Awards season may have come and gone, but if you are still interested in catching up on some of the 2024 films you missed, then Max may be where you want to look in March. The platform’s streaming additions this month include not only a number of bona fide classics but also several of the best films released last year. Two of those movies are featured on the list below (another, Luca Guadagnino’s divisive “Queer,” barely missed the cut), along with several gems of different genres and decades that you could absolutely spend hours watching this month without ever regretting the time you gave them.
Here are TheWrap’s picks for the best new movies streaming on Max in March.
“Carrie” (1976)
Two years after it was published and launched Stephen King’s seminal literary career, “Carrie” got the adaptation it deserved, courtesy of director Brian De Palma. 1976’s “Carrie” follows its eponymous heroine (Sissy Spacek), a shy teenage girl with budding telepathic powers, as her sanity is pushed to its breaking point by her ruthless high school bullies and her abusive, religious zealot mother (a terrifying Piper Laurie).
Filmed through an unnervingly intimate lens and imbued with a surreal, dreamlike quality that constantly keeps you on edge, “Carrie” is a no-nonsense horror film that does not overstay its welcome and yet finds the space for awe-inspiring stylistic flourishes. (The show-stopping unbroken camera take that sets up the film’s bloody climax needs to be seen to be believed.) To watch it is to watch one of cinema’s greatest stylists operating at the peak of his powers. De Palma gets right to the sick heart at the center of “Carrie,” and he mines its story for all of its uncomfortable visual and narrative power.
“Ghostbusters” (1984)
If you want nothing more this month than a fun way to spend an hour and a half, then look no further. “Ghostbusters,” one of the most beloved and iconic American comedies of all time, is streaming on Max in March. Directed by Ivan Reitman and co-written by stars Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis, “Ghostbusters” is a clever, tonally and narratively original piece of work that still feels as fresh now as it did in 1984 — despite more than a few disappointing sequels following in its wake.
Featuring career-defining performances from Ramis, Aykroyd and Bill Murray, the film is an infectiously funny, delightfully playful comedy. Its one-of-a-kind mix of goofy humor and high-concept creativity has been imitated plenty of times over the years, but it has yet to be matched or one-upped. That’s because “Ghostbusters” brims with the kind of magic that only comes when the perfect creative team comes together for the right project at the right time. It is that same magic that has kept viewers dutifully returning to it for the past 41 years.
“Heretic” (2024)
“Heretic” is an entertaining, claustrophobic thriller — and one of the best genre films of 2024. Written and directed by “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the film follows a pair of unsuspecting Mormon missionaries (“Companion” star Sophie Thatcher and “The Fabelmans” scene-stealer Chloe East) as they end up trapped in the home of a middle-aged psychopath (Hugh Grant) and find their faith put to the ultimate test.
A lean, mean riff on religious horror, “Heretic” knows how to keep you hooked and have fun at the same time. It manages to do both thanks in large part to the against-type turn Hugh Grant gives as its central villain, which itself feels like a sinister remix of the kind of charming rom-com performances that he became a star giving in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Grant is captivating in “Heretic,” his work equal parts menacing and jovial. He is like a nuclear reactor powering a modest home — overqualified and yet a perfect fit. To say that he elevates “Heretic” would be an understatement.
“Goodfellas” (1990)
A well-researched portrait of a tightly knit underground community. A propulsive crime thriller. A scathing, unflinching depiction of narcissism. One of the most entertaining docudramas ever made. Martin Scorsese’s 1990 masterpiece, “Goodfellas,” is all of these things and more. Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s 1985 non-fiction book “Wiseguy,” the film chronicles the life and crimes of Mafia associate Henry Hill, who is portrayed in a career-defining turn in “Goodfellas” by one-time Scorsese collaborator Ray Liotta.
Featuring two chilling supporting performances from Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker send viewers hurtling through its central mobsters’ world for 2-and-a-half hours straight. The film exposes you with breathtaking style and unwavering clarity to all the highs and all the heartless violence of its subjects’ criminal lifestyle — leaving you thrilled, disturbed and gasping for breath. Scorsese has made some of the greatest films of the past 50 years. The fact that “Goodfellas” is rightly considered one of his very best should tell you all you need to know about its quality.
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012)
A favorite of the Tumblr generation that has not lost its timeless appeal, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is one of the best coming-of-age films of the 21st century. Written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, who adapted his own 1999 novel, the film follows a shy high school freshman (Logan Lerman) as he is taken under the wings of two seniors (played by Emma Watson and Ezra Miller) and experiences multiple triumphs and heartbreaks over the course of a single school year. Along the way, Lerman’s Charlie is forced to contend with his lingering grief and the unacknowledged traumas of his childhood.
The film is, like Chbosky’s original novel, overflowing with empathy. It is a gentle, observant and compassionate drama, one that wraps you so tightly in its warm embrace that you find yourself laughing and crying in time with its characters. Set in the early 1990s and released in the early 2010s, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” transcends time and trends. It is a coming-of-age film for anyone who has ever felt alone, and the comfort that it offers is tender and clear-eyed, welcome and necessary.
“The Descendants” (2011)
“The Descendants” has felt largely forgotten in the 14 years since it was released. It deserves a better fate than that. Directed by “The Holdovers” filmmaker Alexander Payne and featuring one of the best performances of George Clooney’s career, it is the kind of wry, frank movie for adults that used to feel a lot more common than it does now. Set in Hawaii, the film follows an attorney (Clooney) whose life and relationship with his eldest daughter (a revelatory-at-the-time Shailene Woodley) are turned upside down when a boating accident leaves his estranged wife in a coma.
His eventual discovery that his wife was cheating on him at the time of her accident only complicates matters further — setting up an emotionally thorny second half that rarely makes a narrative or tonal misstep and is grounded at all times by Clooney’s layered, equal parts acerbic and empathetic, performance. Like Clooney’s central turn, “The Descendants” has a habit of sneaking up on you and hitting you with moments that prove surprisingly difficult to shake.
“Sing Sing” (2024)
“Sing Sing” flew a bit under the radar last year. Many who saw it, though, became passionate supporters of the film, which was inspired by the Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison’s real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. The film follows a group of inmates as they use the program to put on stage shows together. The movie’s ensemble is led by Colman Domingo, who rightly earned a Best Actor nomination at this year’s Oscars for his performance.
He stars in “Sing Sing” alongside a few former, real-life Sing Sing inmates who participated in the prison’s arts program, including Clarence Maclin, who gives one of 2024’s best supporting performances in the film. Together, Domingo, Maclin, their co-stars and director Greg Kwedar turn “Sing Sing” into a profoundly moving drama about art’s power to help us both escape our current circumstances and reconnect with our humanity. At the center of the film, which does not shy away from the harsh reality of its inmates’ lives, is another important message — one about the power we have to choose which stories we not only tell but also inhabit and believe.
