The best movies new to Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, and Hulu (April 2023)

Polygon readers, happy April! It’s fully spring out here, and you know what that means: The temperatures are warming up, the plants are getting greener, and there are a whole lot of great movies new to streaming platforms for you to watch at home.

It wouldn’t be spring without us mentioning Spring Breakers, Harmony Korine’s candy cane crime thriller, which is now streaming on HBO Max. But this month also sees the arrival of Spike Lee’s Inside Man and Christopher Nolan’s Inception on Netflix, Steven Spielberg’s LincolnHulu. A whole list of erotic thrillers are available on Criterion Channel. How to train your dragon The Shrek and Shrek films will also be available on streaming services this month. There are many other options, too.

Let’s get into it!

Netflix: What’s New?

Inside Man

Universal Pictures

Year: 2006
Genre:Crime thriller
Run time: 2h 9m
Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster

A rare work-for-hire gig for director Spike Lee, 2006’s Inside ManThis is one of those enjoy-anything-you-wish-for pleasures. It’s a slick, sinuous, puzzle-box thriller in which Clive Owen engineers a bank robbery that is never quite what it seems. Clive Owen takes hostages. He teams up with Denzel Washington (police detective) and Jodie Foster (fixer), and all the twists and turns that lead to false-outs and reversals end happily. It’s ridiculously overqualified. Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer all play smaller parts. Chiwetel Ejiofor also appears in small roles. And Lee doesn’t surrender his playful, needling edge just because he’s on popcorn duty. He builds a memorable, squabbling chorus of post-9/11 New York humanity around the edges of the film, while the plot cuts right into Wall Street’s rotten heart. —Oli Welsh

Inside Man Is streaming available on Netflix

How to train your dragon

DreamWorks Animation Image

Year: 2010
Genre: Action/adventure
Run time: 1h 38m
Directors: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
Cast: Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Christopher Mintz-Plasse

While the How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy is solid from beginning to end, the original How to Train Your Dragon movie is special. In the epic fantasy series, a group Vikings are in constant fight with dragons in the first film. Hiccup is a Misfit who finds a injured dragon. Instead of killing it, she begins to train it and develops deep friendships with him. It’s a story of outcasts finding each other and proving generational prejudices wrong against all odds. The soundtrack is phenomenal, the story a perfect blend of funny and heartwarming, and the character designs are amazing — especially the dragons. DreamWorks could have made these creatures look the same as every other dragon out there, but they’re all so distinct and fun to see in action. Toothless, however, is the most popular of all. —Petrana Radulovic

How to train your dragon Is streaming available on Netflix

Inception

Warner Bros.

Year: 2010
Genre: Sci-fi
Run time: 2h 28m
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page

Christopher Nolan’s unique take on the heist film genre isn’t just a savvy deconstruction of movies as a collaborative act of “dream making,” but a satisfying action movie spectacle. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, an experienced thief who can perform elaborate forms of psychological corporate spyage known as extract. This film follows Cobb’s team as they attempt to sneakily invent (i.e., implant) an idea into someone else’s mind.

That’s easier said than done, as Cobb and company must contend with a cadre of deadly adversaries, including an invasive subconscious projection of Cobb’s wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), as they navigate the multiple layers of an intricately detailed dreamscape. From Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s gravity-defying fight scene in a rotating hallway (with shades of Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding() And elaborate chase sequences that lead to an Bond-esque firefight at an extravagant Japanese palace. InceptionIt is an amazing, thrilling action thriller. —Toussaint Égan

Inception Is streaming available on Netflix

The Bourne Legacy

Universal Pictures

Year: 2012
Genre:Spy thriller
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Tony Gilroy
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton

John Wick Chapter 4. This is a winning franchise that has been embraced by multiplexes around the globe. We are now considering other worthwhile fourth entry in large franchises. In the universe of action franchises, there aren’t many better examples than The Bourne Legacy.

Director: Andor Tony Gilroy is the showrunner. Tony Gilroy wrote and directed the amazing legal thriller. Michael Clayton, The Bourne Legacy This is a spin-off from the Matt Damon Trilogy starring Jeremy Renner playing Aaron Cross. He’s another agent who gets caught up in the huge conspiracy Bourne discovers. It is a tightly acted thriller and one of the best American spy movies of recent memory. —PV

The Bourne Legacy Is streaming available on Netflix

Hulu: New!

