What's New To Streaming In August 2020
Including creepy Jake Gyllenhaal, a Steven Spielberg classic, and more
There are so many great movies new to streaming this month and Do You Like Apples is here to recommend the best ones, or at least our favorites. Read about our picks below and then keep scrolling to find a longer list of what’s new to streaming in August.
Drew recommends…
Ocean’s Twelve (streaming on Netflix)
Right now you might be thinking, I saw this movie a long time ago and remember it being super confusing and disappointing. I had the same stance before I rewatched Ocean’s Twelve recently. Well, I was delighted to find that it was such a better and more fun sequel than I remembered. Obviously, they weren’t going to top Ocean’s Eleven, which is a perfect movie, so they worried less about doing that and focused instead on letting charismatic movie stars do cool professional heist nonsense in Europe.
Two really smart moves make Ocean’s Twelve a fantastic and now underrated movie. First, they transported the setting from Las Vegas to Europe. If they had tried to do another Vegas heist this movie would’ve been DOA. Fortunately, writer-director Steven Soderbergh and co-writer George Nolfi had the good sense to take the plot to places like Amsterdam, Rome, and Italy’s Lake Como, beautiful and extremely photogenic locales that provide the backdrop for the extremely photogenic actors. Second, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vincent Cassel joined the already stacked A-list cast. This gives Danny Ocean’s crew of thieves new personalities to bump up against. Zeta-Jones plays a Europol agent tracking down the criminals, and she also happens to be Rusty’s (Brad Pitt) former lover. Cassel appears as the “Night Fox,” a master thief with a massive ego that challenges Danny and his team in a race to steal a famous jewelled Faberge Egg.
Much like Ocean’s Eleven, the humor is so clever and dry in this film. It’s the kind of dialogue and character interaction that stands out more and more with repeated viewings. Everybody gets a chance to crack wise, with Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck, and Scott Caan providing some of the funniest supporting performances. As the anxious and uncertain Linus, Matt Damon gets more to do in this movie than he did in the previous one, and Damon’s surprising comedic timing makes for some of the best moments in Ocean’s Twelve.
I know I keep saying this, but so much of this movie improves upon rewatch. There’s a scene where Tess, played by Julia Roberts, has to pretend to be the actual Julia Roberts in order to get close enough to steal the Faberge Egg. Then, the actual Bruce Willis shows up and recognizes Julia, threatening to blow up the whole plan. This scene was a little confounding to me the first time I saw it, but this past time I highly enjoyed the celebrity-filled ridiculousness of it all. Like in all of the Ocean’s movies, the joy of Ocean’s Twelve is in simply watching movie stars be movie stars.
Nightcrawler (streaming on Netflix August 10th)
Lou Bloom is a go-getter. He’s a hard worker, he sets high goals, and his motto is “If you want to win the lottery, you have to make the money to buy a ticket.” He’s an enterprising and energetic young man that is desperate for a job. Lou is also an opportunistic sociopath.
That’s the setup for Nightcrawler, the 2014 dark thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays the creepy and relentless Lou Bloom. Lou eventually finds his dark calling as a “stringer,” a freelance photojournalist that records violent accidents, crimes, and killings and sells the footage to a local TV station run by news director Nina (Rene Russo). Lou spends his nights prowling around Los Angeles with a police scanner, praying for a horrific event to occur nearby, because “if it bleeds, it leads.”
Gyllenhaal, who got his own edition of DYLA last year, has maybe never been better on screen. It’s one of his most committed and effective performances in a career full of them. His Lou is gaunt and hollowed out, physically and emotionally. Just by looking at him, you can see this is a man without much empathy. While Gyllenhaal’s presence dominates the movie, there’s also great performances on the edges as well. Russo is excellent as the ethically shady newswoman and Riz Ahmed is very memorable as Rick, Lou’s damaged and impressionable young assistant. Ahmed relayed this breakout performance into work in bigger movies like Rogue One and Venom down the road.
This is certainly not a feel-good movie and this is certainly not a lovable main character, so just know that going in. However, Nightcrawler is a fascinating psychological character study with thrilling and suspenseful filmmaking to boot. The moments of action look strikingly authentic, just as Lou would experience them on the scene. This film might also get you thinking about how the media, national and local, feeds into the audience’s desire for visual depictions of violence, as well as the lengths some journalists go to just to capture eyeballs, clicks, and attention.
