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February’s exodus includes two best picture winners and a lot more. Catch these while you can.
As awards season builds, this month’s departures from Netflix in the United States include two best picture winners, alongside a handful of comedies that did not tickle the Academy’s fancy. Also leaving Netflix this month: a propulsive crime thriller, a generous helping of science fiction and a delightfully decadent documentary. Check out these 11 titles while you can. (Dates reflect the final day a title is available.)
Those who are skeptical about Robert Pattinson’s coming turn in “The Batman” would be wise to check out this gripping, pulsing crime drama from the Safdie brothers, the directors of “Uncut Gems.” Like that film, this is an energetic and frequently stressful snapshot of a morally flexible man doing morally flexible things — in this case, a would-be thief whose failed attempt to rob a bank turns into a long night of additional crimes, lies and dubious moral compromises. The Safdies revel in the ’70s-style Gotham sleaze of their story but give it a modern edge, quietly underscoring how their antihero takes advantage of privilege and assumptions throughout his mini-crime spree.
Stream it here.
The Studio 54 nightclub in Manhattan was one of the hottest spots of the 1970s, a nonstop party that offered up a nightly buffet of sex, drugs and disco to an eclectic clientele of celebrities, high rollers and nobodies (as long as they were breathtakingly beautiful). Like many of its patrons, it went hard and burned out fast, closing its doors after less than three years when its flamboyant owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, were arrested and convicted of financial improprieties. This riveting documentary from the director Matt Tyrnauer takes its cues from the story it tells — intoxicated by the glamour and decadence of the early years while meticulously detailing the crimes under the shiny surfaces.
Stream it here.
We seem to be long past the Golden Age of high-school movies — and let’s not kid ourselves that Netflix’s own contributions to the genre are even worth mentioning — but this 2016 treat from the writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig recalls the best of the best. A pre-“Dickinson” Hailee Steinfeld shines as Nadine, a smart but cynical teenage outcast whose small world is shaken to its core when her BFF (Haley Lu Richardson) hooks up with her brother (Blake Jenner). The executive producer is James L. Brooks, who similarly boosted Cameron Crowe’s directorial debut, “Say Anything…,” and “Edge of Seventeen” has a similar vibe. It’s whip-smart and heartfelt, witty but not silly, and it invests every character, young and old, with quirks, flaws and complexity.
Stream it here.
The popularity of “Yellowstone” has renewed interest in this 1990 Academy Award winner by Kevin Costner for best picture and best director, which similarly explored the complicated relationship between Indigenous Americans and white “settlers,” albeit through a more explicitly historical lens. Costner also stars, as John J. Dunbar, a lieutenant with the Union Army at a remote outpost, who comes to sympathize with — and then essentially join — the Lakota tribe. The cinematography is gorgeous, the set pieces are big and thrilling, and Costner finds just the right note of resigned rebellion in the leading role.
Stream it here.
In 2014, the directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made a political black comedy in which Rogen and James Franco go to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un and are hired by the C.I.A. to assassinate him. And it was released, and everyone had a good laugh, the end. Just kidding: This was one of the most controversial films of the 2010s, its explosive premise resulting in cyberattacks and terror threats on behalf of North Korea and in a vigorous free-speech debate after Sony Pictures caved and scuttled its mainstream release. In retrospect, it was a lot of trouble for what was, at its core, a very broad and silly movie. The movie also had as much to say about the vanity and delusion of Americans as it did about the humanitarian crimes of the North Korean government.
Stream it here.
The phrase “ahead of their time” is bandied about with abandon, but it certainly applies to the 1980s output of Jim Henson, who expanded his reach with non-Muppet, dark fantasy entertainments that were met with critical and commercial indifference but have gained considerable cult followings with the passing years. “The Dark Crystal” was one example; this is another, a 1986 musical fantasy, made in collaboration with George Lucas, which Henson directed from a screenplay by the Monty Python member Terry Jones. Jennifer Connelly stars as a slightly spoiled teenager who takes a journey into a dark world to rescue her baby brother; David Bowie is unforgettable, scary and seductive as the Goblin King who stands in her way.
Stream it here.
In 1996, moviegoers turned out in droves to see a thrilling story of Americans uniting and uprising against a dire alien threat. That movie, of course, was “Independence Day”; this movie, a ’50s-style sci-fi comedy from the director Tim Burton, was released six months later and relatively ignored. But time has been kinder to Burton’s accidental spoof than the flag-waving blockbuster it followed into the marketplace. “Independence Day” has aged like milk, whereas the many virtues of the unapologetically goofy “Mars Attacks” have grown only more entertaining. Those include a killer cast (Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Danny DeVito, Pam Grier, Michael J. Fox, Jack Nicholson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Natalie Portman, Martin Short and more), a cockeyed visual style and a climax featuring exploding alien brains and Slim Whitman records.
Stream it here.
The writer and director Jody Hill, best known for his work on the TV series “Eastbound and Down” and “The Righteous Gemstones,” made his studio debut with this pitch-black, controversy-courting comedy from 2009. Seth Rogen stars as a would-be cop biding his time as a mall security guard, but make no mistake, this is no “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.” Hill’s comedy is bleak, borderline nihilistic, portraying his protagonist as a dangerous, delusional megalomaniac drunk on his (limited) power. And to his credit, the film doesn’t pull its punches, up to and including its eye-opening ending. Rogen has rarely been better, weaponizing his customary charisma and warmth to create a chilling (yet funny!) portrait of a borderline sociopath.
Stream it here.
Dustin Hoffman picked up the Oscar for best actor for his performance as a middle-aged autistic man in this 1988 comedy-drama from Barry Levinson (which also won prizes for best picture, best director and best original screenplay). But the noteworthy performer here is Tom Cruise, whose work is far more subtle and complicated, particularly since his character undergoes a full evolution, as opposed to Hoffman’s frankly one-note turn. It’s something of an act of metatextual commentary; Cruise’s Charlie Babbitt is exactly the kind of grinning hot shot he spent the 1980s perfecting in junky vehicles like “Top Gun” and “Cocktail,” but his masterful reveal of the emptiness inside such a yuppie hustler hinted at his self-reflective work in the decade to come.
Stream it here.
Before he became the director of important, issues-minded films like “Vice” and “Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay trafficked in pure, unapologetic silliness. And that silliness reached its apex with this explosively funny, frequently filthy comedy, reteaming his “Talladega Nights” stars Will Ferrell (who co-wrote, with McKay) and John C. Reilly as adult man-children who still live with their parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) and are forced into a sibling relationship when their parents wed. What begins as suspicion and rivalry develops into absolute mayhem, with Ferrell and McKay at their most manic and Steenburgen and Jenkins finding endless variations on parental patience and embarrassment.
Stream it here.
Once upon a time, “The Terminator” was just a one-off sci-fi action flick — a pulpy, low-budget but tremendously profitable film that gave a considerable boost to its co-writer and director, James Cameron, and its star, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it didn’t scream “sequel,” at least not until Cameron directed “Aliens” and figured out how to raise a sequel’s stakes by amping up the scope and intensity. “T2” did that and then some, mixing state-of-the-art special effects, forearm-bruising action sequences, genuine emotional interest and a fair amount of winking (“Hasta la vista, baby”) to make that rarest of cinematic beasts: a follow-up that tops the original.
Stream it here.
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