The 29 best movies to stream on Prime Video UK (updated for 2026)

Director: Nia DaCosta

Cast: Tessa Thompson, Imogen Poots, Nina Hoss

A funny thing happened on the way to The Bone Temple, as director Nia DaCosta took a detour to complete her dream project, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece 1890 play Hedda Gabler. Updated to the 1950s, among other changes, it stars a luminous Tessa Thompson in the title role as the daughter of a general forced into a loveless marriage whose repressed desires explode to the surface over the course of one eventful night. It’s a true actor’s showcase, not just for Thompson but Tár’s Nina Hoss in a fiery performance as Gabler’s former lover. Rated R. 1 hr 47 min.

Watch Hedda now on Prime Video UK

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston

Before he was Just Ken, Ryan Gosling was just the Driver, an anonymous, nearly mute Hollywood stuntman-turned-criminal getaway driver trying to break free of the gangster he’s fallen in with. Nicolas Winding Refn’s icy-cool action-noir is, as the kids might say, the vibiest movie of the 2010s, with a retro-synth soundtrack, sudden outbursts of ultraviolence and the most badass satin jacket in movie history. Adding to the vibes is Albert Brooks, playing a villain for the first time in his career and absolutely crushing it. Rated R. 1 hr 40 min.

Watch Drive now on Prime Video UK

Director: RaMell Ross

Cast: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater

Adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into an impressionistic collage of images, memories and dreams, the debut narrative feature from documentarian RaMell Ross does nothing less than reinvent the language of cinema. Shot entirely from first-person perspective, it follows two Black teenagers whose lives intertwine at a brutal reform school in the Jim Crow South. Far more than wallowing in the horrors of institutional racism, Ross’s bold formal approach engenders a radical sort of empathy. A true triumph. Rated PG-13. 2 hr 20 min.

Watch Nickel Boys now on Prime Video UK

Director: Michael Gracey

Cast: Robbie Williams (voice), Jonno Davies, Scott Pemberton

In many ways, the story of English pop star Robbie Williams is typical biopic fodder: drugs, daddy issues, chronic arrogance, etc. In one crucial way, though, his biopic is unlike any other: in it, Williams is portrayed by a CGI monkey. Yes, it’s a sledgehammer metaphor for how the press and public view entertainers. But even beyond the gimmick, the movie has more wigged-out energy than most in the genre. And when Monkey Williams sings his own lyrics for the first time? Tears, bruv. Rated R. 2 hr 14 min.

Watch Better Man now on Prime Video UK

Director: Sidney Lumet

Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J Cobb, Ed Begley

Sidney Lumet started his legendary filmmaking career by making one of the greatest legal dramas of all-time. A young Puerto Rican boy is on trial for murder. Only one member of the all-male, all-white jury (Fonda) believes he’s innocent. Can he convince the others to change their vote? Lumet somehow makes 90 minutes in a single room listening to a volley of arguments and deliberations as riveting as any war film. Rating N/A. 1 hr 35 min.

Watch 12 Angry Men now on Prime Video UK

A movie about the election of a new pope sounds like a solemn affair, but not with these messy bitches. Edward Berger’s papal drama contains all the shady dealings of a political potboiler, with twists straight out of a daytime soap. (Call it All My Cardinals.) The uniformly excellent cast plays it straight, while Berger supplies a handful of stunning visuals. It’s divine entertainment. Rated PG. 2 hrs.

Watch Conclave now on Prime Video UK

Director: George A Romero

Cast: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H Reiniger

George A Romero invented the modern zombie movie with Night of the Living Dead, then reinvented it ten years later. Where the first film used the undead as an allegory for the American racial strife of the late 1960s, its sequel, set in a Philadelphia shopping mall, tackles consumer culture, with more (ahem) biting humour and advanced levels of gore courtesy of splatter master Tom Savini. Rating N/A. 2 hr 6 min.

