A slew of TV shows and movies are leaving for U.S. subscribers this month. Here’s a roundup of the ones worth catching, including a few great horror picks for the season.
October’s departing titles from Netflix in the United States include bubbly rom-coms, action thrillers, killer comedies and plenty of thrills and chills — it is the spooky season, after all. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)
‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ (Oct. 2)
Stream it here.
Like most of the output of Illumination Entertainment (the folks behind the Minions), this animated adaptation of the durable Nintendo video game is not exactly Pixar quality, in terms of family entertainment excellence. But kids will love it, especially the little gamers, and adults will find amusements here and there — primarily the rip-roaring gonzo vocal performance of Jack Black, clearly having a ball as the lovelorn supervillain Bowser.
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (Oct. 5)
Stream it here.
Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan is a sleek, shimmering, fast-paced examination of the haves and have-nots (but mostly the haves). It follows the charming Queens-born N.Y.U. professor Rachel (Constance Wu) and her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to a wedding in Singapore, where the conspicuous wealth of his family threatens to upend their seemingly bulletproof relationship. Chu juggles quotable dialogue, gorgeous cinematography and a sprawling cast — most notably Michelle Yeoh as Nick’s stern and judgmental mother, a woman who Rachel quickly finds is not to be trifled with.
‘It Follows’ (Oct. 10)
Stream it here.
Maika Monroe, so haunted and compelling in the recent movie “Longlegs,” made her big-screen breakthrough in this 2015 horror hit from the writer and director David Robert Mitchell. She stars as Jay, a 19-year-old girl who is stalked by a mysterious force after she sleeps with her boyfriend — who informs her, after the fact, that the only way to rid oneself of this particular evil is to pass it on, via sex, to its next victim. Such a setup lends itself to the crassest of genre exploitation devices, but Mitchell is too much of a stylist for that; he lingers on dread and mood rather than skin or blood, and he creates one of the more unshakable indie thrillers in recent memory.
‘Bride of Chucky’ (Oct. 31)
Stream it here.
The “Child’s Play” franchise, in which the talking Chucky doll is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer, had lain dormant for seven years (an eternity in the world of slasher movies) after the series low of “Child’s Play 3” when the screenwriter Don Mancini revitalized his series in 1998. He did so by infusing the mostly serious thrillers with a heavy dose of campy comedy, and with the invaluable addition of the Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly as Chucky’s love interest, Tiffany Valentine. The Hong Kong genre master Ronny Yu directs with visual flair and good humor. (Netflix is also streaming several other films in the series, which will also depart after Halloween night.)
‘Dark Waters’ (Oct. 31)
Stream it here.
On first glance, this 2019 corporate thriller seemed to signal that the indie legend Todd Haynes was trying to go mainstream. But a closer examination reveals a film very much consistent with his preoccupations, pairing his formal ingenuity with a story of environmental illness and creeping paranoia that pairs nicely with his 1995 breakout film, “Safe.” Based on a 2016 article by Nathaniel Rich (published in The New York Times Magazine), it stars Mark Ruffalo as Rob Bilott, a corporate lawyer who typically defends corporate clients. Here, though, he takes on the giant DuPont corporation with a yearslong investigation that tested his sanity, resolve and personal safety. Haynes orchestrates the events with a masterly hand while Ruffalo reminds us of the exceptional actor lurking under the Hulk persona.
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Source: Movies - nytimes.com