The Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now (November 2026)

Last updated: November 1, 2026

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Too much to scroll through and not enough time to watch it all. These are the best movies streaming on HBO Max right now, pulled straight from my reviews and updated every month as titles come and go. Every pick is something I’ve seen and stand behind, with a link to the full review if you want the long version.

SING STREET (2016)

🍅95%Critics🍿92%Audience⭐7.9IMDb

Big-hearted, shamelessly cheerful and joyous beyond measure, Sing Street is an upbeat victory for director John Carney. Brimming with laughs and a surprising amount of tears, Sing Street is rarely seen uplift cinema sure to inspire an embarrassingly wide grin from start to finish, suffused with dreadfully catchy tunes to boot.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (2025)

🍅94%Critics🍿85%Audience⭐7.6IMDb

One Battle After Another is another masterwork from American auteur Paul Thomas Anderson, who turns his incisive storytelling toward contemporary America and uses it as a battle-bound backdrop for a story about fighting for what matters. Every single thing works.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

ROADRUNNER: A FILM ABOUT ANTHONY BOURDAIN (2021)

🍅91%Critics🍿94%Audience⭐7.7IMDb

Morgan Neville’s involving documentary puts Anthony Bourdain’s travels and struggles into razor sharp focus, creating a compelling and full-bodied portrait of an ambitious journeyman, a restless searcher, a semi-charmed lover, and a crestfallen philosopher.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

SICARIO (2015)

🍅91%Critics🍿85%Audience⭐7.7IMDb

Emboldened by Roger Deakins’s screamingly accomplished cinematography, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s hypnotic score, Benicio Del Toro’s unforgettable performance and Denis Villeneuve‘s prudent, cold-blooded direction, Sicario‘ commits cinematic terrorism against our desire for narrative order. It’s time to welcome Villeneuve to the Masters circle.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

MOTHER MARY (2026)

🍅69%Critics🍿59%Audience⭐5.4IMDb

David Lowery’s hypnotic Mother Mary‘ is a breakup song filtered through the lens of a ghost story, mounted with spectacular production elements and stitched together with unreal performances from Michaela Cole and Anne Hathaway.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

LADY BIRD (2017)

🍅99%Critics🍿79%Audience⭐7.4IMDb

Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’ guides Saorsie Ronan through a rebellious phase of teenagedom with stinging humor and a good dose of pathos. Sensitive, charming and at times painful, ‘Lady Bird’ is a confident piece of character-driven coming-of-age drama from a filmmaker discovering her immense talent by reflecting on her own roots.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019)

🍅90%Critics🍿72%Audience⭐7.3IMDb

A24’s unsettling The Lighthouse is like a message in a bottle from a far off time, one that signals writer-director Robert Eggers established brilliance. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are electric as stranded men with unfurling sanity and unmoored moral compasses in this wholly original nautical folk tale about paranoia, desolation, mermaids, murder, moral decay, and self-destruction.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Every Robert Eggers Movie, Ranked

BIRDMAN (2014)

Birdman probes both the death of and subsequent resurrection of art in the age of the superhero with a brand of ironic wit and industrial precision that don’t often coincide, and even less often coalesce into one film. It’s like seeing Black Swan and A Beautiful Mind fist-fighting in a Charlie Kaufman play; a crossroads of cinema and theater that’s entirely novel and entirely brilliant. It’s an achievement unlike any other.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (2017)

🍅94%Critics🍿84%Audience⭐7.4IMDb

A masterclass in blockbuster filmmaking, War for the Planet of the Apes is that improbably rare summer movie that forces you to think, feel and interact with it on the same level as the medium’s best dramas. Thoughtful, contemplative and deeply felt, Matt Reeve’s threequel marries peerless technological feats with sumptuous storytelling while Andy Serkis is sublime as king of kongs Caesar. A perfectly rendered capstone, War closes out the Apes prequel series in extraordinary fashion, qualifying it as the best trilogy of the 21st century.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE DRAMA (2026)

🍅76%Critics🍿78%Audience⭐7.1IMDb

The Drama finds Zendaya and Robert Pattinson pulling apart at the seams in Kristoffer Borgli’s incisive, destabilizing anti-rom-com, a nervy A24 anxiety spiral that sits comfortably alongside Uncut Gems and ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (2017)

🍅90%Critics🍿87%Audience⭐8.1IMDb

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has smacks of knifelike dark comedy, a handful of brilliant performances (all hail Frances McDormand!) and a director (Martin McDonagh) back on the tippy-top of his game, rounding out into a breathtakingly funny and confoundingly sad crime drama that’s also one of the best films of 2017.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Every Martin McDonagh Movie, Ranked

UNDERTONE (2026)

🍅74%Critics🍿50%Audience⭐5.9IMDb

A masterfully assembled nightmare of all-encompassing horror, Ian Tucson’s Undertone is as immersive as it is bone chilling, featuring truly elite sound design.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