Watch Dawn of the Dead now on Prime Video UK 

Director: Greg Kwedar

Cast: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Sean San José

A group of prisoners at New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility find hope and meaning through a penitentiary theatre program. Sound like middlebrow Sundance stuff? Think again. Casting actual alums of the program alongside the tremendous Colman Domingo lends the film an unfakeable emotional authenticity. Maclin, in particular, deserved an Oscar nomination as much as Domingo. Rated R. 1 hr 47 min.

Watch Sing Sing now on Prime Video UK

Director: Megan Park

Cast: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White

What if you met your older self, and it turns out you grow up to be Audrey Plaza? Pretty cool, right? Well, yes and no. In this high-concept coming-of-age romcom, a teenage girl (breakout Maisy Stella) indeed comes into contact with herself as a ‘middle-aged’ 39-year-old played by the Parks and Recreation star – while high on mushrooms, natch – who offers some vague warnings about the future, complicating her already confused view of her identity. It’s smart, spiky and sweet. Rated R. 1 hr 29 min.    

Watch My Old Ass now on Prime Video UK

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Cast: Steve Coogan, Lennie James, John Thomson

Michael Winterbottom’s document of the Manchester punk scene of the late ’70s and ’80s plays as fast and loose with the facts as the bands did with their music, which is really the only accurate way to depict an era in which everybody was either perpetually soused, pilled-up or prone to grandiose mythmaking. And then there’s Steve Coogan, reliably hilarious as Tony Wilson, the TV presenter who became the scene’s unlikely benefactor, bringing Joy Division to the world then overseeing the dawn of rave culture. All in all, it’s the only music biopic that matters. Rated R. 1 hr 57 min.

Watch 24 Hour Party People now on Prime Video UK

Director: Regina King

Cast: Leslie Odom Jr, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Kingsley Ben-Adir

Oscar-winner Regina King's strong directorial debut feature is an instant classic of the "what if" genre in which Cassius Clay (Goree), Jim Brown (Hodge), Malcolm X (Ben-Adir) and Sam Cooke (Oscar nominee Odom) spend an electric night together amid the backdrop of the Civil Rights movement they each impacted in a very different way. Rated R. 1 hr 54 min.

Watch One Night in Miami now on Prime Video UK

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano

Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, the real-life couple who penned this film, give us a Pakistani-American culture-shock romance that isn’t awash with clichés. We meet Emily (Zoe Kazan plays Gordon’s on-screen surrogate) and Kumail (Nanjiani plays a version of himself) just before Emily falls into a coma. Suddenly for Kumail, there’s heartache, hospitals and parents to deal with. Rated R. 2 hrs.

Watch The Big Sick now on Prime Video UK

Director: Na Hong-jin

Cast: Jun Kunimura, Jung-min Hwang, Kwak Do-won

A police officer (Do-won) scrambles to find a cure for a mysterious illness ravaging a small Korean town before it can claim his daughter. At nearly three hours, The Wailing scans as a formidable watch, and it moves slowly enough that it will cause the impatient to fidget. But give yourself over to its trancelike pace, and you’ll realise why the film has been hailed as a masterpiece of atmospheric horror. Rating N/A. 2 hr 26 min.

Watch The Wailing now on Prime Video UK

Director: David Lowery

Cast: Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton

Although it was snubbed during award season, this artful retelling of the Arthurian legend was one of the standout films of 2021. It’s the sort of imaginative, large-scale cinematic adventure that plays equally well for literature nerds and mass audiences. (Too bad it came out when the theatres were still closed due to Covid.) Patel is excellent as Sir Gawain, impetuous nephew of King Arthur, who decides to test his mettle against a formidable knight with supernatural powers. Rated R. 2 hr 5 min.

