10 Best Movies on Paramount Plus

10 Best Movies on Paramount Plus

March 9, 2024

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Drawing from a vast array of titles from its Viacom and CBS properties, Paramount Plus has a lot of good movies to offer. You might have to dig your way through the kid shows and live channels to find them, but they are there, and they carry with them considerable range. From hidden gems and documentaries to box-office hits and dramedies, Paramount Plus has something for everyone and for every mood. To save you some time, we’ve listed the very best films you can watch right now on the platform. 

1. Enough Said (2013)

9.0

Country

United Kingdom, United States of America

Director

Female director, Nicole Holofcener

Actors

Amy Landecker, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Barry Jenner, Ben Falcone

Moods

Easy, Emotional, Feel-Good

You know you’re in for a treat when you see Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini heading the cast of a sweet and slightly goofy comedy. Steadily going beyond his persona in The Sopranos, you see James Gandolfini playing a role that his fans have probably always imagined him playing: a nice, funny guy with an endearing personality. Directed by Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said almost has a sit-com feel to it: a divorced single parent and masseuse, Eva (Louis-Dreyfus), is looked up by a guy, she briefly met at a party, Albert (Gandolfini). Upon finding out they have much in common, the two start dating. At the same time, she meets Marianne (Catherine Keener), who she becomes friends with and who cannot stop talking ill of her apparently awful ex-husband. You guessed it: it’s her new, promising date, Albert. Things get muddy and very funny as she starts to doubt, whether she has made a big mistake. Hilarious, romantic, and smart, it’s very much like we expected: a real treat.

2. Bound (1996)

best

8.6

Country

United States of America

Director

Female director, Lana Wachowski

Actors

Barry Kivel, Christopher Meloni, Gene Borkan, Gina Gershon

Moods

Character-driven, Gripping, Intense

Three years before the Wachowskis released The Matrix, their debut, Bound, was already one of the most visually stunning crime thrillers of the 1990s. If you look at the film as a straightforward genre piece, it’s as thrilling as the best of the genre: vulnerable heroines, suspenseful sequences taking place mostly in one enclosed location, and a plot driven by mind games and careful manipulation. Every scene is marked by one breathtaking image after another, from the atmospheric use of lighting and color to intelligently placed cuts linking the two protagonists together no matter how much they’ve been kept apart.

But Bound only takes on more meaning when you look at it through the queer and trans perspective that the Wachowskis undoubtedly placed over the film years and years before their own coming out. By focusing on how Violet and Corky (a captivating Jennifer Tilly, and a sensual Gina Gershon, respectively) use their femininity and their gender as tools to break free from these patriarchal gangster narratives, Bound becomes a timeless expression of queer yearning and freedom.

3. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

best

8.5

Country

UK, United Kingdom, United States of America

Director

Mark Herman

Actors

Amber Beattie, Asa Butterfield, Béla Fesztbaum, Cara Horgan

Moods

Depressing, Dramatic, Emotional

You’ve probably watched and heard about enough Holocaust films to expect a formula, but you might want to put all that aside going into The Boy in Striped Pajamas. Bruno, the son of a WWII Nazi commandant forms an unlikely friendship with a Jewish kid his age in his father’s concentration camp. The film is World War II told through Bruno’s eyes, and while you might not get why this movie is so highly praised in its first scenes, the twisting and profound second half will have you recommending it to everyone in need of a moving story well executed, or quite simply a good cry.

4. Sexy Beast (2000)

best

8.4

Country

Spain, United Kingdom, United States of America

Director

Jonathan Glazer

Actors

Álvaro Monje, Amanda Redman, Andy Lucas, Ben Kingsley

Moods

Dramatic, Intense, Original

In his debut feature, Jonathan Glazer masterfully subverts our expectations of heist movies to thrilling effect: what should be a perfunctory moment — the classic recruitment scene — is stretched out into nearly an entire film of its own here, and we’re not off the edge of our seat for even a second of it.

All retired Cockney gangster Gal (Ray Winstone) wants to do is lounge around the pool of his Spanish villa with beloved wife Deedee (Amanda Redman). But now there’s a spanner in the works: an unhinged old acquaintance, Don Logan (Ben Kingsley, never better), has unexpectedly rocked up at Gal’s hacienda to enlist him for a big job on behalf of the London underworld’s top brass. Don is the type of man you just don’t say “no” to, but the pull of Gal’s idyllic retirement is so powerful that he does just that, a narrative swerve that spins this film off the well-worn (but still enjoyable) track we expected it to follow. Directed with cool assurance, full of unforgettable set-pieces, overflowing with style, and even further distinguished by some surreal touches that really get under the skin, this is one of the slickest, funniest, and most exhilarating crime movies ever.