Billy recommends…
Time Bandits (streaming on HBO)
Imagine a movie where The Wizard of Oz is a massive influence, but the structure is akin to Forrest Gump. Time Bandits is a move that follows a young boy named Kevin who wants adventures like all the legends. Like knights, Robin Hood, cowboys, and the kings off in mythical lands. At each point Kevin experiences these iconic figures and recognizable scenarios in short vignettes with a loose story structure to keep the plot moving.
Kevin is teamed up with a group of dwarves who are thieves trying to find any precious jewels they can find. And their possibilities are endless because of time travel. That is not explained at all and this movie is all the better for that.
When you hear “they don’t make movies like they used too,” it is referencing this movie. By all accounts this is a kids movie. It has weird creatures, a naivety to it, and an epic talk. All aspects that can get a young person enthralled. The problem is that almost every scene is offbeat and potentially scarring. For a kid it may make the experience more enjoyable or terrifying. Either reaction will make them remember the first time seeing it.
Time Bandits may not be worth seeing as an adult, but if you have older kids or a niece/nephew then this will be an amazing one to throw on and just stare at them while they watch. The humor will go over their heads. The weird creatures and story will potentially scare them. Overall, though, this movie is made for kids and it is incredibly entertaining to watch through adult eyes.
Jurassic Park (streaming on Netflix)
Time Bandits has a nostalgia factor to it that will be effective for a certain group of people. Jurassic Park is nostalgic because it is masterful filmmaking in almost every aspect. Amazingly enough we can look back before Steven Spielberg needs to be mentioned.
Jurassic Park is the perfect movie to learn about because of how it changed the production process. New special effects were possible, but not at the point where they could be the focal point. Making the story and characters the most important aspect (which they almost always are). Right from the jump there is a classic Jaws/Indiana Jones hybrid intro that shows the serious danger our characters might get into. While mystifying our leading characters in an otherworldly way. The intro shows none of our main characters. A brilliant decision that allows the atmosphere to drive the story.
Once Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) come on screen there is immediate trust in them. They are purists completely dedicated to their craft and try to resist the greed that is thrusted at their door, but find it hard because the greed is in a loveable form that is John Hammond. He is passionate, sincere, and charismatic. This creates a trio of people that we want to and frankly have to root for. A trio that needs to face off against our only real villain, Dennis Nedry. He is really just there to create simple conflict, but conflict that interacts with the environment perfectly.
Our environment is created by three things: John Williams’ score, practical set design, and well-timed groundbreaking special effects. The score is inundated throughout the whole movie and it perfectly pairs with everything that is groundbreaking about this film. What the film industry was feeling with this movie is exactly the wonder viewers were feeling by seeing dinosaurs on screen like this for the first time.
My gushing recommendation can finally culminate by giving out due credit to the master that is Steven Spielberg. His desire to push boundaries is rooted in well-structured stories shown through iconic characters. Without that these special effects would be impressive, but hollow. With it, what may look outdated at times, feels completely real. Allowing the audience to suspend disbelief long enough for one of the most rewarding movie experiences out there.
Other movies new to streaming in August
Netflix
A Knight’s Tale
Being John Malkovich
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jurassic Park III
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Mad Max
Ocean’s Thirteen
Seabiscuit
Les Misérables (August 16)
Amazon Prime
3:10 to Yuma
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Inception
Margin Call
Rain Man
Top Gun
The King of Staten Island (August 11)
Hulu
3:10 to Yuma
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Margin Call
Rain Man
Top Gun
The Peanut Butter Falcon
HBO and HBO Max
All the President’s Men (HBO Max)
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Jojo Rabbit
Ocean’s Eleven (HBO Max)
Wedding Crashers (HBO Max)
Links
Instead of continuing to push back Mulan’s release date, Disney has decided to skip theaters and place the movie on Disney Plus on September 4. Disney Plus subscribers will be able to rent the live-action Mulan for $29.99. It will be interesting to see if Disney does this with more of their upcoming movies.
The dark and strange mind of Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich) returns on September 4 with Netflix’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Watch the trailer here.
Bradley Cooper has been cast in Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film, a coming-of-age drama that is set to start filming this fall.