September's New (and Temporary) Arrivals

Stallone. Stone. Boom.

Considering that many of Netflix's September arrivals are returning titles from the 1990s and 2000s (how many times have we seen Big Fish, Hitch, and Days of Thunder come and go?)—and many of those are part of the expiring Epix deal—it's hard to be too impressed. But at least it means the return of inspired zombie comedy Fido, along with Christopher Nolan's excellent (and too often dismissed) Insomnia. I'm also happy to see Robert Altman's Popeye back (even briefly), and am looking forward to checking out the depraved weirdness that should be Larry Clark's latest film, Marfa Girl. Also worth a mention: Paul Schrader's Lindsey Lohan disaster, The Canyons, scheduled to appear in all its controversial glory on September 26th.

For classic film fans there's 1975's controversial-for-its-time Mandingo, not to mention the restored version of David Lean's 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, which is as classic as "classic" gets. Not a bad month for family films, meanwhile, with the arrival of Jon Favreau's Zathura, Robert Rodriquez's The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl, last year's reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Volume 1 of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Oh, and if you're a Star Trek or William Shatner fan, be sure to check out his Captains docs, which are surprisingly enjoyable (reviewed here). Other standout titles are listed in bold (and yes, that includes guilty pleasure The Specialist—so sue me).

As I said, many of these titles fall under the Epix contract, which means they're due to expire at the end of the month. Any you don't get to, however, are already on Amazon Prime, and all are expected to appear in October on the increasingly formidable Hulu—which today announced its new ad-free tier. To paraphrase a famous movie character: Now that's an offer I won't refuse!

New in August: Movies, Blog Features

In keeping with this site's new format (at least for now), below is a fairly straightforward listing of Netflix's August arrivals. This replaces the standalone NEW TITLES page, and includes revised categorizations to make it easier to see the breakdown of titles across decades. (In keeping with recent trends, the pickings from before 1990 are pretty slim.) Note that all of these titles are recommended, but those in bold seem especially worth a look. Feel free to list any other new and upcoming titles in the comments below.

Also worth noting: the new Recommendations and WoNN TALK pages! The former lets you easily find any WoNN review from since the blog began (and there are way more than I realized), while the latter provides a forum-like space for everyone to sound off on Netflix- or blog-related topics. It seemed like there have been enough general discussions and questions in the past to warrant such a page. How it will actually work remains to be seen, but let's try it, shall we? I know you guys aren't shy!

New Releases

Dr. Who: Season 8 (2014)
The Look of Love (2013)
The Skeleton Twins (2014)
Two Days, One Night (2014)
Welcome to Me (2015)
Wet Hot American Summer: Season 1 (2015)

2000s

Asylum (2005)
Blue Crush (2002)
Bride and Prejudice (2004)
Dear Frankie (2004)
Happy Endings (2005)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
The Man from Nowhere (2010)
RETURNED:
 Elizabethtown (2005)
 Lassie (2005)
 Quills (2000)
 Shanghai Noon (2000)
 Strictly Sexual (2008)

July's Massive Housecleaning Continues

Just so no one thinks the number of movies expiring from Netflix this month represents business as usual, here's a tally of how many titles left the service each month since December of last year (as tracked by the enormously helpful site, New on Netflix USA):

December (2014) - 281 titles removed
January - 352
February - 224
March - 218
April - 307
May - 246
June - 212

That averages out to 307 departing titles per month, for the last six months. By comparison, July's total is (drum roll, please)...996. And counting. By the end of this month, given what we already know is set to expire, the toll will easily surpass 1,000.*

Making this number even worse is the fact that, as reported in my July 3 post (also picked up by many news outlets), the majority of these titles left with little to no warning—going against Netflix's historic practice of providing at least one week's notice prior to expiration.

That means you went to bed on the 19th with, say, 164 titles in your queue, and in the morning you woke up to find that 18 of them had disappeared. Poof—gone. Without any chance to reorder or prioritize based on Need To Watch. Thought you'd get a chance to bone up on some Mario Bava giallos or classic silents? Or one of those TV movies of the 1970s you were always curious about? Too bad. Netflix had other plans. And if reports of recent customer service calls are correct, the company plans to eliminate its expiration warnings altogether (because, why bother keeping your customers informed?).

May 2015: What's New / What's Leaving

Before I get into what's expiring this month, I want to take a moment to acknowledge all the great titles that showed up on Netflix in May. For various reasons I wasn't able to comment on them earlier, so I want to at least call out the most notable.

The Newly Welcome

The marquee titles you probably already know (and/or have an opinion) about: The Blues Brothers (1980), David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), The Exorcist (1973), Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), John Woo's The Killer (1989), Legally Blonde (2001), Leon: The Professional (1994), and The Sixth Sense (1999). Oh, and the zombie-beaver movie the world's been waiting for: 2014's Zombeavers. These represent an excellent mix of new and old, violent and funny, and—in the cases of Lynch and Tarantino—a mix of all four.

