TAGGED AS: Netflix
As we near the end of the summer movie season, you may start to notice that there are fewer and fewer worthy choices at the multiplex, and you might just want to spend the weekend at home instead. If that’s the case, and movies like The Meg, The Happytime Murders, Crazy Rich Asians, or Alpha aren’t particularly appealing to you, here’s a list of some solid new choices streaming on Netflix in August.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Martin Scorsese’s multiple Oscar-winning 2004 biopic of legendary filmmaker, businessman, and pilot Howard Hughes.
Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson star in Kevin Smith’s feature debut comedy that follows the lives of a convenience store clerk and his best buddy who works at the video store next door.
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this drama about a curmudgeonly veteran who grapples with his racial insensitivities when he develops a relationship with the Hmong neighborhood kid he catches trying to steal his car.
Matt Damon stars in Steven Soderbergh’s tongue-in-cheek retelling of the true story of corporate whistleblower and sometimes unreliable FBI informant Mark Whitacre.
Available 8/1
Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, and Ian McKellen lead an ensemble cast in the first chapter of Peter Jackson’s genre-defining fantasy epic trilogy based on the novels of J.R.R. Tolkein.
Clint Eastwood’s multiple Oscar-winning sports drama follows a down-on-his-luck trainer (Eastwood) who reluctantly agrees to work with an aspiring female boxer (Hilary Swank) when her tenacity wins him over.
Diane Lane and John Malkovich star in this inspirational sports drama from Disney, based on the true story of the titular 1973 Triple Crown-winning racehorse.
Kevins Kline and Costner, Brian Dennehy, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, and Rosanna Arquette headline an all-star cast in Lawrence Kasdan’s 1985 western about four men who band together in opposition to a corrupt sheriff.
Before Ghostbusters, director Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis (who also wrote both films) collaborated on this comedy about a couple of slackers who join the Army and get into all kinds of trouble.
Sarah Bolger stars in this twist on the home invasion thriller in which a babysitter slowly reveals her sinister side to the children she’s watching over.
Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer star in this Netflix original comedy about a woman who’s left at the alter by her fiancee and ends up taking her estranged father on what would have been her honeymoon.
Lily James and Michiel Huisman star in Mike Newell’s period drama set in 1946 about a writer who receives a letter from a literary club located on a Nazi-occupied island and decides to visit.
Lauren Gussis’ Netflix original dark comedy series centers on a vengeful, bullied woman who decides to become a beauty pageant queen under the tutelage of her attorney.
Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem star in the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning dramatic thriller about a man who discovers a briefcase full of cash, the deadly hitman ordered to retrieve it, and the grizzled local sheriff trying to make sense of it all.
This CW sci-fi series centers on a group of juvenile delinquents who are sent back to a post-apocalyptic Earth to see if it is habitable again. Season 5 comes to Netflix this month.
Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, and West Studi star in Scott Cooper’s western about an Army captain tasked with escorting a Cheyenne war chief and his family through dangerous territory back to his tribal lands.
The Simpsons and Futurama creator Matt Groening takes to the past in his new Netflix animated series about a young princess, her elf companion, her personal demon, and their wild, fantasy-tinged misadventures.
Briga Heelan, Andrea Martin, and John Michael Higgins star in this Tina Fey-produced NBC sitcom about a news anchor struggling to set herself apart from her peers.
Available 8/23
Kristen Bell and Ted Danson star in this high-concept sitcom about a rude, selfish slacker who dies unceremoniously and shockingly finds herself among the residents of an afterlife utopia.
This documentary examines the growing income gap in the United States and explores the effects it has on society at large.
Jason Bateman and Laura Linney star in this Netflix original crime drama about a finance man who runs afoul of drug lords and moves his family to a remote resort community in an effort to make amends… and possibly find a way out.
