The heat is still on, but you can feel the breeze coming on the horizon, can’t you? The lure of fall, while summer still has a hold on us. August is here, the final act of the summer season, and what better way to say “so long, sweet summer” than by watching a bunch of streaming movies?
We’ve gone through and made a curated list of the best new movies added to Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Paramount+ and more this month. They include the streaming debut of one of the biggest box office successes of the year, a delightful new rom-com, a gritty crime thriller on Netflix and much more.
Check out our list of the top new movies streaming now below.
“Barbarian”
HBO Max – Aug. 1
With Zach Cregger’s bold update of the “Resident Evil” franchise just around the corner (it hits theaters on September 18), why not revisit the writer/director’s debut feature? “Barbarian,” which 20th Century quietly released in the summer of 2022, wound up a cult hit, with $45.4 million worldwide on a budget of just $4 million. (Hey, it’s not “Obsession” numbers although what is?) If you haven’t seen “Barbarian,” the less you know the better. But if you need to know something about “Barbarian,” it’s about a young woman (Georgina Campbell) who, in a new town for a job interview, stays at a foreboding rental house. (Air BnB, always the true villain.)
From there things get decidedly stranger – she discovers some underground corridors that speak to the history of the house, an extended flashback shows you the original horrors and the current owner of the house, a disgraced Hollywood actor (Justin Long), returns to try and get the property sold and uncovers the same grisly truth. See, that did a good job of selling it without giving anything away right? “Barbarian” struck like lightning, totally out of the blue. Last year’s Oscar-winning “Weapons” proved that Cregger is the real deal, a new face of horror who is more than willing to dig into the firmament beneath the scares for something really, truly unforgettable.
“From Dusk Till Dawn”
Paramount+ – Aug. 1
This fall sees the release of the still-untitled David Fincher movie that serves as a sideways sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” It is only one of a handful of films that the filmmaker, known for his ratatat dialogue punctuated with pop culture references and proclivity for shocking violence, has written but not directed himself. Another is “From Dusk till Dawn.” Released 30 years ago, shortly after the runaway success of “Pulp Fiction,” it was based on an early, unproduced screenplay that had originated with a story by make-up effects legend Robert Kurtzman, who then hired Tarantino for the paltry sum of $1,500 to write the screenplay. (Tarantino had to also guarantee that he return the favor and hire Kurtzman and his team for “Reservoir Dogs;” Tarantino obliged.)
After Tarantino became the hottest thing in Hollywood, he dusted off the screenplay, which he had cannibalized over the years (the Ezekiel 25:17 monologue had originally come from the “From Dusk till Dawn” script), and gave the project to Robert Rodriguez, his frequent creative partner-in-crime. (Tarantino appeared in Rodriguez’s “Desperado” and the filmmakers had each directed a segment of “Four Rooms,” both of which happened in 1995, the year between “Pulp Fiction” and “From Dusk till Dawn.”) If you’ve never seen it before, it’s a rip-roaring crime movie that quickly switches gears into a blood-soaked horror movie. It’s outrageous (Selma Hayek’s snake dance being the tip of the iceberg) and a ton of fun, clearly serving, at least partially, for Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-winning “Sinners,” which shares a similar structure and, of course, emphasis on creatures of the night. Even 30 years later this movie is a total blast.
The Fast & Furious Franchise
Netflix – Aug. 1
The first seven “Fast & Furious” movies are streaming on Netflix this month, which means it’s the perfect time to celebrate #family and have your own little marathon. While the tenth and final installment in the franchise is still in development, charting the unlikely explosion and evolution of “Fast & Furious” is a pretty fascinating endeavor. The franchise morphs from racing series to heist series to mega-budget blockbuster over the course of 15 years, with Vin Diesel serving as its anchor from tip to tail. Ready, set, GO.
“Speed”
Netflix – Aug. 1
Speaking of fast cars, there are few better ‘90s action movies than Jan de Bont’s “Speed,” which was released in 1994 and catapulted Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock into superstardom. If you’ve never seen it, the story revolves around a public transportation bus in Los Angeles that’s carrying a bomb. If it goes under 50 miles per hour, the bomb goes off. Bullock is the unlikely citizen on the bus who ends up being the driver, and Reeves is the LAPD office brave enough to jump onboard and try to solve the puzzle before time runs out. It’s a classic.
