How many hours have we all lost the endless streaming scroll? Aiming for a little kick back, you end up perusing title after title, intent on finding just the right movie, ultimately unsure what to chose in the face of overwhelming options. Fret not, the Collider staff did all that scrolling for you, scanning through the catalogue in search of the best picks for an entertaining night in, and putting together a wide-ranging list of the best movies currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime. What’s more, we’ll be updating the list regularly with additional picks, so you won’t run out of viewing material any time soon. The list spans genres, decades, and ratings, so there should be a little something for everyone, but if you can’t find what you’re looking for below (and you’re a multi-platform streamer), be sure to check out our picks for the best tv shows and best movies on Netflix.
Adventureland
Written and Directed by: Greg Mottola
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Martin Starr
Considering the awe-inspiring comic breakout that Jonah Hill provided inSuperbad, it’s easy to forget the masterful, intimate work that director Greg Mottola put into the film, how buoyant and yet inarguably thoughtful he made the narrative even beyond the barrage of top-shelf guffaws, both physical and verbal. For his follow-up, Adventureland, the director didn’t stray too far from that subject matter, focusing on the summer in-between Jesse Eisenberg’s James Brennan’s senior year in high school and freshman year in college. Nevertheless, the slight shift in time is echoed in the wry, pickled tone of the film, which charts James’ summer job at the titular amusement park and the barbed yet tender romance he begins with co-worker Em (Kristen Stewart). Mottola lines the narrative with plenty of laughs, including an almost unsettling amount of nut-shots, and exquisite personal detail – I almost screamed with joy when Husker Du’s “Don’t Want to Know If You’re Lonely” started playing in James’ car.
Still, the roots of Adventureland’s emotional wallop are in disappointment. James is forced to take this job due to his father’s own professional and personal troubles, and his own revelations about Em and her involvement with the park’s married mechanic (a toned down, surprisingly nuanced Ryan Reynolds) tears down our hero’s idealism, sensitivity, and reason. Mottola doesn’t spare the pain and humiliation that comes with these happenings, but his ultimate suggestion is that disappointment, the shattering of expectations, is supremely healthy and can lead to grown and something like peace, if one can survive all the bitterness. When the film ends victoriously with INXS’ “Don’t Change,” the lyrics reflect the film’s shimmering wisdom of knowing that there’s only so much you can do about the world around you, but the possibilities of the internal are infinite. — Chris Cabin
Batman: The Movie
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Cast: Adam West, Burt Ward, Caesar Romano, Lee Merriwether, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin
While the grittiness of the modern Batman movies has its place, there’s also something to be said for the sheer joy and delight the 1966 Batman: The Moviebrings to the character. Whether it’s in the form of Bat-shark-repellant or turning world leaders into vials of colored sand, the movie is an absolute blast that takes the “dark” out of “Dark Knight” but makes the character and his world so much more fun in exchange. – Matt Goldberg
Coherence
Written and Directed by: James Ward Byrkit
Cast: Nicholas Brendan, Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Lorene Scafaria, Elizabeth Gracen, Hugo Armstrong, Alex Manugian, Lauren Maher
Shot over the course of five nights with an almost entirely improvised script,Coherence is a tremendous feature film debut from Gore Verbinski‘s frequent storyboard artist James Ward Byrkit, and one of the best original science fiction concepts in recent memory. Set at a dinner party reunion among old friends on the night of a rare astronomical event, tensions rise as the laws of science and the firmaments of reality bend and break over the course of one mind-bending night. Part sci-fi, part horror, the no-budget chamber piece succeeds not by banking on its fantastic concept, but seeing that concept to its completion through honest character arcs and the unsettling reality that there’s nothing more frightening than the way we perceive ourselves. – Haleigh Foutch
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