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The Best Shakespeare Movie Ever Made Officially Finds a New Stage at HBO Max
Chloé Zhao’s historical drama Hamnet, starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, has reached a new audience through HBO Max, rising to fourth place on the platform’s global top 10 chart. The film explores Shakespeare’s family life and the grief that inspired his creation of Hamlet, and its renewed streaming popularity follows strong critical, awards and commercial success.
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, the film is set in late 16th-century Warwickshire and follows Agnes Hathaway, William Shakespeare and their children. After their 11-year-old son Hamnet dies from bubonic plague, Shakespeare channels his grief into Hamlet; the film earned $109 million worldwide against a $35 million budget, while Buckley won an Oscar for her performance.
In short
- Hamnet has risen to fourth on HBO Max’s global top 10.
- The film links Shakespeare’s grief to the creation of Hamlet.
- It grossed $109 million and won major critical acclaim.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Hamnet demonstrates the qualities of modern filmmaking excellence: Jessie Buckley's Oscar-winning performance and the film's $109 million commercial success across diverse audiences represent genuine achievement. Chloé Zhao brings contemporary cinematic sophistication to Shakespeare's legacy, whilst the film's warmth and accessibility prove that superlative Shakespeare cinema needn't be confined to historical adaptations of the plays themselves. Its recent critical consensus and sustained appeal on streaming platforms suggest it has earned genuine cultural relevance for this generation.
The case against
Declaring any film 'the best' requires clarity on criteria, and by most defensible measures, classic Shakespeare adaptations hold stronger claims. Laurence Olivier's and Kenneth Branagh's films remain the standard against which Shakespeare cinema is measured, benefiting from decades of cultural influence and critical reassessment. Furthermore, Hamnet is biographical fiction about Shakespeare rather than an adaptation of his actual works, making such comparisons arguably unfair. Enduring impact and fidelity to text traditionally matter more in evaluating Shakespeare cinema than recent commercial performance alone.
Explained simply
Hamnet is a historical drama about William Shakespeare's family life in 16th-century Warwickshire. The film centres on the death of the couple's 11-year-old son from bubonic plague and how Shakespeare's grief inspired him to write Hamlet, one of his most celebrated plays.
The film was directed by Chloé Zhao and stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife Agnes Hathaway. It is based on Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed novel of the same name.
The film achieved significant commercial and critical success when it was released, earning $109 million worldwide against a budget of $35 million. Buckley won an Oscar for her performance, cementing the film's status as a major cultural achievement.