While Amazon's Prime Video is mostly known for its TV output, with popular and acclaimed series such as The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Swarm to their name, the studio has also been steadily producing impressive movies since 2015. When it comes to movies, there is a focus on financing independent productions such as Manchester By the Sea, which became the studio’s first nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars. By choosing to produce such movies, Prime Video is enabling the release of interesting and unique movies, often from acclaimed indie directors, as is demonstrated from this list.
For Prime Video’s first few years of operating as a movie studio, they were putting out fewer than 20 movies a year. However, their number of releases picked up significantly in 2020, when a number of movies were looking for new homes with theaters closed due to the onset of the pandemic. With so many movies being distributed and homed by Prime Video, it can be hard to sort through the bunch and find the best of the best. Here are all the best original movies year by year from Prime Video.
2015: Chi-Raq
Prime Video’s first-ever release, and the only one from 2015, is Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq. This potent modern day adaptation of Lysistrata by Aristophanes sets the action in Chicago, tackling the ever-present issue of gang violence. Teyonah Parris stars as Lysistrata, with Samuel L. Jackson, Angela Bassett, and Jennifer Hudson forming more of the star-studded cast. Lysistrata leads a group of women in a movement of protest against gun violence after a child is killed by a stray bullet. As always with Lee, the movie is creative and gripping, with an incredible rhythm to it.
2016: The Handmaiden
The Handmaiden is an adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith that has, similarly to Chi-Raq, been transposed onto a new setting, this time in 1930s Korea. The story centers around a Japanese heiress and her newly hired handmaiden, who is actually working to defraud her boss. Kim Min-hee plays Lady Hideko, the heiress, and Kim Tae-ri plays Sook-Hee, her handmaiden, with Ha Jung-woo and Cho Jin-woong rounding out the cast. Directed by Park Chan-wook, the movie manages to blend thrilling and romantic components, while also incorporating a sense of dark humor to top it all off.
2017: Wonderstruck
From Todd Haynes, the director of Carol and Far From Heaven, comes Wonderstruck. Here, we see the parallel stories of two children, one in the 1920s and one in the 1970s, who are both deaf and searching for a missing parent. The children are played by Millicent Simmonds and Oakes Fegley, and they’re joined by Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams. The way the two stories mirror and amplify each other is incredibly well done as they’re similar enough to create clear ties between the children, but not so similar that it feels like we’re watching the same narrative twice. It’s a touching and heartening movie well worth the watch.
2018: You Were Never Really Here
On the opposite end of the spectrum from touching and heartening is You Were Never Really Here. It stars Joaquin Phoenix in the central role as Joe, a veteran haunted by his time at war who devotes his life to tracking down missing girls. Eventually, the line between reality and his traumatized memories begins to blur when he is overwhelmed by a potential conspiracy. The movie is beautifully constructed, though it doesn’t shy away from necessary moments of gore. There are layers of commentary on masculinity and aggression, something that director Lynne Ramsay is well acquainted with in her work.
2019: Guava Island
One of Prime Video’s most unique outputs so far has been Guava Island, an hour-long music-drama-comedy hybrid movie. It stars Donald Glover, Rihanna, and Letitia Wright, with Glover playing a musician looking to find liberation for the population of the fictional tropical country of Guava Island. The project lands somewhere on the scale between long-form music video and musical, making it stand out among the majority of Prime Video’s output. Additionally, with the combined charisma of Glover and Rihanna, it’s almost impossible not to get on board with Guava Island.
2020: Radioactive
Radioactive is a creatively told biopic about Marie Curie and her world-changing work with radium. It’s directed by Marjane Satrapi, director of Persepolis, and stars Rosamund Pike in the central role. Using bursts of animation and dream sequences, the world of Radioactive is elevated above the mundane world we are used to, depositing us into the mind of someone as brilliant and innovative as Curie. While the movie’s narrative can be hectic, this enhances the immersion into Curie’s unstable world.
2021: Burning
From a biopic to a fully-fledged documentary, Burning documents the bushfires in Australia from 2019 to 2020, also known as the black summer. Directed by Eva Orner, the movie explores perspectives from scientists, activists, and those whose lives were impacted by the fires. It clearly and plainly dictates the increasingly urgent effects of climate change on our society, sparing no feelings. Despite the harrowing information and images we are presented with, the storytelling of the movie is so engaging that it’s hard to look away from.
2022: Catherine Called Birdy
Written and directed by Lena Dunham, Catherine Called Birdy takes place in medieval England, but offers more of a modern sense of humor. Bella Ramsay, known for their roles in Game of Thrones and The Last of Us, plays Birdy, a 14-year-old girl dead set on avoiding marriage. Ramsay is joined by the charismatic likes of Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, and Sophie Okonedo. In a similar mode as Bridgerton, it blends period detail with present-day sensibilities to create a wonderfully enjoyable world that you don’t want to leave when the runtime is up.
2023: Somebody I Used to Know
Helmed by husband and wife team Dave Franco and Alison Brie who co-wrote the script, with Franco directing and Brie in the lead role. In Somebody I Used to Know, Brie plays Ally, a woman visiting her hometown whose interactions with her ex-boyfriend, Jay Ellis, and his new partner, Kiersey Clemons, make her reminisce about who she used to be. This charming movie plays with romantic comedy conventions to continually surprise and intrigue the audience. It may seem simple, but it’s more thoughtful and engaging than it looks at first glance.
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