March might be winding down, but things are still heating up on streaming services.
If you’re excited about all the new content in store for the streamers next month, you’re not paying attention — there’s still plenty of great movies that you’ve likely missed.
This weekend, Watch With Us wants to highlight three great movies on HBO Max in particular that you should make sure to check out before the month is over.
Our first selection is Memento, the twisty psychological drama from Christopher Nolan starring Guy Pearce.
‘Memento’ (2000)
After enduring an act of violence that he can no longer remember, Leonard Shelby (Pearce) is left with extreme short-term memory loss, and he can’t form memories longer than a few minutes. Using an elaborate system of notes, Polaroid photographs and tattoos permanently etched onto his body, Leonard struggles to regain his former memories as he attempts to piece together the sequence of events that led to the brutal killing of his wife (Jorja Fox) and his present permanent affliction.
Christopher Nolan’s nascent directorial ambitions are on full display even this early in his career, as the high-minded director employs a dual linear narrative to paint a portrait of the film’s events. A black-and-white narrative is shown in chronological order, while a color narrative is presented in reverse order to mimic the perspective of the protagonist, meeting at the end to form a cohesive story. Despite this seemingly confusing, fractured structure, Memento is nothing short of riveting, with compelling performances from Pearce, Carrie-Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano.
‘Final Destination’ (2000)
Before a class trip to France, high school student Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a premonition that his upcoming flight will lead to the deaths of him and everyone on board. When he insists that all his fellow passengers get off the plane, only a few follow him — the remainder are instantly killed in a fiery crash, just as Alex foresaw. While the survivors struggle to understand what happened, little do they know that Alex just interfered with Death’s design. Now, Death is set to embark on its retribution to enact the rightful killings of all who should have perished.
The first installment in the Final Destination horror franchise remains a stone-cold classic because it executes an ingeniously simple idea — Death itself is the killer, and there’s no stopping it. The creative kills, excellent pacing and a terrific lead turn from Sawa help to make this classic teen horror movie an enduring piece of popcorn entertainment, despite (and even because of) its flaws.
‘All the President’s Men’ (1976)
All the President’s Men tells the riveting story of how two renegade journalists broke the true story of the Watergate scandal back in the 1970s. Though workplace rivals, The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) end up teaming up to investigate the bungled burglary of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in 1972. The deeper that Woodward and Bernstein look, the closer they get to a shocking truth, even as they face warnings against their lives for daring to uncover vast governmental corruption.
This classic ’70s political drama isn’t a stuffy old movie — on the contrary, All the President’s Men is compellingly directed, a high-stakes story of investigative journalism that has some suspenseful thrills as well. The strong movie star performances from Hoffman and Redford continue to be regarded as among the best of their respective careers, and the film’s message about holding powerful people accountable through journalism continues to be timeless.
Read the full article here
