WHAT WE CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH
GLOW (season 3)
The second season of Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch’s complex, politically conscious and very smart 80s comedy ended with the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling losing their TV show but winning a live residency in Vegas, where the action resumes this year – and where the daily grind of nightly performances starts to weigh on our heroes. Can Betty Gilpin’s Debbie handle the separation from her toddler, or will Liberty Belle start to crack? Will Alison Brie’s Ruth embrace the opportunity to refine her Method performance as Zoya The Destroya, or just get more self-destructive? And will Sam (Marc Maron) finish that autobiographical script? The answers may surprise and delight you – as will the events of episode 305, Freaky Tuesday. August 9
Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready
Netflix recently announced they won’t be making a second season of Tuca & Bertie, the animated series featuring the vocal talents of Ali Wong and Tiffany Haddish. Fortunately, the streamer has another Haddish project on deck. Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready is a series of half-hour stand-up specials hosted by the Girls Trip star and featuring a half dozen other comics including Chaunté Wayans (Wild ’N Out), April Macie (Last Comic Standing), Tracey Ashley (The Last O.G.), Aida Rodriguez (Comedy Central’s This Week At The Comedy Cellar), Flame Monroe (Def Comedy Jam) and Marlo Williams (BET’s Comicview). Haddish and Wanda Sykes co-produced, so you know it’ll be extremely funny. August 13
The Family
Director Jesse Moss and exec producer Alex Gibney’s documentary explores the political influence of The Fellowship, the secretive evangelical organization behind Washington, D.C.’s National Prayer Breakfast. The trailer suggests the five-part show will focus on the organization’s late “spiritual leader” Douglas Coe. He had the ear of various U.S. presidents as well as former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who once called him “a source of strength and friendship.” Barack Obama drew fire from LGTBQ rights groups for attending the prayer breakfast since The Fellowship’s members include David Bahati, the Ugandan politician who once proposed making homosexuality punishable by death. August 9
Mindhunter (season 2)
Netflix’s prestige series about the early days of the FBI’s behavioural science unit – executive-produced and occasionally directed by David Fincher – returns to find its fictionalized team of agents and psychologists (Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv) as they move into the field to chase down the serial killer responsible for the Atlanta child murders. We weren’t exactly grabbed the first time around, but maybe the second time’s the charm. August 16
Otherhood
After their adult sons forget about them on Mother’s Day, three middle-aged best friends drive from the suburbs to New York City to surprise them. While the timing for this Netflix original movie seems a bit odd – Mother’s Day was months ago – we don’t exactly need a good reason to watch Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette and Felicity Huffman go clubbing in Manhattan, confront their appropriately attractive sons or roge on dollar pizza slices. Otherhood looks like a fun and sentimental romp that’ll make you want to call your mom after. August 2
The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance
Years in the making, this 10-episode prequel to Jim Henson’s beloved 1982 fantasy epic features a dazzling voice cast including Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie Dormer, Taron Egerton, Harvey Fierstein, Mark Hamill, Lena Headey, Jason Isaacs, Eddie Izzard, Hannah John-Kamen, Keegan-Michael Key, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Simon Pegg, Andy Samberg, Alicia Vikander, Sigourney Weaver and many more. Also, puppets. Lots and lots of puppets. August 30
Styling Hollywood
While Queer Eye focuses on making over everyday Americans, this reality series is all about styling the already-famous. Styling Hollywood follows stylist Jason Bolden and his husband, interior designer Adair Curtis, as they run their lifestyle company, JSN Studio. Their clients include Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, Empire star Taraji P. Henson, musician Alicia Keys, director Ava DuVernay and tennis pro Serena Williams. Netflix hasn’t revealed if any celebs will appear in the series – although a promo photo shows Bolden brandishing a shiny gold belt at rapper Eve – expect an inside look into the stressful world of dressing Hollywood. August 30
Wu Assassins
After a turn in summer flick Stuber, Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais (The Raid) continues making crossover moves with this San Francisco-set action series. Uwais plays a chef who discovers he has supernatural powers of the Wu Assassins and takes on some world-destroying baddies who also have supernatural powers. The supporting cast is stacked with some experienced movie fighters – Lewis Tan (Iron Fist), Mark Dacascos (Drive), and JuJu Chan (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword Of Destiny) – so our fight-choreography expectations are high. August 8
Diagnosis
Based on Dr. Lisa Sanders’ 15-year-old New York Times Magazine column, this series profiles patients suffering from medical mysteries who turn to social media and crowdsourcing in hopes of finding a diagnosis. The NYT has made a big push into television recently: the publisher turned its podcast The Weekly into a show for FX and Hulu earlier this year and its Another Love column into a scripted drama that is due to air on Amazon. August 16
Sextuplets
If you’re a fan of movies where one person plays multiple characters in prosthetic makeup à la Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor, perhaps Sextuplets will be populating your algorithm by the end of this month. Wayans plays a man who sets out to meet his birth mom and discovers he is one of six identical siblings. The movie co-stars Bresha Webb – who co-starred in Wayans’ NBC show Marlon – and Molly Shannon, who is on a roll this year between season three of Divorce and Wild Nights With Emily. August 16
Courtesy of Netflix
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s American Factory was a highlight of the 2019 Hot Docs film festival.
