The holiday season is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the busiest for Amazon as a company. While most people know the company primarily for its massive online marketplace, it also has a pretty impressive library to peruse.
If you’re looking for a great movie to watch this weekend, we’ve pulled out three titles from Prime Video that you might not realize are worth your time. Whatever you’re looking for, you can hopefully find it in one of the three titles below.
We also have guides to the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Beau is Afraid (2023)
Ari Aster has made a number of generally surreal movies, but Beau is Afraid is undeniably the strangest. The movie stars Joaquin Phoenix as a paranoid loner who takes a strange and quixotic journey home to visit his mother.
The movie’s penchant for flights of fancy can be alienating, but Beau is Afraid is unafraid to burrow deeply into the anxieties of its central character from the second it starts. Few movies in the past decade are more likely to induce a panic attack, and while that may not sound like high praise, it absolutely is.
You can watch Beau Is Afraid on Amazon Prime Video.
King of New York (1990)
It’s easy today to think that Christopher Walken was only ever a comedic figure. All you need to do to dispel yourself of that notion, though, is watch a movie like King of New York. In the film, Walken plays a drug lord who, after being let out of prison, is determined to reconquer the territory he once held.
His goal, which is to give the money he consolidates to those who most need it, adds a fascinating wrinkle to this crime thriller, even as he comes to understand that donating his dirty money and getting out of the game is not as simple as he suspected.
You can watch King of New York on Amazon Prime Video.
Bottoms (2023)
One of the great comedies of the 2020s, Bottoms tells the story of two best friends who start a female fight club at their local high school largely so that they can meet girls and lose their virginity. Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott are both excellent in their central roles, and the movie is sharply written and well performed by its large ensemble cast.
Although the movie’s final act may or may not leave you satisfied, it’s impossible to deny the movie’s sheer entertainment value, and the fact that it works far more often than it doesn’t.
You can watch Bottoms on Amazon Prime Video.