Seven of the Best Ethan Hawke Films Streaming Right Now

Ethan Hawke has been great for a very long time.  With the success of his current film, The Black Phone, it is perfect timing to celebrate some of Ethan Hawke’s best work.  Here are seven great Ethan Hawke films that you can stream right now.

Training Day (2001)

Tubi (Free), Amazon Prime (3.99)

Training Day, the edgy crime thriller from director Antoine Fuqua, focuses on two cops that are a part of the LAPD narcotics division.

Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) leads the division. He is as corrupt and slimy as they come. He has no problem working with drug dealers, stealing from citizens, or planting drugs.  Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) is the gullible rookie that wants to be a part of narcotics to make a difference.  After just a few hours with Alonzo, he finds himself navigating the madness that is LAPD narcotics and trying to figure out how he can put an end to it all.

It is obvious that Denzel Washington is excellent in this role. He is ruthless, disgusting, and has no redeemable qualities.  However, the movie doesn’t work without Ethan Hawke’s performance. Hawke goes from excited to bewildered, frightened, and resolved in the span of two hours. Hawke received a much-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.

Reality Bites (1994)

Apple TV (3.99), Amazon Prime (3.99)

Reality Bites is a 90s romantic comedy that sees Ben Stiller sit in the director’s chair for his first, feature-length film.  The movie follows four recent college graduates trying to navigate the real world.  

Lelaina (Winona Ryder) is an aspiring documentarian that is struggling to get her film produced.  Troy (Ethan Hawke) is a loser who can’t keep a job, has an existential crisis, and has no real motivations outside his rock band.  Michael (Ben Stiller) is the opposite of Troy, successful, mature, and interested in others around him. He genuinely wants to help Lelaina pursue her dream. The film centers around Lelaina getting her documentary made and the various love entanglements between the three characters.

Ethan Hawke is nowhere near the actor that he would eventually become. However, this is the transition period of his career between being a 1980s child star and the more serious roles later in his career.

Boyhood (2014) 

AMC+ (Free), Amazon Prime (2.99)

Ethan Hawke works with another great director, Richard Linklater, on the ambitious Boyhood. This film follows the childhood and adolescence years of Mason (Ellar Coltrane).  During the movie, you experience the ups and downs of the life of a kid growing up in Texas.  This includes parents divorcing and remarrying, navigating blended families, first kisses, relationships, and more. 

Ethan Hawke plays Mason Sr., the father of Mason and his sister Samantha.  Like his children, he experiences tremendous growth as a father throughout the film.

Boyhood has been celebrated as an achievement due to its ambitious filming schedule spanning an actual ten-year period.  The actors aren’t aged up or replaced. You get to experience the growth of these characters in real-time.   To pull that off and not have the movie feel disjointed in any way is a significant accomplishment.

Daybreakers (2009) 

HBO Max (Free), Amazon Prime (3.99)

Written and directed by The Spierig Brothers, Daybreakers is a film about a dystopian future where most of the population has turned into vampires due to a viral outbreak.  These newly transformed vampires have a desperate need for blood.  Without it, they further devolve into unintelligent monsters called Subsiders.  This society captures and farms humans immune to the vampire virus to maintain blood supply. 

Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is a scientist developing synthetic blood, eliminating the need to hunt humans.  However, Edward runs into former vampire Elvis (Willem Dafoe), who shares that he has a cure for the vampiric disease.  Edward must help save Elvis and the other humans and get the treatment to the public before it is too late.

Although there are horror components, this movie leans more into its sci-fi elements.  The characters are a bit one-note, but the film still has excellent world-building, action, and intrigue.

In a Valley of Violence (2016)

Netflix (Free), Amazon Prime (3.99)

In a Valley of Violence is a western from the breakout writer and director Ti West. It is the story of a traveler (Ethan Hawke) trying to make his way to Mexico.  While stopping in a town for supplies, the traveler gets into an altercation with a local idiot named Gilly (James Ransone).  After knocking Gilly out, the traveler leaves town.  

Gilly wants revenge.  So, he catches up with the traveler outside the town and commits an unspeakable act. Now, the traveler is on a quest for payback.

Westerns are an acquired taste, especially in the era of modern cinema.  But rest assured, In a Valley of Violence is not your typical western. It is fast-paced, full of action, and with a surprising amount of humor.  Ethan Hawke shines as always. But it is the surprisingly excellent performance of John Travolta as The Marshal that you remember.  It is great seeing Travolta return to form and makes the movie even more satisfying. 

First Reformed (2018)

Showtime (Free), Amazon Prime (3.99)

First Reformed is a drama written and directed by the legendary Paul Schrader.  It follows Pastor Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke), the shepherd of the First Reformed Church of Snowbridge, New York.  

Toller is having a crisis of confidence in his faith.  Unfortunately, his church has been reduced to a historical tourist attraction.  What’s more, Toller can’t understand how his beliefs are applicable in the modern world.  He tries to counsel a young couple that is also struggling.  However, he is in desperate need of counseling himself.

This dark drama poses some serious questions about the relevance of faith.  Ethan Hawke delivers what may be the best performance of his career. Plus, you get a surprisingly measured performance from the comedian Cedric the Entertainer, who plays the pastor of a megachurch in the film.  And, as always, great work from the captivating Amanda Seyfried. 

Sinister (2012)

Peacock (Free), Amazon Prime (1.99)

Sinister is the story of Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke), a writer looking for inspiration for his next true crime book. Ellison moves his family into a house where the Stevenson family, the subjects of his next book, were murdered.  

In the house, Ellison finds old footage in his attic that contains brutal murders of families from around the country.  After watching each film, Ellison and his family begin to experience strange occurrences in the home, possibly related to the supernatural.

Sinister is the first collaboration between Hawke and Scott Derrickson (writer and director of The Black Phone).  Sinister is one of the most frightening horror films of the past twenty years. Instead of jump scares, there is a focus on tension, unease, and dread throughout the movie.  Ethan Hawke is, of course, brilliant in his horror element.