NOW critics pick the best titles coming to Canadian streaming platform Crave in July 2021, including a new Steven Soderbergh movie, a recent Oscar winner and a Broken Social Scene movie.
What we can’t wait to watch
Gossip Girl
The teen soap from the mid-aughts gets a 2021 revival, meaning this cast is more diverse and the mega-rich characters will be checking their own privilege a lot more than Blake Lively and Leighton Meester’s Upper East Side prep school kids ever did. In this sequel series, Kristen Bell returns as the omnipotent “Gossip Girl” narrator and the storylines promise to be edgier since the show has migrated from HBO to the CW. July 8
No Sudden Move
Seven months after dropping the Meryl Streep transatlantic dramedy Let Them All Talk onto HBO Max, Steven Soderbergh switches gears for this 50s heist movie, which reunites him with his Mosaic screenwriter Ed Solomon, and frequent collaborators (and Traffic co-stars) Don Cheadle and Benicio Del Toro. Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Julia Fox, Bill Duke and the late Craig muMs Grant are also along for the ride. As are we. July 1
White Lotus
Enlightened creator Mike White returns to HBO with a unique and scathing outlook on privileged white people with emotional baggage. And in The White Lotus, they’re taking that baggage to Hawaii. White’s latest bitter comedy stars Connie Britton, Steve Zahn and Jennifer Coolidge as the guests who demand comfort(ing) at a resort for the rich. July 11
The End
This Australian dramedy stars Frances O’Connor (Mansfield Park, Mr Selfridge) as a palliative-care doctor on the Gold Coast whose comfortable routine is up-ended by the arrival of her suicidal English mother (Killing Eve’s Harriet Walter). Creator Samantha Strauss co-wrote last year’s Naomi Watts drama Penguin Bloom and is a producer on the upcoming Nine Perfect Strangers, so there’s the potential for this to be redemptive, twisty or both. We really have no idea. July 18
Solid bets
Judas And The Black Messiah
Shaka King’s powerhouse drama about the complicity of FBI informant William O’Neal (Oscar nominee LaKeith Stanfield) in the 1969 murder of Chicago community organizer Fred Hampton (Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya) is one of the year’s best movies, collapsing America’s past and present into one awful continuous moment. It understands how power structures work to maintain themselves, while somehow not fully snuffing out Hampton’s hope that dismantling those structures is the way to a better future. And it’s driven by two fully inhabited performances, with Stanfield’s hollowed-out O’Neal reflecting Kaluuya’s radiant charisma and intelligence as Hampton. Dominque Fishback’s pretty great as Hampton’s partner Deborah Johnson, too. July 2, with HBO
This Movie Is Broken
In the summer of 2009, Broken Social Scene put on a free show at Harbourfront; Don McKellar and Bruce McDonald made a movie around it, shooting the concert and adding a fictional story about two old friends (Georgina Reilly, Greg Calderone) wandering down to see it. The result is a loose, rambling and awfully endearing movie that captures Toronto life at its shaggiest – and which now serves as a melancholy last gasp of the city we used to be, before Rob Ford rode the garbage strike into the mayor’s office and set Toronto The Good on the path to the colder, angrier place it is today. But the movie’s sweetness, combined with the band’s obvious joy at being together onstage, can still carry you away. July 7, with Starz
Sea Fever
Launched at TIFF 2019 only to have its theatrical run derailed by the pandemic, Irish filmmaker Neasa Hardiman’s waterborne riff on Alien and The Thing feels awfully prescient now, being the story of a group of sailors – among them We Hunt Together’s Hermione Corfield, Nobody’s Connie Nielsen and Batwoman’s Dougray Scott – who encounter a parasitic infestation on a research run, and must decide whether to quarantine themselves to keep it from contaminating the rest of the world. Total fantasy, right? July 14, with HBO
The full list of new titles available on Crave in July 2021 by date is below. The + symbol indicates a TV show or movie that is only available on Crave+ . The * symbol indicates a TV show or movie that is only available with the Starz add-on.