“Something’s Gotta Give”
Netflix – Aug. 1
If you’re in the mood for a feel-good movie, you can’t go wrong with a Nancy Meyers film. This 2003 rom-com stars Diane Keaton as a successful playwright who is forced to look after her daughter’s (Amanda Peet) much older boyfriend, played by Jack Nicholson, after he suffers a heart attack at their summer home. It’s an “opposites attract” story as Nicholson plays on his reputation as a playboy, and Keaton delivers an all-timer performance full of emotion and nuance. And, as with all Nancy Meyers movies, the house is to die for.
“Bridesmaids” (Unrated)
Prime Video – Aug. 1
Wanna laugh your face off? The unrated cut of “Bridesmaids,” Kristen Wiig’s hilarious 2011 comedy, is now streaming on Prime Video. The movie was a box office bonanza, coming on the heels of Judd Apatow’s largely male-focused comedies that dominated the 2000s. Wiig plays a woman who’s a bridesmaid in her best friend’s (Maya Rudolph) wedding, but she must contend with a new friend (Rose Byrne) and a colorful cadre of characters ahead of the big day. Melissa McCarthy scored an Oscar nomination for her breakout role, and the film still stands as one of the best comedies of the century so far.
“Interstellar”
Prime Video – Aug. 1
With Christopher Nolan top of mind thanks to “The Odyssey,” it may be time to revisit “Interstellar.” Nolan’s ambitious sci-fi film wasn’t a home run right out of the gate – reviews were mixed-positive at the time, even as his “Inception” follow-up grossed over $700 million at the box office. But the movie has only grown in esteem since, with Gen Z especially embracing the story of a father (Matthew McConaughey) who must travel to the furthest reaches of space to find a new planet for humanity.
“Clue”
Paramount+ – Aug. 1
One of the funniest movies ever made, full-stop. “Clue” shouldn’t work — it’s an adaptation of a board game, for one. But the madcap energy that this cast brings to the table is pure chaos in the most delightful way possible. The film follows the rules of a murder mystery, but has the flavor and tone of a screwball comedy like “Noises Off!” with Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn milking every ounce of screentime they have.
“The Thomas Crown Affair”
Prime Video – Aug. 1
There’s a new “Thomas Crown Affair” on the way via Michael B. Jordan, which is a very good reason to revisit Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo’s take on the heist story from 1999. Directed by “Die Hard” filmmaker John McTiernan, the film was itself a remake of a 1968 adaptation starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and it follows a bored billionaire who steals a painting from the Met, then becomes the subject of an investigation led by Russo. Wouldn’t you know it? The two end up falling in love. It’s sexy and fun, and will leave you even more eager to see what Jordan will do with this material.
“Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour (Live)”
Paramount+ – Aug. 6
Billie Eilish and James Cameron’s concert film “Hit Me Hard And Soft: The Tour” finally comes to streaming this month on Paramount+. The movie, which was released in 3D, follows Eilish on her tour from 2024 to 2025, offering a look at intimate moments and Eilish charting a course alone for the first time as her brother Finneas doesn’t join her on the full tour.
“The Last House”
Netflix – Aug. 7
Everybody wants – no, needs – their own “A Quiet Place.” There have been movies like “The Silence” (the monsters are attracted to sound, just like “A Quiet Place”), “Elevation” (the monsters don’t go beneath 8,000-feet above sea level) and “Arcadian” (the monsters don’t appear in the light), which, like “A Quiet Place,” try to situate a snug survival narrative around gnarly creatures with a specific angle or ability. The latest is “The Last House,” premiering on Netflix and centering on a somewhat dysfunctional family (led by Greta Lee and Wagner Moura) who are trapped inside their house when a race of sinister sea creatures emerges from the earth’s oceans.
Full of COVID-era parallels, including an itchy claustrophobia, some nifty creature work by Industrial Light & Magic and a pair of ace performers attempting to imbibe the story with some emotional earthiness (whether or not they success on this quest is up to you), “The Last House” will remind you of a time you’d probably rather forget – and scare you silly in the process.
