I’m tired of seeing a handful of buzzy new releases on my home screen. That’s why I dug up three older gems on HBO Max for this weekend’s watchlist. Here’s a Swedish classic, a true-story drama that explores the darkest places, 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.
Who (2022)
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Mystery
IMDb: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz) is working in her apartment reviewing audio tagged by a smart speaker company, and one day she hears what sounds a lot like a murder. The problem is, she’s agoraphobic, and announcing this means she’s leaving her home for the first time in years. It’s a tight, paranoid thriller about what happens when you do the right thing that costs you your safety.
Zoë Kravitz absolutely shines in this underrated film, conveying pure panic with hyperventilating breaths and wide, frantic eyes. What really grabbed me were 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 90 minutes, this is the kind of movie you can start after dinner and still be in bed in 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 who is forced to rethink her own childhood after her mother finds an old story she wrote as a teenager. What she remembers as her relationship with her coach turns into something darker the closer she looks. As she uncovers buried memories, the comfortable narrative she has constructed to protect herself begins to crumble.
At its deepest, this film is about how memory protects us, sometimes at a devastating cost. Honestly, this one sat with me for days after I watched it, which I don’t say lightly. Laura Dern gives an absolute masterclass here, playing confidence and realization with heartbreaking precision. Knowing that it’s based on director Jennifer Fox’s real life makes every scene even more difficult.
You can stream the story 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 struggles with a terminal illness at home. She copes by comparing her troubles to Laika, the Soviet space dog sent alone to die in orbit, and strikes up a strange friendship with Saga (Melinda Kinnaman), a little boy. It’s a movie about finding absurd, gentle ways to survive a grief you’re too young to name.
What I love about this movie is that it avoids cheap melodrama and uses sharp, bittersweet humor to show how children process grief. Glanzelius carries the entire film in a performance that captures the raw resilience of childhood without feeling fake or overly polished. Decades later, it’s still one of the warmest sad movies I’ve ever experienced.
My Life as a Dog can be streamed on HBO Max
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