MARTY SUPREME (2025)

🍅93%Critics🍿82%Audience⭐7.5IMDb

Josh Safdie proves he was the chosen one with Marty Supreme, a chaos-riddled epic about a scumbag ping-pong player trying to scheme his way into proving that he’s the world’s greatest. Chalamet is outstanding in this singularly tumultuous and deeply funny vision of going all in on your dreams.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE CONJURING (2013)

🍅86%Critics🍿83%Audience⭐7.5IMDb

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren take on a haunting at a Rhode Island farmhouse in 1971. James Wan’s old-school ghost story is masterfully built, with scares that land precisely because you can feel them coming.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Every Conjuring Universe Movie, Ranked

THE INVITE (2026)

🍅96%Critics🍿89%Audience⭐7.4IMDb

‘The Invite’ from Olivia Wilde is a wildly funny swinger comedy that explores how relationships open, close, and end in hilarious and heartfelt ways. Seth Rogan, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton are all fantastic.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

WEAPONS (2025)

🍅93%Critics🍿85%Audience⭐7.4IMDb

Cregger delivers just about everything a genre fan could ask for with Weapons: a twisted, well-acted dark fairytale with an unforgettable villain turn. It’s truly one of a kind, ambitious, unafraid to swing for the fences, and packed with ideas. Easily one of the bests of 2025.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

JODOROWSKY’S DUNE (2013)

🍅97%Critics🍿89%Audience⭐8.0IMDb

Director Richard Stanley tells us that Dune’s the greatest movie never made, and we have a hard time believing him. Then we watch the journey unfold. When Jodorowsky’s Dune ended, it was as if my mind was set free. Not so much a spiritual or metaphysical awakening, just an awakening to the mind and soul. His charm, his conviction and passion, somehow it opened my eyes to the world.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE FALLOUT (2021)

🍅90%Critics🍿83%Audience⭐7.0IMDb

A vital work that puts the school shooter epidemic into focus, The Fallout is an audacious, explosive debut from writer-director Megan Park that makes way for a remarkable performance from Jenna Ortega. Heart-pounding, honest, and at times even hysterical, this is the very best of SXSW’s narrative feature competition.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

HELL OR HIGH WATER (2016)

🍅97%Critics🍿89%Audience⭐7.6IMDb

A cops and robbers movie with real bite, David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water offers genre thrills amidst a thoughtful examination of modern American idealism. Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster each offer excellent performances as the “last of their kind” in a film plump with unforgettable character work and outstanding sequences.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

ROOM (2015)

🍅93%Critics🍿93%Audience⭐8.1IMDb

A healthy dose of heartbreak and humor gives Room dramatic gravitas in spades. Add in two top-of-the-line performances from Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay and you have a picture not to be missed. Brie Larson won an Oscar for her performance, and Jacob Tremblay is astonishing as the boy who has never seen the outside world.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

JOKER (2019)

🍅68%Critics🍿89%Audience⭐8.3IMDb

Todd Phillips’ deliriously provocative Joker is a risky endeavor that shirks the load-bearing staples of comic book movies past to focus on a richly-textured character study of a lost soul. Joaquin Phoenix is instantly iconic as the damaged king of the villains in this grounded story of how madness manifests itself.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS (2016)

🍅97%Critics🍿86%Audience⭐7.7IMDb

Kubo and the Two Strings is animation perfected; voiced with great nuance, divinely animated and rippled with decadent thematic elements far exceeding its PG-rating, this is the kind of emotionally rich cinematic achievement that only great animated film seem able to deliver.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Every LAIKA Movie, Ranked

DUNE (2021)

🍅83%Critics🍿90%Audience⭐8.0IMDb

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is a science fiction spectacle of epic proportions with an indomitable cast, state-of-the-art visual effects, and an undercurrent of adult-tilting thematics running throughout. A masterwork only complicated by its (temporarily) unfinished nature and one I can’t wait to see again.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

ISLE OF DOGS (2018)

🍅90%Critics🍿87%Audience⭐7.8IMDb

A super serum of irreverent whimsy and heartfelt friendships, rife with topical political undercurrents about inclusion and nationalism, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is one exceedingly pleasant and gorgeously animated delight for the senses that manages testy thematic material along with its good boy attitude. Truly, a treat.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BARBIE (2023)

🍅88%Critics🍿83%Audience⭐6.8IMDb

Barbie is a one-of-a-kind hit that bombastically celebrates uniqueness and creativity, with writer-director Greta Gerwig once again proving herself as a top talent with endless stores of filmmaking ingenuity. It’s one of 2023’s bests and Robbie and Gosling are simply perfect.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

SALTBURN (2023)