“You, Me & Tuscany”
Peacock – Aug. 7
It’s rom-com season, and you might want to close out the summer with a trip to Tuscany. Kat Coiro’s “You, Me & Tuscany” failed to make much of a splash at the box office when it hit theaters earlier this year, but reviews were pretty positive and the prospect of seeing Halle Bailey and Rege-Jean Page together is certainly enticing. The story follows a young cook (Bailey) squatting in an abandoned villa who falls in love after meeting the owner’s brother. You know, that old story.
“The Ribbon Hero”
Netflix – Aug. 8
“The Ribbon Hero,” an adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s hugely influential magna from 1953 called “Princess Knight,” marks the feature directorial debut of celebrated animator Yuki Igarashi. This new take on the source material “depicts the story of a lone hero who chooses to defy a harsh destiny, set in a delicately crafted world,” according to the official release. The animation, courtesy of Igarashi’s OUTLINE studio, is genuinely eye-popping, as are the character designs by Kei Mochizuki.
And the action sequences, which combine a fairy tale setting with more steam-punk sci-fi elements, are pretty spectacular. With all of that said, although, the storyline gets a little hard to follow – especially if you’re unaware of the original manga. The disparate tones and styles occasionally collide with one another awkwardly, which makes a muddy narrative even more difficult to parse. Still, for anime and manga enthusiasts, “The Ribbon Hero” is required viewing.
“Michael”
Starz – Aug. 10
One of the year’s biggest box office hits finally comes to streaming. “Michael” has grossed over $1 billion this year so far, and now you can watch it at home – if you have Starz. The biopic went through its own fair share of trials and tribulations, reshooting the entire third act when production discovered they couldn’t legally depict one of Jackson’s misconduct accusers. Antoine Fuqua reworked the film to focus more on the music and meteoric rise of the King of Pop, and here we are.
“Normal”
Hulu – Aug. 14
Bob Odenkirk continues his unlikely run as an action star in 2025’s “Normal,” which finds him playing an interim sheriff of a Minnesota town who gets roped into a conspiracy after a bank robbery. Ben Wheatley, the filmmaker behind the explosive “Free Fire” and “Kill List,” directs from a screenplay by “John Wick” franchise mastermind Derek Kolstad, and Odenkirk once again shows he’s more than capable of playing the action hero after the one-two punch of “Nobody” and “Nobody 2.”
“The X-Files: I Want to Believe Vrach Frankenshteyn”
Hulu – Aug. 14
Last year, on David Duchovny’s podcast of all places, “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter let slip that there is a better, more intense, R-rated version of his much-maligned 2008 feature “The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” which Carter directed and co-wrote with longtime collaborator Frank Spotnitz. Earlier this year it looked like this version, which is wholly different than the extended cut that showed up on the film’s home video release, would finally premiere on Hulu. But the supposed date came and went, with Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) nowhere to be found. Now, complete with a modicum of pre-release hype (for those who of us who obsessively thumbed through the official episode guide books when the show was still on the air), this new version, dubbed “The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn,” is finally ready to debut on Hulu. And we’re really hoping for the best here.
The original cut of the movie was dreary and drab, a cheap-looking thriller that put Mulder and Scully on a case involving a pedophile priest with psychic abilities (Billy Connolly) and a weird group performing Frankenstein-esque experiments. It was an odd hodgepodge and not in a good, “X-Files”-y way. It was also a pale imitation of both the original series and the first movie, 1998’s excellent “The X-Files: Fight the Future.” In the years since the largely atrocious 2008 movie was released, the show has returned for an “event series” and a follow-up 11th season, to decidedly mixed results, ending with Anderson proclaiming that she was done with the franchise – for good this time. It’s unclear if this new cut of the movie will resurrect its reputation and put a new light on things, or if it will cement what we already felt about the movie – that some franchises aren’t worth revisiting.
“Deep Water”
MGM+ – Aug. 16
If an above-average shark movie drops on MGM+ will it even make a splash? “Deep Water,” which combines the structure and characterization of a 1970’s disaster movie with the more modern tropes of a creature feature, arrived in theaters earlier this year and now you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own home. Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley are pilots on a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai when disaster strikes – a portable battery explodes in cargo, which leads to a chain of events that sees the plane in many pieces in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by a shiver of very hungry sharks.