Dredd

Lionsgate Image

Year: 2012
Genre: Sci-fi
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Pete Travis
Cast: Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby. Lena Headey

2012’s DreddThis is more than a movie about a DC or Marvel superhero. It’s also one of my favorite movies that was based on comic books. It’s unfortunate, then, that the film never quite got the praise and attention it so justly deserved when it was first released in theaters.

Written by screenwriter turned director Alex Garland (who may have played a larger role in the film’s creation beyond his credited role as a writer), DreddKarl Urban plays the role of the gravel-toned, authoritarian judge and jury in Mega-City One, a lawless coastal town. Dredd is assigned to train Cassandra Anderson, a rookie judge (Olivia Thirlby). Dredd ends up inadvertently facing a vicious vice-lord (Lena Headey), and her army of brutal underlings inside her apartment megastructure. Explosive action and jaw-dropping slow motion fight sequences are complemented by Verhoevenian, pitch-black, gallows humor. Dredd is one hell of time you won’t soon forget. It’s nothing short of an injustice that it never got a sequel. —TE

Dredd is streaming on Hulu.

Lincoln

Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Year: 2012
Genre: Biopic
Run time: 2h 30m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Sally Field and David Strathairn: Daniel Day-Lewis

Lincoln is one of the great modern biopics (a low bar) and stands as one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies (a high bar!). A master filmmaker tackles one of America’s most famous figures at one of his most challenging moments, with a cast full of established luminaries and up-and-coming stars (Adam Driver and Jeremy Strong are both in this!). What’s not to like? —PV

Lincoln is streaming on Hulu.

Shrek and Shrek 2,

DreamWorks Animation Image

Year: 2001; 2004
Genre:Comedy
Run time: 1h 30m; 1h 33m
Directors:Andrew Adamson; Vicky Jenson, Andrew Adamson; Kelly Asbury Kelly Asbury Conrad Vernon
Cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz

It is hard to deny the impact that the Shrek movies have had on modern pop culture. It was a strange movie, very cynical, and completely obvious. You will be fucked to the Disney empire that DreamWorks didn’t even really have faith in, yet it played a major role in shifting the tone in Western animation into edgy comedies. And, hey, it’s actually deeply funny! The original feels like a very directed jab at Disney, but the second movie, which chooses the glamour and glitz of Hollywood as its target and thus doesn’t seem as… personal, really shines.

Also, no one needs an excuse to watch the “I Need a Hero” scene. —Petrana Radulovic

Shrek and Shrek 2 Hulu has streaming options.

Prime Video – New

Face/Off

Image: Paramount Pictures

Year: 1997
Genre:Take Action
Run time: 2h 18m
Director: John Woo
Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen

John Woo’s third Hollywood movie (following Broken ArrowThe first American film he made was titled ‘(). Really Feels like John Woo movies. It features gunfights and strained portrayals of masculinity. Face/Off is a delightfully over-the-top ’90s action movie that thrives on Woo’s direction and the two leading performances.

John Travolta portrays FBI agent Sean Archer. Archer’s son was shot and killed by Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), an terrorist who planned to kill Archer. In his quest for vengeance, Archer decides to undergo an experimental face transplant surgery, “becoming” Troy. Of course, Troy does the same in return, “becoming” Archer. Both actors have great fun on this stage. Cage joked, however, that Travolta won the best deal because she spent the majority of the time as the more bizarre of the two characters.

Fun fact: Face/OffWhen they created the script, Michael Colleary and Mike Werb had in mind Sylvester Stallone as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger. I can see it, but I’m glad we got this version. —PV

Face/Off Prime Video allows streaming.

Ong-Bak

Magnolia Pictures

Year: 2003
Genre:Take Action
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Cast: Tony Jaa and Phetthai vongkumlao.

This movie made Tony Jaa an international action hero. Ong-Bak This was Prachya Pinkaew’s first serious (literally, these films embrace all-contact action). After gangsters from Bangkok deface a holy statue, villagers send Ting (Jaa), a skilled martial artist, to retrieve the statue’s stolen head from the big city. The film begins as a cultural clash comedy, but quickly becomes a martial arts action movie with amazing foot chases and impossible-to-believe stunts like the plate glass window jump. IYKYK and tough-hitting fight scenes. There are two pieces to this piece Ong-BakHere are some trivia facts for you Jaa, who had trained in Muay Thai as a child and wanted the movie to promote the martial art form around the world, performed Muay Thai demonstrations in the lead-up to the movie’s release, including at NBA halftime shows. And if you keep your eye out, you can see “graffiti” in the background of some shots nodding to Steven Spielberg and Luc Besson. —PV

Ong-BakAvailable to stream online Prime Video.

