The best films on Amazon Prime Video to stream right now
From ‘Saltburn’ to ‘Foe’, these are the best films you need on your watchlist
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For a few years now, the best films – adored by audiences and critics alike – have been coming from streaming services such as Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video. Collectively, the three platforms picked up a whopping 36 Oscar nominations for the 2024 Academy Awards, showing their sheer dominance in Hollywood right now.
Prime Video has some of the best original films available to stream. From Emerald Fennell’s viral dark comedy Saltburn – which birthed a million memes soundtracked by Sophie Ellis-Bextor – to the psychological thriller Foe starring Academy Award nominees Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal, the streamer has a lot to offer those with a Prime subscription.
Below, we’ve rounded up our top picks of the best films streaming now on Amazon Prime Video, and we’ll be updating the list as more get released (we’re looking at you, American Fiction).
Read more: How to sign up to Apple TV+ for free
The best films to watch on Prime Video right now
‘Saltburn’
It’s the film that people just can’t stop talking about. Emerald Fennell’s Golden Globe-nominated black comedy Saltburn might be the most depraved thing we saw last year, but it has to be on everyone’s watchlist. We won’t give too much away, but the film stars Banshees of Inisherin star Barry Keoghan as Oliver, a working-class student who’s been invited to spend the summer at fellow Oxford University student Felix’s luxury estate.
‘Freelance’
No one does action heroes quite as well as John Cena. In Freelance, the wrestler-turned-actor plays an ex-special forces operative who has taken a job to provide security for a journalist interviewing a dictator, but when a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, they’re forced to escape into the jungle.
‘Foe’
Based on author Iain Reid’s bestselling novel of the same name, Foe is a psychological thriller set in the near future and stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a married couple who live on a remote farm. Their life together is upended when they are visited by a stranger.
‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’
In this action thriller, Daisy Ridley plays a woman with a seemingly ordinary life, hiding a dark secret. Her estranged father is Ben Mendelsohn’s The Marsh King, a man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After he escapes from prison, Ridley’s character is convinced he’s coming for her daughter, so she takes to the wilderness to confront him herself.
‘Role Play’
In this action-packed thriller, the lives of young, married couple Emma (Kaley Cuoco) and Dave (David Oyelowo) are turned upside down when Bob (Bill Nighy) exposes Emma as an international assassin. Having put her family’s lives at risk, Emma goes on a mission to protect her family at all costs. It’s a fun flick that would have been on cinema screens in the years before streaming.
‘The Other Zoey’
This teen romantic comedy is a nice, easy watch. Computer nerd Zoey, who is very happy being single, is thrown into a spin when Zach, the school’s football star, gets amnesia and mistakes Zoey for his girlfriend. She lets him believe it, but just as she’s about to tell him the truth, everything goes a little topsy-turvy when Zoey meets Zach’s cousin Miles, with whom she has a lot in common. You can see where this is headed.
‘Silver Dollar Road’
For something a little more thought-provoking, we have the documentary Silver Dollar Road. Directed by Academy Award nominee Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), it’s based on the 2019 ProPublica article that highlighted how the American legal system could be exploited to prevent Black land ownership. The documentary follows Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, as they try to defend their ancestors’ land, as well as the lives of Melvin and Licurtis, who were wrongfully imprisoned for eight years.
‘The Burial’
In courtroom drama The Burial, Jamie Foxx plays a slick personal injury lawyer who finds himself in over his head when he’s recruited for a contract case. Described as “glossy and appealing” in The Independent’s review of the film, our writer said: “This story is a classic David vs Goliath one, in which a Biloxi funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones as Jeremiah O’Keefe) goes up against billionaire Raymond Loewen (Bill Camp).” The Burial is loosely based on a true story, which was chronicled by Jonathan Harr in The New Yorker in 1999.
‘After Everything’
The fifth and final After film, After Everything is the only film in the franchise not to have source material to follow, so there are a lot of surprises for fans who didn’t get to watch the film on the big screen. Picking up where the fourth film ended, After Everything follows Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) as he struggles with writer’s block and moving on after his split with Tessa (Josephine Langford). Resolute in his quest to win her back, Hardin books a ticket to Lisbon, Portugal, where he hopes to reconnect.
‘Totally Killer’
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Kiernan Shipka knows all about starring in campy horror shows. It’s a spoof on teen-slashers that takes place 35 years after the murder of three teenagers. The so-called “Sweet Sixteen Killer” returns on Halloween night to kill Shipka’s character Jamie, but on the run after coming face to face with the murderer, she accidentally travels back to 1987 (when the murders first took place) to take down the killer with her then-teenage mum. Will she succeed or get stuck in the past?
How to sign up to Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video costs £8.99 per month or £95 a year, which works out as £7.92 a month. You’ll gain access to all of Amazon Prime Video’s back catalogue, as well as free next-day and same-day delivery, Prime Reading, Amazon Music, Prime Gaming and even Deliveroo Plus.
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