Prime Video has made a name for itself as the platform for must-see TV series, thanks to its popular YA romantic dramas, like Off Campus and Every Year After, but the streamer has some pretty decent films, too.
The platform keeps adding new titles every week, and Watch With Us has included some recent additions in its weekly weekend streaming guides for film lovers to enjoy.
Some of the best new movies you should stream this weekend include the disturbing thriller Throroughbreds, starring House of the Dragon actress Olivia Cooke and Furiosa’s Anya Taylor-Joy, the Helen Mirren political thriller The Debt and the cult comedy Mallrats.
‘Thoroughbreds’ (2018)
There’s something not quite right about Amanda (Olivia Cooke). The upper-class teenager euthanized her crippled horse with a knife, and she openly admits to not experiencing emotions like other human beings. Her best friend, Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy), is more intrigued than scared by Amanda, especially when she suggests they murder Lily’s stepfather, Mark (Paul Sparks). When he threatens to send Lily to a boarding school for troubled girls, Lily agrees to Amanda’s plan. But Lily isn’t like her friend – she has a soul, and she’s not quite sure she can kill her stepfather and get away with it.
A modern twist on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, Thoroughbreds is an unsettling thriller that features a cast of characters who are all, for lack of a better phrase, f***ed up. Cooke’s Amanda is a fascinating sociopath – she knows something is wrong with her, and she’s fascinated by her own immorality. Taylor-Joy’s Lily is arguably more disturbing, since she’s a character who knows right from wrong and opts for the latter anyway. The film’s ending is at once surprising and inevitable – should it be such a shock to see [REDACTED] get away with murder?
Thoroughbreds is streaming on Prime Video.
‘The Debt’ (2011)
In 1965, three Mossad agents – Rachel (Jessica Chastain), David (Sam Worthington) and Stefan (Marton Csokas) – are tasked with finding Dieter Vogel, a notorious Nazi criminal who has so far eluded capture. When they find him in East Berlin working as a gynecologist, they have Rachel pose as a married woman who needs an examination to lure him into a trap. The ruse works, but the trio’s best laid plans go terribly awry as their prisoner turns the tables on them, placing them all in danger.
The Debt is a tricky political thriller that spans multiple decades and contains more than one plot twist. I won’t reveal too much, but I will say the film begins and ends in the late ‘90s, when several older versions of each character have to face the consequences of their actions from the past. Helen Mirren plays the older Rachel, and she and Chastain create a complex portrait of a woman who is torn by her growing feelings for one of her fellow agents and her desire to complete her mission and bring a monster to justice.
The Debt is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Mallrats’ (1995)
Best friends T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) just got dumped by their respective girlfriends. To nurse their broken hearts, they decide to hang out at the local mall, which contains all sorts of weird characters, like a three-nippled fortune teller, a guy who spends his entire day trying to see a sailboat in a Magic Eye poster and comic book legend Stan Lee. The mall also hosts the dating game show Truth or Dare, which T.S.’s ex, Brandi (Claire Forlani), is participating in. T.S. believes he can win her back, but he’ll need all the help he can get, including the support of local legends Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith).
The second film in Smith’s View Askew universe, Mallrats was trashed by critics when it was first released in 1995. Audiences weren’t much kinder, but the film has since gained a devoted cult following. Seen today, you can understand why: profane and almost plotless, it has a laid-back vibe that makes it a great hangout movie, especially for stoners. Among the oddball cast is ex-90210 bad girl Shannen Doherty as Brodie’s fed-up girlfriend, Rene, and Ben Affleck as T.S.’s obnoxious rival, Shannon.
Mallrats is streaming on Prime Video.