But there's also the underrated Assassins (1995), a surprisingly entertaining Sylvester Stallone/Antonio Banderas action flick (based on a script by the Wachowskis); Bus Stop (1956), showcasing one of Marilyn Monroe's best performances (and the first new MM title since the March purge); Tom DiCillo's playful, satirical look at the movie business, The Real Blonde (1998); an obscure 1970s western called Santee (1973), starring Glenn Ford; the uniformly excellent indie drama, In the Bedroom (2001), which received a boatload of Oscar nominations; and a couple of acclaimed documentaries, Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005) and Martin Scorsese's The Last Waltz (1978). The latter disappeared for a few days due to technical difficulties, but seems to be back up now and makes a surprising but welcome addition to the Instant catalog.

Equally welcome are the returning titles, which include such stalwarts as Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Internal Affairs (1990), and Saturday Night Fever (1977), but also less well-known pics like Peter Bogdanovich's amusing tale of 1920s Hollywood, The Cat's Meow (2001), and Jay and Mark Duplass's first feature, The Puffy Chair (2005). And then there are a couple of scruffy 1970s films: Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude (1971) and the brutal Nick Nolte football comedy, North Dallas Forty (1979), both of which were reviewed the last time they showed up. It's nice to see these join The Exorcist, Bus Stop, and The Last Waltz as proof that Netflix hasn't entirely given up on pre-1982 films.

April Expiration Watch: Farewell to Friends New & Old

Once again Netflix teases us with some stream-worthy titles, only to snatch them away just a few months later. As I did back in January, when something similar happened, I'm going to sort this month's expiring titles into groups based on when they arrived—only this time I'll start with the most recent (just to keep you on your toes). Unless otherwise noted, all of these can be streamed through April 30.

Arrived in March (available 2 months)
Across the Great Divide (1976)
Bitter Moon (1992) - Review
The Secret of NIMH (1982)

Arrived in February (avail. 3 months)
The Brothers Bloom (2008)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009-2010) - thru 5/12
Ulee's Gold (1997)

Arrived in January (avail. 4 months)
Robocop (1987)
Valkyrie (2008)

And then there are those that seemed to be on more reasonable timetables, i.e., on contracts ranging from six months to two years:

Expiration Watch: Stan and George

Given all the breathless headlines these days about superhero franchises and upcoming Star Wars sequels, it's ironic that Netflix is letting go of a couple of very appealing documentaries focused on two of the founding fathers of modern geekdom: Stan Lee and George Lucas.

With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story (2010) 

It's impossible to imagine what pop culture—or today's Hollywood—would be like without Stan Lee. As the co-creator of Marvel Comics' most recognizable superheroes, from the Fantastic Four to the Hulk to Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Daredevil, and even Ant-Man, Lee helped shape the path comic books—and now movies—have taken for over 50 years. And he's still going strong, as this thorough and (justifiably) worshipful documentary shows. At 92, the man (or, in this case, "The Man") continues to work rooms, comic conventions, the Internet, and movie studios as the most tireless, charming, and durable advocate of his art imaginable. In his mid-80s at the time of filming, Lee is irrepressibly fit and spry and still very much in love with life (along with his adoring wife of 60-plus years). He comes off as not only a wonderful spokesman for the comics industry, but as a peerless example of the human spirit. You can't help but admire his humor, his energy, and his ability to keep up with the times. And at film's end, you'll feel grateful—and mildly amazed—that he's managed to sustain this level of creativity (and salesmanship) for so long, while quietly dreading the grayer world we'll be left with when he's no longer a part of it. (Update: the doc is gone, but Stan Lee continues to impress in this latest short video, on the art of...cameo acting!]

New in March: A Few Good Things

At first glance I wouldn't call March a particularly stellar month in the history of Netflix streaming—especially in light of all the painful expirations since December. But nearly every category gets a few worthy additions, joining obvious headliners like Top Gun (1986), Twilight (2008), Crash (2004), and Groundhog Day (1993), as well as returning greats Donnie Brasco (1997) and Taxi Driver (1976).

NEW RELEASES

Netflix, of course, likes to promote its original series, so you likely already know about the arrival of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's new sitcom, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The premise—irrepressible young woman hits the Big City after being locked in a bunker for 15 years—doesn't exactly set the toes a'tingling, but as the creator of 30 Rock and Mean Girls, Fey's cred is unimpeachable and I'll definitely give this one a look. Later in the month brings the complete runs of A Different World and 3rd Rock from the Sun, the first half of Mad Men's final season, and another Netflix original, Bloodline.

