This post will be updated frequently as movies enter and leave the service. *New titles are indicated with an asterisk.
,In 2021, CBS All Access rebranded with the name Paramount+, reflecting the history of the legendary film and TV company with that nifty little mathematical sign that all the streaming companies seem to love these days. The name Paramount brings a deep catalogue of feature films, and the streaming service also includes titles from the Miramax and MGM libraries. They have also added a more robust original selection than at launch to complement the service’s classics like Gladiator and the Mission: Impossible series. Paramount+ can’t compare to the depth of a catalogue like HBO Max’s or the award-winning originals at other streamers, but it still maintains a solid library with at least 30 films you should see.
,This Month’s Critic’s Pick
,*Almost Famous
,Year: 2000
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Cameron Crowe
,Cameron Crowe wrote and directed this masterpiece about a young man (Patrick Fugit) who ends up on tour with a rock band known as Stillwater. With incredible supporting performances from Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Almost Famous is one of the richest and most timeless films of its era, a rare movie that gets better every time you see it.
,,,AI: Artificial Intelligence
,Year: 2001
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Steven Spielberg
,The most famous director of all time picked up the final project of Stanley Kubrick and completed it, resulting in one of the most divisive films of his career. Two decades later, it feels like most people have come around to recognize this as a masterpiece. Based on a 1969 short story, it’s about an android (Haley Joel Osment) and the journey he takes to find himself. It’s really about humanity and it contains some of Spielberg’s most striking imagery ever.
,,Airplane!
,Year: 1980
Runtime: 1h 27m
Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
,Movies just don’t get much funnier than this classic from David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams. Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, and Leslie Nielsen star in a parody of the disaster flicks of the ‘70s but this film has far transcended its roots to become one of the most quotable and beloved comedies of all time.
,,Annihilation
,Year: 2018
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Alex Garland
,Paramount notoriously had no idea what to do with Alex Garland’s film and barely promoted it in American theaters, dropping it on Netflix in the rest of the world, which is where it now returns five years later. And it’s amazing. One of the best films of 2018 stars Natalie Portman as a woman who enters an alien occurrence to find out what happened to her husband there. Although that barely scratches the surface of this complex, already-beloved film.
,,The Aviator
,Year: 2004
Runtime: 2h 50m
Director: Martin Scorsese
,Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Howard Hughes in Martin Scorsese’s incredibly detailed and lavish period piece about one of the most infamous eccentric millionaires of all time. It feels like every other month produces a bit of social outrage about Scorsese’s place in movie history or his comments on Marvel movies. Ignore that noise and just watch one of his works that doesn’t get nearly enough praise, anchored by one of DiCaprio’s best performances and some of the most impressive aerial cinematography of all time.
,,Baby Driver
,Year: 2017
Runtime: 1h 52m
Director: Edgar Wright
,It’s a little harder to watch Baby Driver now given what we know about some of its cast, but it’s still such a remarkably well-made piece of action filmmaking. Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx, and Lily James may be the stars of this movie, but it’s Wright’s showmanship that really steals the spotlight in this kinetically unforgettable story of a getaway driver who knows all the best tunes.
,,Boogie Nights
,Year: 1997
Runtime: 2h 35m
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
,Paul Thomas Anderson is widely recognized as one of the best living American filmmakers now, but that wasn’t the case before the release of this masterpiece about life in the Los Angeles porn scene. Mark Wahlberg has never been better than he is here, anchoring an ensemble that includes equally great work from Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds.
,,Clerks
,Year: 1994
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Kevin Smith
,Kevin Smith rocked the indie filmmaking world with his comedy that was shot for almost nothing and became a worldwide hit. Films at the convenience and video stores at which Smith worked in real life with his buddies, no one could have expected that this comedy would still be influencing writers three decades later.
