So you’re stuck in scrolling purgatory again, huh? Endlessly thumbing through HBO Max, hoping something jumps out. We’ve been there. That’s why we pulled together the Top 10 Movies you would actually want to watch this week—no fluff, no filler. Whether you’re into thrillers, rom-coms, or indie gems, there’s something worth hitting play on. Here’s your movie cheat sheet for June 15-21, 2025—because your time is too valuable for another “meh” movie night.
Mountainhead (2025)
If Succession gave you a taste for rich people flailing in their own self-made messes, Mountainhead is the full-course meal. Jesse Armstrong is back with this sharp, biting HBO original about a group of tech billionaires who head to a luxurious mountain retreat just as one of their AI apps starts destabilizing, well… democracy.
Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith play the kind of guys who think they’re changing the world when really, they’re just making it worse. The movie traps them together in a snowed-in house as the outside world burns—and the backstabbing begins. It’s dark. It’s hilarious. And it somehow feels both completely absurd and way too real.
If The Menu and The Social Network had a baby—and that baby was deeply insecure and very online—it’d be Mountainhead.
aka Mr. Chow (2023)
You might know the name from the ultra-glam restaurants. But, aka Mr. Chow, peels back the curtain on the man himself, Michael Chow, and what it finds is way more layered than you’d expect. He’s not just a restaurateur. He’s a survivor, an artist, a bridge between East and West, and a man shaped by a family legacy of Beijing opera and unspeakable personal losses.
The doc gives us his story in bold strokes and quiet moments—his exile from China, his strained relationship with his father, the loneliness behind all the flash. And yeah, it’s still got the glitz (those restaurants are iconic), but it’s not a puff piece. It’s a portrait of a guy who remade himself over and over and never quite shook the feeling that he didn’t belong.
If you love docs like Val or Roadrunner, this one’s in that lane—intimate, stylish, and a little haunted.
Reality (2023)
This one doesn’t blink. Reality takes the real FBI interrogation transcript of whistleblower Reality Winner—and lets it play out, word for word, with Sydney Sweeney delivering a performance that’s straight-up surgical.
It’s not a courtroom drama. There’s no big monologue. It’s just a young woman sitting in her living room, flanked by agents, as her world slowly comes apart. The tension creeps up on you, not because of what’s said, but how. The awkward pauses. The bureaucratic language. The way the truth starts to crack through.
If you thought Sweeney was just good at playing emotionally messy teens, Reality will stop you in your tracks. It’s chilling. It’s restrained. And it’ll leave you thinking long after the last line’s read.
The Batman (2022)
This one’s a vibe—gothic, grimy, and soaked in rain. The Batman doesn’t try to out-Batman the Batmans that came before. Instead, it leans into noir, putting Robert Pattinson in the cowl as a younger, angrier Bruce Wayne still figuring out how to channel his demons into justice.
He’s less of a playboy and more of a recluse in guyliner. Gotham’s rotting from the inside out. And The Riddler? More serial killer than comic book villain. It’s gritty and grounded, but not joyless—Zoe Kravitz brings real heat as Selina Kyle, and the whole thing feels like a detective thriller with capes.
If you want your Batman with more paranoia and fewer punchlines, this is your ride. It’s less superhero movie, more Seven in a cape—and that’s not a complaint.
Dune (2021)
Denis Villeneuve really said, “What if Game of Thrones, but in space… and way moodier?” Dune is all scale—epic, sand-swept, worm-ridden scale—and somehow still manages to make every political betrayal and whispered prophecy feel deeply personal.
Timothée Chalamet plays Paul Atreides, a space prince with weird dreams and a tragic destiny, while Zendaya floats in and out like a mirage (until she finally gets screen time in Part Two). The visuals are stunning, the score sounds like a war horn from another dimension, and yes, the giant sandworms are worth the hype.
It’s not fast. It’s not flashy. But it’s dense, beautiful, and exactly the kind of movie that dares you to lean in. Think Blade Runner 2049 meets Lawrence of Arabia—with more spice.
