There aren’t any big new films on HBO Max this week, but that just means you have time to capture up with our guidelines for the exceptional movies to look at on HBO and HBO Max proper now. Belfast, Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-triumphing coming-of-age drama, is a candy little crowd pleaser. We Met in Virtual Reality, a documentary approximately finding human connection on-line, is extra area of interest but no much less splendid. And The Bob’s Burgers Movie is essentially just one long episode of Bob’s Burgers, which isn’t at all a criticism. But those are just some of the modern day matters on our listing — there is loads to test out here.
A notice approximately how this list became made: In the hobby of keeping it applicable, we are emphasizing films currently brought to HBO/HBO Max and new releases, but we have additionally made sure to add other movies we suppose you’ll need to recognize about. We’ll be updating it regularly.
Last up to date Aug. 23; more recent additions are at the pinnacle
Belfast
For fanatics of: Northern Ireland, Jamie Dornan’s singing voice
Caitriona Balfe, Belfast Rob Youngson / Focus Features
Year: 2021
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Ciarán Hinds, Judi Dench
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-thirteen
Metacritic rating: 75
Kenneth Branagh received (ahem, stole from Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza) the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for his nicely-appreciated coming-of-age drama set in Northern Ireland, about a young boy developing up for the duration of The Troubles inside the past due ’60s. It’s captivating and sweet and now not tough to recognize why such a lot of people took to it ultimate 12 months. Jamie Dornan and Outlander’s Caitríona Balfe superstar, however helping performances from Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench increase the entirety. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
We Met in Virtual Reality
For lovers of: The strength of the internet
Year: 2022
Director: Joe Hunting
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Metacritic rating: 77
This documentary about online groups at the digital truth platform VRChat — and filmed exclusively within VRChat — starts offevolved off wild, with dozens of humans and their bizarre avatars having a blast goofing off. But as the movie makes a speciality of man or woman memories — a pair who fell in love, an ASL instructor, and greater — the actual poignancy of these digital areas shines via for an exceptionally touching movie about belonging, the future of social norms, and the way era shapes us. This one hits difficult, and it’s extremely good. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
For fans of: Bob’s Burgers
Year: 2022
Director: Bernard Derriman and Loren Bouchard
Stars: H. John Benjamin, John Roberts, Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman, Dan Mintz, Zach Galifianakis, Kevin Kline
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Animation, Musical
Rating: PG-13
Metacritic score: 75
In many approaches, The Bob’s Burgers Movie is just one especially long episode of Bob’s Burgers, however who cares? Bob’s Burgers is continually excellent after 12 (and counting) seasons, so spending a few more time with the Belchers is not precisely a chore. It has a plot — the family is trying to store the restaurant from the cutting-edge risk of financial break, this time within the shape of a sinkhole that opens up in the front of the constructing — however it is on the whole a show off for this innovative group’s talent for first-rate musical scenes. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
For enthusiasts of: When people say “I desire I’d been alive within the ’60s”
Matt Smith and Anya Taylor-Joy, Last Night in Soho Focus Features
Year: 2021
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Thomasin Mackenzie, Jessie Mei Li, Diana Rigg
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Rating: R
Metacritic score: 65
Woman of the instant Anya Taylor-Joy stars in Edgar Wright’s mental mystery about an aspiring fashion designer (Thomasin Mackenzie) who finds herself mysteriously able to tour lower back to the Sixties, wherein she meets a singer (Taylor-Joy), who might also or might not be in hazard because the past and present start to mixture. [Trailer]
For fanatics of: The unique Father of the Bride
Andy Garcia and Adria Arjona, Father of the Bride Warner Bros.
Year: 2022
Director: Gary Alazraki
Stars: Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Metacritic rating: 65
This is not the 1991 Steve Martin movie, however it does follow a similar plot. 2022’s Father of the Bride specializes in a Cuban-American circle of relatives, and facilities on a father, performed by using Andy Garcia, who has to come back to terms with the reality that his daughter is getting married. You know the formula, however to offer credit wherein it’s due, this new version adds just sufficient of its very own cultural attitude to make it not seem like a carbon reproduction. [Trailer]
More recommendations:
- The Best TV Shows on HBO Max to Watch Right Now
- Everything Coming to and Leaving HBO and HBO Max in August 2022
- What to Watch on HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and More in August 2022
For fans of: Gambling, the darkness of the U.S. navy, Oscar Isaac’s glowering face
Oscar Isaac, The Card Counter Focus Features
Year: 2021
Director: Paul Schrader
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan, Tiffany Haddish, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Metacritic score: seventy seven
Paul Schrader loves making movies approximately bothered guys who set free their messed-up little thoughts in diaries. (He wrote Taxi Driver and wrote-directed First Reformed.) Oscar Isaac stars in Schrader’s cutting-edge as a former serviceman (with a very dark past) whose quiet lifestyles of brooding, gambling, and journaling is complicated while he meets a kid (Tye Sheridan) searching for revenge on a mutual enemy. [Trailer]
For enthusiasts of: The strength of women, timely issues
Year: 2022
Director: Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Metacritic score: eighty three
Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin’s documentary follows a set of girls within the pre-Roe v. Wade era who bravely constructed an underground network that helped provide get right of entry to to secure abortions for people with unwanted pregnancies. It was an agency formed in direct opposition to nation law that banned abortions, and the sobering relevance of that cannot be overstated. [Trailer]
For lovers of: Political documentaries, preventing authoritarian regimes
Year: 2022
Director: Daniel Roher
Stars: Alexei Navalny
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Metacritic rating: 82
Vladimir Putin’s best danger is Alexei Navalny, one of the few politicians and activists in Russia to publicly oppose the Russian authorities. As a man rallying others in opposition to Putin’s totalitarian regime, he’s been blacklisted with the aid of the kingdom-managed media and arrested by way of sham courts, however it really is the clean a part of what’s considered the maximum risky activity in the world. In 2020, Navalny changed into poisoned with the aid of a lab-created nerve agent and nearly died. He and his supporters pointed fingers at the Kremlin, who denied any participation. This award-winning documentary, which became released before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, seems at Navalny and the poisoning, and the challenges of fighting Putin. [Trailer]
For enthusiasts of: Beloved comedians, searching at old comedy bits via a modern-day lens
George Carlin, George Carlin’s American Dream George Carlin’s Estate/HBO
Year: 2022
Director: Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio
Stars: George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Patton Oswalt, Stephen Colbert, Bill Burr
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Metacritic score: 86