The 7 Best New Movies on Prime Video in March
A host of movies arrived on Amazon’s Prime Video this month, including one of the most iconic American war movies ever made and an early 1990s classic that famously swept the Oscars in 1992. Prime Video’s March additions also include a deeply underrated Coen Brothers comedy about Hollywood’s Golden Age and a 2007 teen comedy that still holds up surprisingly well. If none of those films appeal to you, Prime Video added a crime thriller starring “Project Hail Mary” actor Ryan Gosling that keeps you on your heels for much of its runtime as well.
Here are the seven best movies new to Prime Video in March.
“Blow Out” (1981)
Kicking off this month’s list is “Blow Out,” the 1981 neo-noir thriller that still ranks high as one of the greatest films writer-director Brian De Palma has ever made. An audio-centric riff on Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up,” De Palma’s film follows a horror movie sound technician (John Travolta) who, while out recording sounds, accidentally captures evidence of a political assassination and rescues the hit’s only survivor (Nancy Allen).
Before long, Travolta’s increasingly paranoid worker finds himself at the center of a nefarious conspiracy involving a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow). De Palma, for his part, charts his unsuspecting hero’s doomed odyssey with the same mix of sharp style and blackly comic humor that elevated so many of his other 1980s and ’70s efforts.
“Hail, Caesar!” (2016)
The Coen Brothers‘ 2016 screwball mystery “Hail, Caesar!” is both a raucous takedown of Hollywood corruption and an acid-tinged love letter to the entertainment industry’s oft-unseen day players. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, this mile-a-minute romp follows 1950s studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) as he puts out multiple studio fires, including the sudden disappearance of a major movie star (George Clooney) in the middle of the filming of a new biblical epic.
Anchored by Brolin’s charismatic, appropriately over-the-top lead performance, “Hail, Caesar!” is, like so many of the Coens’ best movies, an immensely entertaining, offbeat ride through a heightened world — one overflowing with memorable characters and visual gags. It’s a blast and a half, and maybe even more than that.
“Raging Bull” (1980)
Part sports biopic, part psychological drama, director Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” is a lyrical, visually mesmerizing exploration of masculinity. Based on Jake LaMotta’s 1970 memoir of the same name, the film follows LaMotta (Robert De Niro, who won an Oscar for his physically transformative performance) whose aggression, jealousy and fragile ego torpedo both his boxing career and his personal life.
Scorsese turns the film’s boxing sequences into impressionistic, blood-soaked and smoke-filled passages that serve as surreal interludes from the rest of the movie’s purposefully unvarnished, unflinching scenes of domestic and personal turmoil. All of which is to say that “Raging Bull” is one of the best films ever made, a deeply felt American drama that hits hard and leaves a lasting mark.
“The Great Escape” (1963)
Iconic in just about every way, 1963’s “The Great Escape” is a wildly entertaining and surprisingly affecting adaptation of Paul Brickhill’s 1950 non-fiction book of the same name. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough, the film follows a group of allied prisoners as they attempt a mass escape from a German POW camp during World War II.
Featuring one of the most nerve-wracking escape sequences in cinema history and an unforgettable motorcycle chase involving McQueen, “The Great Escape” is an enduring Hollywood classic for a reason. Thanks to both its commitment to grounded realism and its playful sense of fun, the film stands as an irresistible, enduring portrait of human resilience even in the face of the harshest cruelty.
“Superbad” (2007)
19 years after it was released, “Superbad” is, perhaps, best known now for featuring Emma Stone’s film debut, but it is so much more than that. Directed by Greg Mottola and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the unhinged coming-of-age teen comedy follows a pair of best friends (Jonah Hill and Michael Cera) whose attempts to attend a genuine high school party and lose their virginities go increasingly awry over the course of one long night.
Featuring a pair of standout supporting performances from Rogen and Bill Hader as a pair of fun-loving, largely inept cops, “Superbad” goes for all the gross-out, sex-crazed humor that you might expect. Among the reasons why it remains one of Rogen and Goldberg’s greatest achievements, though, is how “Superbad” manages to still emerge from all of its raunchy detours as a considered, surprisingly sweet film about friendship and growing up. Unlike a lot of teen comedies from the 2000s, it holds up.
“The Place Beyond the Pines” (2013)
Following their collaboration together on “Blue Valentine,” director Derek Cianfrance and star Ryan Gosling reunited three years later on the underrated 2013 crime drama “The Place Beyond the Pines.” Gosling leads the film as Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stunt driver who takes up bank robbing in order to financially provide for his former lover (Eva Mendes) and their toddler son. However, his turn to crime leads to unintended consequences that ripple across generations.
Twistier than its seemingly straightforward thriller premise suggests, “The Place Beyond the Pines” goes to deeper, darker and more tragic places than first-time viewers will likely expect. Cianfrance, meanwhile, demonstrates his ability yet again to mine memorable performances out of his actors, all of whom rise to the occasion by grounding even “The Place Beyond the Pines'” riskiest dramatic swings in emotions that feel authentic and earned.
“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
Jonathan Demme’s 1991 psychological horror film “The Silence of the Lambs” won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress. There is a good reason for that. Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel of the same name is a chilling and immaculately crafted thriller about a young FBI trainee (Jodie Foster) who seeks the help of an imprisoned cannibalistic murderer (Anthony Hopkins) in hunting down and capturing an active serial killer (Ted Levine).
Firmly grounded in the perspective of Foster’s Clarice, “The Silence of the Lambs” is, on the one hand, an entertaining, pulpy serial killer thriller. But it is also a taut battle of wills between Foster’s Clarice and Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter, as well as an insightful drama about what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated world. The fact that “The Silence of the Lambs” is able to do all of that and make it look easy is why it remains one of the most well-respected Best Picture winners in Oscars history, and a horror movie that continues to thrill and haunt viewers over 30 years after it hit theaters.
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