5. Your Sister’s Sister (2012)

best

8.2

Country

United States of America

Director

Female director, Lynn Shelton

Actors

Emily Blunt, Jeanette Maus, John Lavin, Kate Bayley

Moods

Dramatic, Easy, Feel-Good

The acting… oh the acting! Your Sister’s Sister is a fantastic comedy which makes great use of the amazing talents and suitability of its cast, including the criminally underused Emily Blunt. Far smarter, quicker and grown-up than most other Rom-Coms, it’s a film built on secrets, lies and, yes, love, sex and family.

6. The Drop (2014)

best

8.2

Country

United States of America

Director

Michael R. Roskam, Michael Roskam

Actors

Alex Ziwak, Ann Dowd, Chris Sullivan, Danny McCarthy

Moods

Character-driven, Easy, Suspenseful

One of The Drop’s many strengths is its dark, clever, yet compassionate script. It will take you into the heart of the Brooklyn crime scene through the characters and their respective more or less fragile lifestyles. The extremely good performances, however, soon become the focus and attire of the film. James Gandolfini couldn’t be more at home in this context and excels with his usual menace, yet somehow relatable presence. Tom Hardy, however, surprises in unfamiliar grounds, sharply portraying a vulnerable character, whose vulnerability you will keep doubting. The Drop is consistent from start to finish, and with jaw-dropping moments here and there, it is both an interesting and enjoyable film.

7. Chicago (2002)

best

8.2

Country

Canada, Germany, United States of America

Director

Rob Marshall

Actors

Bill Corsair, Blake McGrath, Brendan Wall, Brittany Gray

Moods

A-list actors, Dramatic, Easy

From a 1926 play to the iconic 1975 stage musical to Rob Marshall’s 2002 extravaganza, Chicag0 has had a strong hold on popular culture. In a way, it’s existed almost as long as cinema itself and its transformation across mediums and modes of expression has been well documented. The film carries all the marks of its theatrical predecessors, the expansive sets, the luscious costumes, the sleek characters whose banter and songs alike testify to their great chemistry — there’s a lot to admire in such a self-referential spectacle. A black-comedy-fuelled musical about corruption and deceit set during the Jazz Age, Chicago fulfils all its promises. With a stellar ensemble cast featuring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and John C. Reily, in tandem with dazzling camerawork and most exquisite chiaroscuro lighting, this one brings the stage to the movies. I mean it in the best possible way!

8. Adventureland (2009)

best

8.1

Country

United States of America

Director

Greg Mottola

Actors

Adam Kroloff, Amy Landis, Ashtin Petrella, Barret Hackney

Moods

Easy, Romantic, Sweet

Adventureland is a retro-tinged movie about teens in Pittsburgh working at a run down amusement park during the summer of 1987. It is marketed as similar to Superbad, when in fact the only thing they have in common is the Director. Adventureland is funny, but it is more sweet, tender, and intimate. Touching on themes of unrequited love, returning home, and small-town love, the film stars Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, and the always-delightful-duo of Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig. In addition, the film’s soundtrack is a joyous blast from the past, running the gamut of all your favorite 1980’s synth-happy love songs. It is a movie that anyone can really relate to, no matter when they were born, and an amazing watch.

9. Selma (2014)

best

8.0

Country

France, United Kingdom, United States of America

Director

Ava DuVernay, Female director

Actors

Alessandro Nivola, Andre Holland, Carmen Ejogo, Charity Jordan

Moods

A-list actors, Discussion-sparking, Gripping

The award-winning third feature by director Ava DuVernay, Selma, was released around the 50th anniversary of the historically significant marches (Selma to Montgomery) that aided the civil rights movement’s efforts to assure African-American citizens can exercise their constitutional right to vote, harassment-free. The film has been celebrated not only as an artwork, but also as a historiographically accurate one. While it features the role Martin Luther King Jr. played in the marches, it does not reduce the activists’ effort and struggle to make it come to fruition. With her uncompromising directorial approach, DuVernay crafts a thrilling period film that has all the markers of a well-done genre feature, but uses its mechanisms to tell an emotionally potent story about both the peaceful marches and the nation-wide outcry resulting from the violence they were met with.

10. Babylon (2022)

best

8.0

Country

United States of America

Director

Damien Chazelle

Actors

Aaron Oltman, Albert Hammond Jr., Alex Reznik, Alexandre Chen

Moods

A-list actors, Challenging, Gripping

Between its maximalist production design and increasingly dark comedic set pieces, the most striking thing about Damien Chazelle’s critically misunderstood industry satire is how it strikes a tone closer to tabloid gossip than anything else. As opposed to the clockwork precision of Chazelle’s Whiplash, or the dreaminess of La La Land, Babylon’s restlessness doesn’t resemble Hollywood spectacle so much as it begins to feel like an unscratchable itch, desperate to feel anything. The film ends up trying to say so much that it threatens to say nothing at all, but its vision of cinema becoming reality is so potent that just the experience is more than worth getting lost in.

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