Does Max still have good movies? Here's a few

Max Streaming Guide (March 12)

Max’s big differentiator as a streaming service is offering curation. There’s no all-knowing algorithm feeding you exactly what you want right when you open it up.

Instead, it serves up categories and selections that it wants to show off. In theory I love this idea, but in practice, it can feel a bit like there are only 20 total movies on the whole platform (considering their new strategy to get out of debt by licensing off nearly every title to Netflix or other streamers, this may not be far off).

Taking a quick spin through the available content, there’s still a lot of good stuff on Max. But when compared to other platforms, its movies can seem a little homework-y. There’s a lot of foreign language stuff (the Italian nerd in me smiles), a lot of black-and-white classics, and a lot of master filmmakers.

For the casual movie fan, who maybe only subscribed to Max to check out the buzzy HBO shows, it may be hard to navigate the selections.

That’s what my streaming guides are for!

Utilizing all of the 1000+ movie suggestions I’ve made over the past six years — we’re fast approaching seven! — in my Friday edition of the newsletter, I’ve hand-picked the best of the best on each platform (updated on a rolling basis).

Much like my Cinephile Bucket List, I’ve broken these down into categories that should help you to browse depending on the vibe you’re looking for on a given night, with blurbs both new and old like a sales pitch to convince you to try out movies you’ve hopefully never seen before. Let’s get into it!

Hidden Gems