Since its debut in 2021, Paramount+ has quickly risen to become one of the greatest subscription-based streaming platforms you can currently find online. Combining a range of properties from CBS, Paramount, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central, it boasts a rich library of beloved movies, TV series, and documentaries.
Like all the most noteworthy streaming platforms, Paramount+ also has a ton of exclusive content at its disposal, such as Star Trek: Picard, 1883, and The Good Fight.
Along with those exclusive titles, the platform also has a dense catalog of movies streaming on the service, from newer films like The Disaster Artist and Eighth Grade to classics like Escape from Alcatraz and Downhill Racer.
Here are some of the best movies you can find playing on Paramount+ right now.
Updated: November 24.
Biopic: The Disaster Artist
Biographical films can be hit or miss, most tending to cover subjects of profound importance or historical significance. On the flip side, the genius of The Disaster Artist is its lack of precedence, the movie not handling any weighty subjects like past presidents or famous historical figures. Instead, it tracks the making of the worst movie ever made, allowing for plenty of comedic interpretation when it comes to the film.
In the late 1990s, struggling actor Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) meets the strange but confident Tommy Wiseau (James Franco). Bonding over their shared dream of becoming stars, Wiseau resolves to make a movie together with Greg — the effort giving way to The Room, often considered the worst film ever released.
Nominated for numerous awards upon its release in 2017, The Disaster Artist is a clear example of a biopic done right. The Franco brothers’ rapport together is nothing short of excellent, the ensemble cast phenomenal, the writing sharp and frequently humorous throughout.
Comedy: Election
With the midterm elections behind us, now is as good a time as any to revisit the 1999 dark comedy classic, Election, a satirization of American politics on the smallest scale imaginable.
Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is an ambitious overachiever who decides to run for her high school presidency. Tired of Tracy’s bubbly personality, her teacher (Matthew Broderick) does everything he can to ensure she loses.
With some incredible performances from Witherspoon and Broderick, Election is a movie that depicts the cutthroat mindset one has to have in order to successfully make it in politics. It’s a dark, cynical movie with some incredibly downbeat messages behind it — but it’s also an extraordinarily funny movie with a unique premise behind it.
Thriller: Escape from Alcatraz
Clint Eastwood is of course synonymous with his Westerns — from early Spaghetti Westerns like the Dollars Trilogy to his later ‘70s Westerns with High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales. By the close of the ‘70s, though, Eastwood had successfully begun to wade into other genres, starring in the exciting prison film, Escape from Alcatraz.
Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is a hardened criminal sent to the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. Together with two other prisoners, the three convicts hatch a daring escape plan, dodging the eyes of capable guards and Alcatraz’s tyrannical warden (Patrick McGoohan).
Based on an actual escape attempt from Alcatraz in 1962, Escape from Alcatraz is also among the best prison breakout films in history, right up there with The Great Escape and The Shawshank Redemption. The movie hits all its major notes — the power-mad warden, the lovable elderly prisoner, the wrongly imprisoned inmate — giving Eastwood a far more realistic character to play compared to the larger-than-life heroes he played in his Westerns.
Crime: Free Fire
Filmmaker Ben Wheatley is a predictably fine indie director, having produced such sleeper hits as A Field in England, Kill List, and High-Rise (all worth worthing, we might add). In 2016, the British director turned to making a ‘70s-set American crime comedy film, the results being the remarkably entertaining Free Fire.
Meeting at a Boston warehouse, two opposing gangs of criminals engage in an intense and lengthy shootout with one another after an innocent weapons swap goes horribly wrong.
Maintaining a mix of lesser-known character actors like Sharlto Copley, Michael Smiley, and Noah Taylor and well-known stars like Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy, Free Fire is a fast-paced, sparsely-plotted film reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs. It may not be the finest crime film currently on Paramount+, but it’s definitely one of the most underrated.
Horror: Ganja & Hess
Uncovering evidence of a vampiric tribe in Africa, anthropologist Hess Green (Duane Jones) is infected by the same disease that affected the ancient tribe. Returning home to New York, Hess soon spreads the disease to his partner’s lover Ganja (Marlene Clark), the two of them grappling with the reality of their illness while targeting unsuspecting neighbors in the area.
In the 1970s, the cinematic landscape underwent a massive transformation. As the New Hollywood Movement gave way to more auteur-driven films by Scorsese, Scorsese, and De Palma, Black creators finally gained a voice in the film industry. Within the span of a decade, films featuring Black actors, Black filmmakers, and narratives about Black individuals began to gain traction, exploring genres that rarely featured Black individuals in the years prior.