,,Collateral
,Year: 2004
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Michael Mann
,Tom Cruise gives one of his most fascinating performances as Vincent, the passenger to Jamie Foxx’s L.A. cab driver on a very fateful night. It turns out that Vincent is hitman and he needs Foxx’s character to drive him on a killing spree in this tense, gorgeously-shot thriller from the masterful craftsman Michael Mann.
,,Dead Man Walking
,Year: 1995
Runtime: 2h 2m
Director: Tim Robbins
,Susan Sarandon won an Oscar (and Sean Penn probably should have) for her work in this examination of the morality of the death penalty, written and directed by her partner Tim Robbins. Sarandon plays the real Sister Helen Prejean, whose life was changed via relationships she formed with prisoners on death row. It’s a searing drama that’s grounded by two incredible performances.
,,*Django Unchained
,Year: 2012
Runtime: 2h 45m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
,QT loves to play with history with revisionist epics like Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. This heavily stylized tribute to Spaghetti Westerns is another example of the writer/director’s love for rewriting history books. Jamie Foxx stars as a slave who escapes and trains with a bounty hunter (Oscar winner Christoph Waltz) to get his revenge. Sharply written and gorgeously shot by Robert Richardson, this is one of Tarantino’s most consistent films.
,,Dog Day Afternoon
,Year: 1975
Runtime: 2h 4m
Director: Sidney Lumet
,Any list of the best performances of all time that doesn’t include Al Pacino’s work in this masterpiece is simply incorrect. Pacino plays Sonny Wortzik, a New Yorker who tries to rob a bank with his buddy Sal (John Cazale). Sidney Lumet directs a film that’s alternately as tense as any thriller and as illuminating as any character study.
,,Election
,Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Alexander Payne
,The writer/director of Nebraska and The Descendants adapted Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name and produced arguably his best film to date. Reese Witherspoon is amazing as Tracy Flick, an overachieving student who really aggravates a high school teacher named Jim McAllister, played by Matthew Broderick. So much so that he sabotages her run for student government president in a film that understands the intersection of the political and the personal in ways that movies actually set in D.C. rarely do.
,,Finding Yingying
,Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Jiayan “Jenny” Shi
,Jiayan Shi directed and produced this heartbreaking documentary about the disappearance and death of Yingying Zhang in 2017. Shi has unique access to the story in that she knew Yingying, and so her film has an incredible you-are-there quality as Shi captures the investigation and grief that would emerge from this horrific crime. Paramount+ deserves credit for bringing smaller projects like this to their subscribers, ones that other major streamers might ignore.
,,Gangs of New York
,Year: 2002
Runtime: 2h 46m
Director: Martin Scorsese
,Gangs of New York is one of Martin Scorsese’s more underrated modern movies, especially surprising given it’s also one of his biggest hits at the box office. Over the years people have dismissed the period action-drama, often blaming some of the casting, but it features a stunning performance from Daniel Day-Lewis and incredible design detail.
,,Gladiator
,Year: 2000
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Ridley Scott
,One of the most popular films of its era, this action epic stars Russell Crowe as the legendary Maximus, a warrior whose family is murdered by the vicious Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Forced into slavery, Maximus has to rise the gladiator arenas to get his vengeance. The film made a fortune on its way to winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
,,*The Godfather
,Year: 1972
Runtime: 2h 55m
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
,Maybe you’ve heard of it? In all seriousness, there’s a very cool opportunity right now to watch the entire Godfather trilogy on Paramount+, including the superior recent cut of the third film. These films have been regulars on this streaming service but disappeared for several months because the revolving door on this company is weirder than most. Thankfully, they’ve been pulled back in.
,,Gone Baby Gone
,Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Ben Affleck
,Ben Affleck’s adaptation of a great Dennis Lehane thriller stars the actor/director’s brother as a Boston detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl. Affleck’s greatest gift as a filmmaker is with ensemble and this is arguably his best with Casey, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michelle Monaghan and the Oscar-nominated Amy Ryan filling out an amazing cast in a riveting thriller.
