15 best movies new to Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu: March 2022

March is finally here! The snow is beginning to melt, and the cool briskness of spring is just around the corner. Not to mention a slew of fantastic new movies to stream on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Criterion Channel, and more. From Wes Craven’s horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street and Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi military satire Starship Troopers to Guy Ritchie’s new heist thriller Wrath of Man and Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (as well as highly-anticipated streaming premieres of Oscar-nominated films like Drive My Car and West Side Story), there’s something for virtually everyone to stream this month.

 We’ve pulled together a list of the best movies new to streaming in March to help you figure out what to watch this month. We also have complete lists of everything coming to Netflix and Disney Plus in March. If that’s your cup of tea.

Got something else you’re excited to check out this month? Planning to check one of these out? Already did and loved it? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

The sensation that launched a franchise, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, lives on as a horror masterpiece decades later. Teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her friends become the targets of Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). A deceased serial killer now haunting (and hunting) people in their dreams. As Nancy’s friends start dying in their sleep. She tries desperately to stay awake to survive. Elm Street and Krueger have staying power for a reason, a timeless slasher that might also keep you from sleeping. —Pete Volk

A Nightmare on Elm Street is available to stream on Netflix and HBO Max.

After Yang

The latest from Columbus director Kogonada, After Yang, is a melancholy science fiction movie that balances how we should think about artificial life with the more intriguing question of how it should think about us. Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith star as adoptive parents raising a young Chinese girl, with the help of a “techno sapiens” — an android programmed as her language tutor, cultural advisor, and big brother. When his systems fail. The family goes through exactly what they’d experience at the death of any family member, with the added question of what his death tells them about their lives and relationships. It’s a small, quiet, meditative film. Still, it’s visually rich and packed with ideas about prejudice and assumptions, cultural assimilation, and how everyone is navigating an inner life that would astonish everyone around them. —Tasha Robinson

After Yang is available to stream on Showtime Anytime and Showtime on Amazon.

Blue Velvet

 

David Lynch’s psychological neo-noir thriller Blue Velvet ranks among the director’s very best films, featuring iconic performances courtesy of frequent Lynch collaborators Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern, a terrifying turn for Dennis Hopper as the villainous Frank Booth, and a heart-wrenchingly memorable performance by Isabella Rossellini as the troubled lounge singer Dorothy Vallens. Surreal, sensuous, thoroughly captivating, and frequently disturbing, Blue Velvet is Lynch in his prime. —Toussaint Egan

Blue Velvet is available to stream on Hulu and Paramount Plus.

Casino

Martin Scorsese’s Las Vegas drama is a high mark in his renowned gangster picture oeuvre. Ace Rothstein (Robert DeNiro), a star sports gambling handicapper, is asked by the Italian mob to run the new Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. Things get complicated when his hothead old friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) shows up in town, and Rothstein falls for local hustler Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone). Inspired by the lives of real people, Casino is another enthralling study by Scorsese on the allure and dangers of power and were leading such a life will leave you. —PV

The Casino is available to stream on Peacock.

Dazed and Confused

Set during the waning days of the senior class of an Austin, Texas high school in 1976, Richard Linklater’s 1993 coming-of-age comedy follows a group of teenagers navigating that awkward crossroads period of looking to the future all while also looking to get stoned, drunk, and lucky in the here and now. It’s wickedly funny and boasts a cast of nascent names that deliver breakout performances, including Milla Jovovich, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, and Parker Posey. Haven’t you seen it yet? Well, it’d be a lot cooler if you did. —TE

Dazed and Confused is available to stream on Peacock.

Drive My Car

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama was recently nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and finally made its highly-anticipated U.S. streaming debut.

From our best movies of 2021 write-up:

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car runs 179 minutes long, but it earns every minute. Nearly an hour before the opening credits play, the opening preamble covers an outwardly happy marriage between stage actor Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his television producer wife Oto (Reika Kirishima). The pair enjoy a lively sex life, as Oto makes intercourse into writers-room sessions by crafting stories aloud for Kafuku’s arousal. But soon, the actor learns a devastating secret about his wife. Before he can confront her, tragedy strikes.

Drive My Car is a critical darling, with highly lauded writing, direction, and acting performances. It’s an experience well worth the three hours of its running time. —PV

Drive My Car is available to stream on HBO Max.

Hell Hath No Fury

Jesse V. Johnson is one of the best filmmakers working in the direct-to-video action space today, and his latest film Hell Hath No Fury, is one of the high points of his prolific career. Marie DuJardin (Nina Bergman), a French woman, has been marked as a traitor for her relationship with a Nazi officer (Daniel Bernhardt). As World War II comes to a close and Marie’s place in the future French society is uncertain, a group of American soldiers rescues her on one condition: she must reveal the location of a secret stash of Nazi gold and lead the group there.

What follows is a gripping, tense thriller almost entirely set in a cemetery, with a palpable air of uncertainty throwing everything you think you know into question. Bergman is excellent in a complicated, layered role, and Bernhardt brings an uncanny combination of menace and charm in one of the wealthiest roles he’s had the opportunity to play. There are no heroes in this story, only survivors. —PV

Hell Hath No Fury will be available to stream on Hulu on March 14.

