Max makes up for its absence of attention-grabbing original movies this month with a new, impressive assortment of bona fide film classics that will keep you entertained throughout the second month of the year. The streaming platform’s lineup of February film additions includes a handful of thrilling blockbusters, a few underrated and oft-forgotten titles and two of the best efforts from two of America’s finest directors.
Here are TheWrap’s picks for the best new movies streaming on Max in February.
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000)
Director Ang Lee‘s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is a balletic epic of clashing swords, thrown fists and untaken roads. The Oscar-winning drama follows the prideful young daughter of a powerful governor (Zhang Ziyi) as she bucks against the prearranged structure of her life by stealing a legendary sword long held by Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat), a famous warrior whose lifelong dedication to avenging his fallen master has left his love for Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), a fellow skilled martial artist, unrequited.
As Ziyi’s Jen ignores her elders’ advice and tries to take on the entire world, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” reveals itself as a contemplative meditation on youthful arrogance and the lives we choose, sometimes mistakenly, not to lead. The film’s themes are filtered through Yeoh and Yun-fat’s tender yet fierce lead performances, as well as some of the most brilliantly choreographed fight scenes in movie history. That is the magic of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” It is a breathtaking action epic that manages to melt your brain and gently tug on your heartstrings. There are few movies as simultaneously explosive and meditative.
“We Live in Time” (2024)
“We Live in Time,” one of last year’s weepiest dramas, makes its streaming debut on Max this month. Directed by “Brooklyn” filmmaker John Crowley, the film follows Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh), a young British couple whose romance is complicated by illness and accidents both tragic and joyous. Anchored by Garfield and Pugh’s deeply felt lead performances, “We Live in Time” left many moviegoers with tears in their eyes last year, and it will likely have the same effect on those who watch it for the first time on Max. It is a warm, affecting piece that, at its very best, captures not only how one can feel alternately displaced and trapped in time, but also how those we love live just as much in our memories as they do in the moments we actually share with them.
“Support the Girls” (2018)
“Support the Girls” is best experienced rather than described. The day-in-the-life dramedy from filmmaker Andrew Bujalski follows the manager (Regina Hall) of a Hooters-esque breastaurant whose resolve is tested over the course of a single day as she tries to address various professional issues while also protecting the female workers who put their faith in her. It is a chaotic, funny and compassionate comedy, and it is elevated by Hall’s commanding lead performance as a woman doing her best not to let America’s punishing capitalist structure break her will.
Across its tight 91 minutes, the film breathlessly captures the kind of 9-to-5-induced exasperation that can leave you wanting to do nothing more than scream at the world. In its unforgettable final scene, “Support the Girls” also celebrates the camaraderie and comfort that can come from knowing you are rarely ever truly alone in your frustration or even your rage.
“Malcolm X” (1992)
A towering achievement, “Malcolm X” is one of director Spike Lee’s greatest works. Based on Alex Haley and Malcolm X’s “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” the film dramatizes the life of its eponymous, real-life African American activist (frequent Lee collaborator Denzel Washington) — following him from his youth all the way to his assassination in 1965. It takes on a task of titanic difficulty by trying to depict the full story of someone as monumental as Malcolm X, and it gives itself a suitably massive 202 minutes to do it.
The film’s subject matter justifies its length, and its runtime allows you to feel the weight of its protagonist’s life even as Lee’s typically confident, assured direction makes each minute fly by. Featuring an awe-inspiring, career-defining turn from Washington, “Malcolm X” reminds one what great biopics can do. It captures not only the arc of a single life, but also the emotions that can elevate certain figures, determine the fate of entire social movements and change history.
“Mrs. Miniver” (1942)
1943’s Best Picture winner, “Mrs. Miniver” is a profound and rousing drama. Originally written before America had entered World War II, director William Wyler’s adaptation of Jan Struther’s 1940 novel follows an everyday British housewife (an Oscar-winning Greer Garson) as her and her family’s lives are changed by the outbreak of the war. Starring Walter Pidgeon as the husband to Garson’s Mrs. Miniver, the film explores the early days of Britain’s fight against Nazi Germany and even features an elegant dramatization of the Dunkirk evacuation Christopher Nolan dedicated an entire film to 75 years later.
Rewritten numerous times to better reflect the attitude of a post-Pearl Harbor America that was more driven to fight, the finished film was received with rapturous applause and became the highest-grossing movie of 1942. Over 70 years later, it remains a stirring, powerful exploration of how to remain steadfast, strong and dignified in the face of encroaching tyranny and human evil.
“Speed” (1994)
If you find yourself in the mood for a thrilling slice of action filmmaking this month, then you can not do much better than “Speed.” The thriller from “Twister” director Jan de Bont is a bracingly entertaining ’90s classic that has held up remarkably well in the 30 years since its release. Featuring a proper action-hero turn from Keanu Reeves and a star-making performance from Sandra Bullock, the film follows an LAPD officer (Reeves) who is tasked with disarming a bomb that is rigged to explode should the city bus it is tied to ever go below 50 mph.
Reeves’ Jack Traven ends up enlisting one of the bus’ passengers (Bullock) to help him save the lives of everyone onboard and catch the madman (Dennis Hopper) who planted the bomb in the first place. Punctuated by a handful of astonishing, practically executed stunts and set pieces, “Speed” is a light-on-its-feet, tense blockbuster that will make your heart race right up to and through its inevitably destructive conclusion.
“Taxi Driver” (1976)
An unnerving character study that, unfortunately, has only grown more prescient and relevant in the decades since its debut, director Martin Scorsese‘s “Taxi Driver” is an American masterpiece that still sits near the top of its maker’s unparalleled filmography. Penned by “First Reformed” filmmaker Paul Schrader, the 1976 film follows Travis Bickle (a career-best Robert De Niro), a Marine veteran whose nights spent working as a cab driver only fuel his growing disgust with the rest of the world.
Isolated by his profession and his detrimental inability to connect with others, Travis’ deteriorating psyche leads him closer and closer to outright violence. Fittingly seedy and deranged, “Taxi Driver” is a frequently imitated, yet to be matched drama that feels as timeless as it does tied to the period in which it was made. It is a moody portrait of frustrated male anger that is masterfully good at entrancing you, horrifying you, and crawling under your skin.
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