,,Interstellar
,Year: 2014
Runtime: 2h 49m
Director: Christopher Nolan
,No one else makes movies like Christopher Nolan, a man who took his superhero success and used it to get gigantic budgets to bring his wildest dreams to the big screen. Who else could make this sprawling, emotional, complicated film about an astronaut (Matthew McConaughey) searching for a new home for humanity? It’s divisive among some Nolan fans for its deep emotions, but those who love it really love it, and that group seems to grow more every year.
,,Minority Report
,Year: 2002
Runtime: 2h 25m
Director: Steven Spielberg
,One of Steven Spielberg’s best modern movies is this adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story about a future in which crime can be predicted before it happens. Tom Cruise stars as a man who is convicted of a crime he has no intent of committing in a fantastic vision of a future in which the systems designed to stop crime have been corrupted. It’s timely and probably always will be.
,,Mission: Impossible franchise
,Year: Various
Runtime: Various
Director: Various
,There is only one place to watch the entire saga of Ethan Hunt from the first Brian De Palma movie through Dead Reckoning as you prepare to watch the last (maybe) Tom Cruise flick in the saga, May 2025’s Final Reckoning. Honestly, this is arguably the most consistent action franchise of its era. Watch them and try to say we’re wrong.
,,The Naked Gun
,Year: 2025
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director: Akiva Schaffer
,One of the funniest movies of 2025 is this reboot of the ‘80s and ‘90s comedy series starring Leslie Nielsen (which is also now on Paramount+ for a full 4-movie marathon). Just a couple months after its theatrical release, you can check out Liam Neeson’s phenomenal comedy work in this very funny take an old-fashioned style of movie comedy that went out of fashion years ago. It’s nice to have it back.
,,No Country for Old Men
,Year: 2007
Runtime: 2h 2m
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
,Joel and Ethan Coen’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s crime novel is one of their best movies, a flickt that won them three Oscars – Directing, Writing, and Best Picture of arguably the best year of the ‘00s. If you haven’t seen it since 2007, you may be surprised at how well it’s held up. The exact same film could be released today and it would have the same cultural impact. It feels like that will be the case for decades to come.
,,Past Lives
,Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Celine Song
,A Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominee, this phenomenal film isn’t on any of the other streamers. It stars the excellent Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as a couple who were close as children but reunite years later after she immigrated to the United States. It’s as much a story of what people leave behind when they change their entire lives as it is a traditional story of unrequited love. It’s beautiful and unforgettable.
,,Point Break
,Year: 1991
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
,Whether one considers it a guilty pleasure or a legitimately great action movie, everyone kind of likes Point Break. It’s a really hard movie not to like, in no small part due to the charisma of stars Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, who plays an undercover FBI agent trying to break up a ring of surfing bank robbers. Kathryn Bigelow is one of our best action directors even if this one is a bit cheesier than her best work.
,,Predators
,Year: 2025
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: David Osit
,Remember To Catch a Predator, the TV show that made Chris Hansen a star? Well, it was more complicated than it may have seemed at the time, which is captured in David Osit’s personal and powerful documentary about not just that show but the culture of reality programs about pedophiles that emerged from it. Using his own traumatic story as a foundation, Osit really unpacks the complexity of his subject in a way that’s daring and ultimately moving.
,,Pulp Fiction
,Year: 1994
Runtime: 2h 34m
Director: Quentin Tarantino
,There are certain tentpoles of American film history that changed the form forever, and this film is undeniably one. Heck, we’re still getting Tarantino riffs almost thirty years later, as everyone wants to make a movie as effortlessly cool as his masterpiece. What more could possibly be written about Pulp Fiction? You know you love this and want to see it again.
,,A Quiet Place
,Year: 2018
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: John Krasinski
,Who could have possibly guessed that Jim from The Office would be behind one of the most successful horror films of the ‘10s? You’ve probably already seen this story of a world in which silence is the only way to survive, but it’s worth another look to marvel at its tight, taut filmmaking and a stellar performance from Emily Blunt. Plus, Paramount+ recently added the sequel, so: double feature time!