I'm a big fan of Dan Harmon's cult sitcom, Community (unforgivably absent from Netflix), so I was especially excited by the arrival of 2014's Harmontown. Documenting the cross-country tour of Harmon's live podcast—a free-form, often drunken mix of comic geekery, group therapy, and audience love-in—the film takes a peek inside the brain, and conscience, of a brilliantly creative man whose warring id and ego are at times painfully on display, but which remain inseparable from his razor-sharp wit and intimidating comic imagination.

November Expiration Watch: Give and Take (but Mostly Take)

Quite the list of casualties this month. Perhaps making up for its largesse at the beginning of November, Netflix is taking away a big chunk of its recent gains, especially titles that arrived in June and September. Notable June entries now expiring include Five Easy Pieces (1970), Funny Lady (1975), and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), as well as those infamous big-budget flops, 1941 (1979) and Ishtar (1987), which are more entertaining than their reputations might suggest (see my reviews here.)

For some reason, the sci-fi and horror titles from June and September are getting especially hard hit, with toe tags now written up for Event Horizon (1997), Invaders from Mars (1986), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Audrey Rose (1977), The Believers (1987), Monkey Shines (1988), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and Mission Impossible III (2006). RoboCop 2 (1990), which only arrived this month, is also getting the bounce. And then there's 1984's The Philadelphia Experiment, which has been around for a while but otherwise deserves mention in the sci-fi category (and expires a day earlier than the others, on the 29th). Granted, most of this group doesn't rate more than 3 or so stars—and they're all fairly well-worn—but still, could it hurt to let them stick around for fans of these genres?

New August Titles: Cult of Personality

Downey does Chaplin

Like scanning virtual tea leaves, sometimes it's fun to look for meaning in a particular batch of new Netflix titles. The month of August might easily be called Biography Month given how many titles focus on the life of a singular personage. From documentaries like Hawking (2013), Chasing Shackleton (2014), and Pumping Iron (1977) to fictionalized accounts like Chaplin (1992), Evita (1996), and Prefontaine (1997)--or even movies named after their main characters, such as Sabrina (1954), Rocky (1976), Mad Max (1979), and Richard Linklater's The Newton Boys (1998)--it's tough not to ponder the existence of a guiding hand in the form of some mischievous Netflix programmer or puckish artificial intelligence. (The more conspiracy-minded among you can imagine the Biography Channel staging a behind-the-scenes coup, or at least greasing back-room palms for a bit of devious cross-marketing.)

April Expiration Watch: Looking for Preston (2014)

As we begin this final weekend of April, it's time to once again take stock of the noteworthy titles leaving Netflix streaming. It's not the most painful list of deletions to come this blog's way, but some of them will sting, especially the handful of 1970s films that arrived only three months ago. Those titles, singled out here back in February, are Harold and Maude, North Dallas Forty, and Marathon Man, all of which contain the welcome grit and unpredictability that were hallmarks of 1970s cinema (and which seem so hard to come by amid today's endless sequels and remakes).

Other Me Decade flicks ascending to Netflix Heaven (or is it only Limbo?) are Paul Mazursky's touching and funny Harry and Tonto, which won Oscars for Mazursky's screenplay and Art Carney's lead performance; the original, made-for-TV, Brian's Song—the first movie to introduce my younger brother and me to cry-bonding when we were kids; and tough-guy director Don Siegel's Two Mules for Sister Sara, a western starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine.

Stanwyck, Fonda

Masters of Comedy

All of the above will be disappearing in the final seconds of April 30, as will a couple of bona fide classics from even further back: Preston Sturges' screwball gem, The Lady Eve (1941), and Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959). The Wilder film—which has streamed only since January—should be familiar to even casual classic-movie (or Marilyn Monroe) fans, but the lesser-known Sturges flick remains an essential entry among screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s. In fact, the genre was all but played out by 1940, until the man who cut his teeth as a screenwriter in the previous decade convinced a wary studio to let him direct, giving him the chance to take his unique mix of verbal wit and physical comedy to dizzying heights.

More New June Titles (2013)

A few more noteworthy titles that showed up on Instant this month:

Chasing Ice (2012)

A sobering, provocative documentary that follows nature photographer James Balog's on-camera quest to document how unnervingly fast the world's glaciers are melting and what this implies for the planet's future. Not simply an environmentalist polemic trumpeting the latest global-warming theories to mollify the already converted, Chasing Ice is an adventure story and travelogue about one man challenged by the elements, his own hardheaded determination, and the breakdown of his increasingly fragile body while seeking empirical evidence for what many of us already suspected but which until now had never been witnessed. The time-lapse images of enormous glaciers receding and shrinking into muddy splotches are horrifying and heartbreaking, but also beautiful and miraculous, especially once you've seen the struggle it took to achieve them. Balog's art and sacrifice may have worn him down physically—like one of his own compromised ice floes—but with any luck enough people will see his amazing work and be inspired to act. Or at the very least question their views. The evidence is here. All you have to do is look.