In Recent years, Netflix and Apple TV+ have been duking it out to have the most prestigious film offerings, but some of the best movies are on Amazon Prime Video. The streamer was one of the first to go around picking up film festival darlings and other lovable favorites, and those movies are all still there in the library, so if they flew under your radar the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up.
Our picks for the best movies on Amazon Prime are below. All the films in our guide are included in your Prime subscription—no renting here. Once you’ve watched your fill, check out our lists for the best shows on Netflix and best movies on Disney+ if you’re looking for something else to watch. We also have a guide to the best shows on Amazon, if that’s what you’re in the mood for.
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Merry Little Batman
Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin … takes over protecting Gotham City solo on a cold Christmas Eve, when the Caped Crusader is away on Justice League business. Focusing on the Damian Wayne incarnation of Robin—here taking on the mantle of “Little Batman”—Merry Little Batman finds Damian taking on the likes of the Penguin, Bane, and Mr. Freeze, desperate to prove he's ready to join the family business permanently by saving Christmas from the Joker's evil plans. Proof Batman stories don't always have to be grim sojourns into Bruce Wayne's tortured psyche, this festive animated treat is a delight, crammed with loving details for fans of the comics while serving as a fantastic entry point for newcomers. Art director Guillaume Fesquet's unique approach, based on the style of Ronald Searle, offers one of the most distinctive takes on the Dynamic Duo in their eight decades of existence, too.
Nosferatu
More than a century after F. W. Murnau brought vampires to the silent screen with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors—liberally and infamously “inspired” by Bram Stoker’s Dracula—Robert Eggers reimagines cinema’s first blood-sucker. The story will be familiar to anyone acquainted with Murnau’s or Stoker’s works: Ambitious young estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to Transylvania to finalize a property deal with the enigmatic Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who becomes obsessed with Hutter’s new bride, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). But Eggers presents the trail of blood, plague, and terror that follows in a morbidly fascinating new light. Every frame is gorgeously shot, and Skarsgård brings the rapacious Orlok to demonic un-life with an utterly heart-stopping performance.
Knives Out
The debut outing of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) finds the master detective investigating the suspicious death of famed crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). It's a case complicated by the deceased’s expansive, dysfunctional family, all of whom appear to have a motive for killing their supposedly beloved patriarch. Boasting a murderers' row of acting talent, including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Ana de Armas as Thrombey’s attentive nurse Marta—director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out remains a masterful modern updating of the classic whodunit, packed full of meta twists that almost single-handedly reenergized the genre.
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