Hitchcock

If you want a drama that takes its characters as seriously as its plot, Hitchcock is available in Australia on Disney Plus, and in the US on YouTube TV and Cinemax Amazon Channel right now. The length is exactly right for the story it is telling — nothing rushed, nothing dragged out. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Anthony Hopkins anchors it with a performance that rewards close attention. Available now on Disney Plus — press play and find out why people keep recommending it.

Hitchcock arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. Hitchcock trusts its audience to sit with discomfort instead of resolving it too quickly. Following his great success with "North by Northwest," director Alfred Hitchcock makes a daring choice for his next project: an adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel "Psycho." When the studio refuses to back the picture, Hitchcock decides to pay for it himself in exchange for a percentage of the profits. His wife, Alma Reville, has serious reservations about the film but supports him nonetheless. Still, the production strains the couple's marriage. Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 2012. What elevates Hitchcock is a refusal to let any character off the hook too easily. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

Hitchcock is what you recommend to people who say they do not really watch much. It has built its own audience without needing a direct comparison. A contained runtime means every scene is doing real work. Anthony Hopkins's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.