Watch The Green Knight now on Prime Video UK

Director: Justin Kurzel

Cast: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett

Aussie director Justin Kurzel’s (Snowtown) grim true-crime thriller has an ’80s setting, ’70s aesthetics and, sadly, a deal of contemporary relevance in its depiction of neo-Nazism seeping into the soil of American society. Nicholas Hoult impresses in a rare full-tilt heel turn as a violent white supremacist figurehead attempting to foment an insurrection against the federal government, while Jude Law grows a ’tache to play a burned-out cop appropriately named Husk. It’s a downbeat affair, but also a potent rejoinder to anyone who thinks right-wing extremism in the US is anything new. Rated R. 1 hr 54 min.

Watch The Order now on Prime Video UK

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, LaKeith Stanfield, Rosa Salazar, Keegan-Michael Key

A prime example, ahem, of how the straight-to-streaming vortex can swallow even worthwhile movies whole, this action-thriller – written and directed by Shane Black, starring Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield and adapted from a popular crime novelist – somehow came and went without a trace. Pity, because it’s the sort of crowd-pleasing genre fare we used to get a dozen of every year. Based on the Parker book series by Donald Westlake, Wahlberg and Stanfield are thieves who stumble into the high-risk, high-reward job of a lifetime. Also, Mark Cuban gets shot in it. What’s not to like? Rated R. 2 hr 8 min.

Watch Play Dirty now on Prime Video UK

Director: Emerald Fennell

Castr: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike

Whatever you think of Emerald Fennell’s so-far polarising filmography, you certainly think something. In her ambitious follow-up to 2020’s Promising Young Woman, a broke Oxford student (Keoghan) ingratiates himself to an uber-wealthy classmate (Elordi), getting invited to spend the summer with his weirdo family at their sprawling estate. Admittedly, the wheels fall off the plot in the third act. Luckily, there’s much more to latch onto, from the lush cinematography to the idiosyncratic performances to Keoghan’s buns-out dance routine set to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’. Rated R. 2 hr 11 min.

Watch Saltburn now on Prime Video UK

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield

Luca Guadagnino pulled together a starry cast for his college-campus #MeToo drama, which then promptly came and went from cinemas without making much of a dent on the box office. Sure, the script is more than a little wobbly, but Julia Roberts gives one of her best performances in years as a professor sideswiped by accusations of sexual assault leveled against her colleague (Andrew Garfield) by her star pupil, played by Ayo Edebiri. Give it a shot – it’ll give you something to think about, if nothing else. Rated R. 2 hr 19 min.

Watch After the Hunt now on Prime Video UK

Director: Jason Woliner

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova

What’s that saying? ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice? Very nice!’ How Sacha Baron Cohen, in the guise of bumbling Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, could prank America again, after his first mockumentary was one of the biggest comedy films of the aughts, is hard to fathom. But then, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the Proud Boys and Rudy Giuliani. Special commendation goes to Maria Bakalova, as Borat’s teenage daughter, whose commitment to going all the way for a joke rivals Coen’s own. Rated R. 1 hr 36 min.

Watch Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm now on Prime Video UK

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin

A movie was bound to feature a Coachella meet-cute eventually, but who would have guessed it’d involve a pop star and an attendee’s mother? And who thought the film itself would turn out to be so tender, thoughtful and funny? Michael Showalter, director of The Big Sick, has a way of finding genuine humanity within improbable romcom setups, and this viral hit, starring Nicholas Galitzine as a Harry Styles avatar and Anne Hathaway as the single mother who enraptures him, is another winner. Rated R. 1 hr 55 min.

Watch The Idea of You now on Prime Video UK

Director: Darius Marder

Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci

The great Riz Ahmed gives a revelatory, career-best performance in this somber, touching drama about a heavy-metal drummer coming to terms with the fact that his hearing is deteriorating at a rapid pace. With its landmark sound design and stunning central performances, the film is an absolute stunner, at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Rated R. 2 hrs.

