July 2024’s Best Streaming Titles: “Taxi Driver,” “Aliens,” “Babe,” “Lost,” “Jurassic Park”
Travis Bickle, xenomorphs, Baa-ram-ewe, Oceanic Flight 815, velociraptors, and more.
As Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, et al. add more content, it can be difficult to know what to look for amidst all of the new titles. I’ve compiled a list of particularly noteworthy and interesting movies and TV shows to add to your streaming queues in the coming month.
Amazon Prime Video
Bottle Rocket (Jul 1)
1996’s Bottle Rocket may have been Wes Anderson’s first film, but even then, his aesthetic was pretty well-established in this story about a group of hapless would-be thieves whose plans all go awry. Bottle Rocket was also the acting debut for Luke and Owen Wilson, who would become regular members of Anderson’s retinue.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Jul 1)
In this pitch-black comedy by Stanley Kubrick, America is faced with the threat of nuclear combat when an American general decides to preemptively attack the Soviet Union in order to protect Americans’ precious bodily fluids. Meanwhile, the President confers with his frantic — and increasingly ineffectual — staff in the Pentagon War Room. Starring Peter Sellers in three roles, George C. Scott, James Earl Jones, and Slim Pickens as Major T. J. “King” Kong, Dr. Strangelove is widely considered one of the greatest comedy films of all time.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Jul 1)
The third film in Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly finds three gunslingers — Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach — racing against time and each other to find a hidden cache of Confederate gold in the midst of the Civil War. Leone’s film was notable for its striking cinematography and stylized violence, as well as Ennio Morricone’s iconic theme. Although critics initially dismissed it upon its release in 1966, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is now considered one of the greatest films of all time, and the definitive spaghetti Western.
Gladiator (Jul 1)
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was one of 2000’s biggest and most successful films, thanks to an epic plot, incredibly special effects, and thrilling action sequences. Russell Crowe stars as Maximus Decimus Meridius, a disgraced Roman general who is enslaved and forced to compete in Rome’s brutal gladiatorial exhibitions. Gladiator also stars Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed (in his final film appearance), Djimon Hounsou, Richard Harris, and Joaquin Phoenix as the corrupt Roman emperor.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Jul 1)
In this delightful film by Frank Capra, a young man (Jimmy Stewart) is sent to Washington D.C. to take up a newly vacant seat on the U.S. Senate. Initially seen as an easily manipulated country bumpkin, his idealism soon starts making waves in Congress. Upon release, the film’s portrayal of the U.S. Congress as corrupt and ineffective was deemed anti-American. These days, however, we know Congress is ineffective, and Capra’s film might just make you yearn for more elected leaders with idealism and moral courage.