As we now find ourselves in May, the last month before we leap into the Summer movie season, you may also find that there are a whole bunch of good flicks to check out on the streaming service Amazon Prime. From festival films that are just getting released to older classics that still hold up, we’ve sorted through them all to bring you the best of the best to check out.

A Quiet Place Part II

Millicent Simmonds and Cillian Murphy in A Quiet Place Part II
Image via Paramount Pictures

Director: John Krasinski

Writers: John Krasinski, Bryan Woods, Scott Beck

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds

A sequel we didn’t know we needed until we got it, A Quiet Place Part II picked up right where its predecessor left off, though it expanded in intriguing new narrative directions. It also showed a commitment to both arresting long takes and some precise editing that made it as tense, if not more so, than the original film. In addition to seeing the return of Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds as the resourceful mother-daughter duo surviving a harsh world, it also brought in an always incredible Cillian Murphy as a new character that showed he remains one of the most powerful screen presences out there today. All of the cast are universally solid, giving committed and emotional performances in even the most constrained of scenes. It might not have the same impact in your home, though it is still worth watching in any setting.

Emergency

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Image via Sundance

Director: Carey Williams

Writer: K.D. Dávila

Cast: RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins, Sebastian Chacon

The stressful yet ultimately spectacular film Emergency was one of the best films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is finally getting a wide release. An expansion on director Carey Williams' 2018 short film of the same name, it centers on friends Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) who find themselves caught up in an unexpected crisis when they discover a white girl they don’t know has drunkenly stumbled into their home where she has passed out. Concerned that if they call the police they will be blamed as Black men, they set out with their housemate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon) to drive her to the hospital themselves. The result is a night of ongoing catastrophe that walks a fine line between cringe and chaos, creating an unrelenting experience that sets out to make you uncomfortable. What holds it together is the three friends who are trying to do the right thing in a world with no good options, making you root for them through clenched teeth at every new challenge they face.

Europa Report

Europa Report - Katya and Rose looking at the spaceship console
Image via Start Motion Pictures

Director: Sebastián Cordero

Writer: Philip Gelatt

Cast: Sharlto Copley, Embeth Davidtz, Daniel Wu

A science fiction film that doesn’t get enough credit, 2013’s Europa Report is a quietly minimalist masterpiece that makes use of found footage to capture one troubled trip into space. It is considered to be one of the most realistic, grounded films about the exploration of the cosmos and it is easy to see why as it takes us into the details of the experience. It follows a crew on an ill-fated mission in an attempt to discover life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and all the unexpected challenges they encounter. Director Sebastián Cordero injects the entire film with a real sense of humanity that strips back spectacle in favor of a more sleek sense of storytelling. As we follow the scrappy crew's attempts to survive unimaginable circumstances and complete their mission, you feel every setback in your very soul as you hold out to the hope that they’ll make it out alive. It pulls back all the excess to prioritize the claustrophobia and terror of what it would actually be like to go into the great unknown of space.

Field Of Dreams (1989)

Field Of Dreams

Director: Phil Alden Robinson

Writers: W.P. Kinsella, Phil Alden Robinson

Cast: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta

One of the most classic baseball films of all time, Field Of Dreams is also a fantastical story about a family who stumbles upon something magnificent that still brings a tear to the eye all these decades later. It stars Kevin Costner as a down-on-his-luck farmer who builds a baseball field on his family land that ends up drawing the ghosts of legend of the game to play there. It becomes a reflection on life and what it means to accomplish something even when it seems like everything is fading away. There are just so many iconic scenes, though there is one that always stands out: the speech by the legendary James Earl Jones. Playing the reclusive fictional author Terrence Mann, he is drawn out to the field where he speaks about how people will come to see the game be played out in the humble outskirts. It is through his presence and rich voice that you know the film is really something special.

Office Space

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Image via Columbia Pictures

Director/writer: Mike Judge

Cast: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, David Herman

The 1999 comedy from acclaimed writer-director Mike Judge, Office Space is a film that proved that he could make the leap into live-action without losing his razor-sharp sense of wit and sardonic observations. Based on his "Milton" cartoon shorts, it has become known as a cult classic as it tackles what it is like to work a rough job with such authenticity that it still is endlessly quotable. A box office bomb on its release, it has endured as appreciation for its vision has only grown in the decades since it first came out. The source of a million memes you’ve likely already seen, it still is worth going back to see for yourself in its entirety. Even as it is still so much more than just the small glimpses that have been repackaged, the way it has been held in such high esteem is a testament to how its humor continues to hit home.

Road to Perdition

Road to Perdition

Director: Sam Mendes

Writers: Max Allan Collins, Richard Piers Rayner, David Self

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin, Paul Newman

A beautifully shot though eternally bleak film, Road to Perdition is one of those works that only has gotten better with age for all it managed to do. The film centers on a grim Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, a brutal enforcer for the Irish mob who keeps what he does from his children. He soon gets caught up in a conflict that threatens his family and leaves him on the run with his son, Michael Sullivan Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin). It is a tense and turbulent film full of violence that unflinchingly shows the dark path the elder Michael has taken while holding onto the prospect of a future for his son that is free of this life. It is meticulously constructed and just keeps building, making for an experience that is as magnificent as it is macabre. It also features an incredible Paul Newman in his last live-action role as the head of the mob, a character he inhabits with grace all the way to a final scene that is up there as one of his very best moments in a career full of them.

Tangerine

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Image via Magnolia

Director: Sean Baker

Writers: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch

Cast: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, James Ransone

A kinetic kaleidoscope of a film that finds joy in the vibrant colors on the most simple of streets, Tangerine is proof that you can create great art with just about anything. Yes, it is the film that everyone always points out as being shot on an iPhone, but it is also so much more than that. It is a story about survival, music, and friendship that rips your heart out without you even noticing it until it is already gone. Oh, and it is also incredibly hilarious as well. Taking place on Christmas Eve in Hollywood, it places us firmly in the shoes of friends Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor). Sin-Dee has just gotten off a 28-day stint in jail and discovers from Alexandra that her pimp boyfriend Chester (James Ransone) has cheated on her. It all sets in motion a journey as the two try to get a hold of him and get some sense of closure to the relationship while also getting up to plenty of shenanigans. Both Rodriguez and Taylor are outstanding, capturing a bond that is more deeply felt than most relationships on film. As they become closer over a fraught tear through town, you too are drawn in by the sense of love for the characters and how beautifully realized they are in every scene. It is a film that only gets better each time you see it, making it an experience always worth diving back in for.