TV shows
July 1
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 29)
Genera+Ion (season 1, episode 14-15)+
Intergalactic (season 1)+
Revolution Of The Daleks (Doctor Who Season 12 Special)
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (season 6, episode 3)
July 2
Betty (season 2, episode 4)+
MTV Series Run’s House (season 1-6)
MTV Series True Life Crime UK (season 1)
Step Up: High Water (season 2, episode 8)*
July 4
Blindspotting (season 1, episode 4)*
Run The World (season 1, episode 7)*
July 6
Pillars Of The Earth (season 1)*
July 8
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 30)
Genera+Ion (season 1, episode 16)+
Gossip Girl (season 1, episode 1)+
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (season 6, episode 4)
July 9
Betty (season 2, episode 5)+
The Good Doctor (season 4)
MTV Series Catfish (season 8D)
Pete Lee: Tall, Dark, And Pleasant
Step Up: High Water (season 2, episode 9)*
July 10
Love Island (season 3, episodes 1-3)
July 11
Black Monday (season 3, episode 7)
The Chi (season 4, episode 7)
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 31)
Flatbush Misdemeanors (season 1, episode 7)
Run The World (season 1, episode)*
The White Lotus (season 1, episode 1)+
July 12
Catch And Kill (season 1, episode 1-2)+
Love Island (season 3, episode 4)
July 15
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 32)
Gossip Girl (season 1, episode 2)+
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (season 6, episode 5)
July 16
Alternatino With Arturo Castro (season 1)
Betty (season 2, episode 6)+
Crank Yankers (season 6A)
Step Up: High Water (season 2, episode 10)*
July 17
Love Island (season 3, episodes 5-8)
July 18
The 100-Foot Wave (season 1, episode 1)+
Black Monday (season 3, episode 8)
Blindspotting (season 1, episode 5)*
The Chi (season 4, episode 8)
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 33)
The End (season 1, episodes 1-2)
Flatbush Misdemeanors (season 1, episode 8)
Power Book III: Raising Kanan (season 1, episode 1)*
The White Lotus (season 1, episode 2)+
July 19
Catch And Kill (season 1, episode 3-4)+
Love Island (season 3, episodes 9)
July 22
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 34)
Gossip Girl (season 1, episode 3)+
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (season 6, episode 6)
July 23
MTV Series Deliciousness (season 2C)
MtV Series Teen Mom 2 (season 10B)
One Big Recipe (season 1)
July 24
Love Island (season 3, episodes 10-13)
Tig Notaro: Drawn Comedy Special
July 25
The 100-Foot Wave (season 1, episode 2)+
Black Monday (season 3, episode 9)
Blindspotting (season 1, episode 6)*
The Chi (season 4, episode 9)
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 35)
The End (season 1, episodes 3-4)
Flatbush Misdemeanors (season 1, episode 9)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (season 8, episode 18)+
Power Book III: Raising Kanan (season 1, episode 2)*
The White Lotus (season 1, episode 3)+
July 26
Catch And Kill (season 1, episode 5-6)+
Love Island (season 3, episode 14)
July 29
Desus & Mero (season 3, episode 36)
Gossip Girl (season 1, episode 4)+
RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars (season 6, episode 7)
July 30
Kevin Garnett: Anything Is Possible
Heavy Rescue: 401 (seasons 4-5)
MTV Series Friendzone (seasons 1-5)
Real Time With Bill Maher (season 19, episode 21)+
July 31
Love Island (season 3, episodes 15-18)
Movies
July 1
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey+
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug+
No Sudden Move+
H.Appiness+
King Kong*
The Shawshank Redemption*
Top Gun*
July 2
Curious George: Go West, Go Wild+
Fear Of Rain*
Girl With A Pearl Earring*
Judas & The Black Messiah+
Me And Earl and The Dying Girl*
The Shack*
July 4
The One And Only Dick Gregory
July 5
Fresh Water
July 7
Shiva Baby+
This Movie Is Broken*
Trigger*
July 9
Argo*
At Eternity’s Gate+
The Blues Brothers*
Death Becomes Her*
Due Date*
The Empty Man+
Kung Fu Panda+
Kung Fu Panda 2+
Tremors*
The Trip*
July 14
40 Year-Old Virgin*
Bonnie And Clyde*
Casablanca*
Enough Said*
The Red Violin*
Sea Fever+
July 16
Bobbleheads: The Movie+
Dear White People*
The Death Of Stalin+
Eraser*
Falling+
Magic Mike*
Munich*
Romancing The Stone*
Step Up Revolution*
Total Recall*
July 21
The Tunnel+
July 23
Basic Instinct*
Child 44*
Conan The Barbarian*
Conan The Destroyer*
Freaky+
Grease*
Megamind+
Mulholland Drive*
My Salinger Year+
Sometimes The Good Kill*
Ted*
Toys Of Terror+
Undercover Blues*
July 28
2 Hearts+
July 30
300*
The Doorman+
Hot Summer Nights+
The Incredible Hulk*
Love Actually*
Mommy*
Tom & Jerry+
Two By Two: Overboard+
The Bourne Identity+
The Bourne Supremacy+
The Bourne Ultimatum+
The Bourne Legacy+
Last call
The following titles are leaving Crave in July 2021.
July 5
Lavell Crawford: New Look, Same Funny
July 6
Bulletproof 2: Rematch
Mighty Ships (season 3)
July 8
General Magic
July 10
It: Chapter Two
July 11
Mighty Ships (season 2)
July 12
American Woman
July 15
Maiden
Spider-Man: Far From Home
July 19
The Art Of Self Defense
July 21
Mighty Ships, Season 1
The Tomorrow Man
July 23
How To Deal
July 24
There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane
July 25
The Goldfinch
July 26
The Angry Birds Movie 2
The Last Black Man In San Francisco
July 30
Casual (seasons 1-4)
July 31
Blast From The Past
Body Heat
The Bookshop
The Break-Up
Cowboys & Aliens
Deliver Us From Evil
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
Die Hard 4 (Live Free Or Die Hard)
Die Hard: With A Vengeance
A Good Day To Die Hard
Don’t Think Twice
Downton Abbey Movie
Endless Love (2014)
Foxcatcher
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner (1967)
Hector And The Search For Happiness
The Kill Team
Life As We Know It (2010)
Little Women (season 1, episode 1-3)
My Girl
The Perfect Storm
Prime
Ready Or Not
Reality Bites
Rush
Sex Tape
Single White Female
Snatch
Sniper: Legacy
So I Married An Axe Murderer
The Sweet Hereafter
The Theory Of Everything
The Town
Unforgiven
The Wedding Planner
Western Stars
You’ve Got Mail