Settle in with something new on Max this month.
Jonathan Glazer’s film “Zone of Interest,” which won Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars, is now streaming. The film focuses on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and wife (Sandra Hüller) trying to create an idyllic home next to the infamous concentration camp.
If you’re looking for lighter fare, there’s also the romcom “Juliet, Naked” with Ethan Hawke as a reclusive singer, as well as all the Harry Potter films.
Here are the seven — actually, 15 counting all the Potter films — best movies new to Max in April.
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer’s devastating, Oscar-winning drama has been praised by Steven Spielberg as the best movie about the Holocaust since his own “Schindler’s List” in 1993. While most critics agree the film is award-worthy, Glazer’s acceptance speech at the Oscars drew both condemnation and praise from the Jewish community and its allies in Hollywood.
Black Swan
Natalie Portman danced her way to a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a mentally fragile ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s striking drama.
Lost in Translation
Bill Murray’s washed-up actor bonds with the much-younger college grad Scarlett Johansson’s while staying at a hotel in Japan. Sofia Coppola’s low-key hangout movie won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Murray was nominated for Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture.
Infernal Affairs 1, 2 and 3
Andy Lau and Tony Leung star in this terrific Hong Kong mob vs. cop film that was the basis for Martin Scorsese’s Best Picture winner “The Departed.” Filmmakers Andrew Lau and Alan Mak followed up the first movie with two sequels, all of which are now on Max.
Basquiat
A then relatively unknown Jeffrey Wright (who just received his first Oscar Best Actor nomination for “American Fiction”) starred as the acclaimed late painter in this 1996 movie. David Bowie plays Andy Warhol and Benicio del Toro, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman and Parker Posey play other figures in the 1980s New York art world.
Juliet, Naked
Annie (Rose Byrne) is fed up with her longtime boyfriend Duncan (Chris O’Dowd), who is obsessed with enigmatic singer Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke). But it’s Annie, not Duncan, who ends up meeting Tucker in person and the two unexpectedly connect, much to Duncan’s dismay, in this funny, lighthearted romcom.
The Harry Potter franchise
Max now has a decade’s worth of Harry Potter, from 2001’s “The Sorcerer’s Stone” through 2011’s “The Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” so you can relive all the highlights including Hermione (Emma Watson) punching Draco (Tom Felton) and the heroic sword-slinging of no-longer-nebbishy Neville (Matthew Lewis).
