The Princess

The Princess is currently streaming on major platforms, and it earns its premise rather than just borrowing genre trappings. It knows exactly what kind of film it is from the opening scene, and never loses that thread. 861 people have weighed in on TMDB, and the verdict leans heavily positive. Joey King sets the tone, and the world-building does the rest. Start it whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

There is a reason The Princess keeps coming up in conversation. What makes The Princess work is that the ideas never crowd out the people having them. A beautiful, strong-willed young royal refuses to wed the cruel sociopath to whom she is betrothed and is kidnapped and locked in a remote tower of her father’s castle. With her scorned, vindictive suitor intent on taking her father’s throne, the princess must protect her family and save the kingdom. Joey King and Dominic Cooper lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 2022. The world-building is meticulous enough to sustain multiple rewatches, with details early on that only make sense later. There is real craft here, even in the moments that do not fully land.

Viewers burned by ambitious sci-fi that could not sustain its premise should give The Princess a chance. It stands on its own even without an obvious comparison point. A contained runtime means every scene is doing real work. Joey King grounds the bigger ideas in something human. Once you are in, you will want to talk about it.