If you’ve ever perused Amazon Prime Video, you likely know that the streaming service has plenty of movies. Spending all day researching every one of those movies is not the best use of your time, though, even if it’s the only way you can really know which ones are worth your time.
That’s where we come in. We’ve pulled together three great Prime Video movies that are well worth wathcing. From low-budget sci-fi to decades-old Oscar fare, this list has something for everyone.
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+.
The Pianist (2002)
Adrien Brody is getting plenty of Oscar buzz, and with good reason, for his performance in The Brutalist. More than 20 years ago, though, Brody won his first and only Oscar for The Pianist, which feels like it would make a remarkably good double feature with The Brutalist. The film tells the story of a celebrated concert pianist who finds himself trapped inside the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
After he is separated from his family, he hides amid the rubble of the Ghetto until the war is over. Brody is heartbreaking and brilliant here, so much so that his Oscar victory makes perfect sense. It’s a tremendously moving performance in a movie that is unsparing in its depiction of the Holocaust and its toll on one man.
You can watch The Pianist on Amazon Prime Video.
The Vast of Night (2020)
One of the best underseen indie films of recent years, The Vast of Night follows two teenagers who uncover a mysterious frequency in their small town in the 1950s. As they work to figure out the source of the signal, they uncover a history in their town that they never anticipated.
The Vast of Night is the kind of low-budget sci-fi that we rarely get anymore, and it features several extended scenes that feel almost experimental. You’ll find yourself gripped from the minute you sit down to start watching it.
You can watch The Vast of Night on Amazon Prime Video.
Me Before You (2016)
An old-fashioned romantic weepie that knows exactly what it is, Me Before You definitely has some strangely ableist undertones. If you can overlook those, though, the film is a pretty lovely story about a quadriplegic man who falls in love with the woman who was hired to take care of him.
As the two of them fall in love, we begin to realize that things might not end as happily as we’d hoped. Anchored by one of Emilia Clarke’s best performances as a scatterbrained, lovely young woman trying to make ends meet, Me Before You is almost guaranteed to leave you in silly, silly tears. There’s nothing wrong with that!
You can watch Me Before You on Amazon Prime Video.