,,Roofman
,Year: 2025
Runtime: 2h 5m
Director: Derek Cianfrance
,Based on the real-life spree and hiding place of Jeffrey Manchester, Roofman may be the most “they don’t make movies like that anymore” movie of 2025. A character study advertised as a wacky comedy, it stars Channing Tatum as Jeff, a low-level criminal who escapes and hides in a Toys R Us. Tatum does his best work since Foxcatcher, and he’s matched by a typically wonderful performance from Kirsten Dunst as the local who falls in love with him.
,,School of Rock
,Year: 2003
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Richard Linklater
,Richard Linklater directed Jack Black to the best comedy of his career in this movie about a guitarist who became a substitute teacher at a prep school and teaches the stuck-up kids there how to rock. It’s a smart, funny family comedy with a huge heart and one of Black’s most truly wonderful performances.
,,Scream
,Year: 1996
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Wes Craven
,The Ghostface killer came back in January 2022 with the release of Scream, the fifth film in this franchise and the first since the death of Wes Craven, and the fun continued with another sequel in 2023 (although the troubles around the production of the seventh film have been, well, notable). Paramount+ is the best place for a marathon with the original trilogy and the fifth and sixth films (but, bizarrely, not Scream 4.) The first movie is still a flat-out genre masterpiece.
,,Silence
,Year: 2016
Runtime: 2h 41m
Director: Martin Scorsese
,The Oscar-winning legend directed one of his most personal films in this searing examination of unshakeable faith based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Shusaku Endo. Andrew Garfield stars as a 17th-century Jesuit priest who goes from Portugal to Japan to find his missing mentor and ends up being tortured for his beliefs. How long can a man hold onto his faith? This is a gorgeous, moving drama with Garfield’s best performance to date.
,,Titanic
,Year: 1997
Runtime: 3h 14m
Director: James Cameron
,More than just a blockbuster, this Best Picture winner was a legitimate cultural phenomenon, staying at the top of the box office charts for months. There was a point when it felt like not only had everyone seen the story of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet), but most people had seen it twice. History has kind of reduced this epic to its quotable scenes and earworm theme song, but it’s a better movie than you remember, a great example of James Cameron’s truly robust filmmaking style.
,,Top Gun: Maverick
,Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 10m
Director: Joseph Kosinski
,It’s the movie that saved movies last year! The truth is that Paramount wanted to drop this long-awaited sequel on a streamer during the pandemic, but Tom Cruise knew it was the kind of thing that should be appreciated in a theater. He bet on himself and the result is arguably the biggest hit of his career, a movie that made a fortune and seems primed to win Oscars in a couple months.
,,The Truman Show
,Year: 1998
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Peter Weir
,Peter Weir directed Jim Carrey to one of the best performances of his career in this 1998 dramedy that now seems far ahead of its time in the way it foretold people living lives online. Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who has grown up on a TV show but has no idea that his entire life has been watched by millions. Ed Harris and Laura Linney are also just phenomenal in this modern classic.
,,The Wolf of Wall Street
,Year: 2013
Runtime: 2h 59m
Director: Martin Scorsese
,Leonardo DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for his amazing performance as Jordan Belfort, the financial criminal that rocked Wall Street and shocked audiences in one of Scorsese’s best late films. Arguments over whether or not this film glorifies a “bad guy” have become prominent—and could only really be made by people who haven’t actually watched it. Most of all, it’s a shockingly robust film, filmed with more energy in a few minutes than most flicks have in their entire runtime.
,,Zodiac
,Year: 2007
Runtime: 2h 37m
Director: David Fincher
,David Fincher’s masterpiece is more about the impact of crime than crime itself. The fact that he made a sprawling epic about an unsolved murder is daring enough, but what’s most remarkable is how much this movie becomes less and less about figuring out the identity of the Zodiac Killer and more about the impact of obsession.
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