Stream These 9 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in January

In January, several big movies from an impressive coterie of marquee directors — including Sofia Coppola, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Spike Lee, Jordan Peele and Robert Rodriguez — leave Netflix in the United States, along with a zippy comedy, an entertaining animated sequel and what may be the most famous runner-up in Oscars history. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)

‘BlacKkKlansman’ (Jan. 5)

Stream it here.

Better late than never: Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar for co-writing the screenplay to this deft combination of social satire and police procedural, which he also directed. It details the true story of how the Colorado police detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan — despite the fact that Stallworth is Black. Lee plays Stallworth’s ruse, achieved with a clever combination of phone calls and undercover work by his white, Jewish partner (Adam Driver), for laughs. But the danger of the operation is ever-present, building considerable tension to a conclusion that ingeniously and gut-wrenchingly ties the past to the present.

‘Get Out’ (Jan. 5)

Stream it here.

When Jordan Peele’s crossover to feature filmmaking was announced in the mid-2010s, most audiences — familiar only with his work as half of the sketch comedy team Key & Peele — presumed he would continue to work in that wild comic style. No one could have predicted that he would turn the entire horror genre upside down, but that’s exactly what he did with this nail-biting combination of social commentary and scary movie. What begins as a “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” riff — a wealthy young white woman (Allison Williams) bringing her Black boyfriend (Daniel Kaluuya) home to meet her parents — turns into something far more sinister and unpredictable; Peele’s insights as a screenwriter are pointed and even profound, and his directorial instincts are striking from Frame 1.

‘Spy Kids’ (Jan. 12)

Stream it here.

Just as it’s hard to remember that Peele wasn’t always associated with horror, recall that there was once a time when the idea of Robert Rodriguez — known then for his hyperkinetic action movies — making a family film was shocking. But he changed all of that with this 2001 smash, in which two average kids (the charismatic duo of Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) discover that their seemingly boring parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, both delightfully game) are in fact globe-trotting super spies; a mission has gone awry, and the kids have to save them. Rodriguez’s imaginative scenario plugs right in to childhood play, and his handmade style is a smooth fit for kid-friendly cinema. (The second and third chapters in the franchise leave Netflix the same day.)