It’s been a pretty successful summer movie season, as these things go. DC successfully rebooted Superman, Weapons made a case for original movies with a budget, and Lilo & Stitch was pretty watchable for a Disney rehash that made $1 billion. A steady supply of solid new releases makes the case for staying home and skipping it all to sink to watch old stuff you missed, well, difficult. But don’t feel guilty: we have good recommendations if that couch is calling for you.
Forget that wonderful multiplex air conditioner! This week, your Netflix-equipped living room is the coolest theater in town.
Now You See Me
In 2016, Hollywood made such a massive, unforced error that I’m still mad about it almost a decade later. After releasing the magic-crime caper Now You See Me, Lionsgate rushed out a sequel, cleverly titled Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. But a year later, the studio changed the title to the much less appealing Now You See Me: The Second Act. Eventually, it changed again to the boring, but utilitarian Now You See Me 2. This fall, Lionsgate will finally correct its mistake and release a third film in the franchise titled Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. And, in the meantime, you can revisit the first two films, which are streaming now on Netflix.
Now You See Me revolves around a quartet of stars (Jesse Eisenberg! Woody Harrelson! Island Fisher! Dave Franco!) who perform elaborate magic tricks onstage that double as complex heists. They’re pursued by agents from both the FBI (Mark Ruffalo) and Interpol (Mélanie Laurent). Throw in Morgan Freeman as an ex-magician selling out his fellow performers for a profit, and you have one of the most confounding heist films of the century.
Now You See Me isn’t a perfect movie — the plot is silly to the point of absurdity — but watching all these great actors have fun together is more than worth the price of admission if you already gave Netflix your money this month. —Jake Kleinman
Matilda: The Musical
Netflix dropped this musical adaptation on Christmas Day back in 2022 — and everyone seemed to miss it. That’s too bad, because it’s as expertly choreographed as a John Wick flick and as quirky and heartwarming as a Paddington movie. It’s no wonder Paddington 2 director Paul King went on to do his own Roald Dahl musical with Wonka.
Matilda: The Musical retells the classic story of Matilda Wormwood (Abigail‘s Alisha Weir) as she navigates the hell of her homeworld under two slovenly parents, and the hell of her school under authoritarian headmistress Agatha Trunchbull. The movie lifts all the best songs from Tim Minchin’s original West End musical, which turn Dahl’s rambunctious prose into the musical theater version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. If sing-songy Broadway shtick isn’t your jam, put aside all preconceptions and queue up Matilda; director Matthew Warchus values the darkness, and lets Emma Thompson completely off the leash to give a monstrous turn as Trunchbull. It’s a genuine spectacle for all ages. —Matt Patches
I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore
Macon Blair is one of our leading genre directors who also had an amazing role in Oppenheimer. Blair is best-known as a cohort of Jeremy Saulnier, and appears in both Blue Ruin and Green Room. His next film as a director is the much-anticipated Toxic Avenger reboot, arriving on Aug. 29. But fans of this cult indie talent may have missed his directorial debut when it crept on to Netflix a few years back. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a neo-noir with big weirdo energy.
Melanie Lynskey stars as Ruth, a nurse who is hunting a burglar with her rattail-sporting, weapon-obsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood). Like so many detective stories, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore mines the existential out of a search for answers, but unlike the noir of the 1950s, Blair’s movie finds room for cussing octogenarians, ninja stars, Google montages, gallons of Big Red soda, upper deckers, friendly raccoons, exploding body parts, and the idiocy of humanity. It’s a little like if the Lonely Island gang made Brick? Eh, the comparisons don’t do it justice — Blair really found his own lane with this one, and the finished film will only make you more pumped to see what he does with a Troma hero. —MP
