The 15 best films hitting Amazon Prime in April 2022

Despite the explosion of content available online, people have spent so much time indoors over the last two-plus years that it’s easy to forget that Amazon Prime offers a lot more than free shipping for all of the knick-knacks they’ve ordered to pass that time. The streaming service is dropping a terrific slate of titles in April to keep subscribers entertained.

As scientifically questionable as Armageddon may be, it’s also incredibly entertaining. It features a boyish Ben Affleck, a Bruce Willis just learning to lean into his crustier side, and a simply kick-ass supporting cast including Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, and an Aerosmith power ballad. Unfortunately, Keith Phipps (and most people) disagreed with the love for it : “As with The Rock, [Michael] Bay directs Armageddon in a way that seems more concerned with constantly assaulting the senses than anything else, hoping perhaps that the quick cuts and constant explosions will distract from his film’s many flaws. Unless you’re extremely easily entertained, they probably won’t.” Ouch.

Brian De Palma has enjoyed a steady (and justifiable) rise in popularity and respect over the last few years; his earlier films are audacious, artfully crafted and occasionally a little sleazy, genuflecting to the masters who came before him while delivering some of the strangest and most effective genre films of the ’70s and ’80s. De Palma’s 1981 film Blow Out stars John Travolta as a sound effects editor who accidentally captures audio of a horrific traffic accident, and his investigation of the truth around it evolves into a politically minded conspiracy thriller. It also rounds out a triptych of films that started with Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up in 1966 and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation in 1974; the second two films play off of Antonioni’s, and each another, in some fascinating ways. For more on De Palma, read for The A.V. Club in 2007.

In 2012 filmmaker Behn Zeitlin made a massive splash with his incredible feature film debut, Beasts Of The Southern Wild. The film won Sundance, then quickly took audiences by storm with its creativity, one-of-a-kind visuals, and a wonderful, naturalistic performance by young Quvenzhané Wallis as “Hushpuppy,” a strong-willed little girl who lives with her father in an always flooded Louisiana Bayou city called “The Bathtub.” Wallis was a mere 6 years old in the film, which earned her an Oscar nomination; Zeitlin also received noms for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and the film received a Best Picture nomination. After that, the sky was the limit for Zeitlin who then… didn’t make another movie until 2020’s modestly received Peter Pan redux, Wendy. (which he gave an A-), Keith Phipps said “Beasts moves with a dreamlike pulse, and is never better than when it doesn’t feel the need to move much at all.”

Springtime means baseball, and while it’s an open debate on which film is the best baseball movie ever made, Bull Durham is definitely in the conversation. A joyous, fun, sexy, and funny film, Bull Durham features Kevin Costner at his charming best and Susan Sarandon in a smart and saucy role. Ron Shelton wrote and directed this 1988 comedy about a journeyman catcher named Crash Davis (Costner) who is in the last throes of a very mediocre career. He joins AAA ballclub the Durham Bulls and is quickly an ad-hoc babysitter and mentor for young up-and-coming pitcher “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins). Sarandon’s character manages to romance both men for very different, modern reasons, and the result is an all-time classic film that recently was granted Criterion Edition status. The A.V. Club’s Mike D’Angelo straight up calls Bull Durham “” adding, “because it isn’t really about baseball.”

Craig Zobel’s flat-out weird and occasionally icky film Compliance caused quite a stir out of Sundance 2012. It’s loosely based on true events where a man (Pat Healy) claiming to be a police officer called a woman (Dreama Walker) working at a fast-food restaurant accusing the woman of stealing money from a customer. Through a series of events, the caller enlists the restaurant manager (Ann Dowd) to get the woman to submit to an escalating series of humiliating exercises, (eventually) including stripping naked, in order to prove her innocence. Rather than simply being exploitative, Compliance offers an insightful study in authority—real or perceived—and how people unquestioningly yield to it, resulting in horrible consequences. and said, “Compliance’s cast is so terrific that they turn a slight story that takes place almost entirely in one dingy room into rich theater, with each character and place so well-defined that they linger even after the closing credits.”

Much like the actor Paul Rudd and french fries, it’s pretty difficult to find someone who doesn’t like Dirty Dancing. It’s a classic for good reason, made on a shoestring budget by an unknown director (Emile Ardolino, anyone?) with a cast of future (but not yet) superstars (this would be Patrick Swayze’s big break, even though he featured prominently in Red Dawn) that went on to become a beloved classic. The film wisely sunk much of its budget into a killer soundtrack that further encouraged audiences to see the film. In an excellent feature on the film for The A.V. Club in 2020, Caroline Siede wrote, “, a fun, frothy, sexy dance flick that made over $213 million worldwide, produced two multi-platinum soundtracks, and became the first film to sell a million copies on home video.”

Literally every performer in the Coen brothers’ Fargo is amazing, from earnest, pregnant small-town police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand, who won an Oscar for the role) and her feckless nemesis, car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) to tiny character actor roles by people like John Carroll Lynch as Marge’s loving husband Norm and Steve Park as lonely Mike Yanagita, whose scene has rightly been recognized as one of the film’s best moment. There’s also bumbling criminal dirtbags Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. Fargo is funny, sad, thrilling, and pretty much a perfect movie. In for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias wrote “Fargo, which may lack the mythic pull of No Country [For Old Men], but makes up for it with two unforgettable lead characters, played by William H. Macy and Frances McDormand, who together express the Coens’ vision of the world.”

People may have turned against Zach Braff and Garden State these days, but the amiable comedic actor managed to leverage his leading role on television’s Scrubs into an opportunity to get Garden State (which he wrote and directed) not only made but also achieve critical and modest commercial success. Granted, adding Natalie Portman to the mix as yet another version of her “manic pixie girl” persona probably helped, but it holds up a lot better than the public perception of it suggests. But , Keith Phipps was lukewarm on it, saying, “Braff’s screenplay is initially a succession of clever exchanges, but it devolves into forced confrontations, symbol-laden big moments, and speeches that feel patched together from Monologues For Young Actors.”

Thinking of adding a little documentary viewing to your April menu? You can scarcely do better than David Gelb’s beautifully rendered and immensely charming Jiro Dreams Of Sushi. The film tells the story of then 85-year-old master sushi chef Jiro Ono (he’s still with us, nearing his 97th birthday) who was previously awarded three Michelin stars for his incredible food. His tiny, 10-seater restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro is located in a Tokyo subway, and each meal runs customers $300 minimum. The film presents Ono’s works as art, and we also get to know his twosons who are anxiously awaiting their turn with the sushi knife. Jiro Dreams Of Sushi was a smash hit with audiences and critics including ,” saying, “Gelb creates a peaceful, contemplative mood with his long shots of men delicately molding fish onto rice, such that when Ono walks past a blaring shopping-mall video-screen at one point, the intrusion of the modern world seems out of place.”

Martin Scorsese has recently come under fire for—gasp!—having a measured and not unambiguously positive opinion of Marvel movies. The whole kerfuffle is not worth rehashing, but to maybe see why Scorsese and Marvel are on different ends of the same cinematic spectrum, check out his classic, undeniably great 1980 film Raging Bull. Shot in gritty black and white and working from a screenplay by the masterful Paul Schrader, the film features Robert De Niro in a glowering performance as real life boxer Jake LaMotta. Joe Pesci also shines as LaMotta’s brother/manager who tries to control the increasingly unhinged boxer. In a 2005 review of the film, Noel Murray states, “, adding up to an elliptical statement about the empty redemption of man at his most animalistic.”

If you’re a fan of Wes Anderson’s, it’s hard to pick a favorite film of his, but certainly his 1998 sophomore effort Rushmore falls somewhere near the top of the list. From the bold introduction of what would become Anderson’s idiosyncratic, meticulously crafted style to the impeccable soundtrack and score to two iconic performances by Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, there’s scarcely a bad time to watch, or rewatch the film. Anderson gets criticized for coming off as “twee,” but Rushmore shows Anderson at his most humanistic, even behind the gorgeously crafted storybook-world facade he creates in the film. Rushmore also manages to be funny, melancholy, sweet and even a bit mean throughout. In a 1999 review of the film, Scott Tobias opined, “, which is to say that Bill Murray finally gets a chance to deliver a career-defining performance.”

While the process of highlighting hypocrisy and cruelty in Christian and right-wing beliefs frequently seems to take one step forward and two back, writer/director Brian Dannelly skillfully pointed out some of the problems with this behavior in 2004 via his comedy/satire Saved! Jena Malone stars as a nice Christian girl named Mary who gets pregnant during her senior year, which doesn’t bode well at her devoutly Christian school. Her squeaky-clean persona takes a hit when self-righteous frenemies played by Mandy Moore, Elizabeth Thai, and Heather Mattarazzo target her for ejection from the in crowd. The film touches on still-relevant topics in the Christian world like pregnancy, teen sex, homosexuality, and rock music, but does so in a thoughtful, entertaining way. In a revisit of the film in 2021, Gwen Ihnat said “, but the introspective religious explorations hold up.”

Back in 1993, non-white representation onscreen was far from the priority that it has started to become in recent years, but in hindsight, the solid success of The Joy Luck club really should have catalyzed more diversity and inclusion than it did. Based on Amy Tan’s also wildly successful novel (she also wrote the screenplay), The Joy Luck club features a quartet of Chinese women (Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lisa Lu) who tell stories of their lives over mahjong that unfold onscreen through flashbacks and various vignettes. Indie auteur directed the film to more than triple its modest $10 million dollar budget, establishing it as the cultural touchstone that it remains today, and heralding the power of stories told from a perspective of thoughtful cultural specificity.

M. Night Shyamalan rocked the cinematic world with his 1999 hit The Sixth Sense (which incidentally still holds up and drops on Amazon Prime this month as well), and many wondered what the twist-filled director would do next. His follow-up, the moody, broody, character-study superhero (and villain!) film Unbreakable, ranks among his best. Bruce Willis reteams with Shyamalan to play David Dunn, a humble security guard whose relationships with his wife (Robin Wright) and son are slowly falling apart until he becomes the lone survivor of a massive train wreck. Samuel L. Jackson is also excellent as Elijah Price, aka “Mr. Glass,” a comic book obsessive who’s the polar opposite of Dunn, living his life in fear and agony with a condition that leaves his bones brittle. In a 2000 review for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin said, “Anyone walking in expecting a near-perfect spine-tingler will inevitably walk away disappointed. Those coming in with more modest expectations, however, will discover a flawed but distinctly personal and rewarding film.”

A true all-time classic, Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein has aged to perfection nearly 50 years later. The film stars Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (please watch the film for proper pronunciation) who lives in the shadow of his mad scientist grandfather Victor. Through a series of events, Frederick finds himself in his grandfather’s shoes and brings to life a man fabricated of dead body parts (and played beautifully by Peter Boyle). The film also features hysterical performances from Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Marty Feldman as Igor (again, please watch the film for proper pronunciation). In , Mike D’Angelo said the film “ranks among both the funniest and the most respectful film parodies ever made.”