🍅72%Critics🍿79%Audience⭐7.0IMDb

Emerald Fennel’s venereal second feature is an explosive satire of inheritance and deception framed as a simmering psychosexual thriller. The entire cast is wonderful but Barry Keoghan proves himself as a truly one-of-a-kind talent.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE LOBSTER (2015)

🍅87%Critics🍿65%Audience⭐7.1IMDb

An imaginative and jet black adult dystopia, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster balances nervous character study in with a screwy bizarro world. Proudly unusual, the mechanics of a world where being single is illegal can prove more compelling than the narrative thrust of its characters at times but it all adds up to one delightfully odd, and predominantly satisfying, chapter of Grecian satire.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE BRUTALIST (2024)

🍅93%Critics🍿79%Audience⭐7.2IMDb

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is a towering accomplishment, a profound exploration of the conversation and conflict between art and capitalism, elevated by outstanding performances and technical elements that bolster this intricately American told story. One of 2024’s best.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2017)

🍅79%Critics🍿63%Audience⭐7.0IMDb

Like a demented and brilliant episode of The Twilight Zone, The Killing of a Sacred Deer posits a reality off its axis in elusive and dangerous ways. This pitch black dark comedy/familial parable defies easy explanation but with outstanding direction, top notch performances and a bevy of unsubtle nastiness creeping below the surface, it’s as memorable a movie experience as 2017 has to offer.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BACKROOMS (2026)

🍅86%Critics🍿74%Audience⭐6.7IMDb

Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is a disorienting nightmare that derives its horror as much from its kaleidoscopic, alien architecture as its unsettling meditation on loneliness and self-imposed isolation. Atmospherically haunting and deeply unnerving, even if its unconventional approach may alienate viewers craving clearer answers.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

🍅85%Critics🍿76%Audience⭐6.5IMDb

Evil Dead Rise revitalizes the legendary franchise once more, drenching the screen in mountains of gore, campy black humor, and unabashed horror homage. While it may not hit the same visceral heights of its 2013 sibling, the return to black comedy and relentless gory tension more than make up for it.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

DUNE: PART TWO (2024)

🍅92%Critics🍿95%Audience⭐8.4IMDb

Dune: Part Two further opens the book on the world of Paul Atreides and Arrakis in this towering accomplishment that’s as thrilling as it is stunning to watch, hear, and feel. Witness it on the biggest screen you can find.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

FRIENDSHIP (2025)

🍅88%Critics🍿73%Audience⭐6.6IMDb

Devotees of Tim Robinson should consider Friendship a must-watch; its sidesplitting comedy is basically all extracted directly from Robinson’s demented misfit persona. Those who don’t vibe with his wavelength will likely find it confusing and offputting, even grueling. Though, for this Robinson stan, the insanity could have been pushed even further. Nevertheless, it’s one of the funniest movies of the past few years.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

WONKA (2023)

🍅82%Critics🍿90%Audience⭐6.9IMDb

Timothée Chalamet plays a bubbly young version of Willy Wonka in Paul King’s magically musical prequel that exceeds any reasonable expectation. A true delight for the whole family, King’s extension of the Wonka-verse succeeds by making it fundamentally his own.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

SINNERS (2025)

🍅97%Critics🍿96%Audience⭐7.5IMDb

Ryan Coogler delivers a bloody, soulful masterstroke of music-driven genre filmmaking with Sinners, a movie that erupts with passionate craft just as much as it surprises with its thematic depth. Michael B. Jordan is tremendous in a dual role, but it’s Coogler and his ability to pull everything together with style, substance, and swagger who truly steals the show.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BRING HER BACK (2025)

🍅89%Critics🍿79%Audience⭐7.1IMDb

Unrelentingly bleak in its exploration of grief’s demolishing power, Bring Her Back unflinchingly depicts both emotional and physical violence toward children, along with some truly grotesque body horror. It goes without saying, this deeply feel-bad genre excursion is a challenging watch. But for unfazed genre fans, there’s real dramatic purpose roiling beneath the film’s horrific surface. Evil Sally Hawkins is a gift.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017)

🍅92%Critics🍿73%Audience⭐7.3IMDb

The Shape of Water shucks convention in making a throwback to the monster movies of yesteryear, showcasing Guillermo del Toro’s soaring visual style and a breathtaking lead performance from Sally Hawkins while telling a love story from the most bizarre, and somehow moving, of angles. Fans of esoteric erotica, prepare to swoon.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Guillermo del Toro Movies, Ranked

US (2019)

🍅93%Critics🍿62%Audience⭐6.8IMDb

As cool as it is inventive, Us takes liberties with horror movie expectations and shows Jordan Peele breaking down what worked for him before and building a unique premise up from scratch, once again, to striking effect. Lupita Nyong’o is fire.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2024)