From there, things go pretty much as you expect, but “Deep Water” was directed by Renny Harlin, the muscular action auteur behind genuine classics like “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane” (among many others), who gives it some nice gravitas and a visual snappiness that would not have been found had it been helmed by someone less stylish. (Incredibly, he also has a movie about killer whales coming out.) You could do a lot worse than “Deep Water” is what we’re saying.
“Mother Mary”
HBO Max – Aug. 21
“Mother Mary,” which A24 all but abandoned in the lead-up to its release, is one of the studio’s very best movies – a dazzling, whirligig character piece with large scale musical numbers and a dash of phantasmagoria. Anne Hathaway, as part of her incredible 2026, plays a pop star named Mother Mary in the midst of a personal and professional crisis. With a pivotal performance on the books, she returns to fashion designer Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel), a former close collaborator turned nemesis, to help her with a new look. Set in a single night in a creaky barn behind Anselm’s rambling English estate, the two confront each other, trading barbed remarks and ghost stories, as Mother Mary prepares for her big comeback.
Written and directed by David Lowery, whose credits include “The Green Knight” and “A Ghost Story,” delivers a moving and occasionally quite spooky meditation on the relationship between artists and the desperate need for connection in a world where such things seem downright impossible. Featuring songs by Charli XCX, Jack Antonoff and FKA Twigs (who also has a brief but unforgettable cameo) and some truly dynamite sequences, “Mother Mary” deserved to be a sensation. But for whatever reason A24 got nervous and dropped it without much hubbub. Now, on streaming and beyond, the true believers will find it and evangelize its greatness.
“The Christophers”
Hulu – Aug. 22
Putting aside his misguided embrace of AI for an upcoming John Lennon documentary (it premiered at Cannes and was promptly razzed), Steven Soderbergh is really on a roll. Last year saw the release of his inverted ghost story “Presence” and his marital spy thriller “Black Bag” (both excellent, both written by the great David Koepp). And “The Christophers,” which premiered late last year and written by frequent Soderbergh collaborator Ed Solomon, is also really wonderful – a heist movie in miniature anchored by a pair of deeply felt performances from Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel. In “The Christophers” a talented but unsuccessful painter (Coel) is approached by the children of a famous painter (James Corden and Jessica Gunning). Their idea – they infiltrate the inner circle of their father, a famous painter (McKellen) and gain access to a series of unfinished paintings.
She can complete them seamlessly, the children can sell them as true originals, and they all profit. But, of course, things do not go according to plan. And what starts off as a sneaky thriller evolves into something more emotional and complicated, an investigation of the creative process and the role of the artist in the art (and vice versa). It’s charming, funny, warm and wonderfully acted. It might not be one of Soderbergh’s masterpieces but it’s damn close.
“The Last Sunrise”
Prime Video – Aug. 26
An adaptation of the steamy Anna Todd book “The Last Sunrise” hits Prime Video this month, with screenwriter Anna Klassen adapting the story of a young American woman who strikes up a romance with a Spaniard while following her overprotective mother overseas. Maia Reficco and Fernando Lindez play the central couple with Carlson Young, who directed 2025’s Sophie Turner thriller “Trust,” behind the camera.
“The Whisper Man”
Netflix – Aug. 28
“The Whisper Man” is an intentional throwback to the starry suspense movies of the 1990’s. You remember the ones – with big names and nimble set pieces, which weren’t afraid to dig into the anxieties of the time. Based on a novel by Alex North, “The Whisper Man” concerns a child predator, who has abducted the son of a novelist (Adam Scott) and the grandson of a cop (Robert De Niro), who put away a maniac with a similar pattern years before. Michelle Monaghan is the current detective on the case.
Full of twists and turns, some more telegraphed than others, and with a spooky, supernatural embroidery, “The Whisper Man” is clearly indebted to the work of David Fincher (John Carroll Lynch, from “Zodiac,” even briefly shows up), with some loving, occasionally hackneyed homages to everything from “The Silence of the Lambs” to “Prisoners.” “The Whisper Man” isn’t nearly on the same level as those modern classics, but it at least tries to be, with a fine supporting cast that also includes Michael Keaton (as the earlier killer) and Hamish Linklater as a creepy collector of serial killer memorabilia, and it’s just nice to see a movie like this – R-rated, flirting with taboo topics like pedophilia, and led by committed, movie star performances.