HBO Max: New!

Spring Breakers

Image: A24

Year: 2012
Genre:Crime thriller
Run time: 1h 34m
Director: Harmony Korine
Cast: Vanessa Hudgens. Selena Gomez. Ashley Benson

If you’re looking for something seasonally appropriate, turn to Harmony Korine’s indulgent-yet-critical look at the sprrrrrring breeeaaaak party life. Selena Gomez (Vanilla Hudgens), Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine play four coeds who want to have fun in Florida. However, they are short on money. They snort huge amounts of cocaine, and then rob restaurants. The high of a lawbreaking act unlocks the young women’s worst instincts, and when they finally make it to the beach and hook up with Alien (James Franco), a rapper/arms dealer, dreamy, sunbaked hell breaks loose. The movie is perfect for a midnight at-home movie night, as it features the girls dancing to the Skrillex music. —Matt Patches

Spring Breakers It is available on Max.

Tangerine

Magnolia Pictures

Year: 2015
Genre:Dramedy
Run time: 1h 28m
Director: Sean Baker
Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian

Filmed entirely with iPhone cameras, Sean Baker’s 2015 comedy-drama Tangerine follows Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor), two trans sex workers who set out to find Chester (James Ransone), Sin-Dee’s boyfriend/pimp, and get to the bottom of a salacious rumor that he cheated on her while she was serving a 28-day stint in prison. Filmed entirely in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, TangerineThe raw, hilarious, surprising, moving, heartbreaking, and completely engrossing experience is an intimate glimpse into the emotional trials of sexwork. It also provides a snapshot of Los Angeles as a multifaceted, chaotic city. —TELECOMM ENGINEERING

Tangerine It is available on Max.

Criterion Channel: New

Mulholland Drive

Universal Pictures

Year: 2001
Genre: Mystery
Run time: 2h 27m
Director: David Lynch
Cast: Naomi Watts and Laura Harring. Justin Theroux

In my humble opinion: There is no such thing as a “definitive” David Lynch movie. Since his 1977 debut feature, Lynch has directed or produced at least 10 movies. Eraserhead is as idiosyncratic as the last, each twisting the director’s fascination for suburban idyllicism eroded by fugue-like horror in new and provocative ways. But, I would still suggest that just One film to someone interested in understanding David Lynch as an artist, I’d be hard-pressed not to recommend Mulholland Drive first.

The 2001 neo-noir psychological thriller stars Naomi Watts as Betty Elms, a bright-eyed aspiring actress who encounters an amnesiac woman (Laura Harring) who has stumbled into Betty’s aunt’s apartment. Feeling compelled to help the woman recover her memory, Betty embarks on an odyssey through Hollywood to solve the mystery of this stranger’s amnesia that will inevitably circle back to unearthing an unsettling truth Betty herself has desperately tried to suppress. Mulholland DriveThis film is a brilliant combination of Hollywood disillusionment, noir filmmaking and dream logic. It will keep you both unnerved AND enthralled. You’ll never think of cowboys, diner cafes, or the word “silencio” quite the same way ever again. —TE

Mulholland Drive You can stream it on the Criterion channel.

Bound

Gramercy Pictures

Year: 1996
Genre: Crime thriller with erotica
Run time: 1h 49m
Directors:Lana and Lilly Wachowski
Cast: Jennifer Tilly Gina Gershon Joe Pantoliano

The Wachowskis’ directorial debut is this scintillating neo-noir thriller about two women who fall for each other and steal $2 million in mob money. Jennifer Tilly is Violet, Caesar’s high-female girlfriend. (Joe Pantoliano) Gina Gershon plays Corky, an excon who is a maintenance worker at Violet’s apartment. When Corky and Violet catch each other’s eyes in the elevator, the seduction begins, as they become irresistibly drawn to one another and the possibility of a better life outside of their respective confined circumstances.

Many years later and numerous outstanding films, Bound may still be the high mark of the Wachowskis’ illustrious career. Gershon, Tilly, and Gershon were both fantastic and had a wonderful time. You should also read this interview with them. The film is very erotic in its scenes of sex. Corky fixing the pipes with her hands was deeply sensual for both Violet and viewers. It’s an unforgettable romantic crime thriller, and among the sexiest American movies ever made. —PV

Bound You can stream it on the Criterion channel.