🍅80%Critics🍿77%Audience⭐6.8IMDb

A wowing blockbuster that balances character growth, world-building, and exciting spectacle, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes may not rise to the same heights as its incredibly predecessors but remains another rock solid entry into one of the best franchises in movies. Keep making them this good please.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE REVENANT (2015)

🍅78%Critics🍿84%Audience⭐8.0IMDb

A technically consummate piece of high art bred with a tension-ridden tale of against-all-odds perseverance, The Revenant is a brutal, frigid masterwork that benefits from its callous commitment from director Alejandro González Iñárritu, brilliant visuals from cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and incredible performances from stars Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

EVIL DEAD BURN (2026)

🍅70%Critics🍿74%Audience⭐6.2IMDb

Evil Dead Burn is a sadistic addition that proudly continues the franchise’s tradition of treating its characters with extreme cruelty while gifting its sicko fans with some of 2026’s gnarliest gore. Beneath all that blood, however, lies a surprisingly thoughtful story about an abuse survivor fighting to escape a family determined to wear her down long before the Deadites arrive.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

IT (2017)

🍅85%Critics🍿84%Audience⭐7.3IMDb

Pants-shitting scares though this may lack, It thrives on Bill Skarsgård’s monstrously unsettling portrayal of Pennywise, a perpetually unnerving tone and strong sense of setting, an awesome cast of young performers and adroit technical showboatery aplenty. What It lacks in scares is more than made up for in character and heart and for fans of horror and casuals alike, It is sure to float your boat.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BATTLE OF THE SEXES (2017)

🍅84%Critics🍿71%Audience⭐6.7IMDb

Feminist feel-good sports drama Battle of the Sexes features a game-set-match of a performance from Emma Stone and sturdy, goony support from Steve Carrell while making some important points sadly still pertinent today.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

WUTHERING HEIGHTS (2026)

🤢57%Critics🍿74%Audience⭐6.1IMDb

Not without its issues, Emerald Fennell’s over-the-top take on Wuthering Heights makes for a deliciously devious dark romance with alluring lead performances from Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. The production elements are electrifying across the board. Disclaimer: I have never read the book.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD (2026)

🍅69%Critics🍿56%Audience⭐6.0IMDb

Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood strips the folk hero of his mythic nobility, transforming the outlaw legend into a bruising meditation on violence, regret, and the stories we tell to make bloodshed easier to swallow. Uneven but often profound, this lyrical revisionist tale finds haunting beauty in the wreckage of a life shaped by brutality.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

WARFARE (2025)

🍅92%Critics🍿92%Audience⭐7.1IMDb

Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland have crafted an Iraq War survival thriller worthy of the A24 mantle, leaning into a gonzo sense of immersive hyperrealism and never shying away from the physical and psychological impact of just a single skirmish. It’s a technical marvel, though one is left somewhat questioning the point of this highly immersive reenactment.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BALLERINA (2025)

🍅75%Critics🍿92%Audience⭐6.8IMDb

Ana de Armas is a welcome new face (successor?) in the John Wick universe as a freshly minted female assassin on her own vengeance trail. The highs and lows should be familiar at this point, but so too should the consistency. These things just know how to get ’em to rip just right.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review · Every John Wick Movie, Ranked

SUPERMAN (2025)

🍅83%Critics🍿90%Audience⭐7.0IMDb

Superman returns to the big screen in mostly triumphant fashion. David Corenswet makes a strong impression as 2025’s new Man of Steel, while James Gunn proves himself an intriguing steward of this new DC vision, both of this fresh take on the character and the sprawling universe that’s starting to form around him.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE FLASH (2023)

🍅63%Critics🍿81%Audience⭐6.6IMDb

The Flash is super-powered by a good story, impressive performances, genuinely funny moments, and lots of heart though its choppy VFX and overstuffed nature keep it from reaching light speed. Nevertheless, this is one of the best entries of the DCEU, even as the shared universe enters its last lap.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024)

🍅90%Critics🍿88%Audience⭐7.4IMDb

Furiosa is a welcome new chapter in George Miller’s ever-expanding Wasteland that fleshes out one of the series’ best characters while embracing the bizarre and the bold. Though it doesn’t quite reach the insane heights of Mad Max: Fury Road, it stands on its own nevertheless. Miller’s mastery of the tentpole medium is evident, and the film offers another immersive dystopian experience that balances the quieter, more introspective moments against the high-octane action, while boasting standout performance from Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.▶︎ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

Critics and Audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes; ratings from IMDb. Scores as of November 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies on HBO Max right now?

This month’s top picks include Sing Street, One Battle After Another, Roadrunner: a Film About Anthony Bourdain, Sicario, and Mother Mary.

How often is this list updated?

Every month. Films that leave HBO Max are removed, and newly added movies we’ve reviewed are added. Last updated November 1, 2026.

What are the best horror movies on HBO Max?

See our separate guide to the best modern horror movies on HBO Max: the best horror movies on HBO Max

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