It’s the last week of July, and Netflix has already shown us what it has in store for U.S. subscribers in August—including the claustrophobic sci-fi horror The Last House, a chilling thriller starring Robert De Niro and Adam Scott (The Whisper Man), and some great documentaries, too. But you need a good movie to watch now, which is where we come in.
For this final July countdown, there are still some good titles to choose from: Tobey Maguire’s classic webslinger to get you prepped for Brand New Day, Kevin Hart crashing a Gen Z bachelor party, the slasher that gave horror its sense of humor back, and my top pick this week, Cate Blanchett gives an acting masterclass as a maestro who spectacularly falls from grace.
4
Spider-Man
Swing back with Tobey to where the modern superhero movie began
Don’t get me wrong, I like all the Spider-Men—Holland, Garfield, Cage, all the animated ones. But I’ll always have a soft spot for Tobey Maguire. His Peter Parker was awkward, nerdy, and endearing, and Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man is arguably the movie that kicked off the modern superhero blockbuster era. With Tom Holland’s Brand New Day hitting theaters this weekend, it’s time for a rewatch of this linchpin (all three are streaming on Netflix, too, but they all leave August 4th, so watch them now!).
You know the drill—based on Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Marvel Comics hero, it follows shy Queens teen Peter Parker (Maguire), who’s bitten by a genetically engineered spider and wakes up with wall-crawling superpowers. After a tragedy teaches him that great power comes with great responsibility, Peter takes on the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) while swooning over Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). It also features that famous upside-down kiss.
3
72 Hours
Kevin Hart is too old for this wild Miami weekend
This week’s freshest arrival (July 24) isn’t winning any awards, but it’s wild and ridiculous enough to shoot its way to the top of Netflix’s most-watched list. 72 Hours is a raunchy R-rated comedy that reunites Kevin Hart with Ride Along director Tim Story, and also teams him up with some of SNL’s current top talent.
Hart plays Joe, a 40-year-old ad exec whose bosses think he’s lost his connection with today’s youth, so he invites himself on a three-day Miami bachelor party with a group of wild twentysomethings (SNL’s Marcello Hernández, Kam Patterson, and Ben Marshall, and Scream’s Mason Gooding) where chaos ensues.
2
Scream
Wes Craven’s meta masterpiece still slays, 30 years on
Thirty years on and Wes Craven’s Scream holds firm as the movie that brought the slasher genre back from the dead, while lovingly making fun of it in the process. That opening Drew Barrymore “inside the house” sequence is movie gold, and is still parodied and copied today, while Ghostface has become a staple of Halloween mask sales.
A year after her mother’s murder, high schooler Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is tormented by a masked killer with an obsession for horror movies. As the bodies keep piling up around town, it draws the attention of tabloid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and lovably inept Deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Meanwhile, Sidney’s boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) is looking pretty suspicious. Scream launched a massive franchise that’s still going today, with the seventh chapter, which landed back in February. Scream 2 and 3 are also streaming on Netflix, with all three leaving the service on August 23.
Release Date
December 20, 1996
Neve Campbell
Sidney Prescott
David Arquette
Dewey Riley
Courteney Cox
Gale Weathers
Matthew Lillard
Stu Macher
1
Tár
Cate Blanchett conducts a symphony of self-destruction
Writer-director Todd Field has a knack for creating Oscar-worthy movies, with 2001’s In the Bedroom, 2006’s Little Children, and 2022’s Tár, all raking in 14 nominations between them. The 91% rated psychological drama stars Cate Blanchett in one of the greatest roles of her career, where she plays the titular Lydia Tár, the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic—a performance that convinced people that the character was based on a real person—it isn’t.
The movie is a haunting examination of a woman at the peak of her powers, working towards a career-defining performance of Mahler’s Fifth, when her meticulous life starts to fall apart around her. Bearing witness to the tragedy are Lydia’s wife, Sharon (brilliantly played by Phoenix’s Nina Hoss), and watchful assistant Francesca (Lee’s Noémie Merlant), as the movie builds to a finale you won’t see coming.
One last queue before the calendar flips
By the time you’ve worked through all four of these movies this week, August’s newcomers will be waiting at the door. Keep the momentum going with more of How-To Geek’s streaming recommendations.
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Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
Two or four
Live TV
No
Price
Starting at $8/month