A whole host of new movies arrived on Amazon’s Prime Video in June, including one of the most iconic and enduring black-and-white films of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The streamer’s other June arrivals include a classic sports underdog drama, an underrated biopic from “Lost in Translation” filmmaker Sofia Coppola, an endlessly quotable early 2000s romance and an oft-forgotten late 2010s thriller starring “House of the Dragon” star Olivia Cooke. Amazon subscribers do not, in other words, have a lack of options to choose from on the platform in June.
Here are the best movies on Prime Video that are new to the streaming service this month.
“12 Angry Men” (1957)
“12 Angry Men” is a Hollywood classic that has stood the test of time. Director Sidney Lumet’s feature directorial debut is a masterfully staged, performed and edited adaptation of Reginald Rose’s 1954 teleplay of the same name.
Anchored by an understated everyman performance for the ages by Henry Fonda, the film focuses on the members of a twelve-man jury as they deliberate the potential conviction or acquittal of a teenager charged with murder. An exploration of justice, guilt, bias and mercy, “12 Angry Men” works just as well now as it did 69 years ago.
“Hoosiers” (1987)
One of the greatest sports films ever made, director David Anspaugh’s “Hoosiers” is a movie of soft-spoken grace. Inspired in part by a real-life high school basketball team’s 1954 state championship win, the film follows an outcast basketball coach (Gene Hackman) whose attempts to transform a small-town Indiana team into a winning unit are met with resistance and skepticism.
Featuring two unforgettable performances from Hackman and Dennis Hopper, “Hoosiers” is a straightforward underdog story that hits all the right notes, and it does so with a level of emotional maturity that makes even its quietest moments land with real force.
“Priscilla” (2023)
Stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi give two wildly underrated performances in writer-director Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” Based on Priscilla Presley’s 1958 memoir “Elvis and Me,” Coppola’s film dramatizes the real-life romance between Elvis Presley (Elordi) and his wife, Priscilla (Spaeny).
Told with the same clinical attention to detail as so many of Coppola’s films, “Priscilla” is an understated and meditative coming-of-age docudrama about outgrowing your teenage dreams. Coppola tells her subject’s story with the level of sensitivity that it deserves, and Spaeny’s wide-eyed, open-hearted lead performance is bound to stick with you long after you finish watching it.
“The Apartment” (1960)
1960’s “The Apartment” is one of the greatest films ever made. Director and co-writer Billy Wilder’s follow-up to “Some Like It Hot” reteams him with frequent collaborator Jack Lemmon, who gives one of the best performances of his career as C.C. Baxter, a low-level insurance clerk who — in the hopes of climbing the corporate ladder — allows his superiors to use his apartment for their extramarital affairs.
Things get messy, absurd and quietly, achingly heartbreaking when CC’s corporate hustle ends up complicating his budding romance with heartsick elevator operator Fran (Shirley MacLaine). Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s screenplay is faultless, and the same is true for the resulting film.
“The Night Of The Hunter” (1955)
Speaking of perfect films: 1955’s “The Night of the Hunter.” Actor-director Charles Laughton’s nightmarish Southern Gothic thriller is one of the most visually imaginative and striking horror films ever made. Star Robert Mitchum gives an unforgettably sleazy, villainous performance in “The Night of the Hunter” as a serial killer who, while posing as a preacher, ensnares a widow (Shelley Winters) and her two children in his trap to acquire the $10,000 of stolen cash that their late father hid before his death.
An unflinching clash between the darkness of the adult world and the innocent light of children, “The Night of the Hunter” is a fairy tale thriller about the corrosive powers of greed and the graceful beauty of mercy and care.
“The Notebook” (2004)
Director Nick Cassavetes’ “The Notebook” holds a special place in a lot of film fans’ hearts for a reason. An adaptation of the 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film tells the story of a young couple (played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) who fall in love in the 1940s and have their passionate romance tested by matters of class, war and their own, stubborn hearts.
Gosling and McAdams have near-unrivaled chemistry together on screen, and Cassavetes’ direction finds the right balance between genuine romance and a little good old-fashioned sentimentality. A tearjerker if there has ever been one.
“Thoroughbreds” (2018)
“Thoroughbreds” is an unsettling, deceptively clever black comedy thriller from first-time writer-director Cory Finley. Oft-forgotten but better than its slight reputation suggests, Finley’s feature directorial debut follows a cold high school student (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her emotionless friend (Olivia Cooke) as they plot to kill the former’s stepfather (Paul Sparks) with the help of a local, small-time drug dealer (Anton Yelchin).
Unsparing in its examination of its leads’ carefully hidden sociopathy, “Thoroughbreds” is a thriller that unfolds with a lazy pace that leaves you totally unprepared for its stomach-churning final act.
