When HBO Max debuts on May 27, it will launch with original content starring Anna Kendrick, the cast of Sesame Street, and even a new version of the Looney Tunes. But while there are plans for a greater volume of original content to come later this year (including new movies from Seth Rogen and Steven Soderbergh), the biggest draw of HBO Max at the moment is its vast library of legacy content, spanning the Warner Bros. archives of film and television production across decades. Ahead, the best movies and shows to watch on HBO Max—from Friends to North by Northwest.
Classics Curated by TCM
Cinephiles who long for the days of FilmStruck, which WarnerMedia shut down in 2018, will be pleased to learn that HBO Max is loaded with some of the best films of all time, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Singin’ in the Rain, and The Wizard of Oz, among many others. New HBO Max subscribers would be wise to start with that quintet of transformational Hollywood classics—and here are some other recommendations to tackle next.
Bonnie and Clyde: “They’re young. They’re in love. And they kill people.” It’s fairly easy to draw a line connecting filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, and Melina Matsoukas back to Arthur Penn and his 1967 classic. As Dave Kehr wrote in his New York Times obituary for the Oscar-nominated director, movies like Taxi Driver and The Godfather might not even exist without Penn’s violent and sexy take on the infamous bank-robbing duo as a precedent setter. Bonnie and Clyde cemented Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as stars and introduced an audience desperate for something new to something beyond their wildest expectations. How good is Bonnie and Clyde? Fifty-three years later, it still feels as vital and watchable as any modern thriller.
North by Northwest: Cineastes can surely quibble about which Alfred Hitchcock movie was the master of suspense’s best, but there should be no argument about which is his most entertaining. North by Northwest is a blast from the jump, a relentless chase that set the template for Hollywood blockbusters for decades to come.
The 400 Blows: Is there really anything left to write about The 400 Blows? Perhaps not, but it’s never a bad time to remember the iconic theme, which is as haunting and memorable even after 400 listens.
The Wild Bunch: Whatever tricks Tarantino didn’t learn from Bonnie and Clyde, he borrowed from Sam Peckinpah. The Wild Bunch is a savage, violent, nihilistic deconstruction of the Western that includes enough antiheroes to populate a common AMC series. It remains shockingly relevant and totally awesome.
Modern Movies
Fortunately, recent Warner Bros. history is about more than the debate over the Snyder Cut. HBO Max launched with a number of the studio’s blockbusters from the ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and today, including every Harry Potter movie, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and the Lord of the Rings films, as well as numerous third-party titles. It’s a flashy crop of four-quadrant hits, but don’t sleep on these underappreciated gems, either.
The Devil’s Advocate: Consider the run Al Pacino went on between 1993 and 1999, after winning his long-overdue Academy Award for Scent of a Woman: Carlito’s Way, Heat, City Hall, Donnie Brasco, The Devil’s Advocate, The Insider, Any Given Sunday. No one would confuse those seven movies with The Godfather, but to borrow his Oscar-winning catchphrase: hoo-ah, what a lineup. The Devil’s Advocate is by far the silliest entry on this list, which also makes it the most fun. Pacino is unhinged in the Taylor Hackford thriller about the literal devil (Pacino) who tries to corrupt his son (Keanu Reeves) into fathering the antichrist. A third-act soliloquy about the difference between God and himself is better than the entirety of Scent of a Woman.