21 Great Things to Watch on Max This Summer

Task (September)

HBO’s new crime drama/thriller limited series stars the always terrific Mark Ruffalo, 57, as an FBI agent who heads a special task force to shut down a string of violent robberies that are being perpetrated by a surprisingly low-key suspect. The background is the gritty working-class suburbs of Philadelphia, and comparisons to HBO’s marvelous Mare of Easttown will be inevitable. Silvia Dionicio (New Amsterdam, Chicago P.D.) and Emmy-winning soap star Tom Pelphrey (The Guiding Light) co-star.

Watch it: Task

Sports fans, take a front-row seat!

Stanley Cup Finals

Max is moving into live streaming big sports events, and June’s NHL championship playoff will be live exclusively here this year. Catch all the action on the ice as the Eastern Conference champion (the Florida Panthers or Carolina Hurricanes) face off against the Western Conference champion (the Edmonton Oilers or the Dallas Stars).

Watch it: Stanley Cup Finals

The French Open

It’s not all about scones at Wimbledon. The red clay of Stade Roland Garros in Paris has traditionally brought out some of the grittiest, most surprising tennis matches of any year. Max has the exclusive live streaming coverage.

Watch it: The French Open

Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Buffalo Bills (August)

Football fans utterly love this series, which goes behind the scenes at an NFL franchise in nearly real time as the team cuts its roster and prepares for the season to come. And it’s surprisingly interesting for non-gridiron-obsessives as well. This year, the aspirational Buffalo Bills open the locker room door for the first time. Watch super QB Josh Allen, the 2024 NFL MVP, begin his Super Bowl quest to wrest that trophy from the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.. 

Watch it: Hard Knocks

New, fascinating documentaries to keep you glued to the sofa

The Mortician

It’s your worst nightmare: That trusted family-run mortuary in town – the one that helped loved ones and neighbors ease their dearly departed’s departure – turns out to have been running one helluva scam. This new three-part documentary series chronicles just such a tale. When David Sconce, 68, scion of the California-based Lamb family’s funeral home, took over the family business in the 1980s, he took advantage of trusting customers in shocking and inhumane ways. And now he talks to the camera after having served nearly 20 years in prison.

Watch it: The Mortician

Billy Joel: And So It Goes

The piano man is here to make our summer a whole lot more melodic and nostalgic, thanks to this new two-part HBO Original documentary directed by Emmy-winners Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin. Listen in on Intimate interviews with the six-time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, 76, who discusses his long and storied life and career, including two suicide attempts in his early 20s and the origins of iconic songs like “Just the Way You Are,” an ode to his first love, and “Uptown Girl,” written for his second wife, Christie Brinkley, 71 (who starred famously in the song’s music video). Home movies, personal photos and never-before-seen performance tape make for a rich tapestry of one of pop music’s true survivors. Part 1 is streaming; Part 2 arrives July 25.

 Transparent, explores transgender identity and legacy in this HBO original documentary by chronicling the divergent paths of pioneers including model and socialite April Ashley, who died in 2021, and French singer, songwriter, painter, actress and former model Amanda Lear, 85.

Watch it: Billy Joel: And So It Goes

My Mom Jayne

You probably know Mariska Hargitay, 61, as Olivia Benson on the long-running Law & Order: SVU. What you may not know is that Hargitay’s mother was Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield, who died in a car accident when Hargitay was just 3 years old (asleep in the back seat). As a producer/director, Hargitay explores her mother’s life and legacy while exploring her own as well. “This movie is a labor of love and longing,” Hargitay has said. “It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth.”

Watch it: My Mom Jayne

New films on Max

Cleaner, R

Why didn’t someone think of this action thriller sooner? When radical activists invade an energy company’s annual gala and take 300 hostages, it’s up to an ex-soldier working as a window cleaner (Daisy Ridley, Star Wars) to stage a rescue 50 stories above the ground from outside the building’s windows. Clive Owen, 60, co-stars as the radical activist inside the windows.

Watch it: Cleaner

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, PG

Here’s the antidote for what ails us, and the perfect movie to invite the grandkids over for a watch this summer. Spoofing sci-fi B movies from the 1950s, the film stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Canadian actor Eric Bauza), who work together to save Earth when aliens take over a bubble gum factory. (Blew up. Get it?) Listen for the voices of grownup favorites Wayne Knight, 69, and Laraine Newman, 73.

Watch it: The Day the Earth Blew Up

Catch up on films you missed in theaters

A Minecraft Movie, PG

Here’s another great one to screen with the grands. Based on the wildly popular video game, this computer-animated/live action romp that hit theaters in April features two wildly entertaining actors – Jason Momoa as Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison, a video game store owner and former game champion, and Jack Black, 55, as a former doorknob salesman who has spent years living in the one of the colorful, odd worlds of the game. You don’t need to understand anything about Minecraft to enjoy the film’s cubist style and sense of kid-friendly humor. Your grandchildren will explain it all to you.

Watch it: A Minecraft Movie

Parthenope, 2024, R

Acclaimed Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, 54, who won a Best Foreign Film Oscar for his 2013 The Great Beauty, is a genius at capturing life and times of his homeland, particularly mined biographically from his past (look no further than his magical The Hand of God). This time around, he tells a fantastical tale of Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), born in Naples in 1950, who searches for happiness and love. Critics were mixed on this one, but who doesn’t need an Italian summer vacation (and Gary Oldman, 67, playing author John Cheever)?

Watch it: Parthenope

Watch a classic film this summer

Parasite, 2019, R

Bong Joon-ho, 55, the first-ever Korean winner of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, lives up to the hype with this genius genre-bender that also snagged the Best Picture Oscar. Set in Bong's native South Korea, this is a thrilling, twisted tale of two cities that contrasts two families: one rich, one poor. Bong quickly escalates the class warfare inherent in the two clans’ relative places, emphasizing the Upstairs, Downstairs inequality.

Watch it: Parasite

I Am Not Your Negro, 2016, PG-13

Raoul Peck’s portrait of author and intellectual James Baldwin is essential viewing. On its surface, it’s a film about the complex life of one of our greatest thinkers, Black or otherwise. On another, its footage from the 1960s and ’70s feels just as timely now.

Watch it: I Am Not Your Negro

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978, PG

A remake of the 1956 original, this late ‘70s scarefest is still a delight, earning a spot on AARP’s Scariest Horror Movies list. You know the story: aliens replace the human population of a small town with body doubles, minus thoughts, emotions and personality — and only one man knows the truth. Donald Sutherland (who died in 2024 at 88) and Brooke Adams, 77, star. Don’t miss that final scene!

Watch it: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Meet Me in St. Louis, 1944

Sometimes you need a classic charmer from long ago to put a spring in your step (and a song in your heart). Here’s just the one, featuring the legendary Judy Garland. Have yourself a glass of iced tea and a merry little Christmas, even though it's summer. 

Watch it: Meet Me in St. Louis

Pride & Prejudice, 2005, PG

Keira Knightley earned raves for her realistic portrayal of Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennett in director Joe Wright’s, 52, sumptuous adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Sure, she may be a little too beautiful for the part, but it’s her outsize charisma that wins over the audience. Recognize her Darcy? That’s Matthew Macfadyen, 50, who won two Emmys for his portrayal of family outsider Tom Wambsgans on HBO’s Succession. Arrives 

Watch it: Pride & Prejudice