KIMI (2022)
Rear Window for the Alexa generation. KIMI drops Zoë Kravitz into a hyper-modern thriller where tech is everywhere and trust is thin. She plays Angela, an agoraphobic data analyst who reviews smart assistant recordings. One day, she hears what sounds like a violent crime—and suddenly, her job turns into a life-or-death puzzle.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, this one’s tight, slick, and surprisingly tense for something that rarely leaves a single apartment. Angela’s anxiety feels lived-in, not just a plot point, and Kravitz plays her with a kind of raw, quiet sharpness that anchors the whole thing.
If you’re into slow-burn thrillers that mess with your head more than your heartbeat, this is worth hitting “play.” Just maybe don’t watch it with your smart speaker on.
The Fallout (2021)
This one isn’t about the shooting—it’s about everything after. The Fallout opens in a high school bathroom, and within minutes, something unthinkable happens. But instead of turning it into a plot device, the movie zooms in on two girls—Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler—as they try to figure out how to breathe again in a world that suddenly feels like it could collapse at any second.
What follows is quiet, messy, and deeply human. Ortega, especially, is phenomenal—fragile one moment, furious the next. It doesn’t offer easy answers or grand speeches. It just sits with the pain, the confusion, the occasional bursts of laughter that don’t really make sense but happen anyway.
If you liked Eighth Grade or The Edge of Seventeen, this is that vibe, but heavier. It hurts. But it matters.
Spirited Away (2001)
This isn’t just a movie—it’s a portal. Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli’s crown jewel, and even 20+ years later, it still feels like stepping into a dream you don’t want to wake up from. Chihiro’s journey into a spirit world full of gods, witches, soot sprites, and dragons isn’t just enchanting—it’s profound.
The animation is hand-drawn perfection. The score is hauntingly beautiful. And the story? It somehow juggles capitalism, identity, and childhood fear without ever losing its sense of wonder.
If you’ve never seen it, now’s the time. If you have? Watch it again. There’s always something new to notice in this world.
The Janes (2022)
Before Roe v. Wade, there were The Janes—a collective of women in 1970s Chicago who risked everything to provide safe, illegal abortions. This doc doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It’s raw, urgent, and deeply rooted in personal testimony, built from interviews, archival footage, and a whole lot of righteous rage.
What’s wild is how calm these women are recounting what they did. No drama. Just: “It needed to be done, so we did it.” And when you see the scope—11,000 women helped—you start to realize how much history we forget to teach.
If Call Jane gave you the dramatized version, this is the real deal. It’s a reminder of how fast things can slide backward—and how much courage it takes to push forward.
Diggers (2006)
This one’s easy to miss—but don’t. Diggers is a slice-of-life indie set in 1970s Long Island, where Paul Rudd and his buddies dig for clams while their coastal town gets eaten alive by corporate fisheries and creeping development.
It’s not flashy. There are no big speeches. But it’s full of small, lived-in moments about working-class identity, letting go of your past, and trying to stay true to something in a world that’s moving on without you.
Think The Station Agent or The Way Way Back, but more salty, less sweet. If you’ve ever felt like your hometown was slipping through your fingers, this one’ll hit.
And That’s a Wrap
So that’s your HBO Max mix—ten films that don’t just entertain, they say something. Whether it’s tech bros melting down in Mountainhead, a whisper-quiet coming-of-age in The Fallout, or Studio Ghibli magic that hits you right in the chest, this lineup’s got real range.
You’ve got stories about whistleblowers (Reality), identity reinvention (aka Mr. Chow), quiet resistance (The Janes), and epic sci-fi destiny (Dune). Some are glossy. Some are scrappy. All of them are doing more than just killing time.
If your watchlist has been feeling a little safe lately, now’s the time to shake it up. There’s something here for the restless, the thoughtful, the nostalgic, and the late-night scrollers who want something that lingers after the credits roll.
