The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stream these great titles before they leave Netflix
We’re more than halfway through July, and it’s time to catch up on some titles that will be leaving Netflix soon. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)
■ ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (Tuesday) Quentin Tarantino kicked off his cycle of grindhouse-influenced alternate histories with this 2008 war adventure. Set at the end of World War II, the film’s Oscar-winning screenplay, written by Tarantino, juggles several stories of escapees, renegades and war criminals, culminating in an ambitious attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The opportunities for disaster — or, at the very least, insensitivity — with this material are multifold, but Tarantino does not step wrong. He gets a big assist from Christoph Waltz, also an Oscar winner for his unforgettable performance as a gleefully villainous SS colonel.
■ ‘Mississippi Grind’ ( July 25) Four years before “Captain Marvel,” the writing and directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck collaborated on this (to put it mildly) smaller-scale effort, a “California Split”-style indie drama about the sticky friendship between two inveterate gamblers. Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn are the odd-couple leads, and they’re well matched; keying off each other’s (respectively) high energy and low-key naturalism, they meet somewhere in the middle. The story, of bad streaks offset by the promise of an eventual big win, is nothing new. The draw here is the atmosphere Boden and Fleck create and the ease with which Reynolds and Mendelsohn luxuriate in it, creating characters that shouldn’t draw your sympathy but do.
■ ‘Ex Machina’ ( July 25) Oscar Isaac again, this time donning a bushy beard and tech-bro glasses. Part affable, part menacing, he plays a Silicon Valley millionaire who invites an office contest winner (Domhnall Gleeson) to his isolated home to share with him some astonishingly realistic robot technology — in particular, a fascinating female model named Ava (Alicia Vikander). Written and directed by Alex Garland (“Annihilation,” “Devs”), this is a throwback to an earlier era of science fiction, propelled by thoughtful examinations of morality and identity.
■ ‘Her’ ( July 28) Cut from a similar low-fi sci-fi cloth, this 2013 Spike Jonze film, which won an Oscar for best original screenplay, imagines a future in which a smartphone’s Siri-style personal assistant system proves so supportive, helpful and (yes) seductive that one could just ... fall in love with it. That’s the conundrum faced by Theodore Twombly ( Joaquin Phoenix), an introverted greeting card writer who rebounds from a painful divorce by intensifying his relationship with the “Samantha” operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). A lesser filmmaker might twist the premise into a broad, dopey comedy. But Jonze goes further, exploring how Theodore’s depression and social dysfunction made the inexplicable connection seem not only safe but logical.
■ ‘The Incredibles 2’ ( July 29) This 2018 Pixar sequel from Brad Bird — one of the last Disney titles making the exodus to Disney Plus — was a long time in coming. The 2004 original, concerning the trials and tribulations of a family of superheroes, was both a genuinely inventive animated feature and an early entry in the comic book movie cycle. Bird meets the challenge of following it up in a period of superhero ubiquity by focusing more on the familial dynamic and by introducing a memorable pair of villains, entertainingly voiced by Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener. It may not equal the original (few animated films have), but it’s crisply entertaining.
■ ‘The Edge of Seventeen’ ( July 31) Nadine Franklin (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fairly typical teen: cynical, bitter, intelligent and smart-mouthed while also plagued with selfdoubt, awkwardness and self-destructiveness. The first-time director Kelly Fremon Craig tells the story of how Nadine hits bottom (the high school version of it, anyway) and struggles mightily to bounce back with the help of a teacher with the patience of a saint (Woody Harrelson) and a best friend who has made things ... complicated (Haley Lu Richardson). Steinfeld plays Nadine to the hilt, crafting a portrait of teenage ennui and social anxiety that’s as recognizable as it is uproarious.
■ ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ ( July 31) His professional name was Rodriguez, and he recorded two albums under that moniker in 1970 and 1971, soulful works with style and sensitivity that nevertheless didn’t connect with the listeners of his time. Discouraged, he quit music and spent decades as a member of Detroit’s working class, unaware that his albums had been discovered and championed by an army of enthusiastic fans in South Africa. This Academy Award winner for best documentary, by Malik Bendjelloul, is both profile and mystery, telling Rodriguez’s fascinating story while investigating his disappearance. Warmhearted and affirming, it’s a feature-length testament to the uniting power of popular song.
Other notable titles leaving this month:
■ “Bolt” (Tuesday)
■ “Ant-Man and the Wasp” ( July 28)
■ “Back to the Future” ( July 31)
■ “Can’t Hardly Wait” ( July 31)
■ “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial” ( July 31)
■ “Hancock” ( July 31)
■ “Hitch” ( July 31)
■ “Jarhead” ( July 31)
■ “Salt” ( July 31)
■ “Stuart Little” ( July 31)
■ “The Pianist” ( July 31)
■ “The Pursuit of Happyness” ( July 31) “Twister” ( July 31)
■ “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” ( July 31)