You’d better be an Amazon Prime Video subscriber in July. Why? Well, the streamer has added tons of great new movies this month.
Watch With Us can tell by using Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer as a benchmark of quality.
This month, these three films — the neo-Western No Country for Old Men, the old-school thriller Witness for the Prosecution and the surrealist masterpiece Blue Velvet — all scored at least 90 percent or more on Rotten Tomatoes.
They’re all unforgettable in their own way and are worth watching now or later.
‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93 percent
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) thinks he has just hit the jackpot when he discovers $2 million in a briefcase at the scene of a botched drug deal. It’s no surprise he takes the money, nor is it terribly shocking that the owners of that money want it back. When they hire Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a sociopath with a Dorothy Hamill hairdo, to retrieve the money at any cost, Llewelyn makes a run for it, but how can he — or anyone, really — outrun someone who is seemingly unstoppable?
Instantly recognized as a classic, No Country for Old Men was a commercial and critical hit in 2007, grossing over $170 million worldwide and winning four Oscars, including Best Picture. It was deserved, as the film is pretty much perfect in every way, from its beautiful, evocative imagery of an American West overwhelmed by senseless violence to its superb performances from Bardem, Jones and Woody Harrelson as a bounty hunter. It’s dark, violent and unrelentingly bleak — but it’s so brilliant that you want to watch it again and again.
No Country for Old Men is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Witness for the Prosecution’ (1957)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100 percent
When Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) is accused of murdering a wealthy widow to inherit all her money, he hires respected barrister Wilfrid Robarts (Charles Laughton) to defend him in an English court. Leonard wants his wife Christine (Marlene Dietrich) to testify for him, but Wilfrid doesn’t trust her — or what she could reveal. As the trial unfolds, secrets emerge that threaten Wilfrid’s reputation — and Leonard’s life.
Very few films hold the distinction of having a perfect 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating, but Witness for the Prosecution is one of them. Directed by Billy Wilder from a stage play by Agatha Christie, it’s one of the best courtroom dramas ever made, with a third-act twist so good, it’s still shocking today. The movie received six Oscar nominations, but not one for Dietrich, who is simply sensational as enigmatic Christine.
Witness for the Prosecution is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Blue Velvet’ (1986)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91 percent
It all started with a severed ear in a parking lot and a college kid with too much time on his hands. When Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) finds the bloody appendage, he immediately wants to find its owner. His curiosity leads him to Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), a lounge singer who has a strange, violent relationship with local mobster Frank (Dennis Hopper). As Jeffrey grows closer to Dorothy, he finds himself reevaluating how he defines his seemingly normal small town that holds dark, disturbing secrets.
One of the most groundbreaking movies of the 1980s, Blue Velvet was also one of the most divisive films of that decade. Roger Ebert famously gave it zero stars, but whatever haters it had have now turned into admirers of what director David Lynch accomplished with his twisted take on American suburbia.
Blue Velvet defies easy categorization or simple understanding; like most of Lynch’s films, it’s best experienced rather than explained. Hopper was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Hoosiers in 1987, but he should’ve won for his creepy work as the out-of-it Frank.
Blue Velvet is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
