It’s already the last weekend of September, and Prime Video has enough high-quality movies to make you wish for more time to watch all of them.
Watch With Us is here to help. We’ve selected three underrated movies that are worth your time and attention this weekend.
Rom-com lovers will enjoy streaming the late-in-life love story, Words and Pictures, while tech thriller fans will get a kick out of Blackhat with Chris Hemsworth.
Cineastes who are excited for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest flick, One Battle After Another, should rewatch one of the director’s best films, Inherent Vice, with Joaquin Phoenix.
‘Words and Pictures’ (2013)
Jack (Clive Owen) is a writer who teaches at a prestigious Maine prep school. An irresponsible alcoholic, he’s on the verge of being fired when he meets Dina (Juliette Binoche), the new art teacher who values images over the printed word. The two are opposites in every way, but somehow, that draws them into an unlikely romance. Their newfound love, however, is tested by Jack’s inner demons and Dina’s mysterious health problems. Will it be happily ever after for these two professors? Or will they both receive failing grades in romance and flunk out?
Words and Pictures sounds like a cheesy rom-com, but it’s classier and smarter than, say, Confessions of a Shopaholic. That’s mainly due to Owen and Binoche, two internationally renowned actors who don’t typically star in love stories like this one. The film is equally concerned with their characters’ conflicting ideologies — Jack values fiction over images, while Dina does not — as much as their flourishing romance. It’s a romance for adults, which is increasingly rare nowadays.
Words and Pictures is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Blackhat’ (2015)
After a series of hacks around the world threaten the global economy, the Chinese government and the FBI team up to find out who did it. They recruit a computer tech wizard — and imprisoned criminal — Nicholas Hathaway (Chris Hemsworth) to help them. Nicholas does, but for a price — his prison sentence has to end as soon as his mission is over. Temporarily a free man, Nicholas must track down the culprit the only way he knows how — by hacking sophisticated computer systems that could reveal his or her identity. But Nicholas soon discovers his enemy is smarter, faster and deadlier than anyone imagined.
Directed by respected filmmaker Michael Mann, Blackhat flopped hard at the box office in 2015. Critics weren’t too kind to it, either, but seen today it’s a superior tech thriller that more than delivers the goods. Hemsworth is an engaging hero, even if no hacker in existence looks like him. The film’s plot-heavy narrative jumps from one exotic locale to the next, and it successfully sets some high stakes that Nicholas has to overcome. The fate of the world could change with the press of a button and some lines of computer code, and Blackhat argues that we’re not paranoid enough about how our lives hang in perpetual, precarious balance.
Blackhat is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Inherent Vice’ (2014)
Director Paul Thomas Anderson just released his latest film, One Battle After Another, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, so it’s as good a time as any to spotlight one of the auteur’s more underrated efforts, Inherent Vice.
Based on the Thomas Pynchon novel of the same name, Inherent Vice chronicles L.A. private detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), as he investigates the disappearance of his ex-lover’s new boyfriend, real estate developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts). While trying to find Mickey, Doc encounters all sorts of weird characters and situations, including a sex masseuse who knows more than she lets on, a Black power militant group, a cult and something called the “Golden Fang.” Somehow, all of this is linked to Mickey, but all Doc cares about is getting back with Shasta (Katherine Waterston), the ex who wants Mickey back safe and sound. Can Doc find Mickey and somehow win the love of his back?
Inherent Vice sounds like a typical mystery, but it’s anything but. That’s typical of Pynchon, an author who defies traditional genres and categorization, and also of Anderson, who never makes just one type of film. That’s why Inherent Vice is so special — it’s funny, thrilling, sometimes baffling, but always interesting to watch. It’s a crime story that’s also a stoner cult classic, and for better and worse, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. I can’t guarantee you’ll like it — hell, you’ll probably hate it — but if you’re tuned into its odd vibe, you’ll love it.
Inherent Vice is streaming on Prime Video.