Watch Sound of Metal now on Prime Video UK

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Luis Guzmán

Coming right before the legacy-cementing run of Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven, Steven Soderbergh’s relatively small crime dramedy has wound up largely overshadowed within the director’s filmography, but it’s as good as anything he’s done. The late, great Terence Stamp is a British ex-con fresh out of jail who travels to LA to investigate the suspicious death of his estranged daughter. Stamp is terrifically intense, with a thick Cockney accent that’s hilariously difficult to understand. But the film itself is funny, violent and sad in equal measure. Rated R. 1 hr 29 min.

Watch The Limey now on Prime Video UK

Director: Ben Affleck

Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman

If Jerry Seinfeld’s Pop-Tart movie is the nadir of the ‘consumer-product origin story’ trend, then its height was this dramatisation of Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan and the creation of the most iconic sneaker of all-time. Ben Affleck, as director and in the role of company founder Phil Knight, infuses this ’80s-set corporate underdog tale with the appropriate amount of energy, humour and garish tracksuits. Sure, you can argue it’s still a crass monument to capitalist idolatry, but who doesn’t think Air Jordans are one of mankind’s greatest inventions? Rated R. 1 hr 52 min.

Watch Air now on Prime Video UK

Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams

American director and playwright Kenneth Lonergan's film isn't about rebounding as much as coping. That’s what makes it so dark and courageous; it says that, for some people, there won’t be any moving on from grief. Moveover, Casey Affleck burns the screen in the early scenes, building up a portrait of a solitary existence. It's a film of almost unbearable honesty. Rated R. 2 hr 17 min.

Watch Manchester By the Sea now on Prime Video UK

Director: JC Chandor

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto

You don’t need a finance degree or a subscription to The Economist to be gripped by this recession thriller. Documenting the sudden implosion of an investment bank over the course of 24 hours, it’s an impressively smart corporate procedural that refuses to talk down to the audience, but also never goes over its head, and the all-star cast ensures everyone gets the message. Rated R. 1 hr 47 min.

Watch Margin Call now on Prime Video UK

Director: Ilya Naishuller

Cast: John Cena, Idris Elba, Priyanka Chopra, Jack Quaid

In the market for some turn-off-your-brain entertainment that’s nonetheless better than it should be? Always trust John Cena. In this bickering buddy flick, the Doctor of Thuganomics is the improbably swoll President of the United States who begrudgingly teams up with Idris Elba’s British Prime Minister to take out a common enemy and foil a global conspiracy. It’s good, dumb fun, with two guys who excel at delivering this kind of winking action-comedy. Rated PG-13. 1 hr 53 min.

Watch Heads of State now on Prime Video UK

Director: Paul Downs Colaizzo

Cast: Jillian Bell, Jennifer Dundas

Jillian Bell shines as the titular character in this enearing and earnest film about self-acceptance and body positivty that, thanks to some complex comedy about health, fat-shaming and the relentless forward momentum of being a New Yorker, sidesteps any cheesy pitfalls. Rated R. 1 hr 43 min.

Watch Brittany Runs a Marathon now on Prime Video UK 

Director: Felix van Groeningen

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Steve Carell

Timothée Chalamet does major things in this new movie – things that no other actor of his generation is attempting – in this film about a college-bound kid derailed by drugs based on the dual father-son memoirs of David and Nic Sheff. Rated R. 2 hrs.

Watch Beautiful Boy now on Prime Video UK

Director: Doug Liman

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Conor McGregor

Did the world need a remake of Road House, the stupid-awesome ’80s classic where Patrick Swayze works as a bouncer at the most violent bar in America? Not really. But if you’re going to do it, it’s best to retain the original’s meatheaded, pain-don’t-hurt spirit — no pseudo-intellectualising, no ‘gritty reimagining’. In that regard, Doug Liman’s MMA-infused reboot, with Jake Gyllenhaal assuming the Swayze role, does right by its predecessor, and the results aren’t half bad. Pity no one got paid for it. Rated R. 1 hr 54 min.

Watch Road House now on Prime Video UK