Max: what are the best films on the new streaming platform?

Available in France since June 11, the new streaming platform Max (owned by the giant Warner Bros. Discovery) offers a launch catalog including numerous high-quality films and series. In total, nearly 1,200 titles are made available to subscribers, and it is not necessarily easy to find your way around.

Instead of suggesting that you rewatch the saga for the umpteenth time Harry Pottermovies Batman or the expected classics like Blade Runner, 2001, A Space Odyssey And Casablancaat the house of The Digitals, we prefer to highlight ten less mentioned films, which are just as essential to discover on Max. Follow the leader.

What are the best films to watch on Max?

Bad Education

Frank Tassone and Pamela Gluckin rule over a popular Long Island school district. Their establishments generate admission records. Soon, a public school embezzlement scandal threatens everything they’ve built. Frank is obliged to maintain order and secrecy by all means…

Based on America’s biggest public school scandal, Bad Education is a real little-known gem. A brilliantly written and elegantly directed investigative film set in the ruthless microcosm of education in the United States. In addition to its captivating true story, this HBO film is also and above all worth for its exceptional actor performances (Allison Jeanney, Ray Romano), including that of Hugh Jackman, who finds this one of his best roles.

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Didier

It’s not at all the day for Jean-Pierre, a sports agent, mired in his own problems, to look after Didier, a friend’s labrador, for a week. The next day, an extraordinary discovery will lead him into the most mind-blowing adventure, where his worst nightmare may well be the chance of his life…

Between schoolboy comedy, sports film and science fiction, Didier is a candy that can be enjoyed without moderation. For his first production, Alain Chabat appears as a dog-man with improbable facial expressions, alongside a grumpy Jean-Pierre Bacri. It’s zany, tender, generous… In short, one of the best comedies of the 90s.

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Ocean’s Eleven

Barely released from prison, Danny Ocean has only one idea in mind: to organize the heist of the century by robbing the three largest casinos in Las Vegas. To do this, he brings together a team of thugs specialized in fields as varied as explosives, computers, bluffing…

Remake of The Unknown of Las Vegas (Lewis Milestone, 1960), Ocean’s Eleven remains one of the best heist films to date. Director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brokovich, Traffic), skillfully spreads his hand and plays his best cards, while surprising the spectator with 2-3 aces hidden in his sleeve. An elegant, jazzy and highly entertaining film, carried by one of the tastiest casts in cinema: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia… A happiness which can be prolonged with its (less convincing) sequels ), Ocean’s Twelve And Ocean’s Thirteen also on Max.

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The Iron Giant

Young Hogarth Hugues has just saved an enormous robot that fell from the sky. But how can you keep the existence of a 15-meter giant a secret? This mission becomes even more complicated when a government agent who is a little too curious arrives in town…

In 1999, when 3D animation was about to flood Hollywood, director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) offers us an underrated marvel with The Iron Giant. An improbable friendship in the middle of the Cold War, where comedy alternates with poetry and moments of jubilant bravery, all the better to leave you with tears in your eyes at the end. A great film about childhood, for adults and children.

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Cold Hand Luke

Luke Jackson is not one to easily tame. So when he finds himself in prison, he doesn’t intend to let anything be dictated to him. But from escapes to captures, Luke will have to fight with all his strength against a prison team who intend to break him…

Pure product of America in the 60s, Cold Hand Luke is a timeless classic which perfectly crystallizes the thirst for freedom of its time. A prison film which hides a tender heart beneath its gruff trappings, and speaks of fraternity, buried trauma and non-conformism. A great bittersweet film, like the Winner or Bonny and Clydewhich above all lets us appreciate the immense Paul Newman in one of his most beautiful roles.

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Jean de Florette / Manon of the sources

In a village in Provence, Jean Cadoret, a hunchback from the city, settles on the land he inherited with the dream of cultivating the land. But Ugolin has views on his land, and wants to grow carnations there. Helped by old uncle Papet, he will push Jean and his family to abandon their land…

French cinema is capable of delivering superb frescoes, and the diptych Jean de Florette / Manon of the sources by Claude Berry is the perfect example. This adaptation of the work of Marcel Pagnol makes the sublime Haute Provence the scene of a drama where the secrets and dreams of men intertwine, in a story resembling a Greek tragedy. Two films as fine in their writing as they are ambitious in their form, and with a cast mixing generations: Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart… A real Godfather French-style.

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The Wizard of Lies

The story of the sulphurous financier Robert Madoff, the Wall Street crook sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison for having embezzled nearly 65 billion dollars.

Barry Levinson, director of Rain Man And Good Morning, Vietnamattacks the figure of Bernard Madoff, one of the main accused of the banking and financial crisis of 2008. A little-known HBO production at the crossroads of Succession And The Big Shortwhich is worth the detour for the sharp writing of Sam Levinson (Euphoria) and Samuel Baum (Lie to Me), and the unusual performance of Robert de Niro.

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Save Willy

Willy is an orca captured and then sold to an aquatic center for exploitation. Jesse, a rebellious pre-teen, will befriend her, and will decide to do everything to get her back to the sea and to freedom.

Max’s catalog is full of regressive nuggets. Besides The Goonies Or The never-ending story, Save Willy is a 90s production that deserves a little rewatch. A film for the whole family, far from revolutionary, but which will give you the dose of adventure and good feelings you need.

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Eyes Wide Shut

Invited to an evening, Doctor William Harford and his wife Alice are, each on their own, the object of attempts at seduction. Both resist temptation. However, the next day, Alice admits to her husband that she had previously thought about cheating on him and now regrets not having taken action. Shaken by this revelation, William runs away and begins a night of revelations.

Stanley Kubrick’s last film (2001, A Space Odyssey, Shining, Full Metal Jacket), Eyes Wide Shut is a feverish and intoxicating dive into the intimacy of a couple, and into the dark machinations of our world. An erotic thriller that invokes themes of secret societies, desire, marriage and social conditioning with, at its heart, the couple (at the time in the city as on screen) Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman, from crazy magnetism. A captivating film that will stay in your head for a long time.

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Rio Bravo

A sheriff arrests the brother of the most powerful man in the region. His only allies are a drunken deputy, a lame old man, a young gun virtuoso, a poker player and a Mexican hotelier, and against him is an army of killers.

Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks is a film of formidable effectiveness, with a gallery of exciting and tragic characters played by a golden cast (John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson). You will be hooked by an emblematic plot, taken up later in the films 3h10 to Yuma (1957), Wasps nest (2002), or even Assault by John Carpenter (1976).

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