There’s nothing like a cozy thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat during the lazy dog days of summer, and, for Max subscribers among you, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites. Read on for our charcuterie board of crime, mystery, and summery thrills.
Ex Machina
When software engineer Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is called to visit the home of eccentric CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), he’s expecting just a friendly business exchange – but what he finds shocks him to the core.
As it turns out, Bateman has built an incredibly lifelike gynoid (female robot) named Ava (Alicia Vikander). She’s already managed to pass a simple Turing test, but Bateman wants Caleb to see if she is truly intelligent, capable of all the wonderful and terrible emotions that make us human.
The second surprise for Caleb is Ava’s stunning beauty – but does she truly feel anything for him in return? Can she even feel anything, or is she just relegated to the role of an object, like so many flesh-and-blood women before her? What’s the relationship between Ava and Bateman? And Why did Bateman bring Caleb here in the first place?
Ex Machina is many things. It’s Blade Runner meets Barbie, but those words don’t do this masterpiece of a film justice. It’s a wonderfully rich look, through the metaphor of artificial intelligence, at the way women have been exploited and treated as less than across centuries.
It’s a film that’s aged like fine wine, as ChatGPT, OpenAI, and others of their ilk have invaded the mainstream, prompting an oftentimes fraught discussion on the role of A.I. in modern society. But above all, it’s a film about what it means to be human.
Nightcrawler
When small-time street thief Louis Wood (Jake Gyllenhaal) stumbles on the aftermath of a car wreck and sees photojournalists swarming the wreck, he has an idea on how to improve his lot in life. Louis becomes a photojournalist all on his own walking the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles looking for inside scoops. His attempts are a success, and Louis soon finds himself the darling of the local media. But as he gains popularity, the temptation to create his own crime scenes for clout becomes all the stronger…
Nightcrawler is a splendid critique of modern-day journalism practices, the 254/7 hyper-connected culture in which we live, and the intersection of both. Routinely ranked as one of the best films of 2014, it’s become a cult classic and has only gotten more relevant. This is one you won’t want to miss.
Last Night in Soho
Young British teenager Ellie Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) dreams of being a fashion designer, all the while glimpsing her mother’s ghost in mirrors. One night, Ellie has a dream of the 1960s, where she sees a woman named Sandie (Anna Taylor-Joy) auditioning to be a nightclub singer. But Ellie’s excitement about being back in the Swinging Sixties quickly turns to terror, as further dreams show her a stark reality: Sandie was murdered, and now, 60 years later, her killer has not yet been brought to justice.
Last Night in Soho is a fantastic, gutsy film with enough twists and turns to put any Six Flags ride to shame. The supernatural elements add the perfect touch, and the fact that they’re left unexplained only further serves to strengthen the mystery. With its beautiful art, stellar acting, and a plot so juicy that even reading the Wikipedia summary is enough to make one audibly gasp, this is an underlooked treat you won’t want to miss.
Each of these thrillers is streaming now on Max.