Amazon Prime has almost any product you desire — and the same holds true for its streaming service.
Prime Video’s digital library contains a variety of classic films, blockbuster hits and guilty pleasures, and the streamer just added new titles that make its expansive movie selection all the more impressive.
If you need some high-quality films to watch this weekend, Watch With Us has some recommendations for you.
Licorice Pizza is a sweet ode to ‘70s youth, featuring terrific performances from newcomers Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim.
Bridesmaids fans will love the raunchy female comedy Joy Ride, while rom-com lovers will swoon when they watch Cher and Nicolas Cage fall in love in the ‘80s classic Moonstruck.
‘Licorice Pizza’ (2021)
Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) loves Alana Kane (Alana Haim), but there’s just one problem – he’s 15, and she’s 25. She also doesn’t really care for him, and only tolerates his presence as he relentlessly pursues her. Over time, however, they become friends, with Alana helping Gary open a waterbed business and Gary introducing Alana to a talent agent. When Alana begins working for – and falling in love with – a local politician, Gary soon realizes he may have lost his shot at happily ever after with Alana.
Directed by recent Oscar winner Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Licorice Pizza is a terrific coming-of-age film that is episodic in nature – things just happen, often without rhyme or reason. That’s partly why the film feels like real life – it has the illogic of reality and the disappointment of crushed dreams. The film’s lived-in performances also help its veracity, with Cooper and Haim as a pair of potential lovers who have nothing in common except their high tolerance of each other’s excesses. The film features a cast full of Oscar winners and character actors, and they all make a lasting impression, from Bradley Cooper as Barbra Streisand’s somewhat unhinged boyfriend, Jon Peters, to the sublime Harriet Sansom Harris as Gary’s agent.
Licorice Pizza is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Joy Ride’ (2023)
Audrey (Ashley Park) is an ambitious lawyer who needs to travel to China to meet with an important client. Mixing business with pleasure, Audrey invites best friends Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Vanessa (Sabrina Wu) to explore Beijing and meet up with her former college roommate, actress Kat (Stephanie Hsu). The quartet have a blast traveling through China, but soon find themselves in deep trouble after they are forced to consume drugs and have a sex-filled party with a visiting NBA team. If Audrey’s not careful, her girls’ trip could result in her not only displeasing her client but jeopardizing her career.
Joy Rides continues the raunchy comedy tradition recently popularized by Bridesmaids with Kristen Wiig and Girls Trip with Tiffany Haddish. The comedy lets its four female protagonists freak out and have fun while visiting a country that doesn’t look too kindly on their X-rated exploits. The film has its fair share of laughs, but it’s also a surprisingly touching portrait of female friendship.
Joy Ride is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Moonstruck’ (1987)
Italian American widow Loretta Castorini (Cher) isn’t looking for love, but she sorta finds it with the boring but sincere Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello). She doesn’t love him, but he cares about her enough to marry him, and she wants a husband who won’t hurt her as her previous one did. When Johnny is in Sicily tending to his dying mother, Loretta meets his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage). To Loretta’s surprise, she falls hard for him and begins a torrid affair with Ronny that she instantly regrets. Loretta can’t deny her feelings for Ronny, but is that enough for her to break off her engagement to Johnny?
A big critical and commercial hit in the 1980s, Moonstruck is a rom-com hall of famer for good reason. It’s a smart and snappy comedy about the highs and lows of romance and how being driven mad by passion is always worth it. Cher won an Oscar for her performance, and she’s incandescent as a woman who is content to enter a loveless marriage yet finds herself in a romance with a one-handed baker. Love is crazy, unexpected and illogical, the film argues, and that’s what makes it so great. Moonstruck is like that, too, and if it’s not a film close to your heart, I’d suggest you go to the doctor and get a transplant.
Moonstruck is streaming on Prime Video.
