It doesn’t take an awards season for HBO Max to stream some of the best movies ever made.
That’s one of the big reasons why Netflix and Paramount are still fighting about which one will purchase HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
Watch With Us‘ selections for three new HBO Max movies with at least 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes include three Oscar-winning films.
One of these movies has a perfect score on RT, while another one won Best Picture less than a decade ago.
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ (2017)
Frances McDormand has won the Oscar for Best Actress three times, and her second win was for her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. McDormand plays Mildred Hayes, the grieving mother of Angela Hayes (Kathryn Newton), a teenager who was brutalized and murdered. When the police make no progress in her case, Mildred rents three billboards outside of town to shame the sheriff, Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson), into making progress in the investigation.
Because Bill is dying from cancer, Mildred’s actions divide the town into two camps and increase the tension between both sides. Bill knows he doesn’t have much time left, but it doesn’t remain unsolved for lack of trying. But at the rate things are going, Ebbing’s townspeople may tear themselves apart over the billboards long before Angela’s murderer stands revealed.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is streaming on HBO Max.
‘The Shape of Water’ (2017)
The big takeaway from The Shape of Water is that Guillermo del Toro should be allowed to direct any monster movie he likes. This film came about because Universal didn’t like his idea for a Creature from the Black Lagoon remake. Instead, del Toro made this movie, which led to his Academy Award wins for Best Director and Best Picture.
Netflix placed a pretty big bet when it gave director Guillermo del Toro $120 million to remake Frankenstein. The streamer even gave Frankenstein a limited theatrical release last month, which is something it rarely does. Oscar Isaac stars in the film as Victor Frankenstein, while Jacob Elordi plays Frankenstein’s monster, or the creature as he’s […]
During the early ’60s at the height of the Cold War, a mute janitor, Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), works at a secretive American military base alongside her friend, Zelda Delilah Fuller (Octavia Spencer). One night, Elisa discovers that an Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) is being held captive for study. When Elisa non-verbally bonds with the Amphibian Man, she decides to free him from captivity at all costs, even if she risks the rage of Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), the increasingly unstable man who captured the creature in the first place.
The Shape of Water is streaming on HBO Max.
‘The Search’ (1948)
The Search is a post-World War II story that was partially filmed in the ruins of German cities that were devastated during the war just a few years before. It’s also the third Oscar-winning film on this list for Best Story, as well as a special Academy Award for young actor Ivan Jandl. The story revolves around Karel Malik (Jandl), a boy who is among the numerous children without parents at the end of the war. Karel can’t remember his past, but the tattoo on his arm suggests that he was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
Montgomery Clift leads the cast as Ralph “Steve” Stevenson, an Army engineer who finds Karel and essentially decides to adopt him. Unbeknownst to either of them, Karel’s mother, Hanna Malik (Jarmila Novotná), is still alive and desperately seeking her son. The things that Hanna sees on her journey are heartbreaking, and she’s told more than once that Karel is dead. But this mother refuses to give up on reuniting with her son.
The Search is streaming on HBO Max.
