Time no longer has any meaning, but according to the calendar it’s now May 2020. A new month means a new batch of movies hitting streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus. Sorting through those new movies can be daunting, but we here at Polygon are here to help with recommendations of our favorite movies new to streaming.
There are some recurring themes this month, namely time travel (Back to the Future and Looper), LA-set neo-noir thrillers (Mulholland Drive and The Limey), and Christopher Nolan’s Batman (Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.) Read on for what makes these films worth watching, as well as a few more recommendations (and here are April’s movies if you need even more picks).
BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY
All three movies in Robert Zemeckis’ sci-fi comedy trilogy are new to Netflix this month. The story of Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) travels through time in a souped-up DeLorean, aided by his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), is a classic for good reason. The first movie, in which Marty has to make sure his parents fall in love lest he be erased from existence, is always a hit, but it’s especially fun to revisit Back to the Future Part II just to see what people in 1989 thought 2015 would look like.
BATMAN BEGINS AND THE DARK KNIGHT
The first two movies in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy are headed to Hulu this month, after leaving Netflix at the beginning of April. Christian Bale’s take on the caped crusader led to a decade of dark and gritty superhero origin stories, and Heath Ledger’s mesmerizing performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight is nothing short of iconic, winning him a posthumous Oscar.