SOLID BETS
American Factory
Hitting Netflix after screening at Hot Docs back in the spring, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s impressive doc follows what happens after Chinese billionaire Cao Dewang buys an abandoned factory to expand his auto-glass company. He employs some out-of-work Rust Belt workers as well as hundreds brought in from China and things do not go well. The directors had great access to their subjects and were able to capture key moments while giving equal weight to Americans and Chinese points of view. Not to be missed. August 21
Logan Lucky
Magic Mike duo Channing Tatum and director Steven Soderbergh reunited for this laid-back, hilarious and ultimately touching heist movie. Tatum and Adam Driver star as blue- collar Southerners who bring a handyman spit-and-shine approach to robbing a NASCAR race. The cast (which includes Riley Keough and Daniel Craig) is splendid, the heist is fun and silly, but what ultimately resonates is the way Soderbergh captures the fabric of West Virginian culture and working-class anxieties. At a time when it’s so easy to poke fun or get angry at the American South, Logan Lucky goes for empathy. August 1
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The latest book in the Millennium series, titled The Girl Who Lived Twice, comes out on August 27. Before you find out what happens next in the Lisbeth Salander crime saga, go back to where it all started with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In David Fincher’s 2011 film adaptation, Rooney Mara plays Salander, a troubled hacker who inadvertently teams up with investigative journalist Michael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to unearth the mystery behind a string of murdered young women. August 1
Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan’s immersive, assaultive WWII drama was consciously designed for large-format viewing, so the idea that people can now casually watch random chunks of it on their phones is probably giving him hives. That said, what the home version of Dunkirk loses in scale it gains in intimacy: Fionn Whitehead’s near-silent performance feels more powerful, as does Cillian Murphy’s panic, Mark Rylance’s sense of duty and Kenneth Branagh’s steely resolve. Nolan’s cinematic virtuosity may not pack the punch it did when it played the Cinesphere, but it’ll still grab you and wring you out from end to end. August 12
Apollo 13
Ron Howard’s nail-biting 1995 drama about NASA’s scramble to rescue three astronauts and their damaged capsule during a 1970 moon shot feels even more compelling after the recent wave of Apollo 11 movies: now we have the proper historical context to appreciate the no-nonsense performances of Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon in (real) zero-G as Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, and the mounting intensity of Gary Sinise and Ed Harris as Ken Mattingly and Gene Kranz back on the ground. A quarter-century later, it looks like the best picture Howard ever made. We’re still sore about Braveheart winning the Oscar that year. August 7
List of new titles available in August by date:
TV SHOWS
Coming in August
Sacred Games (season 2)
August 1
The Chef’s Line (season 1)
August 2
Ask The StoryBots (season 3)
Basketball Or Nothing
Dear White People: Volume 3
Derry Girls (season 2)
She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power (season 3)
August 4
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 4
August 5
No Good Nick: Part 2
August 8
Dollar
The Naked Director
Wu Assassins
August 9
Cable Girls (season 4)
The Family
GLOW (season 3)
The InBESTigators
Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling
Sintonia
Spirit Riding Free: Pony Tales
Tiny House Nation (volume 1)
August 13
Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready
August 15
Cannon Busters
August 16
45 rpm
Apache: La Vida De Carlos Tevez
Better Than Us
Diagnosis
Frontera Verde
Mindhunter (season 2)
QB1: Beyond The Lights (season 3)
Victim Number 8
August 20
Simon Amstell: Set Free
The Sinner: Julian
August 21
Hyperdrive
August 22
How To Get Away With Murder (season 5)
Love Alarm
August 23
Hero Mask: Part II
August 24
Ash Vs Evil Dead (season 3)
August 25
Chappelle: Sticks & Stones
August 27
Million Pound Menu (season 2)
Trolls: The Beat Goes On! (season 7)
August 30
The A List
Carole & Tuesday
The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance
Droppin’ Cash (season 2)
Locked Up (season 3)
Mighty Little Bheem (season 2)
Styling Hollywood
Un Bandido Honrado
Vis A Vis (season 3)
MOVIES
August 1
Battle: Los Angeles
Catch And Release
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Jungle
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
The Mummy
The Smurfs
Training Day
August 2
Otherhood
Overlord
August 5
Enter The Anime
August 7
About Time
Apollo 13
Marvel Studios Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Being John Malkovich
Blue Crush
Friday Night Lights
In Good Company
Ray
Take Me Home Tonight
The Wizard
August 10
August 12
August 15
Bridget Jones’s Diary
My Sister’s Keeper
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
August 16
Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus
The Little Switzerland
Sextuplets
Super Monsters Back To School
August 20
Here Comes The Boom
August 21
August 23
El Pepe: Una Vida Suprema
The Girl With All The Gifts
August 26
All Saints
One Last Thing
August 29
Falling Inn Love
Kardec
Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly
August 30
The Glass Castle
La Grande Classe
August 31
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
Flatliners (2017)
It Takes Two
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
Rat Race
LAST CALL
TV series and movies leaving Netflix this month.
August 1
Back To The Future
Back To The Future Part II
Back To The Future Part III
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Schindler’s List
Shrek
Snow White & The Huntsman
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
The Only Way Is Essex (season 18)
The Only Way Is Essex (season 19)
August 6
Jaws
Jaws 2
Jaws 3
Jaws: The Revenge
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
August 9
Baywatch