Ganja & Hess was one such film. Rooted in the horror genre, it used the vampire myth to explore relevant social issues of its day — such as the Black experience in a predominantly white America. From an indie film perspective, it was one of the most forward-thinking movies of its day, using horror to discuss real-world topics in a fictional narrative.
Romance: High Fidelity
Shortly after breaking up with his girlfriend (Iben Hjejle), record store clerk Rob (John Cusack) ruminates on some of his most painful past breakups, trying to make sense of where his previous relationships went wrong.
High Fidelity is a romantic comedy that’s as much focused on the influence romance has from an individual perspective as much as from a relationship standpoint. In the film, Cusack’s clerk wonders about the impact his past romances have on him psychologically, focusing on what his failed relationships tell him about his emotional needs.
It’s a surprisingly personal film that leaves viewers with some serious questions about their own decisions in life, forcing you to recognize the things most important to you, and also the self-imposed distractions preventing you from achieving happiness.
Action: Face/Off
John Woo is often seen as the international champion of Hong Kong cinema, enjoying success across seas and in America as a high-caliber action director. For as great as his Hong Kong movies are (The Killer, Hard Boiled), one of the best films in Woo’s came during his Hollywood period, the director soon churning out the blockbuster cult sensation, Face/Off.
For the past six years, FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) has been relentlessly hunting the psychopath who murdered his son, Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage). Needing to know the location of a bomb hidden by Troy, Archer undergoes a facial transplant with the criminal mastermind.
One of the most unique and remarkable action movies of the 1990s, Face/Off features everybody at the top of their game. Woo’s direction is inspired, his action exciting and palpable throughout, and both Travolta and Cage shine bright as the respective leads.
Teen: Eighth Grade
By the mid-2010s, it was evident that Bo Burnham was one of the strongest and most original comedians working today. In 2018, Burnham surprised the world even further, turning to writing and directing the coming of age teen film, Eighth Grade — a brilliant and heartrending debut for the stand-up comic.
As the final days of middle school draw near, the anxiety-riddled Kayla Day (Elsie Fisher) does everything she can to fit in with her fellow classmates, to the annoyance of her supportive father (Josh Hamilton).
There’s no denying that Eighth Grade is an incredibly endearing work for its themes, focusing heavily on younger generations and the inherent influence social media has had on their psychological and emotional well-being. But Eighth Grade is packed with enough heart to connect with viewers of every age, ending with the powerful message of embracing your otherness rather than conforming for the sake of social acceptance.
Sport: Downhill Racer
David Chappellet (Robert Redford) is a self-assured downhill skier who joins the US men’s Olympic ski team. Routinely butting heads with his coach (Gene Hackman), he soon learns that skiing for yourself is very different from competing on a team.
The best sports movies aren’t those intrinsically focused on any specific sports themselves. Instead, they’re the films that dissect the effect sports have on the main characters, exploring their motivations and rise to prominence, their downfall, or the reason these characters want to succeed so badly in the first place. (Is it vanity? Narcissism? Obsession? A desire to leave a painful past behind?)
In the case of Downhill Racer, it’s the former. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert probably put it best, calling it “the best movie ever made about sports — without really being about sports at all.” Unlike other sports protagonists like Stallone’s Rocky, Chappellet isn’t striving to rise above his harsh background. He wants only to prove himself the absolute best athlete in the world of skiing, providing the film an emotional undertone that has us relate to Chappellet, but also leaves us more than a little repelled by him.
Underrated: Fear of a Black Hat
A mockumentary very much in the same mold of This Is Spinal Tap, Fear of a Black is a silly takedown of the rap genre, lampooning hardcore ‘90s gangsta rap bands like N.W.A. and Public Enemy.
Wanting to explore the idea of music being a form of communication for her thesis, sociology student Nina (Kasi Lemmons) documents a year with the rap group N.W.H., observing their odd behavior and interesting views on the music industry.
What Spinal Tap did for ‘70s rock and roll bands, Fear of a Black Hat does for hip hop. Complete with self-referential cameos from M.C. Hammer, Salt-N-Pepa, and Vanilla Ice, it’s a goofy but consistently entertaining film.
This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
source https://wealthofgeeks.com/the-best-movies-streaming-on-paramount-plus/
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