Christopher Makoto Yogi’s

Christopher Makoto Yogi’s (August at Akiko’s) ghost story is a slow-burn meditation on death, memory, and what lives on after we depart. As the elderly patriarch (Steve Iwamoto, excellent in his first lead feature role) of a fragmented family near the end of his life, he is visited by both family in the present and ghosts from the past, including his long-deceased wife (Constance Wu). Intergenerational tensions arise as the spirits of past conflicts return – quarrels and fights between family members long-estranged and the history of Hawaii’s path to statehood.

I Was A Simple Man takes us on this journey across different periods and with evocative use of surrealism and dream aesthetics. A beautiful movie filled with stunning images of Hawaii’s gorgeous landscapes and rich textures. It won the Made in Hawaii Award for Best Feature at the 2021 Hawaii International Film Festival. I Was A Simple Man is an unforgettable experience that ventures to capture the final days of one life on Earth. —PV

I Was a Simple Man is available to stream on Criterion Channel.

Land of the Dead

George A. Romero’s earlier zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are the horror master is known best for, but the 2005 Land of the Dead is an excellent entry to the zombie film canon. Set in a post-zombie apocalypse feudal Pittsburgh (ruled by a deliciously cold-blooded Dennis Hopper). The zombies are now organizing and setting up for an assault on the city. The wealthy residents of Pittsburgh live in a luxury apartment building, with everyone else lucky enough to be within the city walls relegated to a life of poverty on the streets. Like many other Romero films, Land of the Dead effectively wrestles with complicated themes, reflecting the problems of our current world through the distance of a fictional one. —PV

Land of the Dead is available to stream on Hulu.

Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1954 parable of the perils of voyeurism stars James Stewart as L. B. Jefferies, a professional photographer (nursing a broken leg after a snafu at the race track) who can’t help but snoop on his neighbors to dull the monotony of his recovery. Suspecting that the man across from him may have murdered his wife. He enlists the aid of his girlfriend Lisa and his visiting nurse Stella to help him investigate, searching for answers that just might put all of their lives in peril. Exquisitely well-paced and impeccably well-performed, Rear Window is one of the greatest mystery thrillers ever filmed. —TE

Rear Window is available to stream on Peacock.

Sorry to Bother You

Boots Riley’s 2018 black comedy Sorry to Bother You follows Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield), a telemarketer from Oakland, dispirited his thankless job pitching products to predominantly white customers over the phone. Things quickly take a turn for what seems the better when Cassius learns to use his “white voice,” propelling him to success as he shoots up the corporate ladder to the revered position of “Power Caller.” Absurd, hilarious, and unapologetically political, Sorry to Bother You is an unabashedly unique film filled with twists that’ll have you scratching your head as frequently as you’ll be shouting at the screen. —TE

Sorry to Bother You is available to stream on Netflix.

Starship Troopers

A satirical adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel of the same name, Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 biting sci-fi film Starship Troopers takes place in a far off future where the Federation, a fascistic military organization that rules the Earth through a planet-wide system of mandatory conscription, instigates a full-scale war against a fearsome race of giant alien insects. Though derided when it was first released. The film has since experienced a reappraisal in the decades to such a point. It’s now championed as one of the best and most wise science-fiction films of its era. Would you like to know more? —TE

Starship Troopers can stream on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max.

Unstoppable

The late Tony Scott’s last film is one of his very best. A working-class drama with thrilling action and even more heart. Denzel Washington stars as Frank Barnes, a veteran railroad engineer who begrudgingly has to train Will Colson (Chris Pine). A newly hired young train conductor. When a runaway train threatens an entire Pennsylvania town. The two have to work together to stop it against all odds. Washington and Pine are superb in a complicated working dynamic, with Pine representing a younger class of workers unknowingly pushing Washington’s older group out of jobs. An exciting 98-minute thrill ride, Unstoppable is loosely based on a true story. —PV

Unstoppable is available to stream on Hulu.

West Side Story

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the legendary stage musical is an absolute delight. Filled with color and life, the new West Side Story pays homage to the first while still distinguishing itself as its item. Rachel Zegler (in her film debut) and Ariana DeBose shine as Maria and Anita. Earning an Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actress for DeBose. That’s one of seven nominations for the film. Including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design. Ansel Elgort is a drag every time he’s on-screen, but Tony was never the most compelling character here anyway. New West Side Story is a delight, start to finish. —PV

West Side Story is available to stream on HBO Max.

Wrath of Man

Guy Ritchie’s latest collaboration with Jason Statham is equal parts heist and revenge thriller. H (Statham), a new security guard at a cash truck company in Los Angeles. Surprises his co-workers with an efficient and skillful display of violence during a heist attempt. As H comes into more precise focus for viewers and his co-workers alike. We learn the real reason he has decided to ply his trade at this particular business. With a supporting cast that includes Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett (playing a character named “Boy Sweat”), and Scott Eastwood, Wrath of Man is a fun two-hour thrill ride. —PV

Wrath of Man will be available to stream on Hulu and Paramount Plus on March 23.

 

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