I got tired of seeing the handful of buzzy new releases on my home screen. This is why I dug up three older gems on HBO Max for this weekend’s watchlist. Here we have a Swedish coming-of-age classic, a true-story drama exploring the darkest places in mind, and a Soderbergh thriller you can finish before bed.
We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best free movies, and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.
Kimi (2022)
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Mystery
IMDb: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz) works from her apartment reviewing audio flagged by a smart speaker company, and one day she hears something that sounds a lot like a murder. The problem is she’s agoraphobic, and reporting it means leaving her home for the first time in years. It’s a tight, paranoid thriller about what happens when doing the right thing costs you your safety.
Zoë Kravitz absolutely shines in this underrated movie, conveying pure panic through hyperventilating breaths and wide, frantic eyes. What really hooked me was Steven Soderbergh’s hyper-stylized camera movements. He uses wide angles and claustrophobic framing to make you feel as utterly trapped and paranoid as Angela. At under 90 minutes, it’s the kind of movie you can start after dinner and still be in bed on time.
You can stream Kimi on HBO Max
The Tale (2018)
Genre: Drama, Biography, Mystery
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 99%
Jennifer (Laura Dern) is a documentary filmmaker forced to reexamine her own childhood after her mother finds an old story she wrote as a teenager. What she remembers as a formative relationship with her coach starts unraveling into something much darker the closer she looks. As she uncovers buried memories, the comfortable narrative she built to protect herself starts breaking down.
Deep down, this movie is about how memory protects us, sometimes at a devastating cost. Honestly, this one sat with me for days after watching it, which isn’t something I say lightly. Laura Dern gives an absolute masterclass here, playing self-doubt and realization with heartbreaking precision. Knowing it’s based on director Jennifer Fox’s real life makes every scene hit even harder.
You can stream The Tale on HBO Max
My Life as a Dog (1985)
Genre: Drama
IMDb: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Twelve-year-old Ingemar (Anton Glanzelius) is sent to live with his uncle Gunnar (Tomas von Bromssen) in a small Swedish village while his mother battles a terminal illness back home. He copes by comparing his troubles to Laika, the Soviet space dog sent to die alone in orbit, and by striking an odd friendship with Saga (Melinda Kinnaman), a tomboy. It’s a film about finding absurd, tender ways to survive grief you’re too young to name.
What I love about this film is how it avoids cheap melodrama and uses sharp, bittersweet humor to show how kids process grief. Glanzelius carries the whole film on a performance that captures raw childhood resilience without feeling fake or overly polished. Decades later, it’s still one of the warmest sad movies I’ve ever sat through.
You can stream My Life as a Dog on HBO Max