The Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Max This Month

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In December, Max's dropping an eclectic mix of flicks. There's a lot of quality on offer, like Juror #2, a courtroom drama from Clint Eastwood with a heavy-hitting cast, including Nicholas Hoult, Tony Collette, and J.K Simmons. There's also James Gunn's animated series Creature Commandos, set in a newly rebooted DC Comics universe. But if you really want the best movies on Max this month, pick at random from Humphrey Bogart collection.

You might notice a distinct lack of Joker: Folie à Deux, the much maligned sequel that flopped in theaters earlier this fall and is hitting Max on Dec. 13. It probably doesn't belong on any "best" list, but your tastes may vary.

Juror #2

Directed by 94-year-old icon Clint Eastwood and starring Tony Collette, J.K Simmons, Chris Messina, Kiefer Sutherland, and Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2 is a legal drama exploring justice and personal responsibility. Hoult plays Justin Kemp an everyman serving on the jury of high-profile murder case. When Kemp realizes he might have personal knowledge of the crime, he must decide whether he'll try to sway the rest of the jury. This movie is getting extremely good reviews from critics.

Starts streaming December 20.

Creature Commandos

This stylish animated-series for adults is based on the DC Comics anti-hero team and was created by James Gunn, whose excellent Peacemaker also aired on HBO. The Creature Commandos of the title are a group of super-powered monsters assembled to take out the most dangerous enemies of mankind by whatever method they choose. They tend to choose extreme violence. More than just a series, Creature Commandos serves as a soft introduction to the James Gunn reboot of the DC Comics universe we'll be seeing in Superman: Legacy in summer 2025.

Starts streaming December 5.

Humphrey Bogart film festival

Attention should be paid to the classic movies Max streams every month. For December, they are digging deep into the cinema vault for some of Humphrey Bogart's best work—everything from 1939's hardboiled gangsters-and-guns flick King of the Underworld, to 1937 horror movie The Return of Doctor X, to 1940's It All Came True, a musical in which Bogie shares the screen with Ann Sheridan. If you haven't watched any Bogart movies and you're overwhelmed by the 14(!) options available on Max, start with classic Sam Spade noir-detective movie The Maltese Falcon, which deserves its reputation as one of the best films ever made.

• Marked Woman (1937)

• San Quentin (1937)

• Kid Galahad (1937)

• Invisible Stripes (1939)

• King of the Underworld (1939)

• The Return of Doctor X (1939)

• The Roaring Twenties (1939)

• You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939)

• It All Came True (1940)

• They Drive by Night (1940)

• The Maltese Falcon (1941)

• Passage to Marseille (1944)

• The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

• Key Largo (1949)

Starts streaming December 1.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Through interviews with family and friends, this documentary tells the story of the rise of the actor the world would come to know as Superman, the near-fatal accident that left him paralyzed, and his activism in its aftermath. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story isn't a hagiography; Reeves was a complex man, and this movie isn't afraid to delve into his frustration over being typecast as Superman and battles with his own demons.

Starts streaming December 7.

Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North

With the playoffs right in front of us and the Super Bowl approaching, this HBO documentary series takes viewers inside the locker rooms and coaching offices of the Ravens, Steelers, Bengals, and Browns as they battle for the top spot in the AFC North division. Even if you aren't a huge football fan, the personal stories of players like Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Myles Garrett, and TJ Watt are fascinating, as is the all-access window on what it takes to make it as an elite team.

Starts streaming December 3.

Nature of the Crime

In Nature of the Crime, we follow three incarcerated men as they get ready for parole hearings after decades in prison. These men were convicted in their teens and now middle aged, and now they face a board of citizens who must weigh the protection of society against the rehabilitation of longtime convicts.

Starts streaming December 10.

Last month's picks

Dune: Prophecy, Season 1

We all need more Dune in our lives. This series, based on Frank Herbert's Sisterhood of Dune, takes place 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides. It details the formation of the Bene Gesserit and the Harkonnen sisters' fight against the enemies of humanity. Dune: Prophecy stars Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Travis Fimmel, Jodhi May, and many more. Epic!

Starts streaming Nov. 17.

Like Water for Chocolate, Season 1

In this adaptation of Laura Esquivel's magical realism novel, Irene Azuela and Azul Guaita play Tita de la Garza and Pedro Múzquiz, lovers who are kept apart by their families' customs. Tita uses cooking to fight her oppression, creating recipes so powerful they act as spells on the people who taste them. If you're a sensualist, you'll want to clear time to watch Like Water for Chocolate .

Starts streaming Nov. 3.

Janet Planet (2023)

A24 has cracked the code for making emotional movies for smart people; movies like Janet Planet, in which precocious 11-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) spends the summer of 1991 splitting time between living in her rich internal world and quietly worshipping her otherworldly mother Janet (Julianne Nicholson). Writer/director Annie Baker's carefully crafted film explores the subtly and intensity of a mother-daughter relationship with rare grace.

Starts streaming Nov. 1.

The Sex Lives of College Girls, Season 3

Mindy Kaling's show about the amorous adventures of the students of New England’s prestigious Essex College is entering its third season, and this time, it's sexual; wait, it's always sexual. Sex Lives of College Girls' regulars Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Christopher Meyer, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Renika Williams, Gracie Lawrence, and Mia Rodgers are all returning.

Starts streaming Nov. 22.

Get Millie Black

Get Millie Black's title character is an ex-Scotland Yard detective who returns to her childhood home in Kingston, Jamaica to work missing person cases. Played by Tamara Lawrance, Black's mission to find lost souls is complicated when Scotland Yard detective Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie) shows up in Kingston on an investigation of his own.

Starts streaming Nov. 25.

Sweethearts

In romantic comedy Sweethearts, Kiernan Shipka and Nico Hiraga play best friends who return to their hometown from college for Thanksgiving break. (Hey! It's premiering on that weekend in real life!) They're both still tied to their respective high school sweethearts and make a pact to end the relationships. Will love blossom between these just-friends before the weekend is over? I would bet on "yes" but no one will take my action.

Starts streaming Nov. 28.

Various Yule Logs

I like when streaming companies do unexpected things with their platforms. This month, Max is streaming a trio of different themed yule logs: Studio Ghibli's Calcifer Yule Log, A Very Merry Rickmas Yule Log, and Harry Potter: Fireplace. It's just logs burning, but they're branded logs burning.

Starts streaming Nov. 14.

Human vs. Hamster

Like the title says, this show pits humans against hamsters in scaled games of strength, smarts, and agility, to answer the age old question of whether we're better than rodents. Remember after the pandemic? When streaming services and networks were so absent of content that really bizarre shows would appear? Human vs. Hamster reminds me of that, and I mean that in a good way.

Starts streaming Nov. 21

Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary

Put on your Sperry Topsiders and tie that sweater around your waist; it's time for some yacht rock. This "dockumentary" (get it?) chronicles the rise of California soft rock brought to you by the likes of Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, and Toto.

Starts streaming Nov. 30.