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As we round the corner into the final straight of July, Netflix still has a lot of life left in it when it comes to options that make for good weekday movie nights. Netflix U.S. viewers seem to still be flocking to the disaster doc, Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, that we covered in our weekly roundup of documentaries, as it still sits in the streamer's Top 3, but if a doc isn't what you're looking for, read on.
This week, my top pick is a beautifully dark Oscar magnet from Yorgos Lanthimos if you're up for something truly unique. I'm also recommending a handful of other great films, including a claustrophobic and thrilling WWII submarine epic, a commuter thriller with a memory problem, and a superhero who'd rather be doing his homework.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Catch Tom Holland at the beginning before you see Brand New Day
With less than two weeks left to go before Tom Holland swings back into theaters in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, why not take advantage of Netflix's licensing of where it all started for Holland in the solo movies with 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Peter Parker (Holland) is back to the grind of normal high school life in Queens, while still all kinds of self-conscious about being good enough to be an Avenger.
With Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) taking Peter under his wing, the young webslinger wants nothing more than to impress his idol, so he goes against Stark's instruction to lay low and instead decides to take on the deadly meched-out flying villain Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), who's been salvaging alien tech. Homecoming is worth it just for the incredible Staten Island ferry battle/rescue scene in which one of the alien weapons lasers the ferry in half. Spider-Man: Homecoming has an excellent 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Girl on the Train
A spiraling woman obsessed over a supposed murder plot
In one of Emily Blunt's darker, more psychologically vulnerable roles, the Oscar-nominated actress stars in this twisted crime thriller as Rachel Watson, a woman coming apart after her divorce from Tom (Justin Theroux). A struggling alcoholic, to hide the fact that she's lost her job, Rachel continues her daily train commute, where she obsesses over the seemingly perfect relationship of a couple, Megan and Scott, that she spies on each day from the train window.
Things spiral out of control when Rachel wakes up in her apartment, covered in blood, with no memory of the night before, and then learns that Megan has gone missing. Oh, and Megan and Scott happen to live a few doors down from Tom and his new wife, Anna (Silo's Rebecca Ferguson). The Girl on the Train is a haunting whodunnit that will leave you wondering what's real and what isn't, as Rachel obsesses over the investigation and whether she had anything to do with it.
U-571
Matthew McConaughey and crew hijack a Nazi sub
If you've got an excellent sound system on your home theater, then you are absolutely going to want to check outU-571, an intense WWII submarine thriller from 2000 that won the Oscar for Best Sound Editing for its explosive underwater battle sequences and creaky submarine onboard action.
Set in 1942, U-571 follows Lt. Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), an executive officer who's been passed over for his own command, who instead is chosen to join Lt. Cmdr. Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) and salty Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel) on a secret mission: to take over a crippled German sub, take its crew hostage, and steal the Enigma code-breaking machine on board. But when the real German rescue submarine arrives, the jig is up, and the Americans find themselves on the run and dodging depth charges and torpedoes in a tin can they don't really know how to operate.
Poor Things
Emma Stone is reborn in Yorgos Lanthimos' wild Victorian fantasy
Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most unique and exciting filmmakers of the last 15 years, whose films, such as The Lobster, The Favourite, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Bugonia, are cinematic works of art. Also among those titles is 2023's Poor Things, Lanthimos' 11-time Oscar-nominated masterpiece that won its star Emma Stone her second Best Actress statue.
Stone, who has starred in four Lanthimos films, is brilliant as Bella Baxter (Stone), a Victorian woman brought back from the dead by experimental surgeon Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), but who's literally starting from scratch as she's been given the brain of an infant. In Lanthimos' vivid, pastel-colored steampunkinsh world, the impulsive Bella is racing to take in all the things on hyperdrive—love, hate, sex, food, everything—as she learns the highs and lows of being human. It's hands-down the most fascinating and fantastical movie on this list, and it has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Four uniquely great movies
You can't go wrong with any of the films on this week's list, but if you're looking for more suggestions for Netflix, or any other streaming service for that matter, swing by How-To Geek's streaming section where we uncover all the best stuff so you don't have to.
