the focus camp’s harmless prisoners. However what occurred when Höss went dwelling? That’s the fact Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winning movie examines, and the reply is: Not a lot. Höss lives proper subsequent door to the camp, within the so-called Zone of Curiosity, together with his spouse Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their 5 kids. Inside these 4 partitions, they try to construct a dream life for his or her household—whereas the sound of gunshots, incoming trains, and furnaces being lit are simply part of day by day life. Sure, it’s each bit as brutal—and needed—because it sounds.

Dream State of affairs

Like Forrest Gump’s famed field of candies, you by no means know what you’re going to get from a Nicolas Cage efficiency. However he’s a one-of-a-kind actor whose roles are inclined to fall into certainly one of two classes: completely transcendent, or scenery-chewing at its most voracious. Dream State of affairs may be very a lot the previous, and has been heralded as one of many Oscar-winning actor’s greatest performances by some critics. Rightfully so. Cage stars as Paul Matthews, an unassuming biology professor who abruptly begins showing in strangers’ desires and achieves viral fame on account of it. Like all good Cage efficiency, this one is multifaceted and examines the draw back of sudden fame and what it actually prices.

Barbie

Greta Gerwig is a grasp of respiration new life into outdated properties (see: Little Ladies). With Barbie, she has ignited a revolution. Barbie (Margot Robbie) resides her greatest life in Barbieland—till someday, when her completely plastic world, and heels, abruptly start to break down. To get her fabulous life again, Barbie should journey to the actual world—nicely, Los Angeles—to find out who or what’s inflicting her existential disaster. The movie grossed almost $1.5 billion worldwide, which means you’ve got already seen it. However even when you did, it’s completely price a second watch—if solely to lament its many Oscar snubs.

Actuality

In 2017, an intelligence report about Russian interference within the 2016 US presidential election was leaked anonymously. One yr later, former NSA translator Actuality Winner (sure, that’s her actual title) was sentenced to greater than 5 years in jail for the crime—the longest sentence ever obtained by a authorities whistleblower. HBO’s reigning muse, Sydney Sweeney (EuphoriaThe White Lotus), shines on this gripping true story, which performs out largely in actual time because the FBI knocks on the 25-year-old’s door and spends greater than an hour questioning her.

All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed

Discovering success in a single’s lifetime may look like the dream of each artist, however Nan Goldin has larger ambitions. Although she’s a photographer by commerce, she’s an activist by calling and has lengthy used her digital camera to seize painfully intimate moments of America in disaster, together with intensive work targeted on the HIV/AIDS and opioid epidemics. However All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed reveals the artist in battle: Ought to she permit her work to be showcased in one of many distinguished museums or galleries which have obtained endowments from the Sackler household—the Massive Pharma household that many blame for America’s opioid disaster? It’s a shifting portrait of an artist keen to threat all of it for her beliefs.

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