It’s been a banner month at the box office, which might be hurting your wallet where movie-watching is concerned. If you’re looking to stay home and stream this week, HBO Max has plenty of options. The streaming service has the perfect film to watch while you’re waiting for “Supergirl,” plus a pair of fantastic comedies old and new.
Here are the three best movies to watch on HBO Max this week.
“Game Night”
Remember when comedy movies used to look good? John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein do.
For their second directorial feature, the duo made “Game Night,” a comedy about a board-game-obsessed couple (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) and their friend group getting dragged into a criminal plot filled with guns, plot twists and a Fabergé egg. The film, written by Mark Perez, has a sharp screenplay and a slick, cinematic look (shot by Barry Peterson), a contrast to the riff-heavy improvedies that dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s.
Daley and Goldstein carried this style over to their “Dungeons & Dragons” feature, one of the most underappreciated comedies of the decade.
“Modern Times”
Charlie Chaplin’s best movies feel like magic tricks. “Modern Times” is often regarded as the pinnacle of his filmography, a masterful movie filled with physical comedy and impressive, hilarious stunts and set pieces. Many of Chaplin’s films remain sidesplittingly funny to this day, but “Modern Times” (the final entry to feature his iconic Little Tramp persona) stands out as one of the very best. It also includes a grand finale that belongs in the cinematic history books.
“Wonder Woman”
In 1984, Helen Slater made history as the first woman to lead a big-screen DC Comics superhero film with “Supergirl.” There have only been a handful more female-led DC features in the 42 years between that movie and the new “Supergirl,” based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s outstanding “Woman of Tomorrow” comic. Some, like “Catwoman,” have been pretty bad. Some, like “Birds of Prey,” have been great. One, tragically, even got unceremoniously shelved.
Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” stands out not only as the finest (and most successful) of this crop, but also as one of the very best DC Comics films to date. The action is thrilling, the scope is grand and the relationship between Diana and Steve Trevor is even better than many comic book depictions of their romance. Despite only being its fourth film, “Wonder Woman” remains